I heard a piece on the radio this
morning about
China copying designs of American companies having hardware built
there using stolen molds and technology, then selling knock-off versions on Taobao, Alibaba, etc. Here is an interesting Forbes article on
Chinese cybertheft: "Something interesting and potentially alarming has been
surfacing in my conversations with manufacturers recently. Drawn to China by
cost savings for years, many leaders are beginning to rethink their presence not
because of rising tariffs or as part of efforts to reshore - legitimate factors
themselves, of course - but due to cybersecurity concerns. Manufacturers must be diligent to track risk and take meaningful
action to protect themselves..."
Crystalonics is not a name that immediately
comes to mind when thinking about semiconductor manufacturers. They appear in this
1969 article in Electronics World magazine about
power field effect transistors (FETs). Many semiconductor companies came and
went in the last days of vacuum tube active devices, but Crystalonics - good for
them - was not one of them. Surprisingly, a Google search revealed that Crystalonics
was alive and well in Ronkonkoma, New York, until sometime after August of 2024.
Their website is now defunct. From their About Us page: Formed in 1958, CRYSTALONICS
is a broad line semiconductor manufacturer of Small Signal...
Exodus Advanced Communications, is a multinational
RF communication equipment and engineering service company serving both commercial
and government entities and their affiliates worldwide. We are pleased to announce
the model
AMP2121-LC, a high-power RF amplifier system covering 80 to 1000 MHz. It
produces 2000 W minimum output, with >1750 W P1db, and has excellent
band flatness with a minimum power gain of 63 dB. Included are amplifier monitoring
parameters for forward/reflected power in dBm & watts, VSWR, as well as voltage,
current and temperature sensing on a large color touchscreen for optimum reliability
and ruggedness, with unprecedented performance in a single cabinet...
Here are a couple
tech-themed comics that appeared in the October 1969 issue of Electronics
World magazine. The one I like best has two guys applying for a patent on their
computers. Note the size difference. It portended the future of microcircuits. Of
course the mother-in-law comics are always funny and were common back in the day.
This one literally superimposed the hi-fi fad of the era with the mother-in-law
jab. There is a huge list at the bottom of the page of links to other comics I have
posted over the years. BTW, people have asked why I separate the text from the image.
The answer is simple: If someone finds the image using an image search, he/she has
to actually visit the webpage to get the punch line. Does that make me a bad person?
A few notable events were reported in the
February 1962 "News
Briefs" column of Radio-Electronics magazine. Oddly, there were no
photos or drawings accompanying them. The biggest news, at least to Ham radio enthusiasts,
was the launching and operational status of the first OSCAR radio relay satellite.
The first reported reception of the ham satellite signals, broadcasting the Morse
code symbols for HI (equivalent to today's LOL in texting) at 145.0 MHz, came
from a Navy amateur operator stationed at Marie Byrd Land in Antarctica. In other
news, a proposed "Lighthouses in Sky" seems to be the early workings...
The NavStar Global Positioning System (GPS)
is a marvel of modern engineering, a satellite-based navigation system that provides
precise location and time information across the globe. The concept traces its origins
to the Cold War, with the first inklings appearing in the 1950s as scientists began
to experiment with satellite technology for tracking purposes. GPS as we know it
was proposed in the 1960s and achieved full operational capacity in the early 1990s,
though advancements continue to refine its accuracy and functionality. Bradford
Parkinson, often called the "father of GPS," led the initial deployment phase under
the U.S. Air Force...
December 30 was the date whereon in the
year 1953, the first commercially available
color television set - the Admiral C1617A - went on sale. Mac McGregor and his
repair shop technician, Barney, had been servicing color TVs since at least February
1955 as printed in a Radio & Television News magazine story titled,
"Barney Takes on Color." This particular edition laments the increasing cost of
servicing color television sets as they get increasingly complex. Mac and Barney
agree that one of the reasons for service cost is having to work with the newfangled
printed circuit boards. Those early PCBs...
Mr. Cabe Atwell has a piece entitled, "11
Lesser-Known Engineers Who Made Great Achievements," on the Electronic Design
website. It is in the format of a slideshow. Having for many years (decades, actually)
written about and posted stories from vintage magazine about the engineering, mathematics,
and science "Greats," I am already very familiar with many of them. Names like Charles
Babbage, Gottlieb Daimler, Lee de Forest, Jack Kilby, and Oliver Heaviside, fit
that category. You probably know then as well. Burt Rutan, I know from my interest
in aerospace aviation. The unfamiliar names are Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Fazlur
Rahman Khan, Nikolaus Otto, Tommy Flowers, and Sarah Tabitha Babbitt (no relation
to the mathematician).
Occam's Razor, sometimes spelled Ockham's
Razor, is a philosophical and methodological principle often paraphrased as "the
simplest solution is usually the correct one." Originating in the 14th century,
this concept is associated with the Franciscan friar and philosopher William of
Ockham, who is recognized for his contributions to logic, theology, and philosophy.
