Do a web search for the part number, and you'll get quite a few hits
showing sites that have them for sale.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Mike Silva wrote:
Caution: this may be the most unimportant post you read today (or this
month, or this year, or...)

Anyway, I haven't been in the market for QRP-level transistors for a
long time, having laid in a lifetime's supply years ago, but today
just for fun I searched for some of the usual suspects from the past
(2N3553, 2N3866, 2N4427, MRF237, 2N5109, 2SC799, etc) on Ebay and
found almost nothing to be had. This greatly surprised me, as I was
expecting to find all of my old friends readily available. So, are
the "old standards" really hard to find now, or are they still readily
available (outside of Ebay), or what???

I have to mention the irony that I am able to find any vacuum tube I
could possibly want on Ebay, including dozens of types that would make
excellent QRP finals, from a seemingly unlimited number of sellers!
:-)

73,
Mike, KK6GM

Do a web search for the part number, and you'll get quite a few hits
showing sites that have them for sale.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Mike Silva wrote:
Caution: this may be the most unimportant post you read today (or this
month, or this year, or...)

Anyway, I haven't been in the market for QRP-level transistors for a
long time, having laid in a lifetime's supply years ago, but today
just for fun I searched for some of the usual suspects from the past
(2N3553, 2N3866, 2N4427, MRF237, 2N5109, 2SC799, etc) on Ebay and
found almost nothing to be had. This greatly surprised me, as I was
expecting to find all of my old friends readily available. So, are
the "old standards" really hard to find now, or are they still readily
available (outside of Ebay), or what???

I have to mention the irony that I am able to find any vacuum tube I
could possibly want on Ebay, including dozens of types that would make
excellent QRP finals, from a seemingly unlimited number of sellers!
:-)

73,
Mike, KK6GM

"Mike Silva" wrote in message
om...
Caution: this may be the most unimportant post you read today (or this
month, or this year, or...)

Anyway, I haven't been in the market for QRP-level transistors for a
long time, having laid in a lifetime's supply years ago, but today
just for fun I searched for some of the usual suspects from the past
(2N3553, 2N3866, 2N4427, MRF237, 2N5109, 2SC799, etc) on Ebay and
found almost nothing to be had. This greatly surprised me, as I was
expecting to find all of my old friends readily available. So, are
the "old standards" really hard to find now, or are they still readily
available (outside of Ebay), or what???

Those devices don't seem to be manufactured any more. I checked a couple of
manufacturers' web sites a couple of weeks ago and couldn't find them. One
or two suppliers here in the UK still stock them, but they are quite
expensive.

Leon
--
Leon Heller, G1HSM

http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller

"Mike Silva" wrote in message
om...
Caution: this may be the most unimportant post you read today (or this
month, or this year, or...)

Anyway, I haven't been in the market for QRP-level transistors for a
long time, having laid in a lifetime's supply years ago, but today
just for fun I searched for some of the usual suspects from the past
(2N3553, 2N3866, 2N4427, MRF237, 2N5109, 2SC799, etc) on Ebay and
found almost nothing to be had. This greatly surprised me, as I was
expecting to find all of my old friends readily available. So, are
the "old standards" really hard to find now, or are they still readily
available (outside of Ebay), or what???

Those devices don't seem to be manufactured any more. I checked a couple of
manufacturers' web sites a couple of weeks ago and couldn't find them. One
or two suppliers here in the UK still stock them, but they are quite
expensive.

Leon
--
Leon Heller, G1HSM

http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller

use a wildcard, as some of the devices are quite specific in their
descriptors -- thus if you want a 2SC799 and someone is selling a 2SC799A it
won't search up -- ergo search with 2SC79*

"Mike Silva" wrote in message
om...
Caution: this may be the most unimportant post you read today (or this
month, or this year, or...)

Anyway, I haven't been in the market for QRP-level transistors for a
long time, having laid in a lifetime's supply years ago, but today
just for fun I searched for some of the usual suspects from the past
(2N3553, 2N3866, 2N4427, MRF237, 2N5109, 2SC799, etc) on Ebay and
found almost nothing to be had. This greatly surprised me, as I was
expecting to find all of my old friends readily available. So, are
the "old standards" really hard to find now, or are they still readily
available (outside of Ebay), or what???

I have to mention the irony that I am able to find any vacuum tube I
could possibly want on Ebay, including dozens of types that would make
excellent QRP finals, from a seemingly unlimited number of sellers!
:-)

73,
Mike, KK6GM

use a wildcard, as some of the devices are quite specific in their
descriptors -- thus if you want a 2SC799 and someone is selling a 2SC799A it
won't search up -- ergo search with 2SC79*

"Mike Silva" wrote in message
om...
Caution: this may be the most unimportant post you read today (or this
month, or this year, or...)

