Electronics-Themed Comics
January 1964 Radio-Electronics

January 1964 Radio-Electronics [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio-Electronics, published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

These tech-themed comics appeared in a 1964 issue of Radio−Electronics magazine. Servicing entertainment electronic systems was a big thing in the day, as evidenced by many of the comics posted here over the past few years (see huge list at bottom of page). The comic on page 50 shows an oscilloscope display that was not probable before digital test equipment came to be. It was possible to generate such a waveform on a cathode ray tube (CRT) face as a reference image, but it would require very sophisticated circuitry. There were special applications - like air traffic control plan position indicators (PPI's) - where pains were taken to be able to add annotation to the display (e.g., aircraft IFF data). A common method for superimposing fixed references (such as the music scale here) was to add a composite video signal that was added in with the sampled signal. It is the opposite of devising a scheme to add o-scope type video to a standard raster scan TV picture. The page 82 comic is interesting because it depicts a Ham cogitating on how he can use his kid's metal snow coaster as an antenna reflector for what would have been upper microwave frequencies.

Electronics-Themed Comics

Suggested by Herbert E. Pasch "Man, this amplifier sure attenuates the highs!"
Page 50

Page 82

Page 102

Posted January 30, 2023