Bob,
I think someone was having a bad day...maybe
a pile of radios fell of the bench onto his foot. ;-)

The only danger of not replacing the filter caps is that
it'll short and fry your power transformer. Add an appropriate
size fuse, which is a good idea for any old radio anyway.
Replace the filter when it finally dies.
Thats what I usually do unless its a high end radio.
Steve

"Count Floyd" wrote in message
news:BJ4mQCBKg9HM-pn2-cd6dyv21uSd2@localhost...
I have heard that there are very few electrolytic capacitors in this
machine, as most of them are ceramic disk. The only ones are in a can
on the chassis. If the radio is working well as original, would it be
better to just leave well enough alone? I always try to live by the
maxim: If it ain't broke.....
Thanks,
Bob Grimes
--

I repaired an HQ-145 that I picked up for a song. There was a bad RF choke
in it.
Anyway I decided not to touch the caps- why fix it if it aint broke and like
Colin I have a long list of radios to repair or build. It is one of the few
times I have never replaced the old PS caps in a restoration job.

I did not touch any discs, although I do replace all wax caps. I was
surprised that a spot check of resistors showed them all right on the money

Anyway 2 weeks after I get it all buttoned up the PS caps went. no damage
just a nice loud hum

ARRRGGH

Do like the radio

--
Carl
WA1KPD
Visit My Boatanchor Collection at
http://home.comcast.net/~chnord/wa1kpd.html

"Steve" wrote in message
...
Bob,
I think someone was having a bad day...maybe
a pile of radios fell of the bench onto his foot. ;-)

The only danger of not replacing the filter caps is that
it'll short and fry your power transformer. Add an appropriate
size fuse, which is a good idea for any old radio anyway.
Replace the filter when it finally dies.
Thats what I usually do unless its a high end radio.
Steve

"Count Floyd" wrote in
message news:BJ4mQCBKg9HM-pn2-cd6dyv21uSd2@localhost...
I have heard that there are very few electrolytic capacitors in this
machine, as most of them are ceramic disk. The only ones are in a can
on the chassis. If the radio is working well as original, would it be
better to just leave well enough alone? I always try to live by the
maxim: If it ain't broke.....
Thanks,
Bob Grimes
--

Carl WA1KPD wrote:
I repaired an HQ-145 that I picked up for a song. There was a bad RF choke
in it.
Anyway I decided not to touch the caps- why fix it if it aint broke and like
Colin I have a long list of radios to repair or build. It is one of the few
times I have never replaced the old PS caps in a restoration job.

I did not touch any discs, although I do replace all wax caps. I was
surprised that a spot check of resistors showed them all right on the money

Anyway 2 weeks after I get it all buttoned up the PS caps went. no damage
just a nice loud hum

Did you reform the electrolytic capacitors before you ran it for the 2 weeks,
or did you just plug it in and turn it on?

-Chuck

Count Floyd wrote:
I have heard that there are very few electrolytic capacitors in this
machine, as most of them are ceramic disk. The only ones are in a can
on the chassis. If the radio is working well as original, would it be
better to just leave well enough alone? I always try to live by the
maxim: If it ain't broke.....
Thanks,
Bob Grimes

Sometimes yes but often times, no. In certain circuits, a capacitor
failure may precipitate another component failure that is either
difficult or impossible to find, e.g.: IF cans and power transformers.
Oft times its far better to apply some preventative maintenance than to
wait for an inevitable, and perhaps catastrophic, failure.

de K3HVG

Count Floyd wrote:
I have heard that there are very few electrolytic capacitors in this
machine, as most of them are ceramic disk. The only ones are in a can
on the chassis. If the radio is working well as original, would it be
better to just leave well enough alone? I always try to live by the
maxim: If it ain't broke.....

I'd power it up on a variac, and if it powers up properly and the supply
voltages are okay, I'd leave it.

If the supply voltages are NOT okay, I'd change the supply caps immediately
before you ruin the power transformer.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

I have heard that there are very few electrolytic capacitors in this
machine, as most of them are ceramic disk. The only ones are in a can
on the chassis. If the radio is working well as original, would it be
better to just leave well enough alone? I always try to live by the
maxim: If it ain't broke.....
Thanks,
Bob Grimes

In my experience, old electrolytic capacitors seldom get shorted; they rather
become an open circuit. But when this occurs, you will hear hum in the speaker.

In Italy there is an old saying that I'll try to translate in English (wow, I
was even able to preserve the rhyme):

"if it works and does not go off the rails
do not touch or it surely fails"

As to the issue whether the other capacitors are all ceramic, I am sorry I
cannot help you as I do not know the HQ-145. But I spare you another silly
answer in addition to the many you have already received.

73

Tony I0JX

On Tue, 3 Jun 2008 20:02:50 UTC, "Antonio Vernucci"
wrote:

I have heard that there are very few electrolytic capacitors in this
machine, as most of them are ceramic disk. The only ones are in a can
on the chassis. If the radio is working well as original, would it be
better to just leave well enough alone? I always try to live by the
maxim: If it ain't broke.....
Thanks,
Bob Grimes

In my experience, old electrolytic capacitors seldom get shorted; they rather
become an open circuit. But when this occurs, you will hear hum in the speaker.

