That old repair guy was right about cap replacement in old radios

I was fixing up a 1950s Philco tabletop radio last week and an older tech at the local surplus shop told me to just shotgun replace all the paper caps without even testing them. I thought he was being lazy but I did it anyway. After recapping the whole thing the radio fired right up with no hum at all. Saved me hours of troubleshooting. Has anyone else just gone straight to replacing all caps on vintage gear?

2 comments

2 Comments

fiona_reed18d ago

Are you really gonna recap a whole radio just to fix a little hum?

-1

max47218d ago

Right there with you @fiona_reed... I had an old Magnavox console that hummed like a beehive, swapped the whole power supply filter caps just because it was easier than tracking down one bad part. Ended up solving the hum plus a couple other weird noises I didn't even know were there. Sometimes you just gotta go big and be done with it, you know? That radio will probably outlive both of us now.