[Amps] Ceramic capacitor ratings

[Bob Nielsen]

I remember the same story, but it was about Muntz televisions in the  
1950s (Earl "Madman" Muntz, who also was a used car dealer and  
manufactured the Muntz Jet sportscar).

73, Bob N7XY

On Apr 15, 2007, at 6:02 AM, Robert Bonner wrote:

> Boy exactly Peter...  I've always thought the same thing.  Pop the  
> top off
> an amplifier rated at such and such and go, whoa, these guys are  
> dreaming.
>
> Every amplifier I've built after the first few were built to make  
> POWER.
> All components have been CCS or larger.  I've found the amp will  
> define the
> weak links with time... I don't have the time to be fixing.
>
> It's a different story when producing a product for sale.  There  
> they want
> to shave every cent out of the product they can.  My personal  
> philosophy has
> always been to spend a buck to save a buck.
>
> There was a long standing joke back in the 60's regarding MAGNAVOX  
> TV Sets.
> You were meant to understand the engineers would build a fantastic  
> TV set...
> The Bean counters would then start clipping parts out of the TV  
> until it
> stopped working and then solder that part back in.  That's the set  
> they'd
> produce...
>
> All through the 60's and 70's Magnavox TV's were nothing but TVI  
> receivers.
> They were popular because they were cheap...  A few of them in my near
> neighborhood sure made my life miserable growing up.
>
> BOB DD
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: amps-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:amps- 
> bounces at contesting.com] On
> Behalf Of Peter Chadwick
> Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2007 12:44 AM
> To: amps at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [Amps] Ceramic capacitor ratings
>
> Manfred said:
>> By the way, we can get even more peace of mind if we consider that an
> amplifier in ham use will run in ICAS, and typically in SSB, with an
> average much below the peak. So it turns out that those 100pF caps in
> practice will just be loafing along!<
> I would have supported this view until recently, when I started a  
> rebuild of
> a 45 year old amplifier where the capacitors were rated on that  
> basis. There
> I found definite signs of overheating, with presumably some loss of
> metallisation, as the measured capacity was only 50% of what it  
> should have
> been in one case. So although the concept is true, I'm not too sure  
> about
> long term reliability. Of course, you could question quite what you  
> want in
> terms of life from an amplifier!! It's the sort of thing you can get
> probably get away with if you're 60 years old, but you may not want  
> to if
> you're only 20.
> 73
> Peter G3RZP
> _______________________________________________
> Amps mailing list
> Amps at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Amps mailing list
> Amps at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
>