The term "Occam's Razor" stems from Ockham's approach to problem-solving, emphasizing
simplicity and economy in reasoning. Though Ockham did not coin the term "Occam's
Razor" himself, his ideas on simplicity became so foundational that later philosophers
named the principle in his honor. The word "razor" metaphorically reflects the act
of "shaving away" unnecessary assumptions, leaving behind only the essential components
of an explanation. The principle suggests that when confronted with competing explanations
or...
Amplifier Solutions Corporation (ASC) is
a manufacturer of amplifiers for commercial & military markets. ASC designs
and manufactures hybrid, surface mount flange, open carrier and connectorized amplifiers
for low, medium and high power applications using Gallium Nitride (GaN), Gallium
Arsenide (GaAs) and Silicon (Si) transistor technologies. ASC's thick film designs
operate in the frequency range of 300 kHz to 6 GHz. ASC offers thin film
designs that operate up to 20 GHz. ASC is located in an 8,000 sq.ft. facility
in the town of Telford, PA. We offer excellent customer support and take pride in
the ability to quickly react to evolving system design requirements.
Part of the reason there are not as many
(as a percentage) of us do-it-yourselfers and fix-it-yourselfers these days as there
was at the time this Radio-Electronics magazine hit the news stands in
1961, it that a diminishingly small amount of products are repairable by someone
without special tools and/or special knowledge. Some would say the reason for a
majority of products that cannot be serviced is because of the diminishing number
of people having any interest in building or fixing stuff. A similar argument is
made about clothing, prepared food, and other common items. Part of the explanation
is the availability of cheap products made by cheap overseas labor. For whatever
the reason, electronics service shops are quite rare these days.
Howard Sams saw...
After spending four years as a USAF radar
technician, I do not recall ever hearing the term "radician,"
which, according to this article and a few obscure sources on the Internet, is the
name given to a radar technician. OK, so I'm a former radician, but I digress. The
DEW Line, or Distant Early Warning Line, was a string of radar installations running
across the U.S., Canada, and Greenland, just above the Arctic Circle (66½° latitude)
and just south of the 70th parallel. It was established to protect against potential
attacks and/or surveillance by aircraft and/or missiles from the U.S.S.R. (remember
them?). Although the radar...
LoRa (Long Range) is a wireless communication
technology specifically designed for long-range, low-power, and low-bandwidth data
transmission, making it ideal for applications in the Internet of Things (IoT).
Developed by Semtech, LoRa has become a cornerstone of Low-Power Wide-Area Networks
(LPWANs), addressing the unique demands of IoT devices that require extended battery
life and reliable communication over long distances. Unlike other wireless standards
such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, LoRa prioritizes distance and energy efficiency, enabling
devices to transmit small amounts of data across several kilometers with minimal
power consumption. The development of LoRa traces back to the early 2010s, when
a French startup called Cycleo developed a proprietary modulation scheme known as
Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS). Semtech acquired...
• FCC
Seeks Comments on Proposed Rules for 3.55-3.7 GHz Band
• Ofcom
Likely to License Kuiper
• Ford
Scraps All-Electric SUV Plan
• Radar
Detector Pioneer Michael Valentine, W8MM, Silent Key
•
FCC's AI Political Ad Regulations Opposed
Printed circuit boards (PCBs), especially
high density and many layered, were still a relatively new technology in 1969 when
this "Printed-Circuit
Kits for Short Runs" article appeared in Electronics World magazine.
Point-to-point wiring was still a large part of most products in the commercial,
military, industrial, and aerospace worlds. Producing artwork and contracting for
a lot of PCBs was rather expensive, especially in small quantities. Many people,
including me, made quite a few single- and two-sided boards using photoresist pens
and self-adhesive tape and pads, then bathing them in an etchant solution of ferric...
According to Radio-Electronics
magazine editor Hugo Gernsback, some concern was mounting in the electronics service
industry that due to the rapid advancement of microelectronics - in particular what
would eventually be termed "integrated circuits" - the present day (1962) type of
service technician might no longer be required. Postulated Mr. Gernsback,
"When molecular electronics is mass-produced - which will be soon - it is safe to
assume that, since there are neither mechanically fashioned nor soldered connections
between individual components, and since the total array of the components is so
minute, it will theoretically last for generations." His vision was that of what
we have for the most part today - throw-away electronic products...
I have always considered IEEE's Spectrum
magazine to be one of the best, and most unbiased electrical engineering magazines
being published. Whereas many (maybe most) bend the knee to woke social and pseudoscience
trends, Spectrum consistently presents solid, objective facts most of the
time. I post links to many of their articles. "This Engineer Became a Star in Technology
Publishing: How Donald Christiansen
Reinvented IEEE Spectrum magazine," was just posted on the IEEE website. It is a
fitting tribute to the man who set the standard for what the magazine has become.
