My friends, look what I found: P503, MP-16B, MP14-A and 2T803A (the big can) . The first one seems to be one of the first germanium bjt produced in the USSR. Accroding to
http://www.155la3.ru/p501.htm, they were developed in 1958-1959, and were in production for 5-6years. Rumors said they were discontinued due to extremely low yield of 1.8%.
It seems my P503 is not doing well or I'm measuring it wrong:
![Transistors - die pictures 1035622-0](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=241594.0;attach=1035624;image)
. What should I do with it? Shall I keep it for children, donate somewhere, or open it?
![Smiley :)](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiley.gif)
PS This one was donated to me in late nighties by an ex-EE engineer among with many other old parts. It was sitting in a storage room until last year when I found it while traveling to my home town. I brought a few Soviet bjts back in hope to put them into use. Not sure how to use them. Build a distortion pedal for the guitar?
PPS I wanted to measure the diode drop, so I used a dmm that has test voltage of 3.2V. From my measurements, the forward voltage is 0.244, the reverse is 2.7, so it seems they broke down. According to datasheets, those germanium transistors are only rated up to 3V of reverse voltage. Does it mean I killed them all?
![Face Palm :palm:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/facepalm.gif)
PPPS the year of production of P503 in question is 1963.