"ablebravo" ) writes:
whole package broke loose and bounced around in shipping -- leads
damaged, mounting ear broken off. this was a surface mount package
screwed to the chassis top. caps when tested, way off value. thought
best to rebuild whole thing. did not know micas in these values so
expensive, as had only purchased low pf's before. also didn't know i
would be getting into 'choke lore'. live and learn.

ab

But in the old days, there wasn't much choice but mica capacitors for
precision capacitors.

Likely things have improved, though I don't know if the other choices
are less expensive. Things like polystyrene capacitors have come
along in recent decades, and that sort of thing may be the place
to look.

What you don't want is a capacitor that has really large variation
between capacitors of the same nominal value, or likely capacitors
that change a lot with temperature.

Michael VE2BVW