Mr. Christiansen passed away on October 2, 2024, at age 97. RIP.
"Near-field measurements are widely recognized
as a highly accurate and versatile technique for testing antennas. The theory behind
these measurements has been known for many decades. In the 1960s, Scientific Atlanta
marketed planar near-field systems where the Fourier transform operation was performed
via operational amplifier circuits. In the 1980s, spherical near-field measurements
were introduced. Today, there are hundreds of near-field antenna test facilities
installed across the globe, attesting to the method's proven effectiveness and significance.
The acceptance of these methods and techniques was the driver behind the creation
of the IEEE Standard 1720, "Recommended
Practice for Near-Field Antenna Measurements..."
There are not too many honest-to-goodness
electronics repair shops around anymore - those where the proprietor uses multimeters,
oscilloscopes, and signal generators to troubleshoot and align equipment. In fact,
I would guess that most such shops do most of their business based on customers
who find their services as the result of a Google search. You can find lots of cool
videos of technicians demonstrating (and showing off) their collection of test equipment
and solder rework stations - mostly for fixing vintage audio and video gear. Nowadays
the smartphone screen replacement dude working from a kiosk in the shopping mall
is considered an electronics repairman, which is not...
WiLo, a hybrid wireless communications protocol
combining Wi-Fi and Long Range (LoRa) technology, is designed to leverage the strengths
of both systems to provide versatile and energy-efficient connectivity. WiLo emerged
to address the growing demand for a communications standard that could handle both
short-range, high-bandwidth tasks as well as long-range, low-power requirements
- ideal for IoT applications. It integrates the high-speed data transmission capabilities
of Wi-Fi with the long-range, low-power benefits of LoRa, creating a flexible protocol
capable of adapting to a wide range of environments and use cases. The development
of WiLo was a collaborative effort involving multiple organizations, including key...
Veterans of the RF communications realm
are well aware of the detrimental effects of not properly impedance matching all
components in a transmit-receive chain. The most common impedance used is 50 Ω
pure resistive (50+j0 Ω) in nature, and when the input and output impedances
are all at that value, power is transmitted without reflection (100% efficient).
Except for optimal power transmission purposes (other impedances optimize values
other than power), any impedance can be used, including those with imaginary parts
(capacitive or inductive). In that case, the requirement for no reflection is that
the load of each stage in the chain be the complex conjugate of the source (i.e.,
if Zsource = R0 + j0 Ω, then Zload = R0 - j0 Ω). This
short feature in a 1966 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine reviews the matter.
Sam Benzacar, of Anatech Electronics, an
RF and microwave filter company, has published his October 2024 newsletter that,
along with timely news items, features his short op-ed entitled "WiLo
Combines the Best of Wi-Fi and LoRa." His opening statement asserting that WiLo
is so new that there is not even a Wikipedia entry for it yet of course caused me
to immediately verify the veracity of the claim. In fact, there is an entry for
WiLo, but it is not the long new range wireless standard; it is about a company
named Wilo, a European manufacturer of pumps and pump systems for the building technology,
water and industrial sectors. The "WiLo" Sam writes of is a long range wireless
connectivity scheme which combines features of Wi-Fi and LoRA. I took the liberty
of generating an AI-generated description of the WiLo communications...
Well, another workweek is underway again
and there's nothing you can do about it. Hunker down for another 40 hours (or more
if you are fortunate enough to be salaried and not have to be paid for overtime)
and prepare to battle the forces that seem to work against you be they electronic
or human. Hopefully, things aren't all that bad, but the potential is always there.
It's commonly known as Murphy's Law: "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong." It
is said that laughter is the best medicine, some here is a low level inoculation
against what might be in store for the week. These electronics-themed comics appeared
in a 1963 issue...
"everything RF recently interviewed
Jonny Hawkins who is the Vice President at LadyBug Technologies. Jonny holds
a B.S. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Arizona,
graduating in 2016. Prior to joining Ladybug Technologies, Jonny gained valuable
experience in semiconductor manufacturing and testing at Micron Technologies. His
background in this field provided him with valuable insights and skills that he
brought to Ladybug Technologies. Ladybug Technologies is dedicated to developing
First Tier NMI traceable power measurement solutions, with a focus on innovation
and precision. Q: Can you give us a brief history of Ladybug Technologies? Jonny
Hawkins: Our company was founded in 2004 by two RF & microwave engineers with
extensive development..."
This
nomogram (aka nomograph) provides a simple method for determining the coupling
coefficient (ke) of air core transformers for RF circuits where the operational
wavelength is much longer than the physical length of the transformer. Modern circuit
simulators can calculate such quantities at the blink of an eye, but in 1969 there
was no simple method for doing it. In fact, a lot of design work back in the day
was done using nomograms because given all the impreciseness of circuit layout and
component tolerances, there were enough tunable elements provided to tweak for optimal
performance. Unlike today where the use of sophisticated (and expensive) software
can practically assure first-pass success with circuits into the realm of tens of
GHz, multiple design iterations used to be the norm. As an electronics technician
before earning my BSEE, I built and modified many circuits for the engineers I worked
with before they went into production. We've come a long way, baby.
