RF bipolars RIP

om now....

Depends. If (as in much of my stuff) just a few magic parts deliver a big c ompetitive advantage, a reel or two is an excellent investment.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

We just bought 11,000 PNPs, enough for 1100 boxes. That will give me a few years to find another way to make this circuit.

I have a couple of Avometers. The good one is an old Model 8 Mk IV from the estate of a guy who also collected Rolls-Royces. It's probably 60 years old, and there's not a trace of stickiness in the movement. Really a beautiful instrument, one that leaves my big Simpsons in the dust.

The other one is a Model 16--much more modern-looking but not in the same class at all--you have to thump it like a barometer to get the needle to settle properly.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Yes, they're real gems. I have a Model 7 made in 1943 and even though it was manufactured at the height of the war with all that intense pressure on the factories at that time, there's not one iota of compromise over the build quality. I still use it regularly for those times when you can't beat having a needle movement.

Never heard of a Model 16. Are you *sure* it's an AVO??

Yup. It's this oblong white and baby blue thing. Nice enough looking, but nowhere near the quality of the Model 8. I'm not in the lab today, or I'd post a picture.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

It was one of the better Hickok models. It belonged to the TV station, and the power transformer shorted out while I was rebuilding the transmitter. I couldn't find another in that town, around 1990.

Ah, you're talking of something made very recently by the sound of things. A pic would be most welcome if you get the opportunity.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Well I never! Never ever seen one of those. You've rendered me speechless, Phil. I wonder what it's worth....

If it's over $10, I'll sell. It's worthless for measurements.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

So you just keep it for tweaking and peaking? Presumably it hasn't been calibrated in decades so its ability to provide a easy-to-read indication of relative peaks and troughs in signal level is all it's got going for it now?

Not even that. The meter movement is so sticky that you have to keep thumpi ng it.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Art object? An old TEK tube 'scope, with the blue panel sides off is a beautiful thing. Even if it doesn't work.

George H.

Most of the academic/hobbyist fusors seem to peak at a few thousand, or a few tens of thousands of neutrons per second. It looks to me as if this would be a "significant but not immediately dangerous" level of exposure for someone standing close to the fusor... some from direct exposure to the neutrons, and some from beta/gamma radiation due to neutron activation of the fusor body and the table and floor and air and so forth. Might be no worse for you than an equivalent number of hours flying in a commercial airliner, where radiation from cosmic-ray exposure is quite significant.

I saw one set of blog postings by a guy who claims to have achieved a much higher rate of fusion and neutron production (several orders of magnitude more; he was saying "100 milliwatts out, for 100 watts in") and that he managed to inadvertently expose himself so badly that he suffered symptoms of radiation poisoning (nausea and vomiting).

So... yeah, maybe. It sounds as if it's possible to build something efficient enough, that you'd have to take significant precautions with shielding, distance, and choice of materials (to minimize neutron activation) in order to be safe.

Not that I'm, like, cynical about semiconductor companies and data sheet numbers...

So.. what do you use it for, since it seems to be good for nothing?

(pregnant pause) Nothing!

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Nah, it's just the normal thing...the macimum lead temperature is 125 degre es. (kelvin)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Then why is it taking up valuable lab space? You should bin it.