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 In a groundbreaking announcement that will
forever transform global communications, QentComm®©™ (Quantum Entanglement Communications)
has unveiled the world's first
commercially viable quantum entanglement communication system. Dubbed QeG®©™
(Quantum entanglement Generation, pronounced kwee-gee), supplementing the traditional
4G, 5G, and 6G nomenclature, this revolutionary technology eliminates the limitations
of traditional radio-based systems, delivering instantaneous, unlimited connectivity
across any distance without reliance on satellites, cell towers, or fiber optics.
Under the leadership of Kirt Blattenberger, QentComm (pronounced kwent-kōm) has
created a system that defies conventional physics by utilizing quantum entanglement
for real-time, secure communication between devices anywhere in the universe - including
here on Earth...
 In this "Carl & Jerry" technodrama from
a 1957 issue of Popular Electronics magazine, the two boys start out enjoy a
casual day of kite flying, using a homebrew radio-controlled camera attached to
the kite to capture an aerial view of Round Island in a lake. After successfully
taking a picture, they develop the film and discover two men and an odd setup on
the island. Curious, they return the next day, find a hidden tunnel, and stumble
upon an illegal liquor still. As you might expect, the teens run into a heap of
trouble when the moonshiners nab them. Using their combined ingenuity and
knowledge of communications methods common to Ham radio operators of the era,
contact was made and help was on the way. Read about Carl and Jerry's exploit
and exactly what it was that saved the day - and their hides!
 "In late January 2025, 17 students and staff
members from Las Animas High School (LAHS) in Colorado visited the
Deep Space Exploration Society Radio Telescope (DSES) located at the Plishner
Radio Astronomy and Space Sciences Center near Haswell, Colorado. They also got
an introduction to amateur radio. 'This first field trip visit of high school students
reflected the dreams of Michael Lowe, former DSES board president, who sought to
create a center for radio astronomy and space science education in southeast Colorado,'
said DSES President Myron Babcock, KL7YY..."
 Making format changes to magazines after many
years of an established standard always ruffles the figurative feathers of a significant
portion of regular readers. Two magazines I read monthly, Model Aviation
and QST, recently underwent a format change - both of which I considered
very nice. However, reader comments in the aftermath showed a few who were not impressed.
Popular Electronics magazine in 1966 made announcements regarding plans
to adopt some of the
newer base units for physical measurements, including this
one for beginning to use "Hertz" (Hz), along various numerical prefix forms,
instead of "cycles per second" (cps). The editors give sound reason...
 The
Beverage Antenna, very familiar to amateur radio operators, is
a simple but efficient, highly directional, non-resonant antenna that consists of
a single straight wire of one or more wavelengths that is suspended above the ground.
It is orientated parallel to the direction of intended reception. One end is terminated
to ground through a resistor, and the other is connected to the receiver. The following
quote comes from the patent (US1,81,089) text: "In accordance with theoretical considerations,
if an antenna were to be freely suspended and if the surface of the earth constituted
a perfectly conducting parallel plane, current waves would travel through...
 This letter was sent to Hugo Gernsback,
publisher of Radio-Electronics magazine, in response to the "30-Day
Record Response" article penned by noted scientist and inventor Mohammed Ulysses
Fips. In it, Stephen A. Kallis, Jr. heaped laud upon the "Most Revered and Esteemed
Fips" for his long-term recording device (remember, 1961 was many decades before
microminiature terabyte memory and microprocessors) were available, and chastises
Mr. Gernsback for evidently calling into question the authenticity of the recorder.
Kallis, a self-proclaimed stereo enthusiast, bolsters Fips' case by citing "A Proposed
Listening Area," by the Institute of Synergistic Statics Proceedings...
