Re: Ah, yes point contact transistors...
Back in the mid fifties, Mullard made point contact Ge transistors OC50 and OC51. I bought an OC51 for I think about 45 shillings, a lot of money. With a simple circuit it would oscillate and produce a little power in the 1.8 Mc/s Ham band. I used it to contact, using Morse code, quite a few other amateurs.
A little later, someone from STL gave me some devices with similar characteristics, marked I think LS737.
Their gain was measured in a common base circuit and called alpha I recall.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
