- 2025
- Apr
- 3
A PACO G-30 RF Signal Generator - Part 3: Parts
For this unit, most of the problematic capacitors have already been replaced, and the rest are disc. There’s no need to replace those, so my rebuild will consist of getting rid of old carbon resistors, the safety capacitor, and the electrolytic mess from the original owner. I’m also going to replace the selenium with a regular diode for future-proofing.
All of the resistors are half-watt, so I’m sticking with the same except for the 2.2k in the power supply. This needs to be increased in value because the diode drops less voltage. I’m also going to increase the wattage here since metal film resistors won’t handle the same kind of surge current a carbon composite will.
If this were a tube rectifier, that wouldn’t be a concern - but with the selenium, an early semiconductor, the voltage is there immediately and there’s a chance the surge current of the capacitors charging will use the resistor as a fuse. Better to get a good old fashioned 5W wire-wound for this one. I’m going to use 3.3k, since another restore I’ve viewed used that and it worked well.
I have some parts already. A new line cord is a must. A diode, some safety capacitors, a couple of filters, and of course all of the freshly cleaned panel knobs. I was going to use some resistors I had in stock, but decided to get something a little different, thus the blurred area. Not going to use those.
In order to help with things, I needed a schematic. While there is one online, it’s scanned with a 100dpi potato and you can’t really see anything. I found a manual online, and the copy there is much better:
This is a small version, if you want the larger version plus the parts lists, all in readable format, you can find them at this link: https://wereboar.com … 0and%20Partslist.zip. This is a zip file with three large scans, suitable for large paper printing.
The rest of the parts have been ordered from Mouser, so I’ll probably be working with this device over the next couple of weeks.