|
 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).
![[William of] Ockham's Razor: A Brief History & Biography - RF Cafe](references/ai/electronics-technology-principles/images/occams-razor.jpg) 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...
|
 It has been a while since posting on of these
Radio Data Sheet 333 that often appeared in vintage electronics magazines like
Radio-Craft. This one is for
General Electric Radio Models 100, 101, 103 and 105. The RadioMuseum.org website
has a very nicely restored General Electric Model 103 radio. Per their description:
"The General Electric 103 is an AC/DC operated 5 tube BC band receiver. The BC band
frequency tuning range is 540-1600 kHz. Has built-in loop antenna with provisions
for connecting an external antenna. The following models use the same schematic
and chassis but have different cabinets..." A few Model 100 versions show up on
eBay in case you might be interested in acquiring one...
 Long before their college days at
Parvoo U., our two amateur electronics sleuthing buddies were on the job tracking
down and trapping bad guys by using their combined knowledge of circuits and
physics. In this episode,
Carl and Jerry are tasked with helping a hobby store owner stop a rash
of thefts that always seems to occur during a busy time right after school
lets out for the day. Their first inclination was to devise a system like
the big department stores were installing that used passive tags on items
that would trigger an indicator when passed through the detector at the exit
door. That was in 1958 when the anti-theft tags were first being utilized.
Unfortunately, the system they were able to build was not sensitive or selective
enough, so they came up with a different scheme...
 Echo 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...
 Lee de Forest, inventor of the Audion vacuum
tube, created a business called De Forest Radio Company (although I hear he didn't
build that). This advertisement for his company's electron tubes appeared in the
December 1931 edition of the ARRL's QST magazine. If you research Lee de Forest,
you will find his name spelled incorrectly in many different forms: de Forest, De
Forest, de Forest, de Forest, to give a few. When in doubt, go straight to the source,
which in this case is the signature that de Forest placed on his patent applications
- he used "de Forest." Note that the official company name, according to the advertisement
address at the bottom, is "De Forest Radio Company," (space used) yet the text of
the copy uses the form ...
 This week's RF Cafe crossword puzzle contains the
usual assortment of engineering and science related words and clues, but there are also
a few specific words commemorating our
Thanksgiving
Day holiday (indicated by a asterisk *) that is celebrated
each year on the fourth Thursday of November. Macy's 90th Thanksgiving Day Parade occurs
on the morning of November 24th and follows a route along Central Park West and 6th Avenue.
Interestingly, the parade was cancelled during the World War II years of 1942, 1943,
and...
 According to this 1972 article in Popular
Electronics, there were as many as 50,000 computers in the world at the time using
magnetic core memories. Among them was the Apollo Guidance Computer that was onboard
the Apollo 11 Lunar Module that Neil Armstrong used in July 1969 to land on the
moon*. Semiconductor memories were being manufactured in 1972, but believe it or not
they were not as fast as the magnetic core memories. Machinery was not available with
enough precision and repeatability to thread the read, write, sense, and inhibit wires...
 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 Lamarr or the Bikini Atoll, respectively. Enjoy...
 If
television was "a chinch," in 1953 as this Radio-Electronic
article claims, the world would have had it long before then. Just like looking
up the work-out solutions to a physics problem in the back of a textbook, a lot
of things look simple and obvious once someone else has already done it. I guess
that's not really a fair criticism of this piece since author Aisberg's goal is
to assuage some of the doubts and misconceptions a lot of people had about the
relatively new technology. 1953 is the year that the NTSC formalized its color
TV standard, which, BTW, was careful to accommodate B&W transmissions on the
same channels - similar to how AM-FM stereo and stereo FM radio can coexist with
monaural (mono) broadcasts. Television, in case you are not aware, began as an
electromechanical system with picture frames and shutters, spinning discs, and
other Rube Goldberg contraptions...
 "YL" is the shorthand used by amateur radio
operators when referring to female operators -
Young Lady.
Although still chosen as a hobby in larger number by men, ladies have long been
avid participants in the art/science of Ham radio. The American Amateur Radio
League's QST magazine devoted this "YL News and Views" column to their
contributions many years ago - trendsetting in its day. This particular issue
introduces Louise Ramsey Moreau as its new editor. Her interest in Ham radio was
piqued when she realized "all the women heard on their receivers were not 'just
wives,' but licensed operators." The rest, as said, is history...
