|
 Arthur Brach created many
crossword puzzles for Popular Electronics magazine in the 1950s and
1960s. Unlike the hundreds of RF Cafe Crossword Puzzles I designed over more than
two decades, the PE puzzles usually have a few words that are not specifically related
to electronics and/or technology. Still, they are a good source of a brief break
from the day's business. You will need to print out this crossword puzzle to work
it, since it is not interactive. Have fun.
 "Fair
Trade" was a policy established in the post-WWII era in response to what consumer
retail groups considered business-ruining cost cutting by dealers who offered to
sell products at or barely above cost in order to steal profit from other stores.
So-scheming stores planned to make up for the low profit margin with high sales
volumes. Doing so drove a lot of the local competition out of business, leaving
the crafty dirty dealers to later raise prices. Stores that had manufacturer-sanctioned
service shops often got screwed because they were obligated to repair items like
TVs and radios that were bought from another dealer who did not do service work.
Profit margins on repair work - at least from honest shops - were typically very
low, so the owners depended on new product sales...
 Yowza, yowza, yowza
(The Jazz Singer),
QentComm's stock will be rising soon! "Quantum technology is already alive and
well in telecom networks, and although security is the top-of-mind use case, telcos
are also looking at quantum to make networks more resilient and transmit information
more quickly. Comcast announced this week it completed a trial with AMD and Classiq
that leveraged quantum software to find independent backup paths for network sites.
Elsewhere, Deutsche Telekom and Qunnect successfully demonstrated
quantum teleportation over an existing fiber network in Berlin..."
 The persona of Scott Adams' "Dilbert" is
described exactly in the opening sentence of this article in a 1930 edition of
Radio-Craft magazine. It is amazing - if not frustrating - to realize how
long the perception of science-minded people being introverts has been around. Dilbert's
"pointy-haired-boss" is nailed in the second sentence.
Georg von Arco is celebrated here as a major contributor to the
advancement of early radio, particularly wireless telegraphy equipment development.
Interestingly, as brought to my attention by Melanie as she did the text clean-up
after OCRing the magazine page, von Arco worked at the Sayville radio transmission
station on Long Island, New York, where the Telefunken Company's Dr. K.G. Frank
was arrested and interred for the duration of the World War I for sending out
"unneutral messages...
 Lots of Hams still use this tried-and-true
system for
tuning antennas for efficient operation on a variety of bands.
There are plenty of multi-band designs that rely on traps to reactively isolate
portions of the antenna that properly resonate at the desired frequency, but there
is usually a price to be paid in VSWR. Poor VSWR; i.e., higher mismatch loss, can
be overcome with higher transmitter output power, but the real sacrifice for poor
matching is loss of receiving range. The utter simplicity of using an insulated
cord to vary the physical length of the antenna element(s) for tuning is hard to
beat. It could be impractical on a setup where access to the antenna mount is difficult,
but my guess is most people can make good use of it...
 In this 1958 Popular Science magazine
article titled "Russian
Proposes Global TV," Soviet engineer V. Petrov proposed a global TV relay using
three geosynchronous satellites at 35,800 km altitude, launched 120° apart from
the equator at ~6,000 mph to match Earth's 24-hour rotation. Fixed over sites like
the USSR, China, and USA, they would relay signals - uplink on meter waves, downlink
on microwaves - via inter-satellite links, enabling worldwide broadcasts beyond
line-of-sight limits with directional antennas mitigating solar interference. Each
would require 10-kW antenna power, potentially reduced via pulsed transmission (note
digital waveforms in the drawing). This closely mirrored Arthur C. Clarke's 1945
Wireless World article "Extra-Terrestrial Relays," which...
