Transistor Circuits

Posted on Feb 6, 2014

It had been only a little over a decade since the transistor was invented when this article appeared in the August 1959 edition of Popular Electronics. Transistors were still a mystery to most people, including engineers, technicians, and hobbyists. Author James Butterfield takes a unique approach in presenting the material by writing it as a dialog between an instructor and a student.

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If you are also new to transistors, this will be worth your while to read. Pete introduces Johnny to the grounded emitter circuit. Its "why`s" and "how`s" are investigated and the not-too-mysterious matters of base and collector bias are discussed. The rule is, as Pete explains it, "Let Ohm`s Law be your guide. " Trying to design a one-transistor amplifier, Johnny gets tangled up with input and output impedance problems. Pete straightens him out with some important "do`s" and "don`ts" in getting a signal in and out of a transistor. The transistorized approach to filters and tone and volume controls is detailed by Pete with some practical suggestions on the testing of transistor characteristics. Coupling problems are discussed, and Pete draws up a chart that matches the coupling capacitor to the collector resistor "That`s an amplifier " snorted Johnny. "You must have dreamed up that circuit during a fit of indigestion! Anybody knows even the simplest transistor amplifiers are bristling with resistors and oversize coupling capacitors. And where`s the output transformer for the speaker " "Don`t need any. " Pete clipped on the ground lead from the audio generator and inserted a. 1- µf. capacitor in series with the other lead. "Trouble with most of you experimenters is that you just copy diagrams - maybe change `em a little here and there to see what happens - but you never bother to find out what really makes things tick. " He...

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