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TV DX

TV DX, November 1957 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeI know a guy, a multi-decade-long Amateur Radio operator, who at one time was a big participant in TV DXing. For those who are not familiar with the techno-sport, TV DXing is the hobby of receiving and identifying distant television broadcast signals from far-off locations, often using specialized antennas and receiving equipment. Enthusiasts seek to capture signals from stations hundreds or even thousands of miles away, which requires advanced technical skills and sophisticated reception techniques. Modern-day DX-ers typically document their reception achievements by capturing screenshots, logging station details, and sharing their findings with other hobbyists through...

Engineering & Tech Headlines <Archives>

• FCC Toughens Stance on Pirate Radio

• Mobile Operators Bemoan $109B Infrastructure Cost

• 5G Adoption Grows, LTE Remains Strong

• China to Host World Radio Conference?

• Intel Delays Ohio Fab Till 2030

Television Steps Out!

Television Steps Out!, January 1948 Radio-Craft - RF CafeMost of us have heard of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). Founded in 1922 at the dawn of commercial radio broadcasting, it is still in existence today. When commercial television broadcasting "stepped out" in a major way in the early 1940s, industry chieftains and station owners decided that their new media paradigm was unique enough to warrant a separate union, so the Television Broadcasters Association (TBA) was formed. A lot of effort went into establishing and building a coalition with enough influence in the marketplace and with government regulators, independent of radio, to exist as a force to be dealt with. Many people believed that radio as an entertainment and news media source would decrease at a rate as great or greater than television was increasing. Once again, experts were not successful at predicting behavior of the citizenry, which was true both in the United States and around the world...

Thanks Again for Windfreak Technologies' Continued Support!

Windfreak TechnologiesWindfreak Technologies designs, manufactures, tests and sells high value USB powered and controlled radio frequency products such as RF signal generators, RF synthesizers, RF power detectors, mixers, up / downconverters. Since the conception of WFT, we have introduced products that have been purchased by a wide range of customers, from hobbyists to education facilities to government agencies. Worldwide customers include Europe, Australia, and Asia. Please contact Windfreak today to learn how they might help you with your current project.

New & Timely

New & Timely, December 1969 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeThe December 1969 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine's "New & Timely" column reported that at the National Electronic Association conference, technicians reported burns and eye damage caused by X-radiation from color TV sets under repair. Night vision scopes for commercial use were introduced by Raytheon, suitable for law enforcement, industrial security, and nature study. A joint U.S.-Indian plan planned to beam TV directly to millions of Indian villagers via a stationary applications satellite in 1972. The French Atomic Energy Commission used a superpowerful laser to create minute thermonuclear explosions, fusing deuterium...

Anatech Intros 3 New Filter Models for April 

Anatech Electronics Intros 3 New Filter Models for April 2025 - RF CafeAnatech Electronics offers the industry's largest portfolio of high-performance standard and customized RF and microwave filters and filter-related products for military, commercial, aerospace and defense, and industrial applications up to 40 GHz. Three new filter models have been added to the product line in April, including a 5500 MHz WiFi cavity bandpass filter, a 3437-3537 MHz ceramic duplexer filter, and a 1425 MHz cavity bandpass filter. Custom RF power filter and directional couplers designs can be designed and produced with required connector types when a standard cannot be found, or the requirements are such that a custom approach is necessary...

The Electron Microscope

The Electron Microscope, May 1955 Popular Electronics - RF CafeThis article published in a 1955 issue of Popular Electronics magazine is a really good primer on the history and working principles of the electron microscope. It also explains why such a device is needed; i.e., why an optical microscope cannot do the job when really high levels of magnification are required. As object dimensions are spaced at distances near to or less than the optical wavelength being observed, it becomes impossible to resolve into separate features. Accordingly, when observing at the upper end of the visible light spectrum at around 400 nm, under ideal conditions you would not be able to clearly discern two feature less than about 800 nm apart. Current (2019) CMOS gate thicknesses run about 5 μm, so visible light cannot be used to image those structures. Another resolution limiting factor is aperture size, which, depending on the wavelength causes diffraction patterns of two objects to overlap...