 Frequency crowding has evidently been an
issue since the early days of radio according to this 1930 article in Radio-Craft
magazine. The situation was really bad in the earliest times when unfiltered spark
type transmitters were the norm. Those pioneers could be credited, I suppose, with
being the first users of wideband communications, but it was not because they chose
to do so. Here author Clyde Fitch discusses the debate over whether there really
were such things as sidebands from modulation and makes an argument for their existence
based on analysis of various types of modulation. In particular, he predicts the
coming popularity of single sideband receivers with crystal-filtered channels, and
the need for matching SSB transmitters with... wait for it... carrier and sideband
suppression...
 "A new transceiver developed by electrical
engineers at the University of California, Irvine boosts radio frequencies into
140-gigahertz territory, unlocking data speeds that rival those of physical
fiber-optic cables and laying the groundwork for a transition to 6G and FutureG
data transmission protocols. To create the transceiver, researchers in UC Irvine's
Samueli School of Engineering devised a unique architecture that blends digital
and analog processing. The result is a silicon chip system, comprising both a transmitter
and a receiver, that's capable of processing digital signals significantly faster..."
 Somehow, after being in the RF business
for four decades, I have to admit to not being familiar with the term
"acceptance angle" for antennas. That is after having read scores
of articles on antennas. Maybe I did and just don't remember - embarrassing. Acceptance
angle is mentioned and explained in this article during the description of rhombic
antenna characteristics versus dipoles and multi-element designs. Although the author
focuses on television installations, information provided on signal reflections,
shadowing, ghosting, multipath, etc., is applicable to radio as well...
 Electrolytic capacitors have long been the
components that provide the highest capacitance density factor, that is, they have
the highest capacitance value for a given volume of space occupied. Anyone familiar
with electrolytic capacitors is aware of the polarization indicated on the package
(a marking or unique physical feature), indicating that there is required direction
for hookup; in fact, a backwards connection can lead to an explosive failure. While
physical construction of electrolytic capacitors have evolved over the decades since
this article was published, the fundamental operation has not. It is interesting
to note the reference to capacitors as "condensers," a name still commonly used
with internal combustion engine ignition systems and with some AC motors that use
them at turn-on for providing a starting coil phase shift...
 This 1959 Popular Science magazine
reprint of a 1925 Radio News magazine article focused is on visionary physicist
Robert H. Goddard's proposed Moon Rocket as a means to test
whether radio waves can traverse interstellar space, potentially enabling communication
with other planets. Amid recent radio achievements, including mysterious signals
during Mars' approach and solar disturbances recorded on Earth, the piece challenges
Oliver Heaviside's theory that radio waves are confined by Earth's atmosphere. Goddard's
innovative rocket, propelled by successive explosive charges to escape gravity and
reach the Moon, would carry a compact radio transmitter in its nose cone, broadcasting
signals throughout its flight. Astronomers would track...
 This week's
crossword puzzle, as with all RF Cafe puzzles, uses only words
pertaining to engineering, science, mathematics, mechanics, chemistry, astronomy,
etc. You will never find a reference to some obscure geological feature or city,
or be asked to recall the name of some numbnut movie star or fashion designer. You
will, however, need to know the name of a famous RF filter design software author.
Enjoy...
 "Broadband achromatic wavefront control
plays a central role in next-generation photonic technologies, including full-color
imaging and multi-spectral sensing. A research team led by Professor Yijun Feng
and Professor Ke Chen at Nanjing University has now reported a significant advance
in this field in PhotoniX. The researchers introduced a hybrid-phase cooperative
dispersion-engineering approach that combines Aharonov-Anandan (AA) and Pancharatnam–Berry
(PB) geometric phases within a single-layer metasurface. This strategy enables
independent achromatic control of wavefronts for two different light spin states..."
 As with the article in this month's issue
of Radio-Craft magazine (December 1937), the reference to a 200th anniversary
is understated by 88 years for 2025.
