|
 Of the scores of Mac's Service Shop stories
I have read and posted here on RF Cafe, this is the first that deals with a subject
near and dear to author John Frye - the plight of handicapped people. If you don't
know, Mr. Frye had been confined to a wheelchair for most of his life. "Electronics
and the Handicapped" is essentially the story of his life, though he does not
say so. Mac: "When I was a kid growing up in a little Arkansas town, I knew a crippled
boy whose dad ran the local garage." Guess where John grew up? His father owned
a machine shop, and made gadgets to help his crippled son. "I had never heard the
term 'respo' until you told me about a month ago it was the nickname for a victim
of respiratory polio." He had polio at 18 months old...
 Very few items from my early days here on
Earth have escaped destruction or disposal. A couple dozen household moves in the
last half century have been responsible for some of it. Oddly, one thing that survived
is a box full of old letters and greeting cards - dating back to the late 1960s.
Melanie has been scanning her and my items for a more permanent record, and ran
across this letter of praise written from the administrator of the
Annapolis Vocational Technical Center, where I studied for the electrical trade
in high school. The linked page has information on the AVTC and my time there...
 "With $800 of off-the-shelf equipment and
months' worth of patience, a team of U.S. computer scientists set out to find out
how well geostationary satellite communications are encrypted. And what they found
was shocking. Close to half of the communications beamed from satellites to the
ground that the researchers were
able to listen in on were not encrypted. This included sensitive data including
cellular text messages, voice calls, as well as sensitive military information,
data from internal corporate and bank networks, and the in-flight online activity
of airline passengers. The research team, led by Aaron Schulman and Nadia Heninger,
then set out to find out which companies and government agencies were failing to
encrypt data in order to contact them and disclose the vulnerabilities..."
 This is one of the earliest examples I have
seen (and I've seen many) of an electronics article that was written in a conversational
tone rather than in the heretothen[sic] stoic, all-business type prose. In fact,
you would be hard pressed to discern it from a contemporary article in QST
magazine. Author Davis describes his process of interfacing 52 Ω coaxial
cable to his multi-element beam antenna. The
gamma match has the advantage in such an application of being
usable when the center of a driven element is directly grounded to the antenna boom. Most
other types of feed systems...
 According to the
RadioMuseum.com website, B.F. Goodrich manufactured the
Mantola line of radio receivers. It was evidently a low quality,
low price, short-lived run of models. The simplicity of the schematic shows the
low parts count. A lack of multipole filter circuits likely means selectivity was
fairly marginal. One good feature is that unlike many earlier radios and TVs, the
AC line connection to the chassis is DC-isolated through a 150 kΩ resistor.
Look at the schematics of older sets and it is not uncommon to see one line of the
AC supply tied directly to the metal electronics chassis. An isolation transformer
right at the input is the safest way to do it...
 This article describes an
electronically steerable aperiodic loop antenna developed that claims superior
beam pinpointing on targets with high gain in minimal space for high-frequency signals
(2-32 MHz) via ionosphere, akin to linear arrays. Comprising 36 untuned balanced
loops, each about 1 meter in diameter with transistorized preamplifiers, arranged
on a 150-foot circular perimeter, the system weighs roughly 12 pounds per element
and withstands 100 mph winds. Phase shifts enable simultaneous beams every 10° through
360°, or commutator scanning for direction finding, equating to 18 rhombic antennas
at 10° intervals...
 Although this "Algebra
in Electronic Design" article in the February 1952 issue of Radio-Electronics
magazine does not claim to be the second part of author Edmund Berkeley's "Light
Sensitive Electronic Beast" article from the previous December's issue, it does
help to know that the "Squee" mentioned here came from there. Squee is a Robot Squirrel
which has four sensing organs, three acting organs, and a small electronic and relay
brain. "Although Squee is not a very clever robot, he does have a small amount of
memory and of reasoning ability." Boolean logic (aka Boolean algrbra), a common
part of modern electronic circuits and systems...