In Italy there is an old saying that I'll try to translate in English (wow, I
was even able to preserve the rhyme):

"if it works and does not go off the rails
do not touch or it surely fails"

As to the issue whether the other capacitors are all ceramic, I am sorry I
cannot help you as I do not know the HQ-145. But I spare you another silly
answer in addition to the many you have already received.

73

Tony I0JX
Thank you Tony, that is my brother's name BTW, for your answer. I
appreciate courtesy as I try to give it to others when they ask for my
opinion.

On Tue, 3 Jun 2008, Count Floyd wrote:

I have heard that there are very few electrolytic capacitors in this
machine, as most of them are ceramic disk. The only ones are in a can
on the chassis. If the radio is working well as original, would it be
better to just leave well enough alone? I always try to live by the
maxim: If it ain't broke.....
Thanks,

Of course, there were never many electrolytic capacitors in tube
equipment. In the power supply, and bypassing the cathodes of the
audio stages, and maybe at some point to bypass the B+ line close
to the audio output stage.

They weren't common because they weren't needed. Since tubes are
high impedance, large value capacitors weren't needed much, and
hence no shift to electrolytics.

Solid state equipment uses a whole lot more electrolytics because
of their low impedance operation, so you need large value capacitors
for coupling and bypassing. Electrolytics are the only reasonable
way to get those larger values.

All the talk of recapping old radios is basically due to old capacitors.
Badly designed capacitors at the time, or simply the best at the time,
end up aging badly. The capacitors were fine at the time, it's just
few gave much thought to the equipment being used decades past their
prime. So decades later, those low value capacitors often need replacing
because they just don't work properly nowadays. So you get bad bypassing
at RF, and you get weak or non-existent audio because the coupling
capacitors have gone.

Replacing an electrolytic in the power supply is hardly "recapping", it's
repair. "Recapping" is when someone feels they should replace all
the capacitors, or actually needs to replace a specific capacitor. And
then once you've done one, it often makes sense to do the whole lot,
especially if it requires a complicated disassembly. IN some cases
capacitors known to go bad over the decades were used, so it's worth
replacing all of them because they will go bad eventually, or enough
have gone bad that it's hard to get a handle on where the exact problem
lies, and replacing the capacitors gets that variable out of the way.

Michael VE2BVW

On Tue, 3 Jun 2008 20:29:05 UTC, Michael Black wrote:

On Tue, 3 Jun 2008, Count Floyd wrote:

I have heard that there are very few electrolytic capacitors in this
machine, as most of them are ceramic disk. The only ones are in a can
on the chassis. If the radio is working well as original, would it be
better to just leave well enough alone? I always try to live by the
maxim: If it ain't broke.....
Thanks,

Of course, there were never many electrolytic capacitors in tube
equipment. In the power supply, and bypassing the cathodes of the
audio stages, and maybe at some point to bypass the B+ line close
to the audio output stage.

They weren't common because they weren't needed. Since tubes are
high impedance, large value capacitors weren't needed much, and
hence no shift to electrolytics.

Solid state equipment uses a whole lot more electrolytics because
of their low impedance operation, so you need large value capacitors
for coupling and bypassing. Electrolytics are the only reasonable
way to get those larger values.

All the talk of recapping old radios is basically due to old capacitors.
Badly designed capacitors at the time, or simply the best at the time,
end up aging badly. The capacitors were fine at the time, it's just
few gave much thought to the equipment being used decades past their
prime. So decades later, those low value capacitors often need replacing
because they just don't work properly nowadays. So you get bad bypassing
at RF, and you get weak or non-existent audio because the coupling
capacitors have gone.

Replacing an electrolytic in the power supply is hardly "recapping", it's
repair. "Recapping" is when someone feels they should replace all
the capacitors, or actually needs to replace a specific capacitor. And
then once you've done one, it often makes sense to do the whole lot,
especially if it requires a complicated disassembly. IN some cases
capacitors known to go bad over the decades were used, so it's worth
replacing all of them because they will go bad eventually, or enough
have gone bad that it's hard to get a handle on where the exact problem
lies, and replacing the capacitors gets that variable out of the way.

Michael VE2BVW
Michael, thank you for the very informative and detailed answer. I
always thought the opposite, that older radios had many capacitors
that needed replacement, my little S-38 had about 10 that had to be
replaced! My Lafayette HE-10, not so many.
Again, thank you for the courteous and very helpful answer.

"Count Floyd" wrote in message
news:BJ4mQCBKg9HM-pn2-kdlcYKcmzOkn@localhost...

Count..

Whatever you do, please consider fusing that
chassis! The HQ-145
has no line fuse, and that is a must to protect the
power transformer!

The electrolytic is your call, chances are it will be
okay, or it may fail open. But, if fails shorted,
you will likely lose the rectifier tube in the process,
and maybe the transformer if the fuse isn't quick
enough.

By the way, the biggest problem in my HQ-145 was
internal shorts in a few of the IF transformers.
A few of the fixed mica caps developed leakage
paths to the transformer shells, shorted to
ground, took a few resistors, and caused a big
restoration headache since the plastic coils fell
apart when touched

Pete