|
 This week's crossword puzzle theme is
Amateur
Radio. All RF Cafe crossword puzzles are custom made by me, Kirt Blattenberger,
and have only words and clues related to RF, microwave, and mm-wave engineering,
optics, amateur radio, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and other technical subjects.
As always, this crossword puzzle 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...
 Submarines first proved their deadly capabilities
during World War II when Adolph Hitler's navy used them to torpedo not just
military ships but merchant ships in commercial trade routes between the Americas
and Europe. Hideki Tojo's navy used subs to conduct surveillance prior to the deadly
surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Their naturally stealthy environment - underwater
- proved to be a difficult realm both for detection and for attack. Fortunately,
sensor technology developed quickly during the war, and soon a combination of air
and sea based methods were in use and proved very effective. Submariners no longer
sailed in relative security from being treated to a violent, icy burial at sea...
 The leading website for the PCB industry.
PCB Directory is the largest directory of
Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
Manufacturers, Assembly houses, and Design Services on the Internet. We have listed
the leading printed circuit board manufacturers around the world and made them searchable
by their capabilities - Number of laminates used, Board thicknesses supported, Number
of layers supported, Types of substrates (FR-4, Rogers, flexible, rigid), Geographical
location (U.S., China), kinds of services (manufacturing, fabrication, assembly,
prototype), and more. Fast turn-around on quotations for PCB fabrication and assembly.
 As
the Soviet army closed in on the Peenemünde rocket base in March 1945, German engineers
led by
Wernher von Braun initiated a desperate evacuation of their revolutionary research.
Tasked by von Braun, engineer Dieter Huzel organized the transport of tons of top-secret
blueprints and records to avoid capture by the advancing Red Army. Amidst the chaos
of collapsing lines and aerial warfare, Huzel successfully secured the documents
in an abandoned, ironclad mine near Goslar, shielding them from Soviet hands. After
dynamiting the entrance to seal the cache, Huzel and fellow scientists fled westward
to surrender to American forces. Following their successful arrival in U.S. lines,
the location was revealed...
 Sending telegraph messages, whether by wire
or wireless means, has always been expensive, particularly considering charges are
determined by the character (letter, number, symbol). Accordingly, the Shakespearean
line from Hamlet declaring that "brevity is the soul of wit" can be reworked to
"brevity is the soul of economy." A telegraph wire, unlike a telephone call, is
a legally binding communiqué, as is of course a written letter, but a telegram is
immediate transmission of information for time-critical messaging. A series of "commercial codes" were developed enabling senders to save often
significant money by sending multi-character codes that represented entire phrases
and/or sentences. What struck me about this article that appeared in a 1948 issue
of The Saturday Evening Post magazine...
 "With all the many pressures you have as
a product designer, does
electromagnetic
compliance (EMC) always seem like a stumbling block to delaying product sales?
Is your product exhibiting one of the top three failures: radiated emissions, electrostatic
discharge, or radiated immunity? Are you continually cycling between design/fixing
- running to the compliance test lab - failing again - and back to shot-gunning
more fixes? Wondering how to attack these issues earlier in the design cycle? Would
you like to learn how to characterize and troubleshoot simple design issues right
on your workbench? Then, this monthly column is for you..."
 In 1938, the designers at Sears, Roebuck &
Company's, Silvertone radio division were truly thinking "outside the box" when
they came up with this "Rocket" model
Models 6110. It is an ultra compact tabletop design with a unique
rounded top and a huge tuning dial that comprised one entire end of the Bakelite
cabinet, along with a set of six pushbuttons for station recall. Also published
were datasheets on the
Allied Radio Knight Model E10913, the
General Electric Model GD-52,, and the
Zenith Models 6D302, 6D311, 6D326, 6D336, 6D360. An ever-growing
list of models is at the bottom of every page...