Luigi Galvani was sort of the Benjamin Franklin of biology in
that just as Franklin demonstrated that lightning was a form of electricity, Galvani
showed that signals sent from the brains to the appendages of animals were electrical
in nature. In my high school days in the 1970s, we duplicated his experiment by
making deceased frogs' legs twitch when motivated by a D cell. Today, such an exercise
would likely be met with demonstrations by animal rights people (whose lives, BTW,
have probably in some way been improved as a result of previous such experiments).
But, I digress. Mr. Galvani's name is...
 Superheterodyne receivers were originally
the sole domain of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), which owned the patents
and refused to license them until around 1930. Hugo Gernsback, a contemporary editor
of the era, provides a little insight into the superregenerative receiver circuits
superheterodyne was about to replace, and why it was an important improvement in
technology. Sidebar: The question often
arises regarding the difference between a "heterodyne" circuit and a "superheterodyne"
circuit. The most popular answer that "super" refers to the IF being located above
the range of human hearing, which peaks at about 15 kHz. Doing so assured that
any IF leakage into the audio circuits would not be discernable by a radio...
 Carl and Jerry stories are usually a good
mixture of teenage curiosity, adventure, and electronics technology, but this "Out
of the Depths" episode is a bit too far-fetched. The first ninety percent of
this 1957 Popular Electronics magazine tale fulfills expectations, with
the boys applying their shared interest in technology while attempting to learn
and apply the technique of luring elusive fish from their safe dwelling places and
onto the ends of their hooks. A car battery, DC-to-AC inverter, tape recorder, and
high-gain microphone are the basis for the scheme. Things were going well, and I
expected the normal hard-fought victory with big, fat bass in their creels - and
then something only slightly more believable than finding a crashed alien spaceship...
 RCA, the
Radio Corporation of America was not merely a manufacturer of
radio, television, and phonograph equipment for home entertainment. The company
also made vacuum tubes for all sots of electronic equipment, and produced a weekly
radio broadcast called "Magic Key" on the NBC Blue Network. Sticking to their communications
roots, RCA today markets televisions, microwave ovens, Android-based tablet computers,
DVD / Blu Ray drives, telephones, 2-way radios, radios, clocks, antennas, and many
other devices - with no tubes in sight, not even in their TV displays...
 "Scientists at the University of New Hampshire
are using artificial intelligence to dramatically speed up the search for
new magnetic materials. Their approach has produced a searchable database containing
67,573 magnetic materials, including 25 previously unknown compounds that retain
their magnetism at high temperatures, a key requirement for many real-world applications.
'By accelerating the discovery of sustainable magnetic materials, we can reduce
dependence on rare earth elements, lower the cost of electric vehicles and renewable
energy systems, and strengthen the U.S. manufacturing base,' said Suman Itani, lead
author of the study..."
 Breaking News!
Espresso
Engineering Workbook™ v3.2.2026 has just been released. This makes the 49th
worksheet added. It calculates magnitude, phase, and group delay for Butterworth
and Chebyshev lowpass, highpass, bandpass, and bandstop filters. Outside of the
kilobuck simulators, finding a calculator for phase and group delay is extremely
difficult - believe me, I've searched extensively for years. Espresso Engineering
Workbook™ can be downloaded free of charge. All you need is Excel™ v2007 or newer.
It is provided compliments of my advertisers. Contact me if you would like your
company added to the next release.
 Disneyland opened its gates in Anaheim,
California on July 17, 1955. It was billed as the most high-tech theme park in the
world, with a "wow" factor on par with the World's Fair extravaganzas. One of its
much-ballyhooed features was the "realistic" jungle safari tour with life-like animal
automatons and authentic 3-D jungle sounds. This article, published less than a
year after opening day, highlights some of the equipment and methods used by artists
and engineers to achieve the effects...
 Established in 1990,
dB Control supplies mission-critical,
often sole-source, products worldwide to military organizations, as well as to major
defense contractors and commercial manufacturers. dB Control designs and manufactures
high-power TWT amplifiers, microwave power modules, transmitters, high- and low-voltage
power supplies, and modulators for radar, ECM, and data link applications. Modularity
enables rapid configuration of custom products for a variety of platforms, including
ground-based and high-altitude military manned and unmanned aircraft...