 Raise your hand if you're old enough to
remember doing printed circuit board layout using
Rubylith tape. My hand is up. Back in the early 1980s, I did prototype
PCB designs in an engineering development lab at Westinghouse Electric's Oceanic
Division. Most of it was for analog and RF substrates that would be photographically
reduced in size for use with bare integrated circuit die and surface mount passive
components (Rs, Ls, and Cs), upon which I would later epoxy-mount those components
and wire-bond everything using 1-mil gold wire. However, there were projects where
full-size leaded components were used on a through-hole PCB that used not only the
Rubylith tapes but also sheets with special electronics shapes for solder pads around
the holes for components leads, ground and power planes, board-edge connectors...
 "Quantum systems don't just transition between
phases - they do so in ways that defy classical intuition. A new experiment has
directly observed these
dissipative phase transitions (DPTs), revealing how quantum states shift under
carefully controlled conditions. This breakthrough could unlock powerful new techniques
for stabilizing quantum computers and sensors, making them more resilient and precise
than ever before. A new frontier phase transitions, like water freezing into ice,
are a familiar part of everyday life. In quantum systems, however, these transitions
can be far more extreme, governed by principles like Heisenberg's uncertainty..."
 In
this November 1940 issue of the Boy Scouts Boys' Life magazine, amateur
radio operators, or "hams," are described as having the ability to communicate across
vast distances, connecting far-flung locations such as Goulds, Florida, Cali, Colombia,
Cairo, Kenilworth, England, Bombay, and Brisbane. These operators, licensed by the
Federal Communications Commission, engage in various activities such as talking
to distant stations, participating in contests, and providing emergency communication
during natural disasters. With call letters assigned by international treaty, these
stations use a combination of code and phone to make contact, exchanging reports
and QSL cards. The
Radio merit badge was first offered in 1918 and has been...
 ConductRF is continually innovating and
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how they can help your project!
 The date approacheth when, according to
Western customs, every body needs to stand a vigil against the attempt of another
body to make him or her a fool. That date is of course April 1st, aka, April
Fools' Day. Many of the technical magazine we grew up with - and some still today
- engage in the ruse. Innovator and publisher Hugo Gernsback, who's long list of
accomplishments includes this Radio-Electronics magazine, often contributed
his own wit to the April editions. The usual scheme is to make the article just
authentic enough to be possibly real, while including features outrageous enough
to clue the read that he is being "had." Experienced subscribers knew that the Mohammed
Ulysses Fips byline was sure to deliver an April Fools delight. Here, Mr. Fips
expounds on the newfangled "Electronics
Razor..."
 "Quantum computing has long struggled with
creating
entangled photons efficiently, but a team of researchers has discovered a game-changing
method using metasurfaces - flat, engineered structures that control light. By leveraging
these metasurfaces, they can generate and manipulate entangled photons more easily
and compactly than ever before. This breakthrough could open the door to smaller,
more powerful quantum computers and even pave the way for quantum networks that
deliver entangled photons to multiple users..."
 Here is a chart you don't see every day
- "Temperature Rise in Rigid Waveguide." The company, Engineering
Antenna Systems, of Manchester, New Hampshire, that published the chart in a 1965
edition of Engineering magazine, does not exist anymore. They were probably
bought by someone else, but I could not even find an honorable mention of them in
a Google search. Given the very low attenuation of properly sized and installed
waveguide, it is hard to imagine a temperature rise of 500°F; however, when megawatts
are pumped into it even a couple tenths of a decibel of attenuation per 100 feet
results in a lot of power loss. Noted is how attenuation - and therefore temperature
rise - is greater for frequencies at the lower end of the waveguide's operational
range. Temperature rise numbers are for natural convection in free air...
 Here is an inspiring interview of
Werbel Microwave's Ernest Werbel - a case of pulling oneself up by one's own
bootstraps --- everything RF recently interviewed Ernest Werbel, the Chief Design
Engineer of Werbel Microwave. He is from Livingston, NJ, and got his associates
in EE Technology, at County College of Morris. Ernest completed his Bachelors in
Electronics and Computer Engineering Technology from NJ Institute of Technology.
He founded Werbel Microwave in 2014. Q. Can you tell us about Werbel Microwave?
When did you start the company and how has it evolved over the years? Ernest Werbel:
Firstly, thank you for the opportunity to participate in the everything RF community.