Pacific T.V. Vacuum Tube Supply

Pacific T.V. Vacuum Tube Supply - RF CafeIf you are a seasoned vintage electronics equipment aficionado, restorer, hobbyist, etc., then you most likely already have your own list of supply sources for vacuum tubes. Contrary to what others might think, there is still a healthy stock of tubes available from private websites like Pacific T.V. (hat tip to Bob Davis), as well as collective sites like eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and vintage electronic equipment forums. Prices for common tubes are surprisingly low if you shop around. If you need an output power amplifier for a commercial radio station, be prepared to shell out major wampum, though. Many NOS (new old stock) varieties in original boxes can be had, as well as used tubes. Most have been tested for specification compliance.

Westinghouse Wartime Products

Westinghouse Wartime Products, May 1943 Popular Mechanics - RF CafeWestinghouse is yet another bulwark company of America's foundational industrial age, beginning in the late 19th Century. George Westinghouse founded eponymously-named company, Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, in 1886, during the time he was working with Nikola Tesla (I wonder whether any of the current-day anti-Tesla nimrods are stupid enough to vandalize NT statues and monuments?) to institute a commercial electrification infrastructure. Mr. Westinghouse began his life of fame and fortune with a locomotive air brake design. During World War II, Westinghouse's many locations designed and manufactured many types of products to facilitate troops in all Theaters of Operation. This 1943 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine carried a full-page...

What's Your EQ?

What's Your EQ?, January 1963 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeThis set of three circuit analysis challenges appeared in the January 1963 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine. Readers, staff, and even come companies submitted the "What's Your EQ?" (EQ = Electronics Quotient) content. As an example of the latter, Cleveland Institute of Electronics provided "Draw the Waveform." Don't let the diode vacuum tube deter you from the puzzle. Just mentally replace the tube with a solid state diode symbol with the anode at the top where the tube's plate (anode) is shown. The negative element of a tube is called the cathode, same as the solid state diode. "Capacitor Charge" is easy enough. "Another 2-Box Light"...

2025 UK Engineering Salary Survey

2025 UK Engineering Salary Survey - RF Cafe"Despite increasingly intense competition for skills across all sectors of industry and a growing appetite amongst engineers for a new challenge, engineering salaries appear to have stagnated over the past 12 months. This is just one of the key findings of The Engineer's tenth annual salary survey, which is published in full on The Engineer's website in a new interactive digital format. Attracting responses from 621 engineers working across 12 different sectors, this year's survey was carried out between December 2024 and January 2025. As ever, the results provide a fascinating insight into UK engineering salaries and how engineers are feeling about their careers..."

Television and Sound

Television and Sound, January 1963 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeIn this 1963 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine, editor Hugo Gernsback reflects on the early days of television, noting that the first regular daily TV broadcast began on August 13, 1928, over radio stations WRNY and W2XAL, which were associated with his former publication, Radio News. Initially, these broadcasts were silent, featuring only moving images the size of a postage stamp, and it wasn't until 1931 that TV broadcasts included sound. Gernsback critiques the slow progress in improving the audio quality of television receivers, pointing out that despite advancements in high-fidelity and stereo audio technology, most TV sets still lacked these features due to regulatory restrictions by the FCC. He expresses hope that recent petitions to the FCC...

Exodus AMP20081, 80-1000 MHz, 500 W SSHPA

Exodus AMP20081, 80-1000 MHz, 500 W SSHPA - RF CafeExodus Advanced Communications, is a multinational RF communication equipment and engineering service company serving both commercial and government entities and their affiliates worldwide. Exodus' model AMP20081 high power solid state power amplifier (SSHPA) is ideal for broadband EMI-Lab, communications, and EW applications. Class A/AB linear design accommodates all modulations & industry standards. It covers 80-1000 MHz, producing 600 W nominal, with a 500 W P1dB and 56 dB minimum gain. Excellent flatness, optional monitoring parameters for forward/reflected power, VSWR, voltage, current & temperature sensing for superb reliability and ruggedness...

Electronics-Themed Comics

Electronics-Themed October 1944 & May 1945 Radio-Craft - RF CafeIn that these comics from Radio-Craft magazine have an electronics theme, you can claim looking at them is work-related. The themes of the comics reflect common scenarios of the 1944-1945 era in which they were published, but with not much modification can be applied to today's environment. People will always expect more features from products, will be critical of everything presented to them, and will want to haggle for the best deal from the used camel salesman. You might consider using one of them for your next conference or project status presentation. There is a list of many more similar comics at the bottom...

