Hard to find diodes

[mordechai]

Does anybody have suggestions as to where I might find BA243 or BA278 diodes for a Bluesbreaker circuit?  They seem a little difficult to source.  If they aren't on the radar very often, would a 2 x 1n4001/4148 combination work well in this circuit?  I am to home now where I can test this out on a breadboard, so I just thought I'd see if anybody has some experience with this part combo...

[daverdave]

I think this is the datasheet for it, unless there's a bunch named under the same part number, never heard of the part before:

http://alldiode.com/diode/BA243-PDFsVGFQYQUyATdRflYzAjFQNVMyVjQDN10CBjMHMlc0AjFUNgc0UWIIJwd3UzBVYQ==

I doubt there's that much difference between it and common diodes like the 1N4148, forward voltage drop, reverse leakage and capacitance are all similar, they're both marketed as high frequency switching diodes, or epitaxial planar diodes. Maybe try the 1N4148 out and see how it is, and just compare the datasheets to see if there's a characteristic that's particularly drastically different.

[davent]

Digikey show six BA278's in stock but they are SMD. They show the BA277 as a sub and they have loads of them in stock, again SMD.

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/BA278,115/568-5991-1-ND/2531278

And a couple of "parts" search engines that make things immensely easier.

http://www.findchips.com/avail?part=ba278
http://octopart.com/parts/category--semiconductors-and-actives/search?q=ba278&c=4215