 You will love the irony at the end of this
Carl Kohler technodrama. It appeared in the June 1957 issue of Popular Electronics
magazine. I'm not going to spoil it by even hinting at the conclusion - only that
the story follows the familiar path of the dauntless husband-electronic-hobbyist
taking off on another of his somewhat hair-brained ideas, while "friend-wife" looks
on. Her self-restraint is tested, as usual - although she jabs with some uncharacteristically
harsh zingers this time. Have you noticed how men are expected to be self-deprecating
in situations in order to create humor? The technology here was considered bleed-edge
back in the day. BTW, I fed the husband's humor bait to AI and it came up with some
pretty good responses - like what had been expected by him. AI came up with
a long name for FUNIAC (clearly a play on names like UNIVAC and ENIAC)...
 "The Whistler
and His Dog" is one of those tunes that you have probably heard dozens of times
but never knew the title of it (video at bottom of page).
It is mentioned in this installment of "Mac's Radio Service Shop" from a 1948 edition
of Radio & Television News magazine. Barney is said to have been whistling
it while replacing an output transformer on a receiver-recorder... a wire recorder
at that. The "20 Questions" theme is from the game where the player attempts to
guess the answer by asking a series of questions that narrows the possible results
until only the correct one is left - aka deductive reasoning. BTW, I'll bet "The Syncopated Clock" is another tune you've
heard many times but didn't know the title of it...
 Have you noticed how many wooden utility
poles are
bending under the load of communications cable weight they were never designed
to withstand? Some are ridiculously burdened - and it is not "engineered deflection"
for line tension changes. Power companies want to charge the communications companies
for pole and/or cross bar replacement and/or upgrading, but the FCC just ruled that
pole owners cannot charge the full cost of replacement. That financial deficit,
of course, gets passed on to electric power customers. You wonder why your monthly
bill has skyrocketed in the last few years? That is part of it - along with
us peoples subsidizing wind and solar generation, and paying for free Internet and
cellphones to half the population (including Illlegals). Do you fell violated? I
do.
 Radio-Craft magazine solicited inputs
from its readers for a series of "Radio
WittiQuiz" questions and answers related to radio and electronic, with a stipulation
being that there had to be some aspect of humor included. That meant that some of
the multiple choice answer options needed to be inane. For most of the questions,
the process of elimination is pretty easy, but a couple could cause some head scratching
- especially if you are not really sure of the answer. This group starts at number
28, so obviously preceding issues had questions 1 through 27. At some point I will
probably acquire them and post other Radio WittiQuizzes...
 Having never been a sports aficionado, I
have not spent much money or time at baseball, football, or soccer fields, hockey
rinks, bowling alleys, curling sheets, or basketball courts. When an air show comes
to town, however, I'm there. I'll stand in line for 45 minutes to tour the inside
of a DC-3, B-25, B-17, PBY-5, or just about anything that will admit me. What is
particularly enjoyable is inspecting the radio equipment racks and bays. The sight
and smell (I consider it an aroma) of the old UHF
and VHF sets, recording equipment, power supplies, generators, synchros, and the
associated wiring and connectors is something I never tire of experiencing. I always
imagine the men who operated and maintained everything doing their assigned duties
to keep those wonderful machines flying...
|
 • China's
BeiDou Satellite (their GPS) Does Emergency Messaging
• How & When Will
Memory Chip Shortage End?
• At Age 25, Wikipedia
Refuses to Evolve
• Amazon Leo Asks FCC for
Satellite Launch Extension
• FCC Gives
Amazon OK for 4,500 More Satellites
• China
Memory Producers Race to Exploit Shortage
 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.
