Garage sale find: GE P1700A 10 transistor
 

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1413157171

It works! 10 transistors, a few are used in questionable purposes (or maybe my radio knowledge has gaps!) :scratch2: One is a "rejection regulator", its collector tied to the local oscillator coil tap, the base and emitter tied to ground (seems that transistor would do nothing like that, well maybe the base-collector junction would act like a diode to clip excessive oscillator amplitude and via emitter follower action clip excessive radio station amplitude). Another transistor is a detector diode. And another looks to be a temperature compensator for the audio output transistors. The first IF amp is a grounded base amplifier configuration, the first IF "transformer is actually a series LC circuit that would be what you'd use to drive a low impedance emitter. The converter transistor feeds a tap on the coil section.

This radio uses that strange circuit board technology GE liked back in the late 60's. A single sided board with plated thru holes. This radio shows up in the 1966 Beitman's.

As you already know...it wasn't uncommon back then to use 6 transistor circuits and stuff them with useless transistors.
Bragging rights you know.

Here's one where they ran up the count from 7 to 12:
http://www.wa2ise.com/radios/starfire12.jpg
They soldered in pairs of transistors (base to base, emitter to emitter, collector to collector) most everywhere. The transistor with the lower b-e drop in such pairs will be the only one that does the work... Or it it's close, one will still take say 80% of the current. Still, it doesn't get you any more performance.

And here's the schematic: I highlighted the "extra" transistors in yellow.
http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1413170480
The first IF amp does look like a good circuit, possibly high gain with minimal self oscillation instabilities. They're also using it as an AVC amplifier for the 2nd IF amp.

Maybe they were trying to "polish the pig"... ;)