 What drew my attention with this
P.R. Mallory & Company advertisement was not an actual
electronic component that they are most noted for - potentiometers, capacitors,
switches, metal alloys, and of course batteries (later renamed Duracell). Philip
Rogers Mallory began his company manufacturing tungsten wire for lamps. Rather what
interested me was the huge variety of standard potentiometer and rotary switch extension
shafts. Unlike modern electronics where pots and switches are typically mounted
to the enclosure with wires running to the circuit assembly, many...
 The failure to recognize
Nathan B. Stubblefield as the primary inventor of radio is a classic example
of how institutional power, financial interests, and the legal machinery of the
telecommunications industry tend to favor those with corporate backing over solitary,
unconventional inventors. Stubblefield's technology, which he demonstrated as early
as 1892, utilized induction and conduction through the earth and water rather than
the electromagnetic wave propagation (Hertzian waves) that ultimately became the
standard for modern radio. Because his method was effective only over relatively
short distances and functioned on different physical principles, it was eclipsed
by the work of Guglielmo Marconi. Marconi was the superior marketing force. He was
backed by a massive corporate infrastructure and was savvy in securing international
patents...
 Author T.A. Gadwa employs a
standing wave mechanism analogy that I don't recall having read
before - that of a dam on a river. The river is the transmission line with a lake
as the source and then he imagines a dam load. The dam standing waves, per his description,
have phase and amplitude characteristics that depend on how tall the dam wall is
relative to the surface height of the dammed river. An extensive array of graphs
is provided showing how the current of the dam standing waves react to the dam transmission
line termination impedance...
 Here are a couple more
electronics-themed comics, this time ones that appeared in the October 1951
edition of Radio & Television News magazine. When is the last time
you saw a comic in a technical magazine? Note the AC power cord attached to the
"portable" television. Television was a big deal in the day (I assume the "His"
on the guy's towel implies that "Hers" is at the other end of the power cord). Color
TV was not commercially available until a few years later. Nowadays, a person would
have a smartphone, tablet, or notebook computer while on the can. There is a huge
list of other comics at the bottom of the page...
 "Once upon a time in Europe, television
remote controls had a magic
teletext
button. Years before the internet stole into homes, pressing that button brought
up teletext digital information services with hundreds of constantly updated pages.
Living in Ireland in the 1980s and '90s, my family accessed the national teletext
service - Aertel - multiple times a day for weather and news bulletins, as well
as things like TV program guides and updates on airport flight arrivals. It was
an elegant system: fast, low bandwidth, unaffected by user load, and delivering
readable text even on analog television screens. So when I recently saw it was the
40th anniversary of Aertel's test transmissions, it reactivated a thought that had
been rolling around in my head for years..."
 I have a confession to make regarding the
puzzle titles. While all
RF Cafe crosswords do in fact use only my hand-entered dictionary
of terms and clues (literally thousands accumulated over the years) that pertain
exclusively to science, engineering, chemistry, physics, mathematics, astronomy,
etc., the choice for a particular title is to help attract search engines to the
page. There is nothing deceptive going on, just an attempt to exploit the nature
of search engine algorithms that rank pages based on meta tags coinciding with relevant...
 Sam Benzacar, of Anatech Electronics, an
RF and microwave filter company, has published his
April 2026 Newsletter that, along with timely news items, features his short
op-ed titled "Bell Labs in Murray Hill Celebrates." Sam, whose company is located
not far from Murray Hill, extolls the many discoveries and inventions that took
place there since its founding in 1925 as Bell Telephone Laboratories. It was originally
a subsidiary of AT&T and Western Electric, later becoming part of Lucent Technologies
and Alcatel-Lucent before Nokia's acquisition in 2016. Sam reports on the facilities'
recent 100th anniversary celebration. The list of accomplishments would will volumes...
