On Mon, 27 Jul 2020 22:35:17 -0000 (UTC), Rich <rich@example.invalid> sprachen:

>Do you really think that after 18 years that the poster is still
>waiting for an answer?

He'll be really grateful if he has been.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

if love is a drug, then, ideally, it's a healing, healthful drug... it's
kind of like prozac is supposed to work (without the sexual side
effects and long-term damage to the brain and psyche)

On 23/04/2021 05:06, greenaum@gmail.com wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Jul 2020 22:35:17 -0000 (UTC), Rich <rich@example.invalid> sprachen:
>
>> Do you really think that after 18 years that the poster is still
>> waiting for an answer?
>
> He'll be really grateful if he has been.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> if love is a drug, then, ideally, it's a healing, healthful drug... it's
> kind of like prozac is supposed to work (without the sexual side
> effects and long-term damage to the brain and psyche)
>

Suggesting silicon diodes as substitutes for a germanium signal diode is
pretty daft too.

--
Brian Gregory (in England).

On Sunday, August 29, 2021 at 10:07:35 PM UTC-4, Brian Gregory wrote:
>
> Suggesting silicon diodes as substitutes for a germanium signal diode is
> pretty daft too.

Hot carrier or Zero bias diodes work well, and have better specs but they aren't cheap. They are made for microwave mixers and detectors

Michael Terrell wrote:
> On Sunday, August 29, 2021 at 10:07:35 PM UTC-4, Brian Gregory wrote:
>>
>> Suggesting silicon diodes as substitutes for a germanium signal diode is
>> pretty daft too.
>
> Hot carrier or Zero bias diodes work well, and have better specs but they aren't cheap. They are made for microwave mixers and detectors
>

With a bit of bodging, something like a BAT15-03 (<$1 in onesies, 21
cents in reels) ought to work at least as well as a 1N34A, assuming that
a 4V rating is enough, which it ought to be for an RF detector. (1N34As
work up to something ridiculous like 60V).

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

On Friday, September 3, 2021 at 5:36:16 PM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote:
> Michael Terrell wrote:
> > On Sunday, August 29, 2021 at 10:07:35 PM UTC-4, Brian Gregory wrote:
> >>
> >> Suggesting silicon diodes as substitutes for a germanium signal diode is
> >> pretty daft too.
> >
> > Hot carrier or Zero bias diodes work well, and have better specs but they aren't cheap. They are made for microwave mixers and detectors
> >
> With a bit of bodging, something like a BAT15-03 (<$1 in onesies, 21
> cents in reels) ought to work at least as well as a 1N34A, assuming that
> a 4V rating is enough, which it ought to be for an RF detector. (1N34As
> work up to something ridiculous like 60V).

I suppose the 1N271 is obsolete, as well? Microdyne had switched to them from earlier pat numbers in the late 1990s.

There are Ebay listings for 1N34 diodes. I had a pound of them, from Poly-Paks, but an animal dug a hole under the wall into my shed, and used them to make a nest. Needless to say, the several thousand diodes had their leads rusted away. I still have some that were salvaged from some '70s era computer PC boards. They were daughter boards with individual flip flops, and they had silver mica capacitors. I can't imagine the price of something like that, back then.

Another trick is to DC bias a diode to give it closer to a zero volt forward drop. This was done in some radios in the early days to improve sensitivity. I had to scratch my head the first time I saw that trick, with a 6H6 dual diode vaccum tube.