[Radio Wrangler]

Back a few decades ago the 2N3055 was a dumping ground for reject power transistors. There were many RF and SMPS types with much whizzier ratings and dramatically higher Ft which, if a batch didn't meet spec still far exceeded the very open-ended specs of the 2N3055

So the wafers got diced and the dice got packaged. The reject silicon could still be sold for some money, albeit a much lower price.

These devices still had large die in them, and could really do 60v 15A 115W. The problem was that the higher gains and Ft made all sorts of things go unstable. Quad triplets being definitely in trouble. I just stopped designing 2N3055 into anything and went for tighter spec'd devices.

But things have changed and the market is flooded with any old die in a TO-3 case. Probably the idea is that anything which will show up as "bipolar NPN' on a hand-held tester won't be spotted before the money changes hands.

I've had fake AD pampas fitted by a major league multinational contract manufacturer.

David