 The transformative role of ferrites - crystalline
structures composed of iron oxide and metallic additives - in advancing modern electronics,
is reported in this 1961 Electronics Illustrated magazine article. Ferrites
uniquely combine magnetic properties with electrical insulation, enabling high efficiency
at frequencies where standard iron cores fail due to eddy current losses. This "electronic
wonder material" proved critical for television development, allowing for larger
picture tubes through efficient flyback transformers and deflection yokes. Furthermore,
ferrites revolutionized computing by providing reliable, compact memory cells, replacing
failure-prone vacuum tubes in machines like the Whirlwind I. Beyond these core
applications, the material facilitates innovations such as ultrasonic ...
 "In 1627, a year after the death of the
philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon, a short, evocative tale of his was published.
The New Atlantis describes how a ship blown off course arrives at an unknown island
called Bensalem. At its heart stands Salomon's House, an institution devoted to
'the knowledge
of causes, and secret motions of things' and to 'the effecting of all things
possible.' The novel captured Bacon's vision of a science built on skepticism and
empiricism and his belief that understanding and creating were one and the same
pursuit. No mere scholar's study filled with curiosities, Salomon's House had deep-sunk
caves for refrigeration, towering structures for astronomy, sound-houses for acoustics,
engine-houses..."
 Werbel's new
WM2PD-1.5-20.5-S-ECO, 2-way power divider covers 1.5 to 20.5 GHz and is
designed for engineers who need wideband performance in a compact, cost-efficient
package. Optimized for size, bandwidth, and manufacturability, it is well suited
for high-volume applications, lab use, and general-purpose signal distribution where
extreme port match is not required. Designed, assembled, and tested in the USA.
"No Worries with Werbel!"
 The radar system I worked on in the USAF
used two early memory types described in this 1956 Popular Electronics
magazine article. In fact, the radar was designed during that era, so it is no surprise.
Our IFF secondary radar had a whopping 1 kilobyte of
magnetic core memory in its processor circuitry. It consisted of 1024 tiny toroids
mounted in a square matrix with four hair-width enamel coated wires running through
them as x and y magnetization current lines, sense, and inhibit functions. If my
memory serves me (pun intended) after three decades away from it, the TTL circuitry
(no microprocessor) stored range values to calculate speed and direction from sample
to sample. The other memory type was a mercury acoustic delay line contraption having
a piezoelectric transducer at one end to launch an electrical pulse along its length
and another transducer at the other end to convert back to an electrical pulse...
 These are the schematics and parts list
for vintage vacuum tube radios
Westinghouse Model H-133;
Arvin Models 150TC, 151TC; and
Admiral Model 7C63, Chassis 7C1 as they appeared in the December
1947 issue of Radio News magazine. I scan and post these for the benefit
of hobbyists and historians seeking such information. As time goes by, there is
less and less likelihood that records of these relics from yesteryear's archives
will be made available. As with all historical information, it takes someone with
a personal interest in preserving the memories in order to fulfill the mission...
 KR Electronics has been designing and manufacturing custom filters
for military and commercial radio, radar, medical, and communications since 1973.
KR Electronics' line of filters includes lowpass, highpass, bandpass, bandstop,
equalizer, duplexer, diplexer, and individually synthesized filters for special
applications - both commercial and military. State-of-the-art computer synthesis,
analysis, and test methods are used to meet the most challenging specifications.
All common connector types and package form factors are available. Designed and
manufactured in the USA. Please visit NIC today
to see how we might be of assistance.
 Here is another electronics quiz for you
to try. Intuition from experience goes a long way here, but if all else fails you
can work out the details of the rectifier circuits to determine
which lamp received the most current. Keep in mind that the diode
symbols are not LEDs; it is the "A," "B," and "C" symbols inside circles
that are the lamps whose brightnesses are being considered. LEDs did exist at the
time this quiz was created in 1969, but the circuits would perform differently if
in fact LEDs were used for double duty of rectification and illumination...
