TO RECAP OR NOT TOO

[Sonar]

Do companies that build amateur trancivers use higher quality capacitors and components then Builders of 11 meter transceivers?
If a used transceiver (Yaesu Kenwood Icom) is working as it should after 20 years would it be advisable to have it recaped or, go with the old adage "if it ain't broke don't fix it"?

 

[space cowboy]

sometimes the batch matters as much as the manufacturer. good companies can have bad batches.
anything else I could add has been said repeatedly in the recap or not threads.
maybe that has been too.

 

[Old_Crow]

Do companies that build amateur trancivers use higher quality capacitors and components then Builders of 11 meter transceivers?
If a used transceiver (Yaesu Kenwood Icom) is working as it should after 20 years would it be advisable to have it recaped or, go with the old adage "if it ain't broke don't fix it"?

The good companies like Yaesu, Kenwood, Icom etc. used better quality cap than the cobras or CB's. They will last longer than the CB's but a time will come where the caps go bad. CB's have lower quality components and will go bad faster. But if it works don't fix it may be the way to go. What I did is replace or upgraded the caps a few at a time myself. I tested the radio after every change. I did the Electrolytic 10 volt ones first, then the filter caps for power next, I didn't do any of the ceramics. Hope this helps.

 

[Robb]

High quality caps can go bad just as fast if they are subject to wide swings in in temp/humidity over long periods of time. Moderate temps with mild humidity may be ideal for storage and use; but hardly the norm.

Keep in mind that a enclosed circuit board will automatically have a higher air temp inside due to components heating up while in use (eg: resistors, transistors, etc) . . .

 

[Sonar]

A 20 year old Kenwood should be used until it has a problem is what the concensus says. Correct? Thanks. 73

 

[Robb]

If it ain't broke; don't fix it.

BUT . . .

If it is getting old and one cap fails; then others are sure to follow . . .

 

[222DBFL]

I have an old kenwood TS-140s and it still is clean as can be inside. Not to say that means much. But the radio works as it should and actually puts out 120w pep on SSB. I don't use it very often and keep it wrapped in towels and then triple bagged. It keeps it from gathering dust and with the humidity where I am here near the beach in FL, we get some humid days. Same with my Icom when it is not in use it gets covered with a heavy towel all the way around. Maybe OCD, but none of my equipment has ever had any issues for the couple years I have owned them. Just my experience but like someone else said, if it's not broke, don't fix it!!

 

[2RT307]

There are two schools of thought on this. One is to leave it alone, and as stated before...if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The other school says to replace all the elecrolytics because they are old and past their intended usage.

Most of the qualified techs that I see posting on the classic hf rig sites go in between the two. They don't recommend the shotgun approach to replacing everything, but do replace certain items that can wreak havoc if they blow. (Like the caps in the finals cage on Kenwood hybrids).

73,
Brett

 

[unit_399]

Most of the qualified techs that I see posting on the classic hf rig sites go in between the two. They don't recommend the shotgun approach to replacing everything, but do replace certain items that can wreak havoc if they blow. (Like the caps in the finals cage on Kenwood hybrids).73,
Brett

This middle of the road approach is the best advice I've seen here.

- 399

 

[Onelasttime]

A lot of times assuming you are not running a piece of gear to with in an inch of it's life transistors and caps will give some warning before the go. Usually flickering lights, instability on ssb of a rig that has normally been rock solid, excessive noise etc....before they just go. As an example I had a RCI2950 that after 8 years of daily use had SSB stability issues and the lights started to dim on transmit. I found that the voltage regulator was going bad and the crystal filter was out of spec too.

So while I was in the radio I order parts from RF Parts to replace those and I upgrade all the transistors in the audio, rf and receive area's, replaced the diodes in the final section with upgraded parts. I checked all the cold solder joints etc.....I also checked the alignment. I wish I had all the gear to do that now but like a lot of my hand tools I figured I would never touch a wrench or solder iron again and sold a lot of stuff when I had my twins. I think I upgraded the some of caps as well but not all of them.

If you have to do anything inside the radio and you have the ability to do it yourself sometimes it pays to stay ahead of common issues.

When I purchased my President Lincoln in the late 1990's I had Panther Electronics aka John Mahoney(sp) perform all of Rogerbirds modifications at the same time before shipping it to me. I could have done the work on my University campus at the time but it was easier to have them do it while they where converting the radio for me. So sometimes if you have already sent a radio out it again is just good to have some known issues done since the first hour of bench time is normally fixed regardless of how long it takes to do the work so a 15 minute job has the same labor at most places as a 58 minute job.

Most HR2510/2600/Lincoln technicians discourage random replacement of all the caps because they usually have issues crop up when you do that. SO most prefer to just replace the ones that commonly go bad and wait and see with the rest. For the record Rodgerbird told me that himself.

So I do not think you can just make a blanket statement each tech will have a reason for his opinion based on his or her experiences and it does not make one correct and the other wrong not on this issue at least.

A blown cap can do a lot of damage depending on which one it is that goes but youc an not second guess yourself because even an otherwise new cap can randomly blow due to manufacturing defects.

 

[M0GVZ]

A 20 year old Kenwood should be used until it has a problem is what the concensus says. Correct?

No. The Kenwood TS850 has a known issue with leaking capacitors on the DDS board and a couple on one of the other boards. These DDS boards are like rocking horse manure because most if not all TS850s suffer the problem.

A lot of times assuming you are not running a piece of gear to with in an inch of it's life transistors and caps will give some warning before the go.

Not all the time. In the case of the DDS board in the video above the damage has already occurred to the PCB from the leaking caps before any problem is encountered. Its actually a good reason to once every year or so to take off the lid and give the inside of your transceiver a good clean and quick check over once it gets past several years old.

 

[StrangeBrew]

These DDS boards are like rocking horse manure because most if not all TS850s suffer the problem.

kind of off topic here but this saying is a new one for me, could I get an explanation please?

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

kind of off topic here but this saying is a new one for me, could I get an explanation please?

Hint: How rare would it be to find rocking horse manure or as I have more often used, unicorn crap.

Answer: EXTREMELY rare and hard to find, in fact pretty much impossible to find.

 

[M0GVZ]

Hint: How rare would it be to find rocking horse manure or as I have more often used, unicorn crap.

Answer: EXTREMELY rare and hard to find, in fact pretty much impossible to find.

Along with being as rare as hens teeth, another famous British saying.

 

[StrangeBrew]

So it's a reference to the boards being rare and the note that pretty much all TS850s's suffered from the problem was only an explanation for the rarity. I was thinking that being like rocking horse manure must mean suffering from problems, somehow that just didn't seem to fit. I just connected the phrase with the wrong part of the context it was used in.

Thanks for the replies, I feel smarter now that I know this.