 Sam Benzacar, of Anatech Electronics, an
RF and microwave filter company, has published his January 2026 Newsletter that,
along with timely news items, features his short op-ed entitled "The
Internet of Things Has Finally Grown Up." Sam points out how the expectations
of wireless connectivity to all aspects of our everyday lives have transitioned
from a science fiction daydream to a reality that now constitutes a critical aspect
of modern-day existence. The Dick Tracy wristwatch is no longer a comic prop; it
is reality. In fact, so commonplace are such technological wonders that young kids
even wear them to school - not just super cops. Factory automation no longer relies
on massive bundles of wires, but on high-speed, ultra-reliable wireless...
 Technological prescience refers to the rare
ability to accurately foresee or anticipate future technological developments, inventions,
or trends well in advance of their realization. It combines deep technical insight,
pattern recognition from historical precedents, and intuitive leaps about scientific
trajectories. In practice, it's undervalued today amid hype cycles (e.g., metaverse
flops vs. steady AI progress). True prescience demands skepticism of short-term
trends and focus on exponential laws like computing power doubling. Few possess
it; most "futurists" recycle buzzwords. The comic artist who drew this comic for
a 1968 issue of Electronics World magazine probably had no idea how spot-on
he was.
 Anritsu has just released an application
note entitled, "Basics of Eye Pattern
Analysis." It is available as a free download on their website, but you do have
register for it. "Eye pattern analysis using the sampling oscilloscope is an effective
method for evaluating signal quality in the physical layer of high-speed digital
systems. This application note explains the basic terms used for eye pattern analysis
and methods for evaluating the performance of optical modules...
 Belmont Radio Corporation was located in
Chicago, Illinois. Founded independently sometime the 1920s, it became a subsidiary
of Raytheon Manufacturing after World War II in an effort to quickly launch
the Raytheon into nascent consumer FM radio and television markets. Belmont advertisements
were prominent in electronics trade magazines throughout the 1940s to promote their
war efforts. A schematic and parts list for this
Belmont Model 5240 receiver appeared in the July 1948 edition
of Radio News magazine...
 Recent in 1967, that is. These half dozen
developments made the headlines in Electronics World magazine in February
of the year. Solid-state electronics was rapidly gaining on the traditional vacuum
tube, and the
new technologies were glomming onto the trend. Lasers, integrated circuits,
computer-aided design, superconductors, and similar technologies were moving from
the realm of science fiction to reality. Operational power levels were still relatively
low, and physical sizes were still rather large and heavy, but as history has shown,
incremental improvements happen quickly. More than half a century later, compare
these news items to their modern equivalents or descendants. ICs have...
 Did you know that some radio service equipment
can be financed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)?
That's right, if your business needs a new tube tester or maybe an oscilloscope,
Uncle Sam is there to help. That was in 1936, anyway, per this
Radio-Craft news blurb. Today, of course, the FHA no longer
makes loans for business equipment - the Small Business Administration (SBA) takes
care of that. Nowadays the FHA restricts itself to home loans - including to illegal
residents and otherwise traditionally unqualified. Also reported, among lots of
other interesting stuff, is some early instances of RFI (radio frequency interference)
emanating from...
 Nothing to see here, folks; conspiracy theorists
just move along. This article appeared in the UK Telegraph on 1/12/2026.
"Uncovered: Secret room beneath Chinese embassy that poses threat to City Telegraph
obtains unredacted plans showing how close the underground complex will come to
cables carrying sensitive British financial data. China is to build a hidden chamber
alongside Britain's most sensitive communication cables as part of a
network of 208 secret
rooms beneath its new London 'super-embassy.' This newspaper has uncovered detailed
plans for an underground complex below the vast diplomatic site in central London.
Despite the apparent security risk, Sir Keir Starmer is expected to approve the
embassy..."
 How often have we all mistaken "spooks"
for
Barkhausen oscillations? Yeah, it's embarrassing, but we've all
done it. I can't tell you how many times as a kid I saw the tell-tale effects on
our old black and white TV and said, "Mom, can you remind Dad to do something about
those dang Barkhausen oscillations when he gets home from the newspaper office?"
If you believe that line of bull hockey, I've got some waterfront property in the
Sahara Desert to sell you. The only thing close to 'Barkhausen' I might have known
back then was the name of a German beer house on Hogan's Heroes. Anyway, this article,
written in the days of over-the-air television broadcasts, presents a solution to...
