Innovative Power Products Passive RF Products - RF Cafe

Webmaster:

BSEE - KB3UON

RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while typing up your telephone line, and a nice lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...

All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged.

My Hobby Website:

AirplanesAndRockets.com

How NOT to Use Transistors
September 1959 Popular Electronics

September 1959 Popular Electronics

Table of Contents

Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Popular Electronics, published October 1954 - April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.

Transistors were still relatively new when these cartoons were published in 1959. Most people had never seen a transistor, much less handled one.

Enjoy.

See all articles from

Popular Electronics.

Special Report on

How NOT to Use Transistors

Courtesy of General Transistor Corp.

We've all heard how sturdy and indestructible the transistor is ... but nothing is perfect. Any qualified engineer, equipped with the proper educational background can, with a little ingenuity, reduce the transistor to a midget jellyfish. The accompanying quips are by no means all-inclusive, but they will start you on your way to becoming a big transistor user.

How Not to Use Transistors, September 1959 Popular Electronics - RF Cafe

Ignore the published ratings and exceed them. You'll have a real "hot" transistor - for a moment or two.
make contact is switched around. This may cause immediate ruin.
Twist and yank the leads excessively when you install the transistor. If you listen closely you will hear the snap.
If the transistor does not fit into the equipment properly, put a screwdriver on the case and hammer it into place.
Overheat the leads with a big soldering iron. Leads are going out of style anyway.
In order to burn out the transistor thoroughly, be sure there is leakage to the power line in the soldering iron.

Posted 3/20/2012

How NOT to Use TransistorsSeptember 1959 Popular Electronics

How NOT to Use Transistors
September 1959 Popular Electronics