I appreciate everything that Raghav and his team have done for us since the beginning,
getting our products listed on everything RF and featuring our products in the email
blasts... As a child and teen in the 90s, I was always interested in electronics.
When I was very young, a radio was a magical box with a voice. Later, when my grandparents
passed in '97, my parents and I were cleaning out their home in Brooklyn. Among
other things were many old and broken consumer electronic items...
 Today we have
missing persons notices printed on milk cartons and computer-aged
pictures of missing kids on bulletin boards at Walmart, and of course the Internet
with all its various forms of publicity. In 1935, evidently, an electronics magazine
was a proper venue for placing a missing person ad. At the time there was no convenient
and accessible way for family members to reach out to a nationwide audience other
than to place ads in magazines and/or newspapers in remote locations. I thought
it odd to see such a placement in this edition of Short Wave Craft magazine,
but considering the aforementioned, doing so is entirely reasonable for a worried
family. I wonder how much it cost to place the notice? It's heartbreaking, really...
• 2025 Tech Jobs Expected
to Take Off
• Semiconductor
Industry Faces a Seismic Shift
• 76% of
News Consumers Still Use AM/FM
• FCC
Spectrum Rules to Support Advanced Flight Technologies
• Radio
Attracts High Purchasing Power Consumers
 I'm always aware of the old saying that
it is better to remain silent and thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove
all doubt, but I'll take the risk here. The ARRL's QST magazine has for
decades in the April issue published at least one unannounced "April Fool" item.
I think I found at least two for 2025. While enthusiastically reading "Turn Your
Vertical Antenna into a Rotatable Beam," (p60), it didn't occur to me that this
was the April issue, and I was in awe of Jay Kolinsky's (NE2Q) intuition and creativity
in devising a scheme to get directivity from his standard vertical whip antenna.
By sliding a carbon fiber tube with a narrow slit along the length over top of the
antenna, a 14 dB increase was realized in the direction of the slit. NE2Q has
named his invention the Loof Lirpa Slot (LLS). What's in a name -
Juliet?.
Is a patent in the works?
 The other suspect is the CW Corp. of America's
"Snappy
Training Key," reported on page 95 by Ellwood Brem (K3YV). You need to log in
to read the articles, or borrow a hard copy from a Ham friend.
 "A major scientific leap has been made with
the creation of the longest
ultra-secure quantum satellite link between China and South Africa, spanning
nearly 13,000 km. This unprecedented achievement, marking the first quantum satellite
link in the Southern Hemisphere, relied on real-time quantum key distribution to
transmit encrypted images between continents. World’s Longest Quantum Satellite
Link Established Scientists from South Africa and China have successfully created
the world’s longest intercontinental quantum satellite link, spanning 12,900 kilometers
(~8,000 miles). This ultra-secure connection was made possible using China's Jinan-1..."
 According to the science and mechanics magazine
I read during the 1960s through 1980s, we should all have personal nuclear power
generators powering our houses, watches, cars, and just about anything that runs
on electricity. Like with flying cars and robotic domestic servants, were not even
close to that a quarter of the way through the next century (2025). This news item
appears to be a good start on the promise. "Imagine never charging your phone again
or having a pacemaker that lasts a lifetime. Scientists are developing tiny
nuclear batteries powered by radiocarbon, a safe and abundant by-product of
nuclear plants. Unlike lithium-ion batteries, which degrade over time and harm the
environment, these new designs use beta radiation to trigger an electron avalanche
and generate electricity. The technology could one day make nuclear power as accessible
as your pocket device..."
 FM (frequency modulation) radio certainly
was a hot topic beginning in the middle to late 1940s. With the war out of the way,
energies and resources were being redirected back to peacetime production. Major
Edwin Armstrong announced his FM scheme in 1935, and as with many new inventions,
it was met with skepticism by many who doubted his claim of static interference
immunity. For many, it was a lack of understanding that caused the negative reaction,
caused primarily by the increased level of sophistication of the transmitter and
receiver circuitry. Amplitude modulation (AM) was so easy even a caveman could understand
it, but adding phase relationships into the equation (literally) left many in the
dust. This
FM Radio Quiz from a 1950 issue of Radio & Television
News magazine tests your grasp of frequency modulation principles...
