[Milsurplus] X-Ray Damage in Shipment

[J Forster]

There has been a thread about failure of (or more likely damage to)
crystal microphone elements in shipment on another list. The thread went
on to comment about damage to CDs and DVDs in a similar manner. The
latest post is:

*****

Subject:             Re: [Boatanchors] Mailing Crystal Microphone
Elements
    Date:             Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:40:20 -0700
   From:             "Ian Wilson" <ianmwilson73 at gmail.com>
      To:               boatanchors at mailman.qth.net

Interesting. I received three ICs from Hong Kong a few months ago. The
ICs
were clearly new and in their original sealed packing material. However,
the two
that I tried worked only *partially*, and in different ways!. I have
never seen ICs fail like this before. My theory is X-ray exposure.

The seller was good enough to replace the two that I tried. I haven't
had time to check them yet. He marked the envelope "X-ray sensitive";
maybe it will have
helped...

73, ian K3IMW

****

It appears that some of the new X-Ray machines (or perhaps the EM pulse
of a 'flash' machine) can damage such devices.

Best,
-John