 The more things change, the more they stay
the same. That saying applies to many recreational activities. Pick up a copy of
QST magazine that was published in the last year and look at
reader comments and you will find laments about the dwindling
participation of youngsters, an increased degree of incivility and rule breaking
during engagement, the high cost of getting into the hobby, yadda yadda yadda. I
witness it regularly in the model aircraft world, too. That is not to say the issues
are not true or irrelevant, just that they are persistent. Each generation, it has
been said, tends to think...
 I have long-maintained that the vast majority
of electrical problems on consumer products can be attributed to bad connector or
switch contacts. Just yesterday, I restored a 1970's-era TI talking kids' toy to
working order just by cleaning the plug-in program module and mating motherboard
contacts. RF Cafe website visitor / contributor Bob Davis sent this suggestion for
curing intermittent or non-responsive front panel buttons on test equipment and
other electronic gear like radios, remote keypads, games, tools, vehicles, keyboards,
locks, etc. His problem was with a R&S spectrum analyzer. He found a solution
from ButtonWorx, who manufactures replacement
pressure contacts for a large range of products. Some are entire arrays to replace
original parts, and others are individual switches for custom requirements.
 You wouldn't know it from the schematic,
but this
Coronet
Model C-2 tabletop radio has a very unique feature: The tuning scale/pointer,
and volume and tuning knobs are on the top of the case, that is, the face of the
radio points upward when properly displayed. When searching for photos of the Coronet
C2, I found a few examples where the radio was sitting on a surface with the face
situated vertically like a standard model, but the feet are clearly on the side
opposite the face. The schematic and parts list for the Coronet C2 radio appeared
in the February 1947 issue of Radio News magazine. There are still many
people who restore and service these vintage radios, and often it can be difficult
or impossible to find schematics and/or tuning information. I keep a running list
of all data sheets to facilitate a search...
|
 • UK
Secure Quantum Communications Boost
• 2026
PC Sales down 11.3%, Tablets down 7.9%
• Starlink
Becoming Mainstream Option
• U.S.
Engineering
Ph.D. Programs Losing Students?
• What
Hormuz Exposed About Semi Supply Chain
 The
RF Cafe Homepage Archive
is a comprehensive collection of every item appearing daily on this website since
2008 - and many from earlier years. Many thousands of pages of unique content have
been added since then.
 The introduction of low cost, small-footprint
ceramic filters were unquestionably a boon to efforts at reduction in end-product
package size and manufacturing cost. Very good Q and selectivity, no tuning required,
and good temperature stability made them perfect for use as IF filters in broadcast
radio receivers, at 10.7 MHz (FM) and 455 kHz (AM). They became available
for commercial use around 1960. This publically available paper published in 2000
from the IEEE provides some historical perspective to ceramic filters: The History
of Ceramic Filters, by Satoru Fujishima. The Clevite Corporation, for which this
Electronics World author, Reg Zimmerman worked, is mentioned in the IEEE paper,
as is Murata, for being pioneers in the ceramic filter field...
 This
RF & Analog Company Name Change History Quiz challenges your knowledge of
the history of familiar electronics products companies' name changes (aka etymology).
Many of you have lived through the plethora of acquisitions, mergers, and name changes
represented here. There might be more than one correct answer. You might need a
motion sickness pill when navigating all the changes. Wikipedia is used as the reference
because I know the historical information presented there is accurate (enough)...
 Windfreak Technologies is proud to announces
the availability of our
FT108, an innovative
programmable bidirectional filter bank spanning a frequency range of 5 MHz
to 8 GHz in 15 bands. Band selection can be controlled through USB, UART or
at high speeds through powerful triggering modes. Each unit is factory tested via
network analyzer with unique data stored in the device to help with its use. Crossover
frequencies are stored so the user can send a frequency command and the FT108 will
utilizes Intelligent Band Selection logic to automatically toggle the optimal
filter path based on minimum insertion loss. Readback of FT108 insertion loss at
any frequency between crossover points allows for easy amplitude leveling...
 QRM and QRN (manmade and natural interference,
respectively) has been a problem to be dealt with since the beginning of radio communications.