 Stan Goldberg is a familiar name to comic
book aficionados for his artistry in Spider Man, the Incredible Hulk, and the Archie
series. QST magazine had him listed in the "Silent Keys" column in the
November 2014 issue because he passed away in August. A Silent Key, in Hamdom, is
usually a title reserved for a deceased licensed operator (the 'key' reference being
a Morse code key), but a search of the Internet and the FCC license database web
page did not turn up a call sign for him. Unless his record has been dropped from
the database, Mr. Goldberg might never have actually been a Ham, but earned the
Silent Key acknowledgement because of his involvement in a 1986 special edition
comic book titled "Archie's
Ham Radio Adventure." It was quite an extensive story...
 In a 1966 issue of Radio-Electronics
magazine, a revolutionary sodium-sulfur storage battery was demonstrated at a Detroit
press conference, suggesting that Ford could enter the electric car market within
the next ten years, and in the process "bring
back electric autos." That suggests there were EVs before, and in fact, there
were, at the turn of the 20th Century. The new battery, operating at 800° Fahrenheit,
was completely sealed and produced 15 times more power than a lead-acid battery
of the same weight, without the need to vent charging gases. The battery's design
featured sodium and sulfur separated by a ceramic partition, with sodium ions moving
through the ceramic to form sodium sulfide during discharge and reversing the process
during charging, producing no gases or byproducts...
 This
Electronics Current Quiz from the October 1963 edition of Popular Electronics
magazine is recent enough (if you consider more than half a century ago to be recent)
that it uses both transistors as well as vacuum tubes in the example circuits. I
have to admit to only scoring 60% on the quiz, which is pretty lame. You will probably
do better, especially if you are my age or older. I thought the names of the current
type would make the challenge a breeze, but not so in my case. Just as back in school
days when looking up the solution to problems in the back of the textbook and the
answers seem obvious (well, not always), so, too, do these...
 "Researchers at the University of Twente,
in collaboration with the City University of Hong Kong, have designed a cutting-edge
programmable
photonic chip in a thin-film lithium niobate platform, an important material
in photonics. Published in Nature Communications, this work paves the way for next-generation
high-performance radar and communication applications. An important material is
changing the way optical chips work, making them smaller, faster, and more efficient:
thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN). It offers exceptional properties for how light
and electrical signals can interact..."
 Alexander Graham Bell was born on March
3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland, to Alexander Melville Bell and Eliza Grace Symonds.
His father was a professor of elocution and the inventor of Visible Speech, a system
designed to help deaf people communicate. His mother, Eliza, was an accomplished
pianist who lost her hearing later in life. Bell was the second of three children;
his brothers, Melville James and Edward Charles, both died of tuberculosis. Bell's
early education was influenced by his father's work in speech and elocution. He
attended the Royal High School in Edinburgh and later studied at the University
of Edinburgh, though he did not complete a degree. His family moved to London in
1865, where Bell continued his studies at University College London, focusing...
 Here is a handy-dandy baker's dozen of "kinks,"
otherwise known as
tricks of the trade, shortcuts, or clever ideas, that could prove
useful while working in the lab at work or in your shop at home. They appeared in
a 1935 issue of Hugo Gernsback's Short Wave Craft magazine. One suggestion
is to place a sheet of tracing paper over your schematic while wiring a circuit
and draw each connection as it is completed, rather than mark up the original drawing.
That was definitely good for a time when making a spare copy of a magazine page
or assembly instruction from a kit was not as simple a matter as it is today. Whether
it be a schematic or a set of plans for a model airplane, I always make a copy to
work and draw notes on rather than defacing the original...