Three more "What's
Your EQ?" challenges were presented in the March 1962 issue of Radio Electronics
magazine. Two were submitted by readers, and one was provided by columnist Jack
Darr. I've said before that I believe Jack is used as a fill-in when not enough
readers provide good content. Jack's circuits always pertain to television, since
that is his column's main topic. The other two should be within the ability of most
RF Cafe visitors to figure out. As I have pointed out in the past, the first thing
to do when a series-parallel circuit is given is to determine whether it can be
redrawn in a manner that results in a more recognizable configuration - like a bridge
or something with symmetry - and rearranging component positions...
"Researchers in Australia and Japan have
developed a signal mixer that enhances the capacity of terahertz communications.
The mixer, called a
polarization multiplexer, merges two polarized signals of the same frequency
into a single beam and operates at frequencies being explored for future 6G networks.
The all-silicon integrated device uses novel features that deal with some of the
challenges of communicating in the terahertz (THz) spectrum, such as limited power
and transmission range. The researchers report transmitting aggregated data rates..."
If you do a search on solid state inductors,
you will not find much with a date later than the time when this article appeared
in Electronics World magazine in 1969. It appears a patent was issued in
1965, but the concept seems to never have caught on. The theory and construction
is simple enough according to the information here. Fundamentally, it involves exploiting
the properties of a Hall device when loaded with capacitive or inductive loads to
effect inductive or capacitive properties, respectively. The ability to integrate
capacitive elements into solid state substrates means the current and voltage phase
relationship of an inductor can be obtained in an IC without a physical inductive
element. Evidently practical implementation of
inductors on the die with values greater than a few nanohenries was difficult.
Another option at lower frequencies is to use the gyrator circuit configuration
that employs opamps...
John Battiscombe Gunn, widely known as J.B.
Gunn, was a British physicist and electrical engineer whose groundbreaking research
in semiconductors led to the discovery of the Gunn effect and the invention of the
Gunn diode, a pivotal device in microwave technology. Born in 1928 in Croydon, England,
Gunn spent his early childhood in a modest but intellectually nurturing household.
His father, a civil servant, and his mother, a schoolteacher, both encouraged his
academic curiosity. Although his family was not wealthy, education was highly valued,
and the atmosphere in his home was one of learning and discipline. He grew up alongside
two siblings, both of whom went on to pursue academic careers of their own. As a
child, Gunn showed a marked interest in science, especially...
The
19th Annual ARRL Online
Auction sponsored by RT Systems Inc. opened on Friday, October 18, at 10 AM
EDT. The auction continues through Thursday, October 24. This year's auction features
over 200 items and includes ARRL Product Review equipment, vintage books, new donations,
ARRL Lab tested donations, and the ever-popular ARRL Lab "Mystery" boxes. Visit
the auction website, register to bid, and check out details on the items available
so you'll be ready to place a bid on your favorites. Plus, keep an eye on the ARRL
Facebook page and Instagram for featured products and auction highlights throughout
the event...
Prior to the advent in 1963 of high frequency
solid state devices like
Gunn diodes, working at or above a couple GHz - even at low power - required
the use of cavity oscillators such as klystrons and magnetrons. They were bulky,
expensive, and electrically very inefficient. This 1969 Electronics World
magazine article outlines the theory of bulk oscillators as developed by Dr. John
A. Copeland, of Bell Labs, and points out the peculiarities of the LSA (limited
space-charge accumulation) mode that makes it possible to obtain 20 milliwatts
of power at 88 GHz. Use of gallium arsenide (GaAs) enabled designers to construct
receiver circuits into the mm-wave region without the need for klystrons, thereby
reducing cost, size, and power requirements...
"Researchers have engineered a pioneering
material that harnesses unique spin-related properties by
twisting layers of graphene and tungsten selenide. This innovative technique
in the field of spintronics could revolutionize the development of advanced electronic
devices, enhancing the integration of magnetic memories into processors and overcoming
current limitations in handling spin currents. In conjunction with research staff
from the Charles University of Prague and the CFM (CSIC-UPV/EHU) center in San Sebastian,
CIC nanoGUNE's Nanodevices group has designed a new complex material..."
The
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) traces its origins
to the late 19th century with the establishment of the American Institute of Electrical
Engineers (AIEE) in 1884, a time when the United States was rapidly industrializing,
and electricity was emerging as a transformative technology. The AIEE was founded
by some of the most notable figures in electrical science and engineering, including
Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and others, as a professional organization
dedicated to advancing electrical engineering and promoting the exchange of technical
knowledge. The AIEE focused on the burgeoning fields of telegraphy, electric power...
