Dec. 23, 1947: Transistor Opens Door to Digital Future
Ron in Radio Heaven
day in history" for your enjoyment.
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/12/1223Shockley-Bardeen-Brattain-transistor
If you're interested, here's a link to photos
of my early transistor collection,
http://radioheaven.homestead.com/EarlyTransistors.html
The components, not pocket sized radios...
73, Ron w4ron
"Preservation, NOT restoration"
http://radioheaven.homestead.com/menu.html
http://charlottearc2010.homestead.com/index.html
Michael Black
> Dec. 23, 1947: Transistor Opens Door to Digital Future, a little "This
> day in history" for your enjoyment.
> http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/12/1223Shockley-Bardeen-Brattain-transistor
>
They have no future, they'll never account to much. No power, low
frequencies, pretty useless.
That was about the summation of that infamous QST article from the early
fifties, they couldn't foresee that transistors would improve, so they
couldn't think of a use for them except for maybe low level audio stages.
Michael
Kenneth Scharf
out metal 12SQ7 tube and contained two transistors, four resistors and
three capacitors. It was a multivibrator oscillator running at around
500 hz, intended for use as a code practice oscillator. I wired it up
on a piece of perfboard and stuffed it into the tube wired to the octal
base.
As a teenager, one forth of July I built a different kind of gizmo into
a hollowed out metal octal tube. THAT contained an AG1 flashlight bulb
wired across the heater pins and the tube was filled with gunpowder
extracted from several firecrackers.
Jeffrey D Angus
> They have no future, they'll never account to much. No power, low
> frequencies, pretty useless.
>
> That was about the summation of that infamous QST article from the early
> fifties, they couldn't foresee that transistors would improve, so they
> couldn't think of a use for them except for maybe low level audio stages.
>
> Michael
A long standing tradition with QST and the ARRL.
Jeff
--
�Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.�
Frank Leahy, Head coach, Notre Dame 1941-1954
Michael A. Terrell
Jeffrey D Angus wrote:
>
> Michael Black wrote:
> > They have no future, they'll never account to much. No power, low
> > frequencies, pretty useless.
> >
> > That was about the summation of that infamous QST article from the early
> > fifties, they couldn't foresee that transistors would improve, so they
> > couldn't think of a use for them except for maybe low level audio stages.
> >
> > Michael
>
> A long standing tradition with QST and the ARRL.
The 'Anti Reality Relay League'?
--
Offworld checks no longer accepted!
Kenneth Scharf
were members of the ARRL, and those who subscribed to 73. Not that
Wayne Green was the biggest League basher, but he was the most vocal (at
the time).
I think the League has grown up (or all the old lid-farts from the 50's
are now SK's).
I never subscribed to 73, though I did buy copies at the news stand when
they had an interesting construction article (which was often since at
the time the ARRL didn't pay authors for articles in QST). I did
subscribe to CQ and Ham Radio (but not at the same time). As I recall
Ham Radio had the highest quality technical and construction articles,
73 was good in this regard though somewhat dumbed down, while CQ and QST
were about on par in third place. CQ at times was almost a contesters
magazine, QST tried to be all things.
Today QEX is a good replacement for the defunct Ham Radio magazine. I
think CQ is still alive. I wonder if anybody will collect all the 73
reprints and put them on DVD-ROM as was done with Ham Radio? (I picked
up the Ham Radio CD collection at a hamfest, what a great buy!).
Carter
> There used to be two types of hams (from a political view), those who
> were members of the ARRL, and those who subscribed to 73. Not that
> Wayne Green was the biggest League basher, but he was the most vocal (at
> the time).
As you didn't mention it above and for those who may not know, Wayne
Green left as editor of CQ magazine to become the publisher/editor of 73
Magazine.
IMHO, Wayne was eccentric at best and a crackpot at worst. For example,
he believes that we did -not- land on the moon.
However, that didn't keep me from subscribing to QST, CQ, 73 and Ham Radio.
Wayne -was- on the leading edge of technology back then. He published,
and I built, a CW keyer using RTL (uL723 if memory serves). The ICs
alone cost about $85 back in 1965 or so, almost a weeks pay for an adult
and really a lot for a snot-nosed college kid. Still have that keyer and
it still works.
Kenneth Scharf
his wife). He started Kilobaud magazine after that.
As for being a nut case, he also seems to believe in the 2012 end of the
world shit that HE says the US government is suppressing the truth that
astronomers and scientists have discovered.
(For the record the government COULDN'T suppress such information EVEN
IF they wanted to. Science is too open, especially with the internet,
if a rouge planet were on a collision course with the earth it would be
in Sky and Telescope and Astronomy magazines already as well as on their
websites).
Then again, maybe Wayne isn't a nut case, just an expert on Yellow
Journalism, he knows that bullshit sells.
Kenneth Scharf
> Carter wrote:
>> IMHO, Wayne was eccentric at best and a crackpot at worst. For
>> example, he believes that we did -not- land on the moon.
Scott W. Harvey
> On Wed, 23 Dec 2009, Ron in Radio Heaven wrote:
>
>> Dec. 23, 1947: Transistor Opens Door to Digital Future, a little "This
>> day in history" for your enjoyment.
>> http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/12/1223Shockley-Bardeen-Brattain-transistor
>>
>>
> They have no future, they'll never account to much. No power, low
> frequencies, pretty useless.
>
> That was about the summation of that infamous QST article from the early
> fifties, they couldn't foresee that transistors would improve, so they
> couldn't think of a use for them except for maybe low level audio stages.
Within five or six years after that article:
Portable transistor radios would become commonplace, albeit expensive.
Zenith introduces its all transistor version of the Trans-Oceanic.
The first battery operated portable TV made almost entirely of
transistors (the HV rectifier was the only tube).
RL Drake would introduce hybrid ham receivers that were 1/3 the weight
and size of the typical boatanchor largely due to their use of
transistors where they would do the most good. They sell like hotcakes
even with all those "useless" transistors in them.
Sony introduced its first transistor radio, they and other Japanese
makers license the transistor for manufacture, and ultimately conquer
the consumer electronics world with aggressive research, development,
and manufacturing of products based on it.
In the history of technology and its impact on society, The vacuum tube
was the fire, the transistor was the gasoline thrown on it (but tubes
still sound better).
-Scott