Winfield said:
I'm beginning to wonder if Brian, in a situation like this, isn't
a bit off base, applying rules suited for mainstream components to
end-of-life niche parts. What's wrong with a partial reel, if you
can order full reels from DigiKey if that's not enough?
Are you saying there's a replacement part available from Digikey?
Or that he shouldn't bemoan the obsolescence of a part for which
no alternative of equivalent or greater performance is available,
even allowing for a complete redesign of the receiver? Nothing
short of a custom chip, made of available parts, cannot beat the
performance of his design... makes it hard for the little guy...
Surely you
two are complaining about how the market is no longer snapping up
the discrete GaAs MOSFET offerings, which must mean they've found
better parts for their purposes. Perhaps they've decided the small
extra bit of SNR available from a MESFET stage, over a microwave
linear IC, isn't worth the trouble of a bunch of discrete parts.
Well, when you have a receiver that's a key element in international
competition (amateur radio direction finding and radio orienteering),
sensitivity, dynamic range, and noise floor - considering the need
to stay within a low-power (hand-held battery-powered) budget - are
at a premium
.
Clifford Heath.
