While we are talking about fake transistors....OC44?

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peps1
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While we are talking about fake transistors....OC44?

Post by peps1 »

Now, I have a fair few Mullard and Philips transistors, but see someone selling an awful lot of Mullard OC44 transistors with the older Mullard phat font logo, but in the later flat top Dutch SO-2 package

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Now I'm not saying this seller is restamping later SO-2 or being nefarious in any way, but have an uneasy feeling over the form factor and stamping, they all seem to have the same printing artefact of the thin lines in the M and the 4's.

Has anyone ever come across a Mullard stamped OC range transistor in this form factor before in an original bit of equipment? :hmm:
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Doc Holliday
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Re: While we are talking about fake transistors....OC44?

Post by Doc Holliday »

Mate… it’s crazy isn’t it.
Did you ever think we would be here discussing people faking transistors haha.

Still where there’s money to be made there’s a Harrison somewhere ready to screw you over, take your guitar collection, ship it abroad and be stupid enough to think they won’t be caught.
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simonm
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Re: While we are talking about fake transistors....OC44?

Post by simonm »

:paranoid: I haven't seen any transistors marked in that way, have looked at a lot of PNP germs in the past yr or two, but not been looking for OC44s specifically - the most suspicious part for me would be the consistency of the print on each, as there's usually some variation in the ink of course.
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Electric Warrior
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Re: While we are talking about fake transistors....OC44?

Post by Electric Warrior »

peps1 wrote: Fri May 06, 2022 3:35 am Now, I have a fair few Mullard and Philips transistors, but see someone selling an awful lot of Mullard OC44 transistors with the older Mullard phat font logo, but in the later flat top Dutch SO-2 package

Image

Now I'm not saying this seller is restamping later SO-2 or being nefarious in any way, but have an uneasy feeling over the form factor and stamping, they all seem to have the same printing artefact of the thin lines in the M and the 4's.

Has anyone ever come across a Mullard stamped OC range transistor in this form factor before in an original bit of equipment? :hmm:
I've seen some flat topped Mullards with a "Made in Holland" stamp, so I wouldn't be surprised if these were the real deal.
Everything is transitional.
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peps1
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Re: While we are talking about fake transistors....OC44?

Post by peps1 »


I've seen some flat topped Mullards with a "Made in Holland" stamp, so I wouldn't be surprised if these were the real deal.
Yeah, 100% see your point, it's mainly the old print on the newer form factor. If transitional I would expect to see the cleaner small print like the late Mullards and Phillips.

And, could just be down to older machinery being moved from one facility to another, and a 100 other possibilities,

As I said, not calling these fake, just not a type I have seen before, and the pure number of them available, maybe the seller has a bunch of factory packaging that would settle it.

Was just looking for more OC44's and spotted all these, and have never seen them like this before, though I would ask the people here :tu:
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The-kangass
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Re: While we are talking about fake transistors....OC44?

Post by The-kangass »

I had some OC42 with similar markings and case like this. I do not know if they wefe fakes or not (but cannot imagine somenone fake OC42 which are plentifull and cheap transistor) however they sounded like shite comparing the standart metalcan OC42 : :hihi:
BKDevices
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Re: While we are talking about fake transistors....OC44?

Post by BKDevices »

Did you measure the OC42s? I have a bunch here and some of them are in the 400+ hfe range while others are below 100. They're all over the place. I don't believe OC42 had a maximum hfe in its specifications. Most of the others do, so they're constrained to a somewhat predictable range. Wouldn't surprise me if some of them sound awful because of that. FWIW, I'd doubt the OC42s are fake as well. I don't see why anyone would fake it as an OC42 rather than an OC44, OC75, etc if they were going to fake it.

As far as the OP, personally I wouldn't trust that one, but that's just a hunch. Maybe it's just me, but I've noticed quite a few OC44 ebay listings recently that are not priced outrageously, have sold a lot, and are still listed. Just seems odd to me. I'd think at this point, unused batches of OC44s would be pretty scarce and wouldn't last long on ebay unless they were priced crazy high.

Last week I got a pair of OC44s from a source that has otherwise only provided me with legitimate germanium transistors (as far as I can tell). They looked legit to me (though very different from the ones in OP), but both of their hfes are higher than I've ever seen on an OC44 and higher than their listed spec (40-225, 100 typical @ 1mA). Can't remember the exact value but they were both between 260-300 (measured with a DCA75 @ 1mA). I don't know, it's just very hard to tell sometimes unfortunately. But I'm skeptical of pretty much all in-demand transistor types at this point, at least if they're just a random ebay listing.
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