We often scrounge up components of uncertain pedigree -- you don't see
many spec. sheets at ham fests. A lot of manufacturers haven't yet gotten
with the program and put their data sheets on the web where we can find
them, and I doubt any ever will for parts they don't make anymore. It
always makes me nervous to use something when I don't have a pretty good
guess as to the specs. I really hate the smell of smoke, and I don't like
explosions (except intentional ones).
Do you have any handy rules of thumb to estimate RF capabilities of
components? For instance, disk ceramic capacitors, various mica types,
trimmer caps, etc. Can you judge by their size how much RF current they can
take? Are there other components for which you have favorite rules of thumb
about voltage/current/frequency limits -- chokes, ferrite cores, switches,
relays, etc?
Regarding silver mica caps, I note that Cornell-Dubilier's web page states
that less than 0.05% of applied volt-amps are dissipated as heat. That's an
example of the kind of thing I'm thinking of (although I would rather they
had posted complete data sheets). With this, I can estimate how hard I can
drive a given package without overheating it.
Safe and non-destructive (at least to the test equipment) test methods are
interesting, too.
Thanks!
-- Carl WS7L
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