 This quiz from a 1963 issue of Radio-Electronics
magazine tests readers'
familiarity with key electrical laws beyond the well-known Ohm's Law, including
Kirchhoff's voltage and current laws for circuit analysis, Joule's law for heat
in resistors, Poynting's theorem for energy flow, Lenz's law for induced forces,
Neumann's formula for transformers, Wien's displacement law impacting infrared electronics,
Helmholtz's theorem for vector fields, the Wiedemann-Franz-Lorentz law connecting
conductivity types, and Faraday's law of induction, challenging engineers to recall
these foundational principles and their discoverers. Well, it is not exactly a quiz
as much...
|
 Many topics of the
electronics-themed comics which appeared in Radio-Craft were suggested by the
magazine's readers. Staff artists like Frank Beaven turned those suggestions into
cartoons. For a while there was a special feature called "Radio Term Illustrated"
where, as the name suggests, terms like "Signal Generator" and "High Potential"
are rendered in farcical form. These four comics, two of each type, appeared in
a May 1947 issue of Radio-Craft. I have to admit that even with my familiarity with
vintage electronics memes I do not get the Television "Organ" comic (yes, I understand
the organ grinder, but not how it applies to TV).
 This entry level introduction of
differential calculus as it applies to electronic circuit analysis appeared
way back in a 1932 edition of Radio News magazine. It was written by none
other than Sir Isaac Newton himself (just kidding, of course). Author J.E. Smith
created an extensive series of lessons that began with simple component and voltage
supply descriptions and worked up through algebraic manipulations and on finally
to calculus. I remember not being the best math student in high school (OK, one
of the worst), but once I got an appreciation for the power of mathematics for analyzing
electronics, mechanics, physics, and even economics, my motivation level soared
to where I craved more of it and ended up receiving "As" in all my college math
courses. That is truly an indication that while not everyone can excel at math,
the proper environment can make a world of difference...
 Having an
unusual last name like "Blattenberger" in the U.S. has caused me some abuse
over the years as many people have felt the need to either purposely mispronounce
it or make make snide comments about its length and number of syllables. Even school
teachers joined in the fray, especially on the first day of class when attendance
was being taken. My drill sergeant in USAF basic training (circa 1978), TSgt. Ramerez,
felt the need to needle me about it. People in America with surnames of German origin
were often the victims of physical abuse, alienation, and derision during both World
War I and World War II. You hear a lot about the government's internment
of Japanese Americans during WWII, but some Germans were also rounded up merely
because of their names...
 Considering that only three-and-a-half decades
had passed since the brothers Wright first flew their eponymous "Flyer" off the
sands of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, it is pretty impressive to think that by 1938
the majority of commercial air transport planes were under the able control of electromechanical
apparatus(es?). Rudder, elevator, aileron, and throttle, driven by electrical servomechanisms
rather than human hands and feet, responded to the signals to analog computers fed
data from onboard barometer, accelerometer, level, and compass sensors, and from
ground-based radio directional beams. That was for mostly straight and level flight
from one fixed waypoint to another. An ability to program vectored flight paths
came later. This "Radio Lands the Plane" article discusses progress being made in
the realm of completely automated landings. As can be seen, the framework for modern
instrument landings systems was being laid...
 How far do you commute each day for
the privilege of doing your part to push back the frontiers of technical ignorance
and to boldly go where no engineer - or technician - has gone before. Do you
know what the cost equates for you each year? This handy-dandy infographic
lays out some gruesome
numbers. Those with a weak stomach probably should pass on viewing this
one. Here's a hint at what you will see: See that big $795 in the thumbnail
image? That's the average cost per year for commuting -- per mile! Yessiree,
if you live just 10 miles from work, you're losing nearly $8,000 per year,
depending on you automobile type, on gas, tires, maintenance, devaluation,
and loss of your personal time (which is valuable, after all). Back in the
early 1990s I drove about 45 miles each way to Comsat, which took about 65
minutes due to miserable traffic, which is 130 minutes round-trip, or 2 hours
and 10 minutes (about the run time of an average movie) each day. Figuring
two weeks vacation and 10 holidays, that leave 48 weeks x 5 days/week = 240
days per year of commuting. 240 days x 130 minutes = 31,200 minutes =
520 hours per year. That's a fourth of a man-year (2,080 hours) on the road.