(be sure to read about the
IEEE logo's meaning)
LadyBug Technologies' new
LBSF09A is a true RMS, high sensitivity, high accuracy RF & microwave power
sensor has frequency coverage from 1 MHz to 9 GHz and an 83 dB dynamic
range making ideal for EMC applications, general purpose average power and scalar
measurements. The sensor features a fast measurement speed, a broad dynamic range,
and the widest set of options for programmatic and embedded applications in the
industry. The sensor is useful in research & development, manufacturing &
service applications including radar, satellite, and telecommunications. LadyBug's
PMA-12 Power Meter Software is included with each sensor. The software provides
full control of the sensor's functions from basic setup to triggering, logging,
offset tables, and more. The software package also includes an Interactive IO program
with...
The newest addition to RF Cafe's spreadsheet
(Excel) 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. All of the original calculators from years ago are included, but with
a vastly expanded and improved user interface. Error-trapped user input cells help
prevent entry of invalid values. An extensive use of Visual Basic for Applications
(VBA) functions now do most of the heavy lifting with calculations, and facilitates
a wide user-selectable choice of units for voltage, frequency, speed, temperature,
power...
|
The July 1966 issue of Popular Electronics
began a series of
anecdotal instances of stupid and/or funny remarks made by people
about electronics. Some are supposedly by those who are in the trade and should
know better. I have to take issue with and question the veracity of one instance
in this first sequel, which claims a technician coming out of military service are
apt to make statements such as fuses being bad because they are "shorted." It must
have been submitted by an anti-military hippie of the era, because there's no way
anything other than a vanishingly small minority of techs who have spent two to
four years or more years servicing real electronic equipment would say ...
Robert Gary waxes philosophical on the subject
of ground in his Electronics World article, "'Grounds' for Confusion." He is justified from the viewpoint of
someone attempting to make sense of how something as seemingly fundamental as Earth
ground is not a constant. The layman probably doesn't care. Practitioners in the
electrical and electronics realms who deal only with low frequencies and short distances
might occasionally be affected by differences in ground potentials, although they
might not realize it is the cause of their problems. Those with more than a casual
involvement (designers, installers, and maintainers as opposed to only users) in
high frequencies and/or long distance signal interconnections are likely to be intimately
familiar with the effects of ground potential differences. RF Cafe visitors are
undoubtedly members of the latter group...
When I first read the title for this article,
"A Look at the PC Market," I was thinking personal computers, not
printed circuits. It being from a 1972 issue of Popular Electronics, my assumption
was that the photos of circuit boards were from early kit format computers, but
then it finally dawned on me that there were no personal computers in 1972 - not
even in kit form. Actually, that is not entirely true since there were advertisements
for hokey contraptions called "computers" that combined some switches, logic gates,
and LEDs for implementing simple multiple choice true/false testing boxes or rudimentary
(with emphasis on "rud[e]") calculators. Getting to the real story, though, the
1970s was the decade where printed circuit boards (PCBs) were replacing point-to-point
wiring wherever possible. If you opened a radio or television...
A news story with a title about a boat and reverse
current is more likely to be referring to water flow in a river or stream than about
electrical current in a conductor. Having grown up in a neighborhood next to a tributary
of the Chesapeake Bay, I spent quite a bit of time around boats, both large and small.
Salt water is particularly destructive to metal hulls due to
cathodic corrosion, exacerbated by the salt water's conductivity. While working as
an electrician in the 1970s, I installed electrical supplies for a few dockside cathodic
protection system that probably functioned like the one described in this 1965 issue
of Popular Electronics magazine. The principle is fairly simple whereby
anodes are placed in the water around the hull and a counter-current is
induced...
J.K. Bach (not Johann S.) was amazingly prescient
in 1944 with the specific types of RF-based devices that would come to be common
place in our modern world. Dig this: "Radar can even be applied to the home, as
a burglar-alarm, for example, or to detect obstructions on the cellar steps. Electronic
devices will find many other uses as high-frequency paint-dryers, veneer-gluers,
and even cordless permanent-waving machines for the ladies. Garage-door openers
and other remote-control devices are not only possible but practical. Then there
are certain to be other applications such as personal pedestrian telephones, two-way
wrist-radios and nursery baby-cry announcing systems." Nostradamus' divination record
might not even be that good. His tongue-in-cheek thesis of
ubiquitous RF interference due to the presence of Ham radio
operators...
When the caption for a photograph in a 1931
article refers to an "antiquated" motor, you can be sure you're looking at a really
old motor. Indeed it does look very old. Whenever I see vintage photos or films
of electrical / electronic apparati [sic] and operators, I always
look for
safety issues like no eye protection while soldering or when using powered tools
to fabricate enclosures, lack of protective shields around electrical connections
and mechanical drive mechanisms, wearing of inappropriate clothing near rotating
machinery, etc. In this case you can see a very long, totally exposed drive belt
running between that aforementioned antiquated motor and DC generator that it drives
(to power the transmitter). The author mentions how the floor shook while it was
running...
