XPost: alt.slack, alt.slack.goathead   
   From: melopsitticus@undulatus.budgie   
      
   On 1/10/2026 18:45, Sn!pe wrote:   
   > mixed nuts  wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 1/7/2026 13:01, Sn!pe wrote:   
   >>> phoenix  wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>> [...]   
   >>>> Phototransistors are not really transistors in function IMO, I prefer to   
   >>>> think of them as light-sensitive diodes. However, considering them   
   >>>> transistors can help explain what a transistor does to the unfamiliar.   
   >>>> When light hits the phototransistor, it allows current to pass.   
   >>> [...]   
   >>>   
   >>> Back in the day, I scraped the paint off of a 0C71; it made a   
   >>> pretty good phototransistor, so I'd take issue with that.   
   >>>   
   >>> I grew up with discrete components so none of what you write   
   >>> is news to me   
   >>>   
   >>   
   >> I bought a sack of 2N229 geraniums back in 1956 from a lot radio parts   
   >> store and made some amplifiers with 'em. They worked good but ft was   
   >> about 300 kHz which ain't that great. Then I got an account with Evans   
   >> Radio where I could get all kinds of stuff and switched to RCA and   
   >> Fairchild Si planar parts like 2N2102 and life got magic   
   >>   
   >   
   > Back in ~'62 when I joined the local radio club, they had a stash of   
   > NPN 2N706a rejects.  Only ~25% were completely dud, another 25%   
   > sub-par and the remaining half were just slightly below spec.  I was   
   > given a fistful of them to play with.  Among other things, I built a two   
   > metre converter in a two-ounce tobacco tin using them.   
      
      
   Fairchild started selling dirt cheap fast planar parts (300-900bMHz ft,   
   100 mW plastic on a ceramic header) about 1960 when I was in middle   
   school. I had a part time job at the medical school cleaning animal   
   cages which only took an hour so I'd wander down to the basement where   
   the instrumentation lab was and hang out with the engineers who made   
   aparatusses. I'd clear a patch of bench and start making something. All   
   the needed parts were right there and I'd settle up when I wandered off   
   with the thingers I made.  About 1964 I got an account with Gerber   
   Electronics  and I was off and running.   
      
      
   --   
   Grizzly H.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)