I wrote:
> I'm not sure about producing one, but my friend Jim Phillips personally
> repaired such things, and told me about it from first hand experience.
> I don't see any particular reason to doubt it, as that really is exactly
> how marketing works.
terogers <spam_OUTtimetechTakeThisOuTOP.NET> replied:
> The reason to doubt it is exactly the evidence given: a friend or an
> aquaintence or a friend of a friend or some relative saw in the paper..
>
> Whenever I see (or catch myself using) this kind of reference my alarm
> bells go off.
Hey, if it had been a friend of a friend story I might have been skeptical
too. But what I said is that someone I know personally (and have no
reason to distrust) told me that he himself repaired these things. Not saw
them in the paper, or heard of them, but repaired them. Not someone he knew,
or some vague rumor, but his paying job.
You're welcome to consider it a friend of a friend story; from your
perspective it is (assuming that we're friends). But from my point of view
it isn't.
The other thing about urban legends is they usually concern themselves with
unlikely (if not impossible) events. The transistor count thing is not just
plausible, but actually probable; it is entirely consistent with how
marketing is done.
As fasr as I can recall from the far off days when I studied analog circuits,
the major use of diodes in amplifiers and such is to provide a voltage drop
that has the same temperature dependancies as the transisitor junctions.
I've certainly seen amplifier schematics that had otherwise inexplicable
chains of several identical diodes... As such, there may even be cases
where it makes sense to use an idential transistor as a diode (although
I don't think a cheap N-transistor am radio would qualify.)
In message <.....19961031213231.4284.qmailKILLspam@spam@brouhaha.com> PICLISTKILLspamMITVMA.MIT.EDU
writes:
> I wrote:
> > I'm not sure about producing one, but my friend Jim Phillips personally
> > repaired such things, and told me about it from first hand experience.
> > I don't see any particular reason to doubt it, as that really is exactly
> > how marketing works.
>
> terogers <.....timetechKILLspam.....OP.NET> replied:
> > The reason to doubt it is exactly the evidence given: a friend or an
> > aquaintence or a friend of a friend or some relative saw in the paper..
> >
> > Whenever I see (or catch myself using) this kind of reference my alarm
> > bells go off.
I've been repairing domestic electronic goods for 25 years, I can remember
seeing transistors connected as diodes in totally unexpected positions in
cheap radios. I even tried shorting them out sometimes, and the radio still
worked OK.
>In message <19961031213231.4284.qmailspam_OUTbrouhaha.com> @spam@PICLISTKILLspamMITVMA.MIT.EDU
> writes:
>> I wrote:
>> > I'm not sure about producing one, but my friend Jim Phillips personally
>> > repaired such things, and told me about it from first hand experience.
>> > I don't see any particular reason to doubt it, as that really is exactly
>> > how marketing works.
>>
>> terogers <KILLspamtimetechKILLspamOP.NET> replied:
>> > The reason to doubt it is exactly the evidence given: a friend or an
>> > aquaintence or a friend of a friend or some relative saw in the paper..
>> >
>> > Whenever I see (or catch myself using) this kind of reference my alarm
>> > bells go off.
>
>I've been repairing domestic electronic goods for 25 years, I can remember
>seeing transistors connected as diodes in totally unexpected positions in
>cheap radios. I even tried shorting them out sometimes, and the radio still
>worked OK.
>
>Nigel.
I can't remember who this was but it was a president of Zenith, RCA or some
other US TV manufacturer in the early days. This president would come
through the design on "cost cutting" trips and randomly cut components out
the TV circuit. It if the set still worked, that part was "cut" from the
design.
> I can't remember who this was but it was a president of Zenith, RCA or some
> other US TV manufacturer in the early days. This president would come
> through the design on "cost cutting" trips and randomly cut components out
> the TV circuit. It if the set still worked, that part was "cut" from the
> design.
My former boss had a TV set that was damaged by lightning. If you turned
it on, smoke would come out. Aside from that, though, it WORKED. One of
the resistors inside was glowing red hot (and should not have been) but
the operation of the set seemed otherwise unaffected (since the insurance
paid to replace it, and the insurance co would not have been happy had the
set caught fire and burned down the house, I don't know how long it would
have kept working).
>
>I can't remember who this was but it was a president of Zenith, RCA or some
>other US TV manufacturer in the early days. This president would come
>through the design on "cost cutting" trips and randomly cut components out
>the TV circuit. It if the set still worked, that part was "cut" from the
>design.
>
>craig
This was urban legend "MadMan" Muntz in 1950's California, also famous for
his commercials. TV manufacturing was his second career. His first was used
cars. Muntz TVs were legendary for their flakiness.
"Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which
properly concern them." .......Paul ValŽry
The story I heard (from a Bob Pease article) was that this was done by
"Madman Muntz" who had a small television manufacturing company in NYC area.
Probably there were others who did the same thing
>
>
>I can't remember who this was but it was a president of Zenith, RCA or some
>other US TV manufacturer in the early days. This president would come
>through the design on "cost cutting" trips and randomly cut components out
>the TV circuit. It if the set still worked, that part was "cut" from the
>design.
>
>craig
>
>
Mark Walter (RemoveMEMRWalterTakeThisOuTWorldNet.ATT.Net)
OP.NET> replied:
