[Elecraft] Part substitution & transistor/FET spec list

[Al Lorona]

>  I need some 2N4416s and some BB104s and find them 
> either as scarce as hen's teeth or dear enough to make 
> Croesus cringe.

Kevin brings up good points. (Probably any general purpose FET will work, Kevin.) For a real challenge, try finding a dual-gate MOSFET such as the 40673 which used to be ubiquitous. Moreover, for a few years I have been hearing threats of the demise of the 2N2222 transistor... I can't imagine a world without 2N2222s! 

And yet, the lowly 1N34 germanium diode is still going strong. Why is this notable? I have a 1953 QST article of an antenna tuner designed by George Grammer which used a 1N34 in its circuit. That was almost *60 years ago* but you can still buy 1N34s at your local electronics store. That's pretty amazing. What other semiconductor (or vacuum tube, for that matter) has lasted that long?

Al  W6LX