 It was a lot of work, but I finally finished
a version of the "RF &
Electronics Schematic & Block Diagram Symbols"" that works well with Microsoft
Office™ programs Word™, Excel™, and Power Point™. This is an equivalent of the extensive
set of amplifier, mixer, filter, switch, connector, waveguide, digital, analog,
antenna, and other commonly used symbols for system block diagrams and schematics
created for Visio™. Each of the 1,000+ symbols was exported individually from Visio
in the EMF file format, then imported into Word on a Drawing Canvas. The EMF format
allows an image to be scaled up or down without becoming pixelated, so all the shapes
can be resized in a document and still look good. The imported symbols can also
be UnGrouped into their original constituent parts for editing...
 "Use it up... Wear it out... Make it
do... Or do without" - what a great slogan! It was coined by the War Advertising
Council during World War II to promote the dual need to conserve scarce
resources and to help keep prices down by not generating excess demand. Most of
us have seen videos or read articles about neighborhood materials collection
efforts to round up old tires, scrap metal, glass, tools, electronics equipment,
cloth and clothing, and many other items that could be ...
 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 Lamarr or the Bikini Atoll, respectively. Enjoy...
 Long before digital communications was widely
adopted, there was a great need for stable frequency-determining devices / systems.
That is to say, low bit error rates (BER) for digital communications are not the
sole motivation for
oscillators with low short-term and long-term stability and low levels of jitter.
One obvious need for precise frequency control is radar, in order for accurate ranging
(the second "R" in radar) and in the case of Doppler systems, for accurate radial
velocity reporting and clutter cancellation. Those capabilities existed long before
digital systems came online. Aside from radar, precise frequency was needed in order
to reduce guard band width between assigned channel assignments, thereby enabling
more broadcast stations (commercial and military) to coexist in an allotted frequency
band...
 If you like word puzzles, then maybe you'll want
to give this
word search with names of common electronics components hidden within a matrix of
random letter a go. It appeared in a 1965 issue of Popular Electronics magazine.
Keep that in mind while searching for the Mystery Word. Enjoy...
 The manned space program has unarguably provided
mankind with many new and innovative tools, medicines, electronics, materials, physics,
materials, appliances, and mathematics. Known officially as "spinoffs," products
include items like the portable heart defibrillator unit, the portable vacuum cleaner,
freeze-drying food processors, powdered lubricants, memory foam, quartz clocks and
battery-powered tools. Many
NASA inventions have not found an application in your basement
or garage, however, because their purpose is too specialized. Take, for instance,
the ZeRT, or Zero Reaction Tool...
 Today, 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...
 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...
 Listen to the
podcast! Unless you have a tape player that you want to modify for plugging
in external speakers, the most interesting part of this "Not
Always Right" episode of Mac's Radio Service Shop will be how Mac handles a
belligerent customer. As was the topic of many articles in the days when electronics
repair shops could be found in every town, this joker accused Mac of liking to pad
bills with time charged for using his expertise and expensive test equipment. He
proved the old adage about the customer always being right usually did not apply
to those who tried to tell the repairman how to do his job. Of course if the person
could have done the repair himself, he probably would have. It reminds me of the
signs that used to hang in auto repair shops that went something like this, "Repair
rates: $30 per hour, $40 per hour with you watching, or $50 per hour with you helping."
 If you or someone you know is just starting
in the realm of radio and want a really nice pictorial presentation of the basics
of
radio wave propagation, then this one-page article from a 1935 edition of
Short Wave Craft magazine is just what you need. Formula phobia will not
be an issue for anyone since no equations are presented. The fundamentals have not
changed in the intervening 89 years, and this same sort of analogy is still used
in introductory physics classes and books today. Note in Figure 7 that the
antenna for the airplane is shown being dragged behind. Back in the day, a long
antenna was spooled out once in the air, and cranked back in before landing. If
the pilot forgot to reel the antenna in, it could get yanked off by a tree upon
landing. CW (Morse code) was the dominant form of air-to-ground communications...
 With 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...
 Westinghouse is yet another of the original
stalwart titans of companies that helped build America to her state of greatness,
but is now mostly a footnote in the historical notes of the many companies which
over the past few decades have bought out portions of the business. Founded in the
late 1800s by George Westinghouse as a locomotive air brake manufacturer, the company
added other markets including, notably, electric power generation and distribution.
Emerging as the winner in the famous "War of the Currents" fought between Westinghouse
and Thomas Edison secured George's place in history. Westinghouse also got into
the commercial, military, and domestic electronics and appliance markets. I worked
at the Westinghouse Oceanic Division in Annapolis, MD, from 1982 through 1986 and
though it was a great company to work for. This advertisement for "Westinghouse
Directional Equipment;" i.e., antennas, appeared in a 1945 issue of Radio News
magazine.
 "The perfect squelch" was a popular concept
in the 1950s. I know because I've seen it in a few different magazines from that
era. In fact, The Saturday Evening Post ran a regular inset feature by that name.