"It is hard for one to believe that
there is room for
further reduction in size and weight from what we are accustomed to today."
So wrote Radio & TV News magazine editor William Stocklin in
1958. It was a decade after invention of the transistor (1948), and the first
integrated circuit had not yet been developed (Robert Noyce, 1959), but even
so it seems fairly short-sighted for a major electronics magazine editor.
While being amazed at the shirt-pocket-size transistorized radio and hearing
aid, he still found hope for the future of miniaturization of vacuum tubes,
such as diodes recently released by General Electric that would "fit into
the shell of a standard type of transistor." Sure, it is easy in hindsight
to pick on someone's contemporaneous view of an emerging industry...
This news tidbit appeared in a 1953 issue
of Radio-Electronics along with an editorial by Hugo Gernsback titled "Transistor
Transition." RCA had just developed its first
fully solid state - except for the cathode ray tube (CRT) - television.
Note that at the time the CRT was still often referred to as a kinescope. In fact,
the word "kinescope" was coined and trademarked by RCA, so they had a vested interest
in perpetuating its usage. Jerry Herzog, shown in the photo, was one of the engineers
responsible for the design and construction of the television...
Betatron particle accelerators date back
to 1935 with the one built by Max Steenbeck in Germany. The name is a portmanteau
of "beta" + "electron," which is sort of a superfluous redundancy. This news piece
is about the world's biggest betatron having been built, with dimensions of 9 feet
high, 6 feet wide and 15 feet long, and 24,000 volt energizing coils. Strangely
(it seems to me), the article interchanges the terms "xxx-volt electrons" and "xxx
electron-volts. I suppose its fundamentally the same thing, but just unusual to
see it that way. Note the robustness of the machine as required to rigidly contain
such powerful magnetic forces...
After discussing the technical benefits of
single-sideband (SSB) amplitude modulated (AM) commercial transmission versus
double-sideband + carrier standard AM, author Jack Brown concludes with a chart
plotting the relative cost of each method versus output power. The result: Transmitters
with less than 100 watts output the initial equipment cost of a single-sideband
transmitter is greater than its standard AM counterpart. My guess is that with today's
equipment the chart would look a lot different, and there may be no dollar cost
benefit either way from a hardware perspective. The benefit of SSB of course is
in spectrum efficiency and, especially for very high powers, operational cost savings
on electricity bills. Even so, commercial AM broadcast radio stations in the U.S.
still transmit using ...
The
RCA Victor Model C9-4 is a 9-tube, 3-band superheterodyne console
model radio made in the mid 1930s. A Radio Service Data Sheet for it appeared in
the January 1936 issue of Radio-Craft magazine. The image of the radio
was found on the RadioMuseum.org website. FM broadcasting was not in common use
yet, so only AM bands and some shortwave bands were available. In fact, 1936 was
the year that frequency modulation (FM) inventor Edwin H. Armstrong first
demonstrated his newfangled concept that largely solved the electrical static
noise problem cause by lightning, motor brushes, arcing overhead power lines...
This
RF Engineering Theme crossword puzzle for January 31st contains
only words and clues related to engineering, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and
other technical words. 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., Hedy Lamarr or the
Bikini Atoll). The technically inclined cruciverbalists amongst us will appreciate
the effort. You will need to print out a hard copy. Enjoy!
"Morale
Radio" sets were manufactured by many companies and provided to service men
for entertainment and hearing news from back home and around the world. Unsubstantiated
sources claim American companies were paid cost + 15% for each set. Other countries
made similar "Morale Radios" for their troops, or procured sets from elsewhere and
made necessary modifications to suit their format. Not a whole lot of information
can be found about them on the WWW, and finding a photo of one of the German Wehrmacht
radios with the Swastika and eagle on it is darned near impossible, other than the
one shown in this 1945 Radio-Craft magazine article. Part of the reason for the
scarcity is the German people's desire to destroy as much of the Nazi (National
Socialist German Workers' Party) history as possible both to put the horrible era
behind them...
This August 1962 installment of "Mac's
Electronics Service" entitled "Openers, Anyone?" discussed remote garage door
openers that were getting popular in the day. As usual there is a valuable lesson
taught in the story, but what really stands out in this case is how the diodes in
the schematic have a "+" sign shown on the cathode. Surely it was a printer's mistake
since even though that was the era when great debates were taking place over whether
electrical current flowed from positive to negative or vice-versa, there was no
argument over whether the more negative voltage needed to be connected to the cathode
(vacuum tube or semiconductor) in order for current to flow. The header image accompanying
John Frye's "Mac's Service Shop" technodramas underwent half a dozen or so versions
throughout its multi-decade run. It is the first I recall seeing this particular
version. The title of the series also evolved over time to reflect the era...