It was a great job, but combined with working 60-70 hours per week...
 A controversy brews over the merits of breeding
plants that glow like a lightning bug. Proponents say
glowing
trees could eventually replace electric street lights, thereby reducing pollution
created by generating stations. Opponents say messing around with tree genes is
dangerous and should be disallowed since it could lead to unanticipated environmental
ramifications on both plant and animal species. The unique aspect of this effort
is that it is being pursued primarily by genetic hobbyists rather than corporations
- at least for now. There is bound to be a huge financial potential for such a copyrighted
line of plants. My opposition to the concept is primarily a concern for light pollution
projected skyward. Astronomers have a difficult enough time with ever-encroaching
sources of ambient light...
 Walt Miller drew a lot of
comics for electronics magazines like Popular Electronics,
and he did the cover art for Astounding Science Fiction magazine. No doubt
there were others. I could not find any detailed information about Mr. Miller's
personal background, such as whether he was a Ham radio operator, but clearly he
enjoyed electronics and science topics. This group of comics, which appeared in
the May 1967 issue of Popular Electronics, touches on many scenarios that
would have been familiar to hobbyists of the day. I like the one where the guy sneezes
and scatters carefully counted and sorted resistors all over the floor. Another
refers to installment plans for purchasing equipment. That was from a time when
credit cards were not handed out like candy and only people with provable credit-worthiness
could get them...
 It is Thanksgiving Day in the United States, so
a lot of people will be off work, sitting at home waiting for the turkey, mashed potatoes
and gravy, hot rolls, assorted vegetables, and of course pumpkin pie for the grand finale.
If that describes you, or you are visiting from elsewhere, here are a couple of
electronics-themed comics from vintage Radio-Electronics magazines to bide
the time. For anyone not old enough to remember when reel-to-reel magnetic tape
players (see example to the left) were the prized possession of every true
audiophile, the comic on the bottom might be a bit confusing. Recorded music
quality was better than other formats, and the machines had much finer control
over play speed accuracy. Buying factory-recorded song reels was very
expensive...
 Depending on which news story you believe,
both
AM
and FM (and television for that matter) over-the-air broadcasting is dying out
at an increasingly rapid rate. Between recordable podcasts, wired Internet connections,
and the growing ubiquity of Wi-Fi connectivity, a large majority of people in the
civilized world are getting their broadcasts via the Web. If you "follow the money"
in broadcast advertising, the lion's share of dollars have shifted to online venues,
simultaneously draining revenue from local stations. When this story was written
in 1946, OTA radio was king for real-time and free reception of information - particularly
in a mobile environment. A dilemma arose in the form of RF spectrum allocation in
border regions between the U.S. and Canada, both of which were scrambling to stake
a claim on channels. AM was old-hat and sharing issues had largely been worked out,
but the advent of FM (frequency modulation) and an entirely new band of frequencies
opened a real can of worms for national and international regulators...
 When I began reading this piece I wasn't
sure whether it was reporting on interference caused to amateur radio operation
or
interference caused by amateur radio operation. It turns out to be the latter.
Ever since radio operation began in the days of Marconi, unintentional interference
has been a problem. The problem has always been a combination of improper transmitter
and/or receiver filtering. Electromagnetic spectrum regulatory agencies attempt
to assess and address interference through operational band assignments for particular
segments of the spectrum, including how much residual (unintentional) power can
be emitted outside of band or within a defined power mask. Amateur radio operators
are often the first group to be suspected of causing interference, no doubt due
to the "amateur" part of their moniker. In truth, many amateurs are some of the
most knowledgeable and responsible users of the airwaves...
