[Amps] "Refurbished" BLF188XR's on eBay?

[Jim Barber]

Thanks, Greg.

Yes, it was just wishful thinking on my part. DigiKey's current price is
$186.31, which is down quite a bit from 2 years ago.
Compared to a 8877, it's quite a bargain.

73,
Jim N7CXI

On Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 12:59 PM Greg Wasik <gwasik at gmail.com> wrote:

> Jim
>
> Be careful with these. They are all from China it seems. I have read about
> someone trying one of the re-furbs and it failed at high power. Someone
> else mentioned that there are hundreds (if not a thousand) bonding wires
> that make up the internals a real device. My guess is that these re-furbs
> probably have enough re-furbed bonding wires to make the device appear to
> work with in a low current test, but can't handle anything higher
>
> Also a way to tell a possible fake is to look at the tiny notches that are
> on the drain tabs.There have been fakes that don't have these notches and
> sellers on Ebay sometimes show a photo of the device that is only looking
> at it from the gate tab side. Or they show it only in an ESD bag..  Walk
> away immediately...
>
> Greg
> K1YW
>
> On Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 3:37 PM Jim Barber <barberaudio at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm seeing a good number o "refurbished" BLF188XR's up for sale on eBay.
>>
>> What does "refurbished" mean? They look like new NXP devices, but for $108
>> USD I doubt it - unless they're surplus or fall-outs?
>>
>> If I knew they were genuine, I'd probably buy a few.
>>
>> 73,
>> Jim N7CXI
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>