Looks like more bogus obsolete IC's...

[vibroverbus]

I just got some 2SC2344 chips in the mail and later on was looking for a generic general-purpose sub, so figured might as well use some of these since I had a surplus.

Sub needed to be at the high end of the hfe spec for the 2SC2344 so I thought I'd sort the batch and pick the best one.

Turns out this new batch is almost ALL well below the 60-200 hfe spec.
Old batch average: ~118 (respectable)
New batch: most 44-50

Will call vendor today, hope they make good. These were represented as being Sanyos but I'm guessing they're counterfeits or at the very least given that I have OK chips from same joint before, these are from a reject batch. They do have that cheap-plating look of crap chips so not confident that they are truly Sanyos anyway...