I had occasion once to look at the input relay on an NM-37. The set acted as if relay contacts were corroded -- but the sealed reed relay was fine; the problem was a cold-solder joint.
Relays sealed in inert gas or vacuum should never fail due to corrosion, and there's no need to limit their small-signal rating on account of that. Of course, the days when we used to carry relay burnishers and contact cleaner in our tool boxes are past, but I am now seeing relay-cleaning routines built into the firmware of Amateur radio equipment, routines which could be emulated by actually cycling input attenuators and switches once in a while instead of leaving them long enough for contact corrosion to become a problem. Cortland This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com Dave Heald: davehe...@attbi.com For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org Archive is being moved, we will announce when it is back on-line. All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc
