|
 Finish up your week by considering these
three "What's
Your EQ" circuit challenges that appeared in a 1964 issue of Radio-Electronics
magazine. They were submitted for consideration by readers, and sometimes by staff
writers. The first is yet another form of the Black Box mystery component. Kendall
Collins sort of gives away part of the answer in the problem statement. The second
is a fairly straight-forward switching circuit. You'll get it with no problem. The
third is most challenging. Don't be put off by the presence of a vacuum tube in
the schematic. Mentally replace it with a FET and go from there. Interestingly,
there is a lot of forum chatter about the Dynakit "Stereocator" feature regarding
stereo reception...
 "Japan-based Fujitsu Ltd has reported gallium
nitride (GaN) high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) on free-standing GaN substrates
operating at 2.45 GHz in the industrial, scientific & medical (ISM, 2.4–2.5 GHz)
reserved band with
85.2% power-added efficiency (PAE) and 89.0% drain efficiency (DE) [Toshihiro
Ohki et al, Appl. Phys. Express, p18, p034004, 2025]. The team reports: 'To the
best of our knowledge, our device sets a new record for the highest power-added
efficiency and drain efficiency among discrete GaN HEMTs, highlighting the superior
potential of GaN-on-GaN HEMTs for highly efficient RF power amplifiers..."
 In his 1967 Radio-Electronics
magazine column, editor Forest Belt envisioned the 1970s as a decade of radical
electronic transformation, where homes would become
"total-electronic" environments controlled by advanced technology - from
computer-assisted cooking and video communicators to 3D television, laser
communications, and even sleep-enhancing atmospheric systems. He urged
electronics professionals, experimenters, and service technicians to prepare for
this future, emphasizing that innovation and broad technical expertise would be
critical to meeting consumer demands for ever-newer gadgets and conveniences.
Belt warned that technicians who failed to adapt would be left behind, while
those mastering emerging fields like fuel cells and heatless...
• 3% 2025 Chip
Capex Growth
• Drink
Coffee Every Day to Reduce Cancer Risk
• Deutsche Telekom
Quantum Internet Record
• Satellite-Hungry
Orange Taps Telesat
• UK Invests
£23M in Telecoms
R&D
 In August 1968, Radio-Electronics
magazine's "News Briefs" reported on RCA's groundbreaking development of liquid
crystal displays (LCDs), demonstrating how an electric field could turn transparent
liquid crystals opaque - a key step toward flat-panel TVs. The article explained
that these displays, just 0.001" thick and requiring minimal power, could be driven
by integrated circuits and were visible even in bright light, unlike traditional
CRTs. That "Radar
Colander" photo looks like an out-of-this-world being - the lady's hairdo that
is, not the metal hemisphere! Additionally, the Supreme Court ruled 7-0 that the
FCC had authority to regulate CATV systems, reversing a lower court decision and
impacting cable operations nationwide...
 This 1964 Radio-Electronics magazine
article details the
operation of common electrical meters - voltmeters, milliammeters, and ohmmeters
- all based on Ohm's law (I = E/R). The core component is the d'Arsonval
movement, a DC-sensitive mechanism that can measure AC when paired with rectifiers.
Voltmeters use multiplier resistors for different ranges, while ohmmeters employ
an internal battery, producing a nonlinear scale. AC measurements rely on rectifiers
to determine RMS voltage (0.707 of peak sine wave), though this method only works
for pure sine waves. The article also explains practical circuits, including protection
features like fuses, and discusses voltmeter sensitivity (ohms/volt), emphasizing
that higher input resistance minimizes measurement errors by reducing circuit loading.
Full-wave rectification improves sensitivity compared to half-wave setups...
 "A team of researchers from Arizona State
University, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL), Lehigh University, and Louisiana
State University has developed a groundbreaking high-temperature copper alloy with
outstanding thermal stability and mechanical strength. Their study, published in
the journal Science, presents a novel bulk nanocrystalline alloy,
Cu-3Ta-0.5Li, that demonstrates exceptional resistance to grain coarsening and
creep deformation, even at temperatures approaching its melting point. 'Our alloy
design approach mimics the strengthening mechanisms..."
 Three more problems await your attention
here to challenge your
Electronics Quotient (EQ), compliments of the February 1963 issue of Radio-Electronics
magazine. First in line is figuring a way to determine which of five boxes of resistors
contains mismarked components. It's a variation on a fairly common way to test components.
The second is another Black Box; it's a bit simpler than usual. Hint: WWTD? (What
would Thévénin do?). The third is a typical method of wiring a series of switches
so that a device can be turned on or off from any number of locations. I recently
implemented such a wiring job to control basement lights from four doorways - no
big deal. Have fun...
 Dr. Allen Du Mont played a huge role
in making television practical because of the improvements he made to the cathode
ray tube (CRT). Prior to his work, the lifespan of a CRT was measured in tens of
hours, and they were expensive, so their use was limited to special military and
research applications. Du Mont's interest in "wireless" began at an early age,
and he earned his commercial radio operator's license at the age of 14 (in 1915).
He designed and produced oscillographs (i.e., oscilloscopes) that incorporated his
CRTs. His involvement in the television industry was a natural evolution and extension
of the work done in related industries. The DuMont Television Network was formed...
 The leading website for the PCB industry.
PCB Directory is the largest directory of
Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
Manufacturers, Assembly houses, and Design Services on the Internet. We have listed
the leading printed circuit board manufacturers around the world and made them searchable
by their capabilities - Number of laminates used, Board thicknesses supported, Number
of layers supported, Types of substrates (FR-4, Rogers, flexible, rigid), Geographical
location (U.S., China), kinds of services (manufacturing, fabrication, assembly,
prototype), and more. Fast turn-around on quotations for PCB fabrication and assembly.
 These two
electronics-themed comics appeared in a 1966 issue of Radio-Electronics
magazine. The page 40 comic is especially funny, IMHO. The term that best fits this
scenario is "anachronism," which is an object or concept that is out of its proper
historical time period. You'll concur once you see the comic. In 1966, real-world
lasers - as opposed to those found in science fiction - had output powers in the
range of watts or tens of watts. Maybe a hundred watts from a CO2 laser in a laboratory
setting like in the page 93 comic. Still, the concept of a laser powerful enough
to be used as a weapon - capable of vaporizing an enemy - was reality in most people's
minds...
 "DNA
strand displacement circuits are inching closer to becoming cellular machines.
Scientists are finding ways to make these programmable nanodevices stable and functional
inside living cells. If successful, they could revolutionize how we interface with
and control biology at the molecular level. A recent review published in Intelligent
Computing, titled 'From the Test Tube to the Cell: A Homecoming for DNA Computing
Circuits?' outlines major advances in the effort to bring DNA computing circuits
into living cells. The authors describe how dynamic nanodevices powered by DNA strand
displacement reactions could soon perform..."
 everything RF is the Internet's largest
source for mmWave scanners, with helpful search function for your specific needs.
mm-Wave Security Scanners use high-frequency millimeter waves
to create detailed 3D images of objects and identify objects concealed under layers
of clothing. mmWaves can penetrate clothing but not the skin or other dense materials,
making them ideal for detecting hidden objects without revealing detailed body contours,
thus addressing privacy concerns. This makes them ideal as security scanners in
Airports and other venues like stadiums, train stations and other high-traffic venues.
mmWave security scanners from the leading manufacturers are listed here.
 A pair of items from this June 1963
Radio-Electronics magazine "News Briefs" column stands out: "Born 15 years
ago this month were the transistor, June 30, and the long-playing record, June 21."
Hard to imagine being there to reading that back in the day. Also noted was the
world's first IEEE convention, held March 25-28 in New York City. Subjects presented
250 papers at 54 session. This online document discusses the IRE's award recipients
to be honored at that March 1963 meeting. This doc is typical of the extremes corporations
go to in order to specify and control their "brand," in this case the simple IEEE
"kite" logo and text - sheesh! More TV sets were then in use abroad than in the
U.S., reported Television Factbook. At the end of 1961, there were 54 million sets
in foreign countries. By October, 1962, the total was 65 million, as compared to
60 million in the U.S. That, of course, is the sum of all countries other than the
U.S.
 Ask and ye shall receive... at least sometimes.
I posted a request for an article by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, of
2001: A Space Odyssey fame, describing a
geostationary satellite system that was published in the October
1945 edition of Wireless World magazine. Thanks to RF Cafe visitor Terry
W., from the great state of Oklahoma, it is now available for everyone to enjoy.
Clarke was not just a sci-fi writer, but also an educated visionary and card-carrying
member of the British Interplanetary Society, who proposed many technological solutions
to issues of his day. In this instance, the challenge was developing an efficient
means to distribute TV signals across Europe and the world. Clarke's calculations
for the necessary number of repeater towers proved that concept impractical, so
he proposed using modified surplus German V2 rockets to launch Earth-orbiting "artificial
satellites," powered...
 Please take a few moments to visit the
everythingRF website to see how they can assist you with your
project. everythingRF is a product discovery platform for RF and microwave products
and services. They currently have 333,423 products from more than 2198 companies
across 460 categories in their database and enable engineers to search for them
using their customized parametric search tool. Amplifiers, test equipment, power
couplers and dividers, coaxial connectors, waveguide, antennas, filters, mixers,
power supplies, and everything else. Please visit everythingRF today to see how
they can help you.
 Here are two more circuit problems for you
from the August 1966 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine. The first is
a fairly familiar tapered resistance network where you are asked to determine the
input resistance of the infinite network. Out of curiosity, I asked Arya, ChatGPT
4.1, Grok 3, and Gemini 2.5 Pro, to calculate the given formula to 75 decimal places.
I received four different answers. All agreed to 33 decimal places, and three
of them agreed to 51 places, then everything fell apart. Once again I warn: Do not
blindly trust the results of AI clients. Verify everything important!!! The other
problem is to determine the output waveform of a duo-diode vacuum tube circuit.
The semiconductor equivalent is a pair of PN junction diodes with the anodes at
the top.
 "It seems AI jobs are here to stay, based
on the latest data from the 2025 AI Index Report. To better understand the current
state of AI, the annual report from Stanford University's
Institute for Human-Centered
Artificial Intelligence (HAI) collects a wide range of information on model
performance, investment, public opinion, and more. Every year, Spectrum summarizes
our top takeaways from the entire report by plucking out a series of charts, but
here we zero in on the technology's effect on the workforce. Much of the report’s
findings about jobs..."
 In the mid 1960s, Radio-Craft magazine
ran a series of articles on "Inventors of Radio." This April 1966 issue featured
Boris Lvovitch Rosing (1869–1933), a Russia-born physicist and pioneer of television
technology. Rosing was born in St. Petersburg, where he studied under Heinrich
Friedrich Emil Lenz and later taught at the Technological Institute. Beginning in
1902, he experimented with cathode-ray tubes for image transmission, developing
the first electronic television device by 1907, which used rotating drums and a
modulated electron beam to produce images. His breakthrough came in 1911 when he
successfully displayed simple images, earning him recognition and awards. Despite
interruptions from World War I and the Russian Revolution, Rosing continued refining
his designs, achieving higher-resolution scans...
 What's the big deal about
multicolor radar, you might ask? Not much today, but in 1955 color
displays were in their infancy. The earliest color cathode ray tubes (CRTs), developed
by John Logie Baird in the early 1940s, used just two phosphor colors (magenta and
cyan), illuminated by two separate electron guns, to produce a limited color display.
Ernest Lawrence came along later in the decade with his tri-color Chromatron CRT,
which had separate red, blue and green phosphor dots deposited in a triangular pattern
across the inner face of the tube. That is the scheme employed in this first multicolor
radar system. It was a major improvement for air traffic controllers since it facilitated...
 Success won in the realm of
space-based communications has been fraught with many failures.
As with most endeavors, it is thanks to the relative few who have sacrificed and
endured against overwhelming odds to bring significant technological advances in
communications to the many. Space presents a particularly difficult venue because
of the harsh deployment and operational environment, and inaccessibility after deployment.
Personal sacrifice has taken the form of depression, financial ruin, lost opportunity
for other endeavors, broken families, sickness, substance abuse, and other maladies
brought on by an obsession with success. Take a good look at the people in these
photos, and remember they are the ones who laid the foundations for the modern world
we take for granted. Such sacrifice has built the modern world...
 "For decades,
Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) operators were in the communications catbird's
seat 22,000 miles above the Earth, but the arrival of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) networks,
like Elon Musk's Starlink, is bringing the Old Guard in satellite com down to terra
firma. 'The proprietary and specialized GEO infrastructure of the past is now weighing
down space industry incumbents that find themselves needing to rapidly innovate
against mounting competition,' ABI Research Senior Analyst Andrew Cavalier wrote
in a recent research report. An indicator that innovation..."
 If it seems like I've been posting a lot
of these "What's
Your EQ?" features, there's a good reason... I have been posting a lot of them
lately. I had created the pages long ago, and somehow I forgot to go back and complete
them with the drawings. Expect to see a dozen or so more in fairly short order.
The circuit challenges are usually submitted by Radio-Electronics magazine's
readers, but occasionally one of the columnists will contribute. "How Wide?" seems
like you would need the value of L to calculate, but given that the problem is presented
without it, there must be a way, right? With the Series-Parallel circuit, I got
as far...
 RF Cafe's spreadsheet-based engineering
and science calculator -
Espresso
Engineering Workbook™ (click to download) - is a collection of surface area
and volume calculators for many geometric solids. RF Cafe
Espresso Engineering Workbook™ is provided at no cost, compliments of my generous
sponsors. The newest additions are calculators
for Opamps, FM Sidebands, and FM Modulation. That makes 41 worksheets containing
hundreds of calculation. There are many online calculators for these and other functions,
but sometimes having a convenient desktop version makes life easier. While developing
Espresso Engineering Workbook, I conduct extensive research and testing to help
assure the correct equations are used and accurate results are displayed. Download
your copy today, and pass the word onto a friend...
 I have noted in the past how humor in the
days of yore was somewhat, shall we say, different, than what it is today. My vintage
aviation, mechanics, and electronics magazine from the early to middle part of the
last century contained comics
and humor pieces that in a lot of cases were not very funny because of a lack
of cleverness, and in some cases were downright stupid. A search of both RFCafe.com
and AirplanesAndRockets.com will bear out my assertion. Look at the stuff from before
1950. This 1933 QST magazine, flagship publication of the American Radio
Relay League (ARRL), is a good example. It was the April edition, which means it
was chock full of puns, comics, gags, and faux articles and news bits. Some of them
are pretty good, but you might need to adopt an alternate frame of mind to "get"
them...
 LadyBug Technologies was founded in 2004
by two microwave engineers with a passion for quality microwave test instrumentation.
Our employees offer many years experience in the design and manufacture of the worlds
best vector network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, power meters and associated components.
The management team has additional experience in optical power testing, military
radar and a variety of programming environments including LabVIEW, VEE and other
languages often used in programmatic systems. Extensive experience in a broad spectrum
of demanding measurement applications. You can be assured that our Power Sensors
are designed, built, tested and calibrated without compromise.
 It's Friday afternoon as I prepare this
trio of
vintage electronics-themed comics for posting. They all appeared in the October
1964 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine. All three reflect the home entertainment
craze of the era, in particular TV. Color TV was making inroads into homes, despite
the relatively high cost, and in 1964, many programs were still being broadcast
in black and white (B&W). Stereo systems were huge as well, and you will find
many comics depicting stereo themes in the large list at the bottom of the page.
The love-hate relationship the public had with electronics equipment repairmen (it
worked both ways) is evident here. Millennials will never be able to relate to the
slings and arrows suffered by those of us who lived during the CRT TV times, but
then we Boomers...
|
 As reported in this 1967 Electronics World
magazine piece, lasers were still the things of science fiction to most people.
Real-world applications seemed to be far off in the future, but in fact, work was
underway setting the stage for today's blazingly fast communications systems. The
author here references attaining 5 THz optical transmission speeds through
fiber and through the air. At the time, a laboratory filled with bulky prototypes
chassis and optical tables were required to get those results. I can remember reading
articles in the 1970s when laser power output was measured in "Gillette
power," referring to the beam's ability to burn through a number of razor blades
(a big deal at the time). In 2020, devices that greatly surpass 5 THz are available
in consumer quality IC packages...
 "Handie-Talkie"
was the name given to early walkie-talkies used in the field by military communications
troops. Having been written during World War II, the author of this QST
article just assumed that any reader would be familiar with the WERS acronym - it
stands for War Emergency Radio Service. Per the Wikipedia entry: "At the start of
the Second World War the United States Congress had suspended all amateur radio
activity throughout the country. WERS was established by the Federal Communications
Commission in June 1942 at the insistence of the American Radio Relay League. WERS
would remain in operation in through the end of the Second World War in 1945. WERS
was to provide communications in connection with air raid protection, and communications
during times of natural disaster. WERS licenses were given to communities and not
individuals...
 Citizens' Band (CB) radio began in 1945,
just after World War II, in order to provide common folks with a means of both
fixed and mobile radio communications that required only paying a fee to
operate. Amateur radio (Ham radio) did and still does require that the operator
pass a written test to gain transmitting privileges (anyone may receive a
signal). CB was and is used for both fixed base and mobile communications.
Evidently, by 1964 there was enough use and misuse of the airwaves that the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) found it necessary to publish and
enforce a new set of rules for users. CB radio began operations in the
460-470 MHz UHF band, then moved to 27 MHz in 1958 since equipment could be
manufactured in a manner more affordable to a wider segment of the public...
 One of the major advantages of the age of powerful
personal computers - be they in the form of desktop systems, tablets, or smartphone apps
- is that for most
computation-intensive tasks there only needs to be one or maybe at most a
few people smart enough to know how to do them. Everyone else who has to perform
the task just needs to be able to input the proper parameters to ensure a useful
output. That is a significant statement, because in the days before ubiquitous
computer availability and incredible computing power, highly capable engineers,
scientists, analysts, and mathematicians either had to be on staff or an expert
external resource was used for difficult and/or time-intensive tasks. Over time,
fewer and fewer people are needed to produce very precise and reliable results.
In many ways, other than the creative intuition involved in concept, creation,
and execution, a large part of the product design and planning phases have been
automated...
 "On the
way back to your home state, don't let the door hit ya' where the good Lord split
ya'. Oh, and we'll be sending you a tax bill in appreciation for your selfless sacrifice
in caring for our citizens." That is basically the sentiment of New York's governor,
who after literally begging
out-of-state healthcare workers to come to NY City amongst the Chinese COVID-19
breakout, has declared that his financially mismanaged and cash-strapped state
is going to collect income tax from the aforementioned good Samaritans.
 "A
record 'Moocher' is one of the lowest forms of human life. He has no particular
habitat but can be found wherever there is a record owner." So says Norman Van Tubergen
in this 1958 Popular Electronics magazine article. Anyone who grew up in
the record player era, or for that matter the 8-track tape or cassette tape era
has known (or has been) such a moocher. This is the person who was always asking
to borrow your music media either for listening to on his personal equipment or
for copying onto his own tape (cassette or reel-to-reel). He rarely ever bought
any of his own music, but was more than happy to generously re-lend his copies to
fellow Moochers, and of course he never had anything you might want. The modern-day
equivalent is the person who is always bugging you to let him/her copy your music
file that you either paid for as a download or purchased in CD/DVD format...
 On a whim, I did a search for the earliest
appearance of Nikola Tesla's name in U.S. newspapers included in the NewspaperArchive.com
database. This story from Mr. George Grantham Bain appeared in multiple newspapers
within a few days of this March 5, 1896 edition of The Warren Times in
Warren, Pennsylvania, which coincidentally is only a few miles from me here in Erie.
The article reports on the role that Tesla's high voltage generators played in the
development of x-ray images on fluorescent displays and on film (which Tesla termed
"cathode photography"). It mentions how the term "cathode" is relatively new to
the general public even though it had been around since 1832 when Michael Faraday
introduced it in his work. Wilhelm Röentgen made the world's first x-ray image ...
 Believe it or not,
cathode ray tubes (CRT's) are still manufactured for specialty products and
for replacement parts. Even with a high level of automation, there are still steps
in the manufacturing process that require human handling. A comparison between CRT
plants in the USA and Germany show the similarity but distinctly different processes
in Sylvania and Telefunken operations, respectively. The photos shown are from an
article in a 1958 edition of Popular Electronics. At the bottom of this page are
videos of a modern CRT manufacturing process and a CRT recycling effort. As you
will see, properly recycling a CRT is about as manually intensive as manufacturing
one (but with no quality control and functionality concerns). I am not sure where
the profit is in recycling unless inflation over the 10-20 years since manufacturing
makes the value of materials worth the effort. A très cool documentary film on the
designing...
 When you think of "pirate radio," most likely what comes to mind is a rogue, unlicensed
transmitter that is re-broadcasting copyrighted material, syndicated shows, etc.,
on radio or television. Nowadays that would also include the Internet as a medium.
Did you know that, at least decades ago, the British government (and maybe others)
charged citizens a fee for listening to broadcasts on their household radios? That's
right, if you wanted to listen to the BBC, you would kindly remit a fee of 10 shillings
($2.50 in U.S. dollars at the time) per year. Otherwise, you were apt to have government
inspectors descend upon you and padlock your radio set - or collect the requisite
10 shillings on the spot. After a growing number of suspected dishonest British
subjects finally exceeded the reasonable level of tolerance of the government, a
clever scheme was devised to trick evil citizens into divulging their nefarious
crimes. Author Austen Fox does a great job of telling the tale. The stunt would
make a good candid camera ploy for a good laugh today, but in the 1930s when radio
waves were mysterious and even feared...
 It was a lot of work, but I finally finished
a version of the "RF &
Electronics Schematic & Block Diagram Symbols"" that works well with Microsoft
Office™ programs Word™, Excel™, and Power Point™. This is an equivalent of the extensive
set of amplifier, mixer, filter, switch, connector, waveguide, digital, analog,
antenna, and other commonly used symbols for system block diagrams and schematics
created for Visio™. Each of the 1,000+ symbols was exported individually from Visio
in the EMF file format, then imported into Word on a Drawing Canvas. The EMF format
allows an image to be scaled up or down without becoming pixelated, so all the shapes
can be resized in a document and still look good. The imported symbols can also
be UnGrouped into their original constituent parts for editing...
 Mystery stories were
broadcast on radio stations in the days before television - and for quite a
while after TV was available for that matter. Families gathered around the living
room radio set in excited anticipation of the next adventure of shows like "The
Shadow," "Amos 'n' Andy," "Tales of the Texas Rangers," "Dragnet," and "The Green
Hornet." During that era, it was common also for electronics magazines, which focused
largely on radio communications, to experiment with printed dramas that had a radio-centric
theme. Here is the first of a series tried by Radio-Craft in the late 1930s. A couple
decades later the Carl & Jerry adventures were run in Popular Electronics, but
other than that I don't recall seeing a lot of these things. If you're a mystery
fan, then here you are.
 As with my hundreds of previous
science and engineering-themed crossword puzzles, this one for March 8, 2020,
contains only clues and terms associated with engineering, science, physical, astronomy,
mathematics, chemistry, etc., which I have built up over nearly two decades. Many
new words and company names have been added that had not even been created when
I started in the year 2002. You will never find a word taxing your knowledge of
a numbnut soap opera star or the name of some obscure village in the Andes mountains.
You might, however, encounter the name of a movie star like Hedy Lamarr or a geographical
location like Tunguska, Russia, for reasons which, if you don't already know, might
surprise you.
 4 tubes and sockets, 12 capacitors, 7 resistors,
4 inductors, 3 transformers, a crystal, a meter movement, a switch , a bulb, 3 jacks
(for a tuning meter), a project box, a handle and and little hookup wire and solder.
That's all it used to take to construct a home brew
dual band (5- and 10-meters) amateur radio transmitter as featured in the February
1941 edition of QST. You can probably find all the parts at a Hamfest to make one
today, but you will need to modify the 5-meter band circuit to current 6-meter band
operation since there is no 5-meter band anymore (lost to VHF television)...
 Is there such as thing as too many articles
on
transmission lines? I think not, at least for most visitors to RF Cafe. Since
the fundamentals of transmission lines have not changed in the last century, it
really doesn't matter when an article was written. This one covers the basics of
impedance and wavelength, and then delves briefly into the subjects of antenna feeder
transmission lines and using transmission lines as impedance transformers. As with
most topics these days, there are many software programs available that will calculate
parameters for you, but successful setup and operation requires a solid understanding
of what is happening with your electronic gear, antennas, and the transmission lines
that provide the interfaces...
 This
Technology Theme Crossword Puzzle for April 25th has many words and clues related
to RF, microwave, and mm-wave engineering, optics, mathematics, chemistry, physics,
and other technical subjects. As always, this crossword contains no names of politicians,
mountain ranges, exotic foods or plants, movie stars, or anything of the sort unless
it/he/she is related to this puzzle's technology theme (e.g., Reginald Denny or
the Tunguska event in Siberia). The technically inclined cruciverbalists amongst
us will appreciate the effort. Enjoy!
 The
Old Farmer's Almanac (OFA) has been on my annual need-to-buy list for as long as
I can remember. It is chock full of useful data for sunrise and sunset times*, high and
low tide times, crop planting days, first and last frost days, and significant astronomical
events. There are stories of interest on topics ranging from canning your garden''s harvest
to how to view a solar eclipse. - often from noted authors, but also from lay people.
I also enjoy the monthly "on this day" type tidbits and the homey short story relating
to the time of year. After 225 years of continuous publication, it still features the
hole in the upper left corner to facilitate handily hanging it on the wall of your shed
-- or outhouse. I gave a 1961 edition of the Old Farmer's Almanac found on eBay to Melanie
as a birthday present this year...
 As with my hundreds of previous
science and engineering-themed crossword puzzles, this one for February 23,
2020, contains only clues and terms associated with engineering, science, physical,
astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, etc., which I have built up over nearly two decades.
Many new words and company names have been added that had not even been created
when I started in the year 2002. You will never find a word taxing your knowledge
of a numbnut soap opera star or the name of some obscure village in the Andes mountains.
You might, however, encounter the name of a movie star like Hedy Lamarr or a geographical
location like Tunguska, Russia, for reasons which, if you don't already know, might
surprise you.
 Allegory is not an often seen style of prose in
the electronics writing world, and typically is not meant to be humorous; however, there
have been a few instances of it in the vintage electronics magazines I read. One of the
most famous examples of allegory is a story by Paul Bunyan titled "Pilgrim's Progress."
"She
Wore a Red Germanium," by Leta Foster Ide, is a more contemporary form of allegory
that RF Cafe visitors will appreciate. Mike R. Fonic (microphonic) is the lead character
in the story who complains to his doctor, "I'm off my feed. Got no capacity. Fact is,
I'm in a breakdown." Mike's wife's Aunt Enna (antenna) is no help, evidently. Come to
think of it, the author's name, Leta Foster Ide...
 As with my hundreds of previous
engineering and science-themed crossword puzzles, this one for January 19, 2020,
contains only clues and terms associated with engineering, science, physical, astronomy,
mathematics, chemistry, etc., which I have built up over nearly two decades. Many
new words and company names have been added that had not even been created when
I started in the year 2002. You will never find a word taxing your knowledge of
a numbnut soap opera star or the name of some obscure village in the Andes mountains.
You might, however, encounter the name of a movie star like Hedy Lamarr or a geographical
location like Tunguska, Russia, for reasons which, if you don't already know, might
surprise you.
 This
RF Electronics Basics
quiz targets those of you who are newcomers to the world of radio frequency
(RF) electronics, but seasoned vets are welcome to give it a go as well. People
have reported using material from these quizzes as fodder for interviewing
potential candidates. All quizzes are multiple choice and answers are
provided...
It was a lot of work, but I finally finished
a version of the "RF &
Electronics Schematic & Block Diagram Symbols"" that works well with Microsoft
Office™ programs Word™, Excel™, and Power Point™. This is an equivalent of the extensive
set of amplifier, mixer, filter, switch, connector, waveguide, digital, analog,
antenna, and other commonly used symbols for system block diagrams and schematics
created for Visio™. Each of the 1,000+ symbols was exported individually from Visio
in the EMF file format, then imported into Word on a Drawing Canvas. The EMF format
allows an image to be scaled up or down without becoming pixelated, so all the shapes
can be resized in a document and still look good. The imported symbols can also
be UnGrouped into their original constituent parts for editing...
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