[R-390] BBOD caps/solder

[Dan Merz]

Hi,  not exactly a 390 subject but maybe interesting anyway.  I've
undertaken recapping my SP-600,  even though it seemed to operate fine for
several years  and I never saw any of the black caps that were split where I
could view them. It's a JX-17 and no ceramics except some on the ac power
coming into the set. So I was always a little skeptical about the
recommendation to just remove them all.  But that said,  I opened the front
end for a look at the ones in the rf section.  They all look ok but I'm
going ahead with replacement.  Maybe the dry climate of Idaho and eastern WA
has been kinder to these than for other locations but with it now open,  I'm
heading for replacement with ceramic caps. The SP-600 anthology has been
useful in figuring out how to proceed.

But what caught my eye in looking at each cap was the occurrence of a solder
glob right next to the plastic body on almost every cap.  It isn't alwayk on
the same end (relative to the color code) but seems to correspond to the end
that goes to ground in the cases where there is an actual ground connection
Were these caps manufactured with this solder glob as a marker for the
ground side of the cap?  At first I thought this was solder that had run
down the lead during installation but that explanation doesn't hold for all
of them considering where the cap is soldered into the circuit. Besides,
the globs are very nice globs and uniform from cap to cap.

I'm still skeptical about replacement but I figure I've done the hard part
of getting it open, and besides, getting a look inside is half the fun.  Dan