On Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:00:36 +0000, Rick wrote:

Hi Herb,

That number is "house number." Those numbers hide the commercial
equivalent of that transistor. I doubt you will find any Motorola
documentation giving you an equivalent. There may be some cross
reference guide somewhere that some gracious soul assembled but I bet it
will be without Motorolas blessing !
There is a very high probability that you can substitute any of hundreds
of similar transistors and they will work, depending on the function of
that transistor. If it was used for RF amplifier service you could try
a 2N3866 or 2N5109, for example.

I used to work for Western Electric and the Bell System did something
similar. We had "KS" parts. In most cases they were identical to
commercial parts but we did quality sampling, life cycle testing, etc.
on them and assured ourselves that we weren't getting scrap swept up off
the floor. For this we marked up the price about ten fold (!!!) as we
supplied these "approved" parts to our factories. The factories built
things then that they expected to last 50 years. Motorola probably did
the same. This also helped to keep repair technicians from substituting
"commercial junk" into Motorola equipment and destroying their pristine
reputation. But I digress......

Rick K2XT

Hmm, I don't know if it is a house number. My 1987 D.A.T.A. Transistor
book goes up to only SS3638.

Al