[HAM] Recapping

[David Anderson]

Kon,

It's all good. We're all just trying to relearn what an electronics  
designer could have told us in 1954 :-)

By the way, even if the capacitance of these paper units has only  
gone up 50%, I have found that dissipation factor has often increased  
6 to 9 times, i.e., 600% to 900%, over what was typical for this type  
of capacitor when new.

In simple terms, dissipation factor means there's now a resistor in  
the circuit that wasn't there to begin with, a resistor large enough  
to have a significant effect due to the low impedance of the TG  
circuits.

David

On Mar 3, 2008, at 8:34 PM, Kon Zissis wrote:

> Hi David.
>
> Thank you for explaining that the main area of moisture absorption  in
> the wax caps was from the middle section where the leads are  
> connected.
> I had assumed that the whole case of the wax caps absorbed moisture  
> thus
> causing and that consequently the mfd value to drift up and that  the
> wax caps with the stiff cardboard outer  cover  would have had some
> extra protection against  moisture absorption.
>
> Your explanation  that the middle part of the wax caps where the lead
> goes through the wax  is the weakest spot    seems to throw out my
> theory about wax caps with the stiff card board outer covers  being
> better preserved  because the stiff outer card board tube does not
> extend and cover the section  where the two leads are connected to the
> wax caps.
>