In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the invention of the transistor, LARC will be operating the special event station W0T on December 10 from 9AM until noon at the 350 Terry St building. All are welcome to come and make some contacts on HF on the clubs IC7300. We will operate under the club’s license with an Extra as control operator. So, you can operate regardless of your personal license status. Contact WA7EM, Ed at ejmohrman@yahoo.com for more information.

The year 1905 is well known as the “Miracle Year” because Albert Einstein published four papers that changed the laws of physics and were significant contributions to the foundation of modern physics. Similarly, November 1947 – January 1948 were the three magical months that paved the way for modern-day electronics. This was done by three brilliant scientists who were members of the Mervin Kelly’s Solid State Physics Group and Semiconductor Sub-Group at Bell Labs, which were given the challenging task of creating a solid-state semiconductor switch that could replace the vacuum tube. The famous physicists – Walter Brattain and John Bardeen managed to make the first working transistor, now known as the point-contact transistor. The invention was made on December 16, 1947. A week after that, the device was officially demonstrated to Bell Labs executives as a “magnificent Christmas present.” In January 1948, William Shockley demonstrated the junction transistor. All three received The Nobel Prize in Physics (1956) and as per Nobel Prize Committee – “In 1947 John Bardeen and Walter Brattain produced a semiconductor amplifier, which was further developed by William Shockley. The component was named a “transistor.”