Homemade Transistors?

March 29, 2008 | Amateur Radio | By: Mark VandeWettering

My excursion into nostalgia has me researching homebrew transistors and tubes. Today, G3CWI mentioned this article about homebrewing transistors on the GQRP list. The method isn’t quite as “from scratch” as I would like: it basically uses the innards of a diode to make a point-contact transistor. Something that comes a bit closer to real from scratch construction are these zinc oxide negative resistance oscillators and amplifiers. Okay, okay, I can’t make galvanized sheet metal any more than I can transistors or diodes, but it feels closer to bare metal because it uses, well, bare metal!

Comments

Comment from Pseudonym
Time 3/29/2008 at 5:50 pm

Well, it is possible to homebrew a diode from scratch:

http://e7.video.blip.tv/1090000738959/Make-MakeAFoxholeRadio483.mp4

I wonder if you could make a transistor this way.

Comment from HP Friedrichs
Time 6/12/2008 at 10:28 pm

I’ve written a book on the subject of “extreme homebrew” in the construction of tubes, transistors, and other amplifying devices. If you go to the URL below, there are links to two photo galleries.

http://www.hpfriedrichs.com/bks-ioa.htm

Regards,
H.P. Friedrichs
AC7ZL

Editor’s note: Indeed! I have copies of both of your books, and have enjoyed (and I think even blogged) about both.