Amplitude modulation (AM) was and is still the most vulnerable because there are so many
sources of electrical and electromagnetism generation - both intentional and unintentional.
Filters can take care of out-of-band noise, but inband noise needs to be dealt with differently.
Some inband interference can be reduced in effectiveness with circuits using specific
time constants that address specific noise types. One of the most successful methods
for mitigating generic noise is to limit the opportunity for noise signals to enter the
system by employing directional antennas...
 Technodrama stories were a popular means
of teaching valuable lessons back in the mid-twentieth century. Carl and Jerry,
Mac's Radio Service Shop, Sally the Service Maid - even Hobnobbing with Harbaugh
- et al, were very popular features. Popular Science magazine's Gus
Wilson's Model Garage was a gearhead equivalent. An occasional non-regular
feature appeared, as with this "Pedro
and the Swami" troubleshooting adventure in a 1959 issue of
Radio-Electronics magazine. You will like the ending. As a long-time
troubleshooter of electrical, mechanical, and hydraulic systems, I always read
these kinds of things. Pull up a chair and take a read through it; you will
appreciate the combination of reductio ad simplicitatem, reductio ad absurdum...
 News reports are full of features about
the wave of radio controlled (R/C) "drones" terrorizing citizens with their often
inexperienced pilots navigating their camera-laden craft to peer into bedroom windows,
obtain "birds-eye" views of sporting events, and to be a general pain in the posterior
to people trying to enjoy their right to privacy and safety (except, of course,
unless it is the Government choosing to violate them). Incredible advances in radio,
navigation, and sensor systems has facilitated a wide variety of very affordable
multirotor (the correct term, not "drone") aircraft that can literally fly themselves.
For under $500 you can buy a
GPS-guided multirotor that can be programmed to fly to one or more waypoints
and return to the launch location, with range and flight duration limited...
 Apologies to Chrysler aficionados for not
having similar articles for your classic automobiles, but this article from a 1957
edition of Radio & TV News only covers
Chevrolet radios. Maybe someday I will acquire editions with other models. Transistors
were fairly recent newcomers on the portable radio scene (on any radio scene for
that matter), so you will please excuse the absence of them in most radios of the
era. In fact, as evidenced by a companion article in this same edition titled "Delco's
All-Transistor Auto Radio," such newfangled devices like transistors were reserved
for top-of-the-line models like Cadillac's Eldorado Brougham. A move toward printed
circuit boards, rather than the time-honored point-to-point wiring, was well underway,
and push-button tuning was being sold to the car buying public as an indispensible
safety feature...
 One of the best ways to learn about how something
work is to build and operate it yourself. This article from a 1974 issue of Popular
Electronics magazine presents a
voice scrambler that exploits a simple spectral inversion technique to create
a mirror image of the original voice spectrum. Spectral inversion occurs whenever
the difference frequency is taken during a mixing process, so that low frequencies
are translated to the high end of the band and high frequencies are translated to
the lower end of the band. The result in the case of audio (voice) is garbled sounding
speech. It is probably the simplest form of scrambling that is easily unscrambled,
but it serves as a good learning tool...
 Germanium was "the" semiconductor of
choice in 1959 even though advances were being made with silicon. Most of the newer semiconductor
devices were being fabricated with germanium as the central transducer element. Temperature
sensors, strain gauges, "sensistor" variable resistance units, Hall effect sensors and
gyrators and circulators, torsional (twist) transducers, displacement sensors, and even
neutron detectors were done in germanium. Even though silicon is referenced as being
applicable to all the devices, it was not until the 1960s that silicon began to dominate
semiconductor fabrication. This paper titled ,"From Germanium to Silicon, A History of
Change in the Technology of the Semiconductors...