 Believe it or not, many countries did - and
some still do - charge people wanting to receive over-the-air (not cable or satellite)
commercial radio and/or television programming a
wireless license fee for the privilege. Yes, this is for receiving, not transmitting,
signals. If you dared to tune in a BBC program without a license, a fee could be
expected upon detection (pun intended). The Monthly Review feature in this 1946
issue of Radio-Craft magazine reported an increase in cost to the equivalent
of $29 in 2021 money (per the BLS Inflation Calculator). Also highlighted was a
method for printing radio circuits made with conductive inks on ceramic sheets -
known today as thick-film printing. An announcement of the U.S. War Department's
18,000-tube ENIAC electronic calculating device was made as well. The electronics
field was moving quickly...
 Are you violating patent laws in your basement?
Patent laws have changed since this article was published in 1966, but the tenets are
basically the same - do your due diligence on prior work assignment before publishing
any publicly accessible product (print or physical). Since part of Popular Electronics'
raison d'être is to provide circuits for hobbyists to build and benefit from, the lawyer
who wrote this piece focuses on such applications. He claims, at least according to 1960
patent law, "There are court decisions which hold that experimental use of a patented
invention for the sole purpose of gratifying curiosity or a philosophical taste, or for
mere amusement, is not an infringement." HOWEVER, before you conclude that this must
still be the case, read this synopsis from the Ius Mentis website...
![Flying Radiomen [and Radiowomen] of the Ferrying Division, June 1944 QST - RF Cafe](../miscellany/homepage-archive/2021/images/flying-radiomen-ferrying-division-june-1944-qst-hp.gif) "Necessity is the mother of invention" is an oft-heard phrase that
never rang truer than during World War II. Both the Axis and the Allied powers
had extremely brilliant and capable people working to defeat each other, driving
advances in technology and methods at a break-neck pace for nearly a decade (remember
WWII began before the U.S. entered the fray in 1941). Aircraft and radio were powerful
new weapons for all sides at that point since both were still in their fledgling
modes in WWI. Efficient and effective execution of aircraft ferrying, troop movement,
and supply delivery was absolutely dependent on radio equipment and operators that
could adapt to new strategic situations and endure all sorts of weather and geographic
stresses. While the Army Signal Corps had a good cadre of radio operators available,
few were experienced with operating in their gear while airborne...
 Here is the electromagnetic wave section
of the "Wireless Networking in the Developing World," book (open source). "Wireless
communications make use of
electromagnetic
waves to send signals across long distances. From a user's perspective, wireless
connections are not particularly different from any other network connection: your
web browser, email, and other applications all work as you would expect. But radio
waves have some unexpected properties compared to Ethernet cable. For example, it's
very easy to see the path that an Ethernet cable takes: locate the plug sticking
out of your computer, follow the cable to the other end, and you've found it! You
can also be confident that running many Ethernet cables alongside each other won't
cause problems, since the cables effectively keep their signals contained within
the wire itself. But how do you know where the waves emanating from your wireless
device are going..."
 This article on the design and use of
antennas for television and FM radio was printed in a 1948 issue of Radio-Craft
magazine. Equations and charts are provided for calculating element lengths for
half-wave antennas, including directors and reflectors. Many types of antennas -
dipole, stacked dipole, folded dipole, conical, adjustable "V," cross-element -
are discussed regarding siting issues (location and height above the ground), and
radiation patterns. It is a pretty good primer for someone new to antennas, and
makes a great supplement to the data furnished in study guides for obtaining a Ham
radio license...
 Mixing a little fun with learning has always
been a good motivation for students. I have written in the past about a particular
electronic circuits professor I had that liked to play practical jokes during lessons
and exams. Including gag options on a multiple choice test is a great way to inject
a bit of tension-easing levity while at the same time eliminating one or more opportunities
to guess at a wrong answer (although no relief for the truly clueless). I sometimes
do that on the RF Cafe Quizzes that I generate. Radio-Craft printed a large
bunch of such quiz questions under the title "Radio
WittiQuiz," where the questions and answers were provided by readers. Here
is one from November 1937...
