The idea is by no means new.? There was a radio manufacturer named Midwest that used lavish numbers of lower power rated tubes (6K6) falling out of favor and cheap in parallel instead of one high rated popular and expensive (6L6) tube.? The lower plate impedance allowed the use of cheaper output transformers in large sylish cans, small transformer core and lots of pitch. Likewise, using four rectifiers in full wave bridge increased the tube count and allowed the use of cheaper power transformers.?? One solid state application of running up the count was actually functional. Instead of using a thermistor or diode as a temperature sensor, they used one or two transistors mounted on the output transistor heat sink to regulate the bias. Germanium transistors needed careful biasing, and by the time these radios became popular, silicon transistors were taking over.? Germaniums were abundant and cheap, so they were put to practical use as well as deceiving the customer.
????? Bruce Gentry, KA2IVY
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On 2/22/21 19:43, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Ed Breya via groups.io wrote:
Dennis, here's a transistor trick that I'm sure was never taught in engineering. More of a marketing lesson. Back in the day, the number of transistors in a radio was a huge selling point - the more the better. Eventually they got cheap, so you could throw extra transistors in for practically anything, upping that banner spec. I once found a cheap line-powered "8 transistor" AM radio, where besides the usual six needed for the function, they counted two more used as rectifiers in the power supply, off the transformer.
There was a 15 transistor radio on the market around 1970.Only six were active. The rest had all three leads soldered together.