As you might guess, it has to do with making a short statement that has the effect
of cutting out the 'noise,' whether it be from the background of a radio reception
or from an obnoxious person shooting off his mouth (which was the case for the SEP).
BTW, the "Squegg" part of
Sunspot McSquegg's name comes from the radio term 'squeg,' which refers to
oscillations due to excessive feedback, like what happens when a microphone is
placed too close to the speaker. This Christmastime tidbit appeared in the
December 1953 issue of QST magazine...
 I challenge you to find a calculus lesson
in a modern-day electronics magazine. In 1932, not all that long after Isaac Newton
developed differential calculus (that's a joke), Radio News magazine ran
a series of "Mathematics in Radio" articles that included, among other topics,
a few lessons in calculus. Anyone who has taken college-level science or engineering
courses knows how indispensible calculus is in working out many circuit, physics,
and chemistry problems. My appreciation for calculus came when I realized that it
actually allowed me to derive the kinds of standard equations that are commonly
seen in lower level applications. For instance, if you needed to know the volume
of a sphere, you could look up the familiar Volume = 4/3 π r3
formula, or you could write the equation...
 Here is another article from a vintage issue of
Popular Electronics magazine that I am posting for the benefit of Hams who happen
to be searching for information on
Swiss quad antennas. As with most topics, there are many sources on the Worldwide
Web (when's the last time you heard the Internet referred to as the WWW?) covering how
to build and tune Swiss quad antennas, but this one might have just the right slant on
things that the reader is looking for. It probably is not of great interest to most visitors,
but having it appear on the RF Cafe homepage guarantees that Google, Bing, and other
major search engines will pick it up within hours. Thanks for your indulgence...
 Most of us probably never give much thought
to how vulnerable we could be in a lawsuit related to our professional activities
- until it's too late. That is particularly true if you are not directly involved
in the sales or service business. Even when it is reasonable to believe that there
is no way a jury or judge could
find you liable for a charge levied against you, the skill of
a talented lawyer and/or whims and prejudices of judges and/or jurors can doom you.
Although a bit dated, the legal cases cited in this Radio-Electronics article
give a little insight into why you would do well to give some thought to what the
consequences of your actions and/or statements might invite if someone decides you
have offended him or her. Remember that settled legal cases are regarded as precedence...
With 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...
 Montgomery Ward (aka "Wards" or even "Monkey
Wards") had their own line of radios, electric guitars, and other products that
went by the name of "Airline." Sears, Roebuck and Company, by the way, had the "Silvertone"
series of radios, electric guitars and, other electronics products. This 2-page
radio service data sheet for the
Montgomery Ward Airline Model 04BR-1105A console type radio appeared in a 1941
issue of Radio-Craft magazine. Some of the electronics magazines of the
era ran these features to help out people who wanted to attempt troubleshooting
and aligning their own equipment. Many electronics manufacturers would sell service
data documentation only to authorized dealers and repair shops. Unlike today where ...
 According to a plethora of news reports in
the last few years, the "cord cutting" phenomenon is having a significant impact on cable
media providers. Consumers long ago grew tired of the monopolistic practices of
corporations forcing mostly unwanted programming onto everyone and then trying to
convince them that they were getting a good deal if the cost per channel was considered.
No one bought that argument, but it didn't matter because there was no competition
for service. Public Utility Commission (PUC) efforts to force prime line owners
to rent out "space" in an attempt to provide competitive products has never worked,
but that doesn't keep PUCs from trying (job security). The advent of wideband wireless
service has opened up a new realm of media delivery that is leaving wired service
in the dust. Not only is cellphone...
 This
Technology Theme Crossword Puzzle for April 25th has many words and clues related
to RF, microwave, and mm-wave engineering, optics, mathematics, chemistry, physics,
and other technical subjects. As always, this crossword contains no names of politicians,
mountain ranges, exotic foods or plants, movie stars, or anything of the sort unless
it/he/she is related to this puzzle's technology theme (e.g., Reginald Denny or
the Tunguska event in Siberia). The technically inclined cruciverbalists amongst
us will appreciate the effort. Enjoy!
 This is Part 3 of a series of articles on
atomic radiation that appeared in Electronic World magazine in 1969. It
deals with measurement techniques and equipment. Shippingport Atomic Power Station, the
first full scale nuclear power plant in the U.S., went operational in 1957. It marked
the dawn of a new era of electric power generation that was filled with grandiose predictions
of limitless, non-polluting, dirt cheap power. Everything was going to be powered by
electricity - air heating and cooling, lighting, automobiles, water heating. Atomic power
was going to be a figurative and almost literal beating of swords into ploughshares as
the destructive energy... |
