Electronics-Themed Comics
December 1949 Radio & Television News

December 1949 Radio & Television News Cover - RF Cafe

[Table of Contents]

Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio & Television News, published 1919-1959. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

Comics in modern magazines are a rather rare phenomenon for some reason, but they were fairly regular features up until a couple decades ago. This set of electronics-themed comics is from the December 1949 edition of Radio & Television News. The first one would probably not make sense to someone not familiar with the extents to which some radio operators go to deploy antennas. During field day events and other mobile scenarios, Hams have been using kites and balloons (see More on Balloon-Supported Antennas) to create 1/4-, 1/2-, or even full-wave vertical antennas with wires run along the tether line, a la Benjamin Franklin. When a kite is used, because of the wind carrying the kite away from the ground point, it is impossible to get the antenna vertical unless the line is really long and the antenna wire is located on the most vertical section of the line's catenary shape. The slanted antenna creates a radiation pattern that is directed upward on the windward side and downward on the leeward side. Under low or no wind conditions, a balloon has a better chance of enabling a near-vertical antenna.

Electronics-Themed Comics

Electronic-themed comic (p119) - RF Cafe

"At a time like This - You Fly A Kite!" (Page 119)

Electronic-themed comic (p131) - RF Cafe

"Remember in 1943 - you couldn't get a 35Z5?" (Page 131)

Electronic-themed comic (p150) - RF Cafe

"What do you mean lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place?" (Page 150)

Posted March 6, 2017

These Technically−Themed Comics Appeared in Vintage Electronics Magazines. I personally scanned and posted every one from copies I own (and even colorized some).

Berkeley Nucleonics Vector Signal Generators Radar Simulations - RF Cafe

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Kirt Blattenberger,

BSEE - KB3UON

RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line, and a nice lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...

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Windfreak Technologies Frequency Synthesizers - RF Cafe

Electronics-Themed ComicsDecember 1949 Radio & Television News

Electronics-Themed Comics
December 1949 Radio & Television News