by EWBrown » Fri Jan 28, 2011 7:55 pm
The old stock vintage carbon resistors can become very seriously out of tolerance, especially if they have spent the last 40 to 50 years in some dark and dank cellar, or out in a storage shed or barn, along with the chicken poop, shedded snake skins and mouse pee...
Several years ago I found a large ziplock freezer bag stuffed full of 1/2 W 1W and 2W carbon comp resistors, mostly 10%, some 5%, all looked clean and dry, and they didn't have any suspicious fecal or urinous aromas, and for a whole buck, who could resist (pun intended).
Well, I finally got around to taking them out and checking the values, and they are as much as 50% above or below their indicated values. Even those which measure as being within the 10% tolerance, I don't really trust them to last a long time and stay true.
/ed B
Real Radios Glow in the Dark