This might be the first (and only) appearance
of Carl's father, at least in a drawing. In this episode, John T. Frye's high-tech
teen duo Carl and Jerry design and build a "polecat detector." In the process, a
little drama is thrown in when a stander-by mistakenly believes he is being insulted.
Even if, in spite of the detailed description by Jerry, you don't learn how a photocell-based
threshold crossing circuit works, you might just learn the meaning of 'lugubriously.'
Mr. Frye always worked valuable technical information into his stories about
"Carl & Jerry," "Mac's Service Shop," and other regular features which appeared
in electronics magazines for decades.
This is a story of
G.I. Joe, the Army radioman. It is actually a form of recruitment pitch looking
to lure experienced radio operators and technicians into the military. At a time
when America was finally beginning to pull itself out of the worst of The Great
Depression, the promises of steady work, worldwide travel, training, a chance to
work with modern equipment, three meals a day, a place to sleep and clothes on your
back - and a paycheck to boot - was very appealing. The Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor which finally drew us formally into World War II was still nearly a
year away. War efforts would ultimately provide hundreds of thousands of jobs for
both military and civilian workers. Author 1st Lt. Charles Chapel does a pretty
good job of laying out the skills requirements and tasks that go along with the
position of an U.S. Signal Corps Radioman, including both wired and wireless systems.
The clincher, though, is a promise of a tidy retirement check from Uncle Sam after
30 years of service - more than $100 per month for life...
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...
On-demand television is a concept that has
existed about since the time commercial broadcast TV first came on the scene. Known
as "Boxoffice
Television," it used a "Picture-caster" to scramble the picture so that a subscriber
needed a rented descrambler in order to view the program. A rented key (physical,
not digital) was used to turn the box on and off. The signal went out over a standard
local broadcast tower or even over coaxial line. Channels 2 through 13 were it for
the day. This particular article appeared in Radio & Television News
magazine in 1953. Also, "Will You Pay for TV?," in a 1957 Radio & Popular Electronics
and "Stop Pay TV!," in a 1958 Radio-Electronics...
For two decades, I have been creating custom
engineering- and science-themed crossword puzzles for the brain-exercising benefit
and pleasure of RF Cafe visitors who are fellow cruciverbalists. The jury is out
on whether or not this type of mental challenge helps keep your gray matter from
atrophying in old age, but it certainly helps maintain your vocabulary and cognitive
skills at all ages. This September 29, 2019, puzzle uses a database of thousands
of words which I have built up over the years and contains only clues and terms
associated with engineering, science, physical, astronomy, mathematics, chemistry,
etc. You will never find a word taxing your knowledge of a numbnut soap opera star
or the name of some obscure ...
Here is a good, brief introduction to
harmonic and intermodulation distortion measurement methods that were
commonly used in the 1960s. Total harmonic distortion (THD) was used often,
especially for audio equipment, which of course most frequency conversion
circuits ultimately were in the era since digital data transmission over the air
was not too common. Author Charles Moore worked for Hewlett-Packard (HP) and
references HP Application Note 15, "Distortion and Intermodulation" which,
thankfully, is made available by Hewlett-Packard / Agilent / Keysight on their
website. In fact, a complete list of all the vintage app notes are available on
this page by downloading the Excel file. I highly recommend that you download
and save all you think...
Here for your enjoyment are a few more
tech-themed comics from a vintage Radio-Electronics magazine.
Television antenna installations and stereophonic audio systems were a big deal
back in the day, so lots of comics were centered on the themes. Everything was new
and mystical, and ownership of a top-end TV or stereo was a real sign of influence
and/or savvy. The comic from page 96 is actually an advertisement for Jensen phonograph
needles, which of course were key components to the aforementioned stereo systems.
Lost on Millennials (not their fault) and later is probably the allusion to how
the bedraggled couple needing to resort to a Flintstones-style (also likely unfamiliar
to Millennials) record player...
If it has been a while since you read a story
with terms and phrases like "splinters
of galena," "the day of the tuning coil that stretched from the front bedroom
to the back library; or from the attic to the cellar," and "Ether God," then this
article from the December 1931 edition of QST is for you. Galena, by the
way, is a semiconductor with a bandgap of about 0.4 eV that was used as the
crystal in crystal radio sets. It was used as a point-contact diode along with a
safety pin or similar sharp wire, commonly known as a "cat's whisker." In fact,
the very first transistor developed by Drs. Bardeen, Shockley, and Brattain
used two cat's whisker type contacts on their crystals of germanium ...