Anyway, I haven't been in the market for QRP-level transistors for a
long time, having laid in a lifetime's supply years ago, but today
just for fun I searched for some of the usual suspects from the past
(2N3553, 2N3866, 2N4427, MRF237, 2N5109, 2SC799, etc) on Ebay and
found almost nothing to be had. This greatly surprised me, as I was
expecting to find all of my old friends readily available. So, are
the "old standards" really hard to find now, or are they still readily
available (outside of Ebay), or what???

I have to mention the irony that I am able to find any vacuum tube I
could possibly want on Ebay, including dozens of types that would make
excellent QRP finals, from a seemingly unlimited number of sellers!
:-)

73,
Mike, KK6GM

"John Walton" wrote in message ...
use a wildcard, as some of the devices are quite specific in their
descriptors -- thus if you want a 2SC799 and someone is selling a 2SC799A it
won't search up -- ergo search with 2SC79*

Your advice is on the mark. I've gotten to the point where I *never*
spell out an entire word or part number on ebay! Hint to hams: lots
of sellers can't spell "amateur" :-)

73,
Mike, KK6GM

"John Walton" wrote in message ...
use a wildcard, as some of the devices are quite specific in their
descriptors -- thus if you want a 2SC799 and someone is selling a 2SC799A it
won't search up -- ergo search with 2SC79*

Your advice is on the mark. I've gotten to the point where I *never*
spell out an entire word or part number on ebay! Hint to hams: lots
of sellers can't spell "amateur" :-)

73,
Mike, KK6GM

Mike Silva wrote:

John Dyson wrote in message ...

I recently had to look for something similar. A current part might
be the NEC (CEL) NE46134... It is probably a little faster than parts
like the 2N3866, and also is lower voltage, but for a new design might
be somewhat useful (and current.)

Thanks. Is there a current "List of desirable RF transistors for
2003" floating around? If not, would anybody else like to contribute
some part numbers here?

I dont' have any 'lists' per-se, but you might want to look at
www.cel.com (for the US rep and info for NEC transistors.) philips
and siemens (infineon.com) also have a current line of RF components.
For slightly higher frequencies, the agilent phemts are actually
really practical for as low as 50MHz (but probably 200MHz in reality.)
For RF gain modules, the sirenza (sp) parts are really good (and
in some cases, the original OEM for the Minicircuits gain parts.)
(Their SiGe parts are usually reasonably priced, have low NF as low
as 1.9dB, and SiGe parts tend to have good low frequency NF also.)

The manufacturers that I listed above tend to have fairly good
spec sheets and have SOME US availability. Often, there
is the terrible issue of QTY3000 type order requirements, but
that isn't always a problem.

For distributors, you can try mouser.com, newark.com, avnet.com?, etc.

Mouser has a fairly good stock, and so does newark... Sometimes, the
distributors have 'good deals' on designers kits. The designers kits
usually have anywhere from QTY3 per part number on up to QTY10 or higher.

I usually play the game of looking at the suppliers spec sheets, and
the distributor's availability lists, and then compare the two.

(I know that this isn't directly answering your need/questions, but can
get you started if no other info is provided to you!!!)

John

Mike Silva wrote:

John Dyson wrote in message ...

I recently had to look for something similar. A current part might
be the NEC (CEL) NE46134... It is probably a little faster than parts
like the 2N3866, and also is lower voltage, but for a new design might
be somewhat useful (and current.)

Thanks. Is there a current "List of desirable RF transistors for
2003" floating around? If not, would anybody else like to contribute
some part numbers here?

I dont' have any 'lists' per-se, but you might want to look at
www.cel.com (for the US rep and info for NEC transistors.) philips
and siemens (infineon.com) also have a current line of RF components.
For slightly higher frequencies, the agilent phemts are actually
really practical for as low as 50MHz (but probably 200MHz in reality.)
For RF gain modules, the sirenza (sp) parts are really good (and
in some cases, the original OEM for the Minicircuits gain parts.)
(Their SiGe parts are usually reasonably priced, have low NF as low
as 1.9dB, and SiGe parts tend to have good low frequency NF also.)

The manufacturers that I listed above tend to have fairly good
spec sheets and have SOME US availability. Often, there
is the terrible issue of QTY3000 type order requirements, but
that isn't always a problem.

For distributors, you can try mouser.com, newark.com, avnet.com?, etc.

Mouser has a fairly good stock, and so does newark... Sometimes, the
distributors have 'good deals' on designers kits. The designers kits
usually have anywhere from QTY3 per part number on up to QTY10 or higher.

I usually play the game of looking at the suppliers spec sheets, and
the distributor's availability lists, and then compare the two.

(I know that this isn't directly answering your need/questions, but can
get you started if no other info is provided to you!!!)

John