 An article written by Tom Lecklider in the
October 2005 edition of Evaluation Engineering titled "The World of the
Near Field" presented formulas for three regions of the near field that relate the
largest physical dimension of the radiator to the operational wavelength. A great
chart shows the transition
area between near field and far field. There tends to be a lot of opinions (rules
of thumb) about where the transition regions exist. There was also an article in
the February 2001 edition of Conformity entitled, "Near and Far Fields
- From Statics to Radiation" that did a good job of addressing the near field vs.
far field issue. The calculator originally on this page has been removed because
of compatibility issues with outdated Microsoft OWC components...
 When you think of "pirate radio," most likely what comes to mind is a rogue, unlicensed
transmitter that is re-broadcasting copyrighted material, syndicated shows, etc.,
on radio or television. Nowadays that would also include the Internet as a medium.
Did you know that, at least decades ago, the British government (and maybe others)
charged citizens a fee for listening to broadcasts on their household radios? That's
right, if you wanted to listen to the BBC, you would kindly remit a fee of 10 shillings
($2.50 in U.S. dollars at the time) per year. Otherwise, you were apt to have government
inspectors descend upon you and padlock your radio set - or collect the requisite
10 shillings on the spot. After a growing number of suspected dishonest British
subjects finally exceeded the reasonable level of tolerance of the government, a
clever scheme was devised to trick evil citizens into divulging their nefarious
crimes. Author Austen Fox does a great job of telling the tale. The stunt would
make a good candid camera ploy for a good laugh today, but in the 1930s when radio
waves were mysterious and even feared...
 Mankind has been fascinated with - and scared
of -
lightning since the dawn of civilization. It's incredible power has been the
cause of much property destruction and loss of life. Benjamin Franklin famously
proved that lightning is in fact a form of electrostatic discharge (he didn't "invent"
electricity). Mr. Franklin exploited that knowledge to invent grounded lightning
rods for tall buildings, thereby nearly totally halting the lightning-caused fire
epidemic in Philadelphia's and other cities' tallest wooden-framed buildings. Much
investigation and implementation of lightning discharge mitigation schemes has occurred
to safeguard against those catastrophic events. Ultimately, though, says author
David Heiserman in this 1973 Popular Electronics magazine article, "Lightning
has no sympathy for the feeble electrical schemes of civilized man..."
 This 1935 article found in Short Wave
Craft magazine quotes the
Reichs-Rundfunk Gesellschaft (Zeesen) station engineer as saying that they transmitted
with only 5 kW into the farm of directional antenna arrays, and that it was
sufficient to provide what was evidently very high quality reception to many remote
regions of the world. Adolph Hitler had become "Führer und Reichskanzler" the year
before, with plans already in the works to dominate the world. Troops invaded Poland
on September 1, 1939, officially beginning the Second World War. DJC's global reach
was used extensively for propaganda during the war. "On the Shortwaves" website
has a digitized audio file of the 78 rpm greetings record that German shortwave
radio station JDC would send to American listeners upon request...
 The
G-Line (aka G-String) RF transmission system is a rather amazing invention contrived
through out-of-the-box thinking by its inventor, Dr. George Goubau (from whence
the "G" in the name derives). He determined that a sort of waveguide could be made
with a single conductor surrounded by insulation with a specific dielectric constant
that would cause the dielectric-air interface to reflect the wave in a manner similar
to atmospheric channels that facilitate long distance communications. The G-Line
is designed to efficiently transmit UHF television signals (470 - 806 MHz),
and like a waveguide exhibits a lower cutoff frequency (~300 MHz), thus acting
like a highpass filter. G-Line has its weak points, like that it must not come near
to obstacles that will affect the dielectric-air interface or the line will radiate
like an antenna. Also, over time the insulation cracks and/or absorbs moisture and
changes the impedance parameters, thus affecting the transmission characteristics...
 If you happen to be a retired
television repairman from the era of analog broadcast and cathode ray tube (CRT)
displays, or if you have studiously read the many articles I have posted from vintage
electronics magazines about TV, then you will probably breeze right through this
themed crossword puzzle from a 1958 issue of Radio & TV News. I have
to admit to having done poorly myself, even after having been the one who posted
all that stuff. Just having a general knowledge of electronics doesn't help much
here since all the clues and words are very specific to television circuits. Still,
it's worth the challenge and if nothing else you'll learn a little more about old
time television- it really was a quite ingenious scheme for cramming...
