Hello,
I am trying to figure out what types of off-the-shelf transistors would have been available to an experimenter or audio tinkerer in the years 1960-62.
I am having a hard time finding useful info using google, so I'm hoping some of the resident genius here can point me in the right direction.
Thanks.
I am trying to figure out what types of off-the-shelf transistors would have been available to an experimenter or audio tinkerer in the years 1960-62.
I am having a hard time finding useful info using google, so I'm hoping some of the resident genius here can point me in the right direction.
Thanks.
Michael Holley has a sort of Southwest Technical Products tribute page, and the site has many of the Dan Meyer projects published in the old hobbyist magazines.
You'll find catalogs from Allied Radio, Lafayette, Olson Electronics on EBay from time to time, as well as the kit manufacturers like Heath and Eico ...you can always send an email to the ARRL as their tech folks have been around since Moses...I recall my transistor radio kit in 1962 part of an experimenter package from Allied, and the first presentation I went to on transistors was in the summer of 1965 in high school at a ham radio picnic.
Thanks for the pointers.
The embarrassing thing is that I have a pile of "Popular Electronics" from the '60s sitting in a box in the closet... why didn't I think of digging through them!
The embarrassing thing is that I have a pile of "Popular Electronics" from the '60s sitting in a box in the closet... why didn't I think of digging through them!
Wow, when I was learning electronics in the 1950s, it was mostly tubes still. There was this CK722 small signal transistor which seemed to be what everyone used for little projects. Then we started using things like 2N109. I took a couple years of electronics in school around that early '60s era, and I think we talked about transistors for maybe a couple days. I used to go to the local library every day, hoping a new issue of "Poptronics" had arrived.
Some day, I am going to have an intern scan these things at my University (you need a book scanner to do it quickly).
Sofaspud:
Thanks for the link to memorylane. In my Favorites now! I find that these simple old circuits can lead to a better understandig (grasp?) of todays far more sophisticated designs and requirements. E
Thanks for the link to memorylane. In my Favorites now! I find that these simple old circuits can lead to a better understandig (grasp?) of todays far more sophisticated designs and requirements. E
In the aforementioned pile, I found some issues of Radio-TV Experimenter, Popular Electronics and an issue of CQ that were published between 1958 and 1962. They ought to give me a good idea of what the hobbyist would have been using at the time.
Hopefully I can find some transistorized small-signal or preamplifier projects between the pages. Very small, "two transistors and a 9-volt" type of stuff.
Hopefully I can find some transistorized small-signal or preamplifier projects between the pages. Very small, "two transistors and a 9-volt" type of stuff.
I recall ham radio being a lot more popular in that era, and a lot of simple one or two transistor projects wound up being a "code practice oscillator" or an RF antenna preamp for shortwave.
With a few gaps, mainly in the '60's, I believe I have paper copies of QST from the current issue going back to the beginning or close to it.
There were germanium transistors around in the 60's.
I started design work in the 1980's when things were still quite discrete.
Later chips came along to replace boards full of analogue components.
I started design work in the 1980's when things were still quite discrete.
Later chips came along to replace boards full of analogue components.
That sounds like my first scratch-built project, circa 1962, about 11 or 12 years old. Used 2 or 3, 2N217's and a 2N301. I don't recall whether they came from Lafayette, Allied, or the local TV service distributor (Radio Specialties, in Saginaw Michigan) but they were obviously available and inexpensive or that little amplifier never would have been built.
I have the 1957 "Electron Tubes and Semiconductors Technician's Handbook" from CBS-Hytron. It has complete Data Sheets for PNP Germanium transistor types:
- 2N155,
- 2N156/2N158,
- 2N180/2N181,
- 2N255/2N256
- 2N438/2N439/2N440
I vaguely recall the 2N440 being widely available in the early 1960's but I have no idea whether hobbyists and other mere mortals could get the other types listed above or not. For that matter, some of these types may have been vaporware from CBS' Marketing Department, and never went to large-scale production.
Dale
I'm not getting a good idea of when the purity of silicon was such that it began surpassing germanium as a semiconductor material. All the sources state is that it happened "during the sixties" or "by the end of the sixties."
Is is safe to assume that the vast majority of low-voltage transistor circuits continued to use germanium pnp transistors in '60-'62?
Is is safe to assume that the vast majority of low-voltage transistor circuits continued to use germanium pnp transistors in '60-'62?
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I can't give you a definitive reference, but I suspect that what you say is correct: in that time period, germanium transistors of PNP polarity dominated solid-state applications, especially for hobbyists.
I have a copy of QST from Sept 1963 - all the transistor types shown in that issue, that I can get technical information for, are germanium. (Anybody know what a Philco PNP type "T2400" is?)
Dale
I have a copy of QST from Sept 1963 - all the transistor types shown in that issue, that I can get technical information for, are germanium. (Anybody know what a Philco PNP type "T2400" is?)
Dale
One of the tenets of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is never throw anything away. This afternoon I dug out an old audio project of mine using a Motorola 2N174. The 2N174 is about the size of a small vacuum tube. This project used the first (and I believe only) printed circuit board that I masked and etched and drilled myself.
Unfortunately at that tender age I was not allowed to use anything as dangerous as a soldering iron at home, so the connections were made with "solder" that came in a tube and which sets and hardens at room temperature. Needless to say the thing never worked quite right. Someday I may have the energy to clean it up and resolder everything. I wouldn't count on it however.
Unfortunately at that tender age I was not allowed to use anything as dangerous as a soldering iron at home, so the connections were made with "solder" that came in a tube and which sets and hardens at room temperature. Needless to say the thing never worked quite right. Someday I may have the energy to clean it up and resolder everything. I wouldn't count on it however.
Well...that takes us back. But I don't remember any more
I dug out my 1964 Telefunken (sounds like it needs repairs allready) Transistorentaschentabelle (more repairs!). All transistors are Germanium and PNP. On the other hand, my 1964 GE Transistor Manual (7th. ed. 648 pages for $2.00) shows a lot of circuits with Si/NPN. E
I dug out my 1964 Telefunken (sounds like it needs repairs allready) Transistorentaschentabelle (more repairs!). All transistors are Germanium and PNP. On the other hand, my 1964 GE Transistor Manual (7th. ed. 648 pages for $2.00) shows a lot of circuits with Si/NPN. E
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