"mick" wrote
On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 23:04:51 +1100, Phil Allison wrote:

snip

The earlier, almost famous and better sounding examples used Germanium
devices.

AC127 /128 IIRC.



Wow.... that brings back some memories.
Fastest fuse on three legs!
Did they use the AC128 or the OC81? Just interested - IIRC the AC128 wasn't
as easy (for me) to get hold of. The AC127 was bad enough.

Yeah, the AC128 was the first transistor I _ever_ played with. I was about 9.
I had been given a kids' "Ladybird" book about basic electronics,. and it
had a circuit for an astable multivibrator to flash 2 6V bulbs alternately,
using 2 AC128 transistors. The book must have been a bit dated, because that
was not a time when germanium transistors were still prevalent. It would have
been about 1980. Anyway, the circuit worked, and provided a fair bit of
entertainment for the young me. I jacked up the frequency and made it drive
a loudspeaker to get sounds of various (and, with a pot, variable) frequencies.

I still remember what the AC128 looked like, with its thin wire leads and its
red dot (by the emitter, IIRC).


Martin
--
M.A.Poyser Tel.: 07967 110890
Manchester, U.K. http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=fleetie