 Always wanting to have a
pendulum-driven clock
with a good old-fashioned mechanical escapement movement, I resorted to eBay to
find what I wanted. I'm sure there is a local clock store somewhere around here
that would sell me a clock, but I figured a better deal might be had bidding against
somebody online than trying to talk a shop owner down in price. Besides, I was really
looking for a clock that I could strip down and refinish without worrying about
reducing any collector value that it might have. There is a video of it in action
at the bottom of the page. After a couple weeks of watching the auctions, I settled
on two clocks - one that can sit on a mantel or hang on the wall, and another -
the one shown here - that is purely a wall-mounted regulator type. This clock was
made in China in 1899, according to a paper that was glued to the back plate. Since
this type of clock typically has no real value (they were all cheap imports for
working-class people), I performed the stripping and refinishing without...
 This assortment of custom-designed themes
by RF Cafe includes T-Shirts, Mouse Pads, Clocks, Tote Bags, Coffee Mugs and Steins,
Purses, Sweatshirts, Baseball Caps, and more, all sporting my amazingly clever "RF Engineers - We Are the World's Matchmakers"
Smith chart design. These would make excellent gifts for husbands, wives, kids,
significant others, and for handing out at company events or as rewards for excellent
service. My graphic has been ripped off by other people and used on their products,
so please be sure to purchase only official RF Cafe gear. I only make a couple bucks
on each sale - the rest goes to Cafe Press. It's a great way to help support RF
Cafe. Thanks...
 Banner Ads are rotated in all locations
on the page! RF Cafe typically receives 8,000-15,000 visits each
weekday. RF Cafe
is a favorite of engineers, technicians, hobbyists, and students all over the world.
With more than 17,000 pages in the Google search index, RF Cafe returns in
favorable positions on many types of key searches, both for text and images.
Your Banner Ads are displayed on average 225,000 times per year! New content
is added on a daily basis, which keeps the major search engines interested enough
to spider it multiple times each day. Items added on the homepage often can be found
in a Google search within a few hours of being posted. If you need your company
news to be seen, RF Cafe is the place to be...
 This full-page advertisement by
CBS
Tubes caught my eye because of the vast array of vacuum tube shapes and sizes.
Most people, even back in the era of tube-based electronic equipment, think of the
standard 12AX7 type rounded top, cylindrical glass package with a plastic or phenolic
base and some metal pins sticking out of the bottom. Television and radio sets were
full of them, and those are what you or your parents or grandparents would yank
from the chassis and take to the local drug store or electronics shop to plug into
the big tube tester that was commonplace back then. However, as this photo shows
there was a great variety of special glass and inner electrode configurations. If
you have ever attended the MTTS (IMS) show, you might have seen the equipment display
provided by the National Electronics Museum ...
 When up in a small airplane or helicopter,
I have never had any sense of fear of heights, but when at the top edge of a really
tall building or at the precipice of a high cliff, the need to control the panic
sensation is required. It is not strong enough to prevent me from going there, but
I'm definitely not one of those fearless types that will go anywhere with reckless
abandon. Even seeing a photo like this one on the IEEE Spectrum website invokes
the fight or flight emotion. You need to click on the thumbnail to see the larger
version to really get a sense of the height at which the technicians are working.
The story is about China's
Changji-Guquan ultrahigh-voltage direct-current transmission link along the
Yangtze River, in Anhui province. Arguments abound over whether DC or AC is better
overall for electrical distribution, but the main reason for this DC line is to
accommodate energy storage at locations throughout the country...
 OK, class, put your books away and take out
a pencil. Spread your chairs out because we're going to have a short test today.
A collective sigh permeates the room. Remember those days? I still have nightmares
over those moments, and they were decades ago for me. At least this "Electronic
Noise Quiz" from the August 1962 edition of Popular Electronics
won't affect your GPA. Sometimes PE's quiz illustrations are kind of hard to
interpret, but this one does a pretty good job (except item 'E', but I'm not
telling what it is since nobody helped me). You will need a fairly diverse
background in consumer type electronics to do well, and having a few gray hairs
will probably help as well. Good luck. BTW, my score was a somewhat embarrassing
80%... |