 The old-time radio broadcasts available on
the Internet are obviously recorded version of shows made long ago. However, back
in the day those shows were
originally performed live in front of microphones and recorded
in a broadcast studio. With a cast of two or three or even more, the actors would
voice their lines with as much talent and effort as those performing for movies.
The crew usually included a group of people responsible for creating background
sound effects like horses running, car horns tooting, airplanes buzzing by, and
dogs barking. All was done real-time with split-second timing required to pull it
off and sound convincing. Radio audiences were unaware of all the work required
as they sat intently listening to the Adventures of the Lone Ranger and The Shadow.
Behind the scenes were dozens of engineers and technicians tending local radio broadcasting
equipment and all-important telephone landlines used for synchronizing stations
across the country...
 Freon has for so long been demonized as a
destroyer of the ozone layer and has so thoroughly disappeared from consumer grade
products that I had forgotten that many moons ago I and others used it on a regular
basis for
cleaning electronics assemblies. Freon 12, methyl chloroform
(aka 1,1,1-Trichloroethane ), and methyl ethyl keytone (MEK, aka butanone) were
all very common cleaners for removing contaminants prior to soldering and for removing
flux after soldering in the days of 60/40 Sn/Pb solder and RMA (rosin, mildly activated)
flux. Call me a heretic of the green movement, but I still use 60/40 rosin core
solder for all my electronics work. In fact, I just ordered a new 1-pound roll of
it from Kester, along with a bottle of liquid RMA flux. I have changed over to Pb-free
solder for plumbing, although I'm still a bit nervous when using it - especially
when soldering into installed pipes that have been plugged with a piece of bread
to (hopefully) keep the area dry long enough to sweat a good joint...
 As mentioned in the past, one of the many
great aspects of the Internet, and in particular having a website with its contents
easily found on a search engine, is occasionally being contacted by people mentioned
in one of the vintage magazine articles I have posted on RFCafe.com and AirplanesAndRockets.com,
and/or by people related to someone mentioned. Readers of Popular Electronics
magazine in the 1950's through 1970's (including me) looked forward to Carl Kohler's
many humorous electronics-related stories and illustrations a few times each year.
Carl's leading man was one of print media's first DIYers, and his wife suffered
his often less than successful escapades in a sporting manner. A few days ago, none
other than
Christoverre
Kohler, Mr. and Mrs. Carl and Sylvia Kohler's number two son (of four),
contacted me to provide some background on his parents. Christoverre happened upon
a couple of his father's articles on RF Cafe while doing a search. He was motivated
to write in response to the story entitled, "I Married a Superheterodyne!," where
I asked whether the Kohlers might have at one time lived in Syracuse, New York.
It was due to a mention of General Electric's famous Electronics Park (which is
no more). Christoverre set me straight on that matter, and provided some amazing
additional information on his parents. His father's talents were not limited...
 The dichotomy between the customer who is
worried about the service
shop owner ripping him off and the service shop owner who is worried about the
customer ripping him off is an old one. Given how even normally honest people allow
themselves a "white lie" here and there to consummate a business deal or pacify
the whims of an acquaintance, it is understandable how such suspicions come to be.
In this 1958 issue of Radio & TV News, Mac McGregor and trusty sidekick
Barney Jameson discuss how to handle customers who imply the desire for or outright
request (even demand) special consideration on repair services and/or replacement
parts. The steadfast policy of Mac's Service Shop was "cash-only" - no exceptions.
In the days before readily available credit cards and cash advances from ATMs, it
was usually up to the business to extend and take the risk for credit. Often collecting
on the promised funds consumed significant effort and on occasion resulted in failure... |