World's 1st Quantum Entanglement Communications Service

World's First Quantum Entanglement Communications Service Offered by QentComm - RF CafeIn 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-kahm) 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...

Carl & Jerry: Secret of Round Island

Carl & Jerry: Secret of Round Island, March 1957 Popular Electronics - RF CafeIn 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!

Ham Radio Students at DSES Radio Telescope

Amateur Radio Students Visit DSES Radio Telescope - RF Cafe"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..."

Old World Standards Breaking Through

Old World Standards Breaking Through, April 1966 Popular Electronics - RF CafeMaking 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...

Harold Beverage of the Eponymously Named Antenna Type

Harold Beverage of Eponymously Named Antenna Type, August 1944, Radio-Craft - RF CafeThe 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...

Dear Mr. Fips: 30-Day Record Response

Dear Mr. Fips: 30-Day Record Response, June 1961 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeThis 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...

Ulano Masking Films - Rubylith

Ulano Masking Films, December 27, 1965 Electronics Magazine - RF CafeRaise 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...

Mind-Bending Quantum Phase Flip

Mind-Bending Quantum Phase Flip - RF Cafe"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..."

DX Hams Do Get Around

DX Hams Do Get Around (November 1940 Boys' Life Article) - Airplanes and RocketsIn 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...

Thanks Again to ConductRF for Continued Support!

ConductRF coaxial cables & connectors - RF CafeConductRF is continually innovating and developing new and improved solutions for RF Interconnect needs. See the latest TESTeCON RF Test Cables for labs. ConductRF makes production and test coax cable assemblies for amplitude and phased matched VNA applications as well as standard & precision RF connectors. Over 1,000 solutions for low PIM in-building to choose from in the iBwave component library. They also provide custom coax solutions for applications where some standard just won't do. A partnership with Newark assures fast, reliable access. Please visit ConductRF today to see how they can help your project! 

Electronic Razor

Electronic Razor, April 1962 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeThe 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..."

Waveguide Temperature Rise

Temperature Rise in Rigid Waveguide, January 17, 1964 Electronics Magazine - RF CafeHere 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...

Today in Science History

Today in Science History - RF Cafe1821: Linus Yale, inventor and manufacturer of locks, including the cylinder or pin-tumbler lock known by his name, was born. 1826: Zenobe-Theophile Gramme, inventor of the Gramme dynamo, was born. 1850: The city of Los Angeles was incorporated. 1876: Alfred Nobel... more

Why the Tube Shortage

Why the Tube Shortage, June 1946, Radio-Craft - RF Cafe"Why the Tube Shortage" was not a question being asked by Radio-Craft magazine editor Hugo Gernsback, it was an explanation. It is similar to the present day situation with the "Global Chip Shortage" in all the headlines being blamed on the Wuhan Flu plandemic (sic) causing a worker shortage. It has affected everything from the production of smart watches to kitchen appliances to cars and trucks. In 1946, however, the cause of the vacuum tube shortage was a multi-faceted ordeal according to investigative work by Mr. Gernsback. Service shops were accusing tube manufacturers of favoring radio production companies while radio production companies accused the tube manufacturers of favoring service shops. The truth, ostensibly, was that the federal government still laid claims to a large portion of tube manufacturing for post-war defense needs, and at the same time labor strikes were crippling production lines...

Inexpensive R.F. Wattmeter

Inexpensive R.F. Wattmeter, June 1955 Radio & Television News - RF CafeAmateur radio operators (Hams) and electronics hobbyists are always on the lookout for a good deal on a good piece of test equipment (TE). One way to accumulate a budget minded bench of TE is to find a way to combine the functions of separate pieces to effect a new instrument. This RF wattmeter was R.A. Thomason's method. It uses a simple application of Ohm's law for converting electrical current into power values using a bank of high power resistors and an external ammeter. Hand-dandy conversion charts are provided for two different values of detector resistors, but the scales could easily be changed to accommodate any resistor value. Note that the power dissipating resistor bank is composed of two series-connected sets of eight parallel-connected...

