Transistors

[Nowhere-Man]

A point that's worth making is a lone-wolf American self-taught engineer got slammed on Amazon in too much haste. The basis was he wasn't in a uni department although apparently he had been trained in the US forces as a tech aircraft mechanic. At the time I made a mental note of the comments in case maybe it would surface again. I've been to uni myself but these days am a bit more skeptical and more inspired by amateurs or drop-out students. I read up on Bill Gates months ago and I think he just wanted to be free to focus on the programming that interested him. So he never finished his uni course. He's not mentioned much today but I read an article where he suggested net resources may well dominate education. Should you decide to access American resources online it's not a bad idea to learn the slight differences in schematic symbols. Given America was the only country to put someone on the moon, their technology shouldn't be just bypassed. It's a shame America is losing the edge it had but the Apollo years were very productive. Especially in Ham - some of the supply stores now closing.

[Mark Hennessy]

How about we get back on topic, please? Much as we don't enforce this as rigidly as some fora, this thread perhaps demonstrates why they do...

[Crackle]

Seen on Ebay today.

[Nowhere-Man]

I don't use Ebay now, Mike, although years ago I used to like it a lot. I recall the good old days too when Tandy was very well stocked with electronics kits. I bought a Science Fair transistor radio kit and soldered the board (maybe aged 12). It failed to work but the shop offered to take a look. The shop assistant replaced a burned out transistor and 2 overheated capacitors. He was very positive about the soldering of the board but somehow the fact it needed intervention sort of took from the pleasure of a home made radio. Very good customer service though. I do recall back then my iron was a bit too big and I didn't know about heat sinks. Those indeed were the days of Saturday wrestling on World of Sport and 3 channel TV.

[pwdrive]

Found this link for NM, he might have already seen it but if not it's worth watching, it help refresh/consolidate what's already been learnt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc2HihAjq88

Hope this is of some use.

Lawrence.

[Nowhere-Man]

I can no longer play YouTube on my Blackberry. This was something gradual with just down times. Now, there is no access at all. I just get "server blocked or unresponsive." This applies to all videos. Of course it may be blocked by the payment cover deal. Or my phone may need resetting.
I doi was very fond of watching Mr Benn cartoons on YouTube till I got cut off. 1971 it came out.

[Nowhere-Man]

I have been taking a small break to work on my Russian a bit. Sometimes a small change can recharge the batteries. Besides, I considered maybe using my Russian language to explore many of the USSR radios that are quite abundant. I found this pic related to the VF along with full commentaries on the circuit. At some point maybe I'll be more used to transistor circuits to follow the schematics although I know these are more complex than the 4 valve vintage radios.

[Nowhere-Man]

USSR radio electronics is a whole hobby in itself. When I was there in 1992, I was stunned to see box cameras were still used, reel tape recorders and huge TV sets. Bead counters were used in shops. Much of this was down to the non competitive nature of the economy so the USSR lagged in certain areas. However USSR radios were diverse and striking. They were also designed to reflect an image of technology. Today modern Russia has improved its electronics industry although China still leads as well as in IT. The Russian technical language tends to borrow from English. Also Russia now produces chips for PC assemby that are practical enough to do the job. I guess Russia neither led nor lagged in electronics.

[Murphyv310]

Hi.
Now I know this is off topic and as Mark has asked in post 172 to keep it on topic may I please just say this.
I was in Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1981 and got to speak to some locals. Consumer technology in the former Eastern European states and the USSR was purposely kept basic.
There was no such thing as home computers, video games and very few video recorders indeed. During my trip in 1981 you couldn't go and buy a new car, you would have to be on a waiting list, keep your nose clean and then 10 years later you "might" get your car. Certainly in Czechoslovakia once you got your car (most likely a Skoda) you'd do your utmost to keep it running well and serviced. Their culture was they did home repairs, on cars and other items that we didn't.
The same went for TV sets and Radios, due to the restrictions of the communist state these items were kept, folk didn't go out and buy a new one, they were expensive and like cars not available to buy just over the counter even assuming you could afford to buy one, it was a one off purchase that involved saving up.
Don't think that Russian and Eastern European kit was any more reliable than Western products....... Far from it as they broke down like our stuff and in many instances were more unreliable. Remember people were stuck with the stuff and had to either fix it themselves or pay for repairs or do without. So there will be a large percentage of survivors out there but nothing to do with better quality.
Russian cameras and watches were indeed the exception. A Zorki or Zenith camera would be difficult for the masses to buy they were mainly sold abroad for foreign currency (as was Moskvitch, Lada, Rigonda etc) but these camera were top rate, reckoned to have the best lenses in the world, as good as if not better than the likes of Leica. Watches too were sold for currency, the Poljot being an amazing watch.

So I know you are into Russian electronics, but be mindful of why it sat on it's laurels for so long, although there was zero unemployment don't forget if you didn't work where you were sent, people didn't have the things we did, they didn't have free speech like we do and Russia certainly wasn't wonderful to its citizens.
Finally I do like pottering with Russian Rod Pentodes and have made many projects with them, they are quite amazing, I use Russian Germanium transistors as a replacement for AF117's..... why? Well they are available in large quantities and work just as well as the Mullard types and are cheap.

Anyway back to the topic....... Sorry Mark, please don't hit me too hard.

[Nowhere-Man]

The Russian engineer on the site I was on was dismissive of the germanium P type transistors. Called them very basic, early stage components. Bit by bit I found my way to more articles and schematics. One is a very helpful commentary on the VEF radios and Spidola and so forth. It recommended testing equipment for these receivers. I will inevitably translate some of this data as there is a small circle of interest with regard to the history of the factories and the circuits. My Russian was dormant between 1998 and 2016 as I packed in linguistics. The only reason I was accepted for Russian language at the time was there was less of a barrier to get in than for German. Weird how even translation has died out. In former times you could get paid for translating tech documents. Neither am I sure if vintage radio is as popular in Russia as it is here.