 J.K. Bach (not Johann [J.]S.) was amazingly
prescient in 1944 with the specific types of RF-based devices that would come to
be common place in our modern world. Dig this: "Radar
can even be applied to the home, as a burglar-alarm, for example, or to detect
obstructions on the cellar steps. Electronic devices will find many other uses as
high-frequency paint-dryers, veneer-gluers, and even cordless permanent-waving machines
for the ladies. Garage-door openers and other remote-control devices are not only
possible but practical. Then there are certain to be other applications such as
personal pedestrian telephones, two-way wrist-radios and nursery baby-cry announcing
systems." Nostradamus' divination record might not even be that good. His tongue-in-cheek
thesis of ubiquitous RF interference due to the presence of Ham radio operators
is not far off either, although the accused "menace" would have to be extended to
include all the many varied emissive devices...
 Cesium-137, iodine-131, carbon-14, plutonium-239,
strontium-90, uranium-235, and the list goes on. These and other
radioisotopes associated with nuclear material are the result of
explosions, medical treatments, laboratory experiments, or in some cases
naturally occurring deposits. Regardless of the source, most people, including
me, cringe at the thought of being exposed to the insidious effects of the
cell-altering energy they possess. Ionizing radiation is the dangerous type of
radiation due to its ability to dislodge electrons from atoms, and in the
process forming cancerous cell mutations or killing the cells altogether.
Researchers in the early days of radiation discovery experienced sometimes
gruesome maladies as a result of the handling isotopes. Some knowingly subjected
themselves to harmful doses...
 When the electronics product world consisted
of vacuum tube based circuits, the physical sizes of standard fixed-value passive
resistors, inductors, and capacitors were not of much concern in terms of
how much volume they consumed. R's, L's, and C's, had wire leads protruding from
their molded bodies, or in the case of larger power supply filtering capacitors
had solderable tabs. Point-to-point wiring consisted of components and hookup
wire suspended in the air between solder terminal strips and tube base tabs.
Even with miniature (peanut) tubes, all but the largest passives had no
significant impact on overall unit size. Once semiconductors came onto the
scene, everything changed. Suddenly, even the standard 1/4 W carbon resistor and
tantalum capacitor became a significant factor when attempting to reduce size...
 This is really clever. Appearing in the March
1955 edition of Popular Electronics magazine, "The
Electronic Husband" article is one wife's attempt to quantify her husband's
interest in all things electronic by adapting forms of Ohm's Law to fit observed
behavior. In the process of writing the parody, Mrs. Jeanne DeGood demonstrates
an impressive basic knowledge of Mr. DeGood's second passion (Mrs. DeGood
being his first, presumably). After all the articles that Melanie has proof read
for me, she knows a lot of these equations just as well, even if she doesn't know
what they mean...
 Bypass capacitors play a vitally important
role in electronic circuit design. Many people do not know the proper way for deciding
which capacitor or capacitors is/are needed for effective noise and/or signal bypassing
without either overdoing or underdoing it. Needs change over the years as frequencies
and signal characteristics occupy new realms of the spectrum. A Fourier analysis
of some of today's complicated waveshapes for switching power supplies shows how
sometimes tailored responses to bypassing is required. This article from the January
1962 Popular Electronics magazine does not delve into the intricacies of complex filters,
but it does provide a nice introduction to the need for bypassing and how to stand
a good...
 We hit the
electronics-themed comics mother lode with the December 1955 issue of Radio-Electronics
magazine. Maybe it was considered a Christmas present for the readers (those like
me who appreciate such features). Eight; count 'em; eight. Some months have none
at all. I was so appreciative that I went to the trouble to add color (all were
originally B&W). Even nearly seven decades hence, you can still appreciate the
humor as you remember that in the days vacuum tube equipment there was a lot of
self-service and in-home service being done, causing plenty of comical (to those
not affected) scenarios to ensue...