Satellite Electronics

Satellite Electronics, March 1958 Radio Electronics - RF CafeEcho 1 was put into orbit on August 12, 1960. This article was written 2½ years earlier in 1958 by Radio-Electronics editor Hugo Gernsback. A technology visionary and prolific inventor and writer, Mr. Gernsback astutely outlined the vast number of advantages that had already been and would in the future be afforded the science community by virtue of a satellite's perspective from space. Two of the Soviet Union's Sputnik satellites had revealed the surprisingly irregular shape and gravitational influence of the Earth, information about the upper atmosphere, and aspects of space environment effects on radio communications. America was scrambling to catch up. Gernsback and others postulated the configuration of active relay transceivers powered by solar cells and storage batteries, satellite-based television and radio...

Mac's Radio Service Shop: A Sound Conversion

Mac's Radio Service Shop: A Sound Conversion, November 1951 Radio & Television News - RF CafeListen to the RF Cafe Podcast! A November edition of "Mac's Radio Service Shop" is appropriate given today's date, especially since author John T. Frye nearly always had the story's setting coincide with the month in which it appeared in Radio & Television News magazine; the year was 1951. The unspecified dateline is somewhere in the upper Midwest, most likely Indiana. Mac's mention of converting a black-and-white television set to color by installing a "color wheel" really betrays the era. The NTSC (National Television System Committee) had not yet adopted an industry standard for color TV, and the various manufacturers were selling a mix of mechanical, electro-mechanical and all-electronic sets. In 1953, the NTSC settled on a 525-line interlaced scan (only 468 lines are part of the visible scan). Knowing that a better color system would be available soon due to massive public demand, Mac put his efforts into talking customers out of a color conversion...

B & K Precision 1440 General Purpose Oscilloscope

B & K Precision 1440 General Purpose Oscilloscope, January 1972 Popular Electronics - RF CafeToday, if Rohde & Schwarz, Keysight, or some other major test equipment manufacturer announced during a trade show presentation a new oscilloscope model with a "Breakthrough!" featured dubbed "Cali-Brain®," they would be laughed off the stage. The technology truly was a breakthrough in terms of displaying peak-to-peak waveform measurements in a numerical presentation along with a cursor line indicating the pk-pk extent from the display. It was not as convenient as next-generation scopes that provided a movable horizontal pair of lines with a direct digital voltage difference readout, but it did take some of the guesswork and potential error out of readings on complicated waveforms. Of course modern microprocessor-based measurements...

An Experimental Station on Wheels

An Experimental Station on Wheels, July 1935 QST - RF CafeThe high-tech vehicle you see here was state-of-the-art in 1935 when engineers at the Cruft Laboratory at Harvard University outfitted it to do radio research. The story appeared in QST magazine. The mission of the mobile unit is to enable laboratory equipment to be carried into the field to make observations on various radio phenomena. Clad with copper and chromium fittings, the vehicle contained transmitting and receiving equipment along with various test equipment that included a high stability frequency reference. In the article a "tungar" charger is mentioned. A tungar vacuum tube is a high current rectifier with a tungsten element and an argon gas filler...

RF Cafe Engineering Crossword Puzzle w/Weekly Headlines for August 5

RF Cafe Engineering Crossword Puzzle w/Weekly Headlines August 5, 2018 - RF CafeFor the sake of all the avid cruciverbalists amongst us, each week I create a new technology-themed crossword puzzle using only words from my custom-created list related to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy, etc. At least 10 clues with an asterisk (*) in this technology-themed crossword puzzle are pulled from the past week's (7/30 - 8/3) "Tech Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage. 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 directly related to this puzzle's theme, such as Hedy Lamar or the Bikini Atoll, respectively. Enjoy!...

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story - RF Cafe Video for EngineersBy now, most people involved with spread spectrum communications are (or should be) aware that Hollywood starlet Hedy Lamarr is credited for being the first to suggest a frequency hopping scheme for secure communications. If you do a Google search on Hedy Lamarr and spread spectrum, you see that except for a few mentions on tech websites, it has only been in the news since the end of the last decade. Scientific American magazine ran an article titled, "Hedy Lamarr: Not Just a Pretty Face," in 2008. Google honored her in 2015 with a Doodle on their homepage. "The most beautiful woman in the world," with the assistance of her co-inventor-composer George Antheil...

