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Long Shot · Feb 28, 2015

Happy Saturday GRF people!

I was recently given the items in the photos below from a mad scientist friend of mine that knows I gather such things for PM recovery. Here in little old Belleville Ontario we used to have a large manufacturing facility known as Nortel and previous to that Northern Electric. Everybody who hasn't been living under a rock has heard of and knows the demise of the former. That facility was in business here since I was a baby (and that was quite a while ago). So....these items are new old stock and are clearly marked NE xxx but when one tries to run any of the numbers to get data on them one comes up empty handed, proprietary devices from a defunct company. I suspect the vintage is in the late 70's maybe early 80's. They are obviously diodes and transistors and knowing the nature of the equipment made at the facility may be for telephone switch gear and possibly early networking gear. The questions are 1) has anybody seen any of them before? 2) does anybody have any info on them? 3) if the answers to the previous questions are yes - what might the mil spec be and/or PM content? 4) do you think it might be better to try to sell them on feebay rather than wreck them for PM recovery? I would appreciate any answers you may have.

Thanks JB

macfixer01 · Feb 28, 2015

It looks like you just have an assortment of old diodes and transistors there. Except for the gold plating they're probably nothing very special, and your best bet for profitability would be to sell them as a lot on Ebay. To find specifications for outdated parts, what I've done before is look up the original part number in the cross-reference book for one of the "Universal Replacement Part" product lines like NTE or ECG. ECG actually may not be around anymore, but an old electronics store may still have one of their books you could look through? You can see which generic part replaces your original part number, then the same guide will have specifications for the generic part that should be somewhat close to what the original part was.

Here's a place to start, you can download an NTE software cross-reference guide for your computer or phone:

http://www.nteinc.com/quickcross/

macfixer01

Long Shot · Feb 28, 2015

Thank you MacFixer - got the program and it does cross a couple items, FYI - one is a CRT video driver, high voltage, high power dissipation. I know there are people that collect vintage components so I think I will try my luck selling them first. As I have zero invested, any amount is positive potential.

Geo · Mar 1, 2015

If you ever wanted to build your own power supply, some of those would come in handy.

Long Shot · Mar 1, 2015

Ya, possibly Geo, but I can only cross one of the seven different diodes in this lot. The transistors cross well and it seems they are all for video/audio applications. I have been working on a power supply - it will use a 30 amp bridge rectifier that I found in the junk drawer. Won't need 30 amps but I won't fry it either. I suspect the Au plating on these items may be rather thick by today's standards, these devices we're made in Canada at a time when Au was relatively cheap and quality/reliability was the main concern. Northern Electric was heavily vested by Bell Canada at that time. They transitioned from making rotary telephones to touch tones to network gear all during my childhood and into becoming an adult.