ge trannies

[Quackzed]

is there anywhere you can buy germanium transistors cheap? or anywhere that still manufactures them?
i know small bear etc... but it's a bit $$$ due to the sorting and hand selection etc... isn't there anywhere you can just buy a bunch of em cheap and test 'em yourself?i'm not especially picky about part numbers or anything.. just wondered if i could find some that are still in production. 

[g3rmanium]

is there anywhere you can buy germanium transistors cheap?

eBay is pretty good as long as you're not looking for NKT275s ;-)

[petemoore]

  There was a recent thread about many Ge's types and avalability of 'usable' devices, AC128s were in the title.
  watch for sorted Ge's for sale, sales of GE left overs..after all the good ones have been sorted out. Unless you Know otherwise, it is safe to suspect they may have been sorted through already, at least once.

[Quackzed]

yeah, i've read a few threads where people were disappointed  with batches of 'supposedly' unsorted ac128's etc... i often  wonder if there are radio enthusiasts out there with replacements for their radios and stuff. Are there no germanium trannies still in production?! i wonder if i could cook some up in the oven or something? lol... diy germanium trannies!  naw... just kidding! maybee i'll check out some vintage radio sites ... have a feeling it may be more trouble and less payoff than it's worth hunting em...

[Stephen]

http://stores.ebay.com/Hamdoon-Components_Transistors_AC-AD-AF_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ822324QQftidZ2QQtZkm

Try this they are a electronics store I dont know!!!

[aron]

There's a reason why the transistors cost that much at Small Bear and others. If you've ever sat down and found how many are "out of spec", you might be quite amazed. Add to that the time spent sifting through the transistors and the $6 is money well spent. Those two tests really add up in terms of time.

[Stephen]

I bought 50 of the above germanium transistors AC128 (11 where the cup ones) rest where the cool ones!!! and 18 where bad..Not a bad score 91 cents each so I got 38 for 50 bucks...Now I just socketed them in a proto for sound and see if they would bias ...a three germ setup different than anything around....in the last position which should bias to half batt or 2 volts -5 volts...The first two need to be stable..They ..the 38 where very close...need to play them now and watch for any thermal change or geeking of the trannies..I dont really do the GEO thing to well!! They can creep out of speck for me after a few days of playing time, after that ..IN A BOX they go!!!  According to Jacques from Mercer he says these will dry up...This guy I think didnt nick pick these.....PASSING THIS ALONG.....sorry for any trouble!!

[Dragonfly]

IME, most of the time "cheap" = "expensive" !   what i mean is, it seems like everytime you get one of those "50 ac128's for $50", usually 45 of them are unuseablee....

sometimes you get lucky though....

AC 

[Stephen]

In ALL HONESTY  these days what is a good germanium transistor worth...sometimes NTE has a good run of them..You have to ohm them to see if they will even have enough gain..that is the NTE 102A I mean...Used to get some real gainy ones with 4k of resistance base to emitter collector....now they are only.  .600-.800k weird!!! maybe in months that will change ...you have to have a parts store that will let you pinch the bags with an ohm meter.......Anyway while on the subject what is a good ohm reading for base to collector and emitter...I have some real good AC128 and it is 1.2k   weird I dont know?? SOMEONE TOLD ME THAT THAT WAS IMPORTANT

[cd]

You can find current production ge transistors, and they'd still be expensive, and would still be a crapshoot.  That's simply the nature of ge - they're finicky and inconsistent by nature.  Why do you think the entire semiconductor industry switched to silicon virtually overnight?

If you want guaranteed performance without any headaches, pony up and pay the VERY reasonable price SBE charges.  If you want to gamble and like to test your own devices, and can live with high leakage, by all means go with a secondary source.  My guess is you'll be spending as much or more for lesser devices.