The Laser - A Light Amplifier

The Laser - A Light Amplifier, September 1960 Electronics World - RF CafePrior to the invention of gas (CO2, HeNe) and chemical (iodine, hydrogen fluoride) lasers in the early to middle 1960s, lasers (light amplification by stimulate emission of radiation) were made using rare earth gems (ruby). Evolution occurred rapidly in power output, wavelength (color), stability, purity, and lasing source type.The concept of lasers were introduced in science fiction, but believe it or not the first recorded instance of the term "LASER" was in a paper written in 1959 by Gordon Gould. Development flowed from the preexisting maser (microwave amplification by stimulate emission of radiation) knowledge. This 1960 news item in Electronics World magazine reported on Dr. Theodore H. Maiman's work at Hughes Research Laboratories. Nowadays lasers are ubiquitous in our lives (DVD players, automotive LIDAR, cat toys) and we have lasers integrated into semiconductor substrates for intra-chip signal communications...

Quiz #40: Introduction to Antenna Analysis Using EM Simulation

RF Cafe Quiz #40: Introduction to Antenna Analysis Using EM SimulationThis quiz is based on the information presented in Introduction to Antenna Analysis Using EM Simulation, by Hiroaki Kogure, Yoshie Kogure, and James C. Rautio, published by Artech House. It is written for novice engineers and engineering students. This easy-to-comprehend resource offers readers thorough introductory-level treatment of antenna analysis using electromagnetic (EM) simulators. This richly-illustrated book shows how to use EM software to analyze and tune wireless antennas to meet specific requirements. Readers learn important wireless antenna design terminology and gain a detailed understanding of how antennas work. Moreover, the book offers guidance in troubleshooting problems with wireless antenna designs...

Promote Your Company on RF Cafe

Sponsor RF Cafe for as Little as $40 per Month - RF CafeBanner 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...

Developments in U.H.F.

Developments in U.H.F., March 1955 Radio & Televsion News - RF CafeOnce World War II was over and the peoples of the world could breathe and start enjoying life again, television, which had just begun to take off before the war, quickly gained widespread adoption in homes. As with so many areas of technology and science, advancements in electronics and wireless communications during the war years redounded very beneficially to the TV industry. Early schemes for television combined both electronics and mechanical elements using rotating discs, vibrating mirrors, and other far-out schemes to convert electrical signals to moving pictures. Due to the small size of the first cathode ray tubes (CRTs), commonly called kinescopes at the time, light beams were launched toward physically maneuvered mirrors to steer the image onto the back of a larger glass screen - basically the first projection screen televisions ...but I digress. TV's popularity grew so fast in the late 1940s and early 1950s that the Federal Communications commission (FCC) issued a moratorium on the building of new broadcast stations until a scheme could be devised to deal with signal overlap (interference) from too closely spaced stations...

Parallel Circuits per U.S. Navy NAVPERS 10622

Electricity - NAVPERS 10622 - Parallel Circuits - RF CafeThe study of parallel circuits typically follows on the heels of series circuits because at least for resistance and inductance, the math is easier. Capacitance in parallel, on the other hand, use the equations and methods of resistance and inductance in series. Unfortunately, though, for newcomers, series capacitance uses the equations and methods of resistance and inductance in parallel. Sure, most RF Cafe visitors covered all that stuff years ago, but as I've mentioned before, there are always new people coming into the electrical and electronics craft. These NAVPER Basic Navy Training Courses were and still are heralded as being excellent introductory material for students entering the realm. I don't know if it's still so, but back in the post World War II era and up through the 1980s civilian employers assigned great regard to and preference to for U.S. Navy (and, ahem, Air Force) electronic technicians when hiring...

Fundamentals of Color TV

Fundamentals of Color TV, March 1954 Radio & Television News - RF CafeQuite a few articles on color television were published in trade and hobby magazines in the 1950s and 1960s as the technology was adopted and fine tuned. The electronic circuitry aspect of transmitting and receiving chromaticity, intensity, synchronization, and audio was impressive, but the science that went into color research was equally amazing. As with so many things we take for granted because someone else did all the hard work of figuring out how to make something work and then making it available to us at an affordable price, the physics of human color perception needed intense study in order to produce a pleasing image on the cathode ray tube (CRT). The key to understanding color is the chromaticity diagram, based in the human tristimulus color space, which is described in detail herein...

