What is this? (odd internal attachment to JPN Mega Drive)

[Curlypaul]

Picked up this Japanese Mega Drive today - model number HAA-2510 which would seem to be a proper Japanese model rather than an Asian pal version.

Its got this odd thing attached to it with an RF lead going out of the hole that the PBC normally screws into. I assume that this is an old conversion job from the early 90s when most people in the UK had PAL only TV's.



I've tried this out using the built in RF lead and my own RGB Scart and the console seems to be locked to 50hz, which I would like to reverse obviously.

I've looked at the underside of the board and there are a number of wires attached to various points. Now my question is, is that silver cylinder part of the RF mod and can I safely remove it? Not seem anything like it on any other MD, but I have seen some odd components soldered onto chip pins and such before.

There are no visible markings on the component to identify what it is. Any clues?

[Curlypaul]

Well I went ahead and removed it and its still locked to 50hz. I left the unidentified silver component where it was, I also noticed a resistor bridging 2 of the pins for the AV socket as well. Guess I'll have to trace back the region/language jumpers to find out what they have done.