I have several Harris RF-230 marine radios with plenty of the tantalum
caps used as filters. They are 47uf @35v and the normal voltage is
10vdc.they are from the early 1980's and the failure rate is very high
and when they blow it sounds like a shotgun. I have learned my lession
from scraping the carbon off the epoxy glass boards and replacing the
tantalum caps with electrrolytics. So far I had had good luck with that
and they are a lot less expensive tan the $2.00+ for each tantalum.
I have also found tantalum coupling caps both shorted and open. As far
as I know, these radios were always in an air conditioned environment on
drilling rigs in the gulf of Mexico and not on ships in a high salt air
environment.
It may be unfair but when I see them in a radio now, I get ready for
trouble. I know that they are touted as the basis for modern electronics
such as cell phones, but
who keeps a cell phone for very long anyway.? I would expect a radio
that I paid many thousands of $$$ for to last forever, hopefully anyway.
Thanks, George W5GRG, AFA6GG
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