Promote Your Company on RF Cafe

Sponsor RF Cafe for as Little as $40 per Month - RF CafeBanner 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...

Electronic Sticklers

Electronic Sticklers, April 1959 Popular Electronics - RF CafeHere is another of the "Electronic Sticklers" challenges from Popular Electronics magazine - good for ratcheting down at the end of the week. These are fairly basic circuit analysis problems that often can be solved by inspection, but sometimes a pencil and paper are necessary. Re-drawing the circuit in a different configuration to make the connections more obvious often helps when solving total resistance, capacitance, inductance, etc., as in question #1. In this case, though, you need to be able to recognize a common configuration to be able to simplify the circuit; otherwise, you'll be writing and solving mesh equations. #2 has a simple answer and a more elaborate possibility. #3 and #4 are simple inspection problems...

Hytron's Master Tube Tester

Hytron's Master Tube Tester, October 1944 Radio News - RF CafeFounded in 1921 in Salem, Massachusetts, Hytron Corporation started out making vacuum tubes, then after being bought by CBS in 1951 they moved into the realm of semiconductor production. This story from a 1944 issue of Radio News magazine extolled the virtues of Hytron's Master Test Station for its ability to quickly and accurately measure a wide variety of tubes. Auto-ranging voltage regulators, parallax-free meters with auto-ranging scales, safety fusing, and easy servicing were among it notable features. To me, a parallax-free meter is one with a mirror behind the needle used to assure the operator is looking straight-on at the scale, but in this case it meant the array of meters was arranged in a semi-circle so that the operator was naturally looking perpendicular to the meter faces from a fixed vantage point. The level of automation no doubt reduced measurement errors...

Arvin Model 35 8-Tube Car-Radio Receiver

Arvin Model 35 8-Tube Car-Radio Receiver, May 1936 Radio-Craft - RF CafeThis is another Radio Service Data Sheet that appeared in the May 1936 edition of Radio-Craft magazine. I post this schematic and functional description of the Arvin Model 35, 8-Tube Car-Radio Receiver manufacturers' publications for the benefit of hobbyists and archivists who might be searching for such information either in a effort to restore a radio to working condition, or to collect archival information. A WWW search for an Arvin Model 35 Car Radio did not turn up any results, but I did see the unknown model shown here on an expired eBay auction. It has a speaker front that looks like the Model 35. Installing and servicing the earlier heavy, bulky car radios was the source of many electronic-themed comics and articles. Some of the very earliest two-way radio sets (of which this is not) had massive transformers, needed to generate power for the transmitter...

Carl & Jerry: Feedback

Carl & Jerry: Feedback, May 1956 Popular Electronics - RF CafeIn this episode of John T. Frye's "Carl & Jerry" series, the intrepid pair of teenage electronics hobbyists and Ham radio operators are experimenting with an audio amplifier rig that uses a parabolic dish for concentrating sound waves at a focal point where they have a microphone mounted. Aside from picking up bird noises and a neighbor lady scolding her husband for not properly washing the windows during a round of Spring cleaning, Carl imposes upon Jerry for a lesson in feedback techniques - both positive and negative - and the reasons one is preferred over the other. The story winds up with a clever double entendre comment referring to osculation...'

The Ray of Mystery - Tesla & Röentgen

The Ray of Mystery - Tesla and Röentgen, 3/15/1986 The Warren Mail - RF CafeOn 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 ...

RF & Electronics Stencils for Visio

RF & Electronics stencils for Visio r4 - RF CafeWith more than 1000 custom-built stencils, this has got to be the most comprehensive set of Visio Stencils available for RF, analog, and digital system and schematic drawings! Every stencil symbol has been built to fit proportionally on the included A-, B-, and C-size drawing page templates (or use your own page if preferred). Components are provided for system block diagrams, conceptual drawings, schematics, test equipment, racks, and more. Page templates are provided with a preset scale (changeable) for a good presentation that can incorporate all provided symbols...

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