 One day in late spring of 1973 I found myself
walking around the gymnasium of Annapolis Junior High School (AJHS) trying to decide
which courses I would prefer upon beginning tenth grade the following fall. It was
one of the final days of ninth grade, which had been by far my least happy year
in school. Living in Mayo, Maryland, I and my fellow neighborhood ninth graders
should have attended Southern Senior High School (SSHS) in Harwood, Maryland, where
our predecessors had gone for ninth grade, but overcrowding caused the Anne Arundel
School Board wizards to decide that for at least that year, we would remain at AJHS
for another term. Historically, kids from my area went to AJHS only for seventh
and eighth grades and then switched to SSHS. Annapolis, being the capital city of
Maryland, was significantly more urban than the rural areas to which SSHS type people
were accustomed. The clientele was much more aggressive in the big city. Sure, we
had our "red neck greaser" rowdies in the southern part of the county, but at least
their parents would whip them if they got caught getting into trouble...
 Very few people these days would have any
clue as to the causes of the CRT-type
TV picture problems shown here - I certainly don't, even after
looking at the answers (except for #4, which is pretty obvious given the choices
offered). What I can claim is to have likely seen each one of those types of issues
with all the cheap TV sets I've owned (especially #9). My current 26" LCD television
(I only own one TV), which is ten years old this year, is still working fine and
never displays any of those funny patterns. In the days of the Macs TV Service Shop
stories, survival in the business...
 The subtitle of this article from a 1971 issue
of Popular Electronics, "From Quackery to Speculation to Programmed People," could to some
extent still be applicable even though the author evidently meant to put an end
to the "quackery" and "speculation" part of it. Indeed, a lot of advancement has
been made in the fields of electrostimulation of weak or/or paralyzed muscles,
healing of certain types of soft and hard tissues, suppressing sporadic muscle
twitching and epileptic seizures, and other malady diagnosis and relief.
Specifically tuned microwave frequencies have proven useful in healing and
symptom relief as well. As with most articles on medical procedures, I cringe at
some of the photos, like the "skin tunnel transformer" where an implanted
subcutaneous coil...
 Feedback has been widely misunderstood by
many electronics enthusiasts, even those who have a fairly extensive background
in circuit design (that which does not involve
feedback). In fact, there have been instances of articles being printed in magazines
like Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics, etc., where the
authors got relatively simple feedback equations wrong due to improper summing
of nodes, necessitating a correction in a later issue based on reader feedback
(a convenient and appropriate word for this comment). This article discusses
feedback in audio circuits to avoid distortion, but the concepts apply to any
frequency of operation. It is possible in many cases to implement
seat-of-the-pants feedback schemes successfully, but if you need a specific
response and guaranteed stability...
 Did you know RCA (Radio Corporation of America)
used to manufacture and sell oscilloscopes? The
Model 155-C
oscilloscope was promoted quite aggressively in the mid 1940s as a breakthrough
instrument. A quick Google search shows that not many survived, and they are not
particularly sought-after by vintage test equipment collectors. It seems the quality
of the metal chassis was not very good, although the electronics get high marks.
You can pick one up on eBay occasionally for fairly cheap. Oscilloscope Museum has
an example of an RCA 155-C oscilloscope (lots of links on the page to images, manual,
etc., but they can be hard to find)...
 The newest release of RF Cafe's spreadsheet
(Excel) based engineering and science calculator is now available -
Espresso Engineering Workbook™. Among other additions, it now has a Butterworth
Bandpass Calculator, and a Highpass Filter Calculator that does not just gain, but
also phase and group delay! Since 2002,
the original Calculator Workbook has been available as a free download.
Continuing the tradition, RF Cafe Espresso Engineering Workbook™ is
also provided at no cost,
compliments of my generous sponsors. The original calculators 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, wavelength, weight, etc. In fact, a full page of units conversion calculators
is included. A particularly handy feature is the ability to specify the the number
of significant digits to display. Drop-down menus are provided for convenience...
