XPost: alt.slack, alt.slack.goathead   
   From: f00@0f0.00f   
      
   mixed nuts wrote:   
   > 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.   
   >   
      
   in 1960 i was well hidden.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)