Redesign Germanium Transistor Circuits, Part 5

Project Vendor Links

Allied Electronics. Huge, online catalog of parts. Fast service. Wholesale prices. I miss the Allied retail stores of long ago. In 1970, Radio Shack bought them all. But these days, Allied's warehouse stocks more parts than the store ever had. (As for Allied's famous Knight Kits, they're history. A shame.)
Antique Electronic Supply. Source for radio, amplifier, guitar effect & prototyping parts.
ARRL Hamfest Schedule. Need a part that's not in a catalog? Then attend a hamfest! Click the link & find a hamfest in your area. Admission is a couple sawbucks. Hamfest purchase guarantee: “Five minutes or five feet from the table.”

C. B. Gitty Parts, tools, and DIY kits for cigar-box guitars and other musical instruments. Most instruments are, or can be electrified. Site also sells parts and kits for electrifying instruments. Also kit practice amplifiers.
Dayton Hamvention: Largest hamfest in the world! There's only one. See the YouTube!
Digi-Key. Dependable source of wholesale parts. Huge inventory. (You can barely read the catalog's fine print.) Swift delivery. Online, phone or mail orders.
Ebay Electronic Components & Semiconductors. International market. Both an auction & a fixed-rate listing. Commodity parts & one-of-a kind electronics. Searches can help you to shop or research electronic devices. Often the best prices. But you might have to wait several weeks for items to arrive from distant countries. Buy or sell.
Electronics Goldmine. Parts for electronic projects & Chaney kits for training & fun. Useful surplus of recent manufacture. (Few old parts.) Competes well with other catalog houses, but usually more expensive than eBay. Niche supplier for Geiger counter kits & parts. Look for “GoldPaks”: Quantity assortments.
Elenco. Educational “STEM” electronics kits, solderless breadboards, tech tools, trainers, replacement parts. Home of Snap Circuits (no soldering), DIY/Maker kits. (Simpler kits resemble what Radio Shack once offered in its golden days.) Recommend Digital/Analog Trainer XK-150, with powered breadboard. Store: 150 Carpenter Ave, Wheeling, IL 60090.
Etsy. Online marketing site for small vendors. Buy or sell. Allows you to search items by topic.
Far Circuits. Looking for a PC board for that favorite project that appeared in a magazine? Far will sell you the board, plus a copy of the article! The builder must provide most parts. Articles may be several years old. Before buying the PC board, check for obsolete part requirements. You must be adept at making part substitutions.
Heathkit. Not your grandfather's Heathkit, from Benton Harbor, Michigan. But this new, California Heathkit still offers a few kits, including some old favorites: Such as the Most reliable clock. Such as weather stations for your hamshack. There are also upgrade boards for Benton Harbor Heath products. And manuals for those classic kits, too. (Sorry, no Hero robots, deluxe HF rigs, or color TV receivers.)
Marlin P. Jones (MPJA). A supplier of hobbyist parts such as LEDs, capacitors, resistors, semiconductors, & cables. MPJA also stocks kits, tools, & surplus assemblies, such as opto-isolator boards. Solderless breadboards for prototyping, and soldering stations. The online site & is excellent. Listings are easy to find. (Apparently, MPJA doesn't offer its printed catalog anymore.)
Mouser Electronics. Wholesale electronics parts. No minimum order. Transistors, FETs, capacitors, trimmers, volume controls, crystals, ceramic filters... & more. Handles online, phone and mail orders. Huge printed catalog.
NTE cross-reference. Look up your old transistor & find an NTE replacement. A link takes you to an NTE, online vendor. An NTE "replacement part" isn't necessarily equivalent to the OEM part. Sometimes you'll need to alter the circuit. Retail prices: The "replacement part" usually costs much more than an OEM part. Excellent quality.

Photo: Electronic technician's tool case

Radio Shack: The Sequel! The electronics store that could not die, despite two bankruptcies! Today, it's a “store-within-a-store.” See it at a HobbyTown near you! Instant gratification sells: Now hobbyists can again find parts locally for that weekend project. Stat! (Or shop online at radioshack.com. You'll still pay retail.) Click: Store finder.
Surplus Sales of Nebraska. A fixture at the larger hamfests. Stocks chokes, capacitors, connectors, coil forms & more rare parts. The prices can be high, but the quality is superb.

Tower Electronics. If you need a connector, adapter, patchcord, or alligator clip, find it here! The prices are reasonable. Look for Tower at the better hamfests, such as CFMC Radio Expo.
World Radio History. Complete scans of the great electronic hobby magazines. Also trades, tech books, & parts catalogs. You can search on a magazine or a magazine & topic at Google or Duckduckgo. Then find the article. The top page is an index of thousands of magazine titles, including cover thumbnails. Kudos to David Gleason for creating this library.

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▲ WARNING. The author assumes no responsibility for your success or failure in using methods on these pages. Further, the author neither makes nor implies any warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy or effectiveness of these methods. Proceed at your own risk.

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