That would be almost at the bottom of any list of potential problems I would suspect. The only gradual degradation mode I can think of for any low power transistor, plastic encapsulated or otherwise, built in the last 30 years by any reputable manufacturer occurs when the base-emitter junction gets repeatedly and significantly reverse biased.
What specifically were the details of the supposed issue with older K3's? Does the RS-232 line in the K3 reverse bias the emitter junction (exceed BVebo) of that transistor? 73, Dave AB7E Roger Dallimore wrote: > I'm going to examine the transistor on the IO board. Apparently the > plastic transistors can degrade over time on older K3's and the voltage > drops under load to the RS232. Thanks to K1WHS for this suggestion. > > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