This Radio-Craft magazine article
starts out stating, "A skilled mathematician with a desk calculator requires four
years to do what the
IBM Calculator does in eight hours." That was in 1948. Just last
month a headline read, "Given the task of finding a pattern in a seemingly random
series of numbers, Google's quantum computer produced an answer in 3 minutes and
20 seconds. It estimates that the Summit supercomputer here at the Oak Ridge National
Laboratory in Tennessee would take 10,000 years to complete the task. The IBM 12,000
vacuum tube computer performed its calculation for an improvement factor of [(3 yr
• 8760 hr/yr) + (1 yr • 8784 hr/yr)] ÷ 8 hr = 4383 (4.383
thousand). The Google quantum computer performed its calculation for an improvement
factor of (10,000 yr • 31557600 s/yr) ÷ 200 s = 3.15776E11 s ÷ 200 s =
1.57788E9 (1.57788 billion -- or milliard)...
This news bit from a 1951 issue of Radio-Electronics
magazine reports on the FCC's declaration of illegality the practice by some FM
broadcasting stations of providing a means for
blanking out commercials and station identification to entities willing to pay
for the special receivers and pay for a subscription. Nobody I have ever known looks
forward to enduring commercials on television or radio (or Internet these days).
The only way most of us could listen to music without interruption was to by a record,
tape, or CD. VHS tapes and DVDs provide some relief from commercials, although even
though you pay for them there are typically promotions for other movies at the beginning.
Commercials on radio and television (and now the Internet) have consumed a larger
part of each hour of programming with each passing year. The DVD collections we
have of 1960s and 1970s Prime Time TV shows average run times of about 54-55 minutes...
"War is hell," as famously stated in various
forms by notable generals. This advertisement by
Bell Telephone System appearing in the May 29, 1943, issue of The Saturday
Evening Post magazine bears witness to one aspect of it. Per the piece, "Wire
repair crews are made up of four men. Three stand guard while the other works."
While U.S. Marine Corpsmen and civilian technicians were installing and maintaining
telephone communications in war-torn regions in the European, African, and Pacific
Theaters of Operation, personnel and material shortages back home required learning
to live without some of what were previously routine products and services. Citizens
were expected to patriotically sacrifice their creature comforts for the sake of
their country; most did so. Note that the cover art for this issue happens to be
the famous "Rosie the Riveter" painting by Norman Rockwell...
If only eBay had been around at the end of World
War II, this surplus equipment would have dominated the electronics and electromechanical
gizmo categories. Electronics magazines of the post-WWII era were filled for years with
advertisements like this one from
G & G Radio Supply Company in a 1953 issue of Radio & Television
News. That B-29 bomb sight, like the one used on the Enola Gay, could be purchased
brand new for a scant $295, which even in equivalent 2018 dollars of $2,758 (per the
BLS), is a steal. This is not the famous Norden bombsight, but it's still a
sweet collector's item, which is available on eBay today if you would like to
own one. Already have a B-29 bombsight? How about a complete IFF (Identification
Friend or Foe) secondary radar system? For a mere $350...
For some reason the
subject of grounding has been very prominent in my reading in
the last few days. The chapter I just finished reading in one of David Herres' books
on the National Electric Code (NEC) covering grounding of commercial and
residential services, an article by H. Ward Silver in QST titled,
"Grounding and Bonding Systems," and now this article by John T. Frye (of
Carl and Jerry fame) on grounding, makes for a wealth of knowledge. Mr.
Frye takes a unique approach at teaching by exploiting his gift for story-telling.
In this article, electronics repair shop owner Mac gives technician Barney a nice
bit of tutelage on what constitutes a good Earth ground and what does not. In some
environments, treating the soil with an electrically conductive substance is necessary
to establish a suitable ground without having to drive ...
Since 2000, I have been creating custom
technology-themed crossword puzzles for the brain-exercising benefit
and pleasure of RF Cafe visitors who are fellow cruciverbalists. The jury is out
on whether or not this type of mental challenge helps keep your gray matter from
atrophying in old age, but it certainly helps maintain your vocabulary and cognitive
skills at all ages. A database of thousands of words has been built up over the
years and contains only clues and terms associated with engineering, science, physical,
astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, etc. 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...
Each week, for the sake of all avid cruciverbalists
amongst us, I create a new
technology-themed crossword puzzle using only words from my custom-created
lexicon related to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy,
etc. You will never find among the words names of politicians, mountain ranges,
exotic foods or plants, movie stars, or anything of the sort. You might, however,
see someone or something in the exclusion list who or that is directly related to
this puzzle's theme, such as Hedy...
"One of the least orderly and most poorly executed
of NASA projects," was the description given to the
Surveyor program whose goal was to land on the moon and send back images,
both still and motion (in preparation for a manned landing). That, from a
congressional sub-committee. Yes, the very same Congress that famously cannot
balance its own budget or create successful programs of its own. It is a classic
case of "The pot calling the kettle black." NASA was and always has been at the
bleeding edge of new technology and as such lives in uncharted territory.
Unexpected pitfalls lurk everywhere - a minefield of "gotchas." Not that every
organization can't benefit from external oversight to prevent "blinders-on"
engineering and management teams from straying too far off the defined path, but
having the notoriously pompous and buffoonish bureaucrats... |