 Here is another one of those ads you would
not likely see in a present day engineering magazine. Today, you'll routinely find
racier images in JC Penny and Target advertisements (although in the latter example
the girl might not be a real girl). Loral Electronics is a well-known defense systems
contractor founded in the late 1940s by William Lorenz
and Leon Alpert. Loral specialized in aerospace and avionics
(airborne) systems like radar, radios, satellite navigation and communications.
They also had a component distribution division which sold, among other items, the
Arcolytic capacitors represented in this 1968 Radio-Electronics magazine
promotion. Lockheed Martin bought Loral in 1996, the same year Loral was accused
of transferring missile stabilization technology to China, which was useful in their
Long March intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program.
 Although "Citizens Band" (CB) is the common reference to these unlicensed
two-way radio service transceivers, the official name for the spectrum allocated
by the FCC to their operation is "Citizens Band Radio Service" (CBRS). It was originally
called just "Citizens Radio Service," but the popular use of "Band" caused the FCC
to incorporate the additional term later on. Early Part 95 Class D citizens band
radios offered up to 23 channels in the 11-meter band from 26.965 MHz through
27.255 MHz. CB radio channels increased to 40 in 1977 due to the immense popularity
at the time (long before cellphones) - recall the "Convoy" song. The 11-meter band
was re-allocated from the amateur radio spectrum in 1958 (to the great dismay of
Hams). CB radios are still used heavily by truckers who don't like the idea of "Big
Brother" listening to and recording conversations...
 Everyone who is interested enough in microwave
diodes to read this article surely knows* what IMPATT, GUNN, and PIN diodes are, but
have you heard of Read-effect, TRAPATT, LSA, or QMD diodes? If not, it is likely because
you entered the microwaves field long after 1969 when this edition of Electronics
World was mailed to subscribers. Device improvement and obsolescence accounts for
familiarity with the former and unfamiliarity with the latter, respectively. The article
below by two Sylvania Electronic Products engineers describes the properties of various
up-and-...
 Hobbyists in the technical realm have in
many ways contributed mightily to the advancement of professional scientific knowledge
and practice. This is partly because many hobbyists are also career technologists,
but the majority are tinkerers, experimenters and otherwise participants who come
from all walks of life geographically, economically, professionally, and socially.
Just as with university and corporate laboratories, some of the discoveries are
the result of structured, preconceived plans of action and designs of experiments
with certain goals in mind; many, however, are due to serendipitous events that
are recognized by their participants as being significant. Such is the case of "TV
DX" as related in this 1958 Radio-Electronics magazine story. TV DX
is the use of unique opportunities in the atmosphere's ionization state to facilitate
signal transmission and reception at distance much greater than normally experienced.
Data collected by amateurs were, during the era of over-the-air VHF and VHF television
broadcasting, included in studies and theories created by professional scientists
and engineers to help better understand and predict communications phenomena - both
for exploitation and for interference avoidance. The same is true today for other
areas...
 Francis A. Gicca, manager of Raytheon's
Space Communications Systems, published a very extensive two-part article in
Electronics World magazine in 1969. Part 1 covered Score through
Intelsat II satellites which launched between from December 1958 and December
1968, respectively, in the July 1969 issue. Part 2 begins with Intelsat III,
which commenced operation in September 1968. Rather than reiterating the article's
contents, I will offer an anecdote about the altitude used by geostationary satellites,
which is 22,300 miles. In the early 1990s, I worked for a few years at COMSAT Laboratories
(Communications Satellite Corporation, famous for involvement in both Intelsat and
Inmarsat), in Clarksburg, Maryland. The mailing address there was 22300 Comsat Drive...
 October 11th's custom
Wireless Technology themed crossword puzzle contains only only words from my
custom-created lexicon related to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry,
physics, astronomy, etc. (1,000s of them). 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, find someone or something in the otherwise excluded
list directly related to this puzzle's technology theme, such as Hedy Lamarr or
the Bikini Atoll, respectively. The technically inclined cruciverbalists amongst
us will appreciate the effort. |