 Exodus Advanced Communications, is a multinational
RF communication equipment and engineering service company serving both commercial
and government entities and their affiliates worldwide. Exodus'
AMP20175 pulse amplifier is designed for Pulse/HIRF, EMC/EMI Mil-Std 461/464,
and Radar applications. Providing superb pulse fidelity 4.0-8.0 GHz, 6 kW
typical, and up to 150 µsec pulse widths. Duty cycles to 10% with a minimum
68 dB gain. Available monitoring parameters for Forward/Reflected power in
watts and dBm, VSWR, voltage, current, and temperature sensing for outstanding reliability
and ruggedness in a compact configuration...
 Arthur Collins founded the
Collins Radio Company in 1933 to enter the fledgling domestic
AM broadcast market. His equipment instantly became renowned for high quality and
reliability. Collins gained early notoriety as the result of being selected by Admiral
Richard Byrd for his South Pole expedition. The U.S. military took notice and the
company quickly earned a reputation as a preferred supplier of aviation communications
equipment both for commercial and military aviation. As seen in this 1946 advertisement
in Radio News, Trans World Airlines proudly employed Collins radio equipment
in its fleet of Lockheed Constellation (aka "Connie")...
 Alliance Test Equipment sells
used / refurbished test
equipment and offers short- and long-term rentals. They also offer repair, maintenance
and calibration. Prices discounted up to 80% off list price. Agilent/HP, Tektronix,
Anritsu, Fluke, R&S and other major brands. A global organization with ability
to source hard to find equipment through our network of suppliers. Alliance Test
will purchase your excess test equipment in large or small lots. Blog posts offer
advice on application and use of a wide range of test equipment. Please visit Allied
Test Equipment today to see how they can help your project.
 In this 1968 "Macs Service Shop" entitled
"The
Laser - Toy or Tool?," Mac educates Barney on lasers, from Einstein's 1917 stimulated
emission theory and Townes & Schawlow's 1958 optical maser to Maiman's 1960
ruby crystal laser using a mirrored rod pumped by flash tubes for coherent, narrow-beam
red light. He highlights properties like focusability (1/10,000th cm spot), minimal
divergence (200 ft at 25 miles), and applications: surgery (retina welding, scalpels),
metal cutting, ICBM/satellite defense, precise ranging, gyroscopes, altimeters,
auto modeling, 118-mile / 10-TV-channel communications, high-speed...
 "2025 saw telecom giants accelerate their
integration efforts of non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) to bridge connectivity gaps
and future-proof the sector. As the industry further shifts from viewing satellites
as standalone solutions to critical components of
hybrid terrestrial-NTN architectures, here we look back at some of the top stories
and key developments over this past year. Satellite and terrestrial integration
A 2025 survey showed that NTNs are viewed by the telecom industry as reinforcing
service reliability and adding an extra layer of network redundancy to 5G. This
view increasingly makes the convergence of satellites..."
 Before the current generation began destroying
its hearing with smartphone earbuds, their parents and grandparents (that includes
me) destroyed our hearing* with ridiculously powerful loudspeakers, often in boom
boxes perched on shoulders right next to the ears (not me). The "concert hall" -
or concert auditorium - experience has been long sought-after since recorded music
has been available, which has only been about a century. As evidenced by the sudden
increase in articles and advertisements in my growing collection of
vintage electronics magazines, the early and mid 1950s saw a sudden
swell of articles promoting the equally swelling supply of high fidelity (hifi)
recording and playback...
 As with most things of consumer, commercial,
and industrial nature, the battery - more correctly "cell" - science has come a
long way in a relatively short time. Alessandro Volta invented the eponymous
voltaic pile in 1799; it consisted of zinc and copper electrodes
immersed in a sulfuric acid electrolyte, thereby being a wet cell. The first dry
cell was the zinc-carbon type invented by Guiseppe Zamboni (not the guy who invented
the ice rink resurfacer) in 1812. Rechargeable dry cells of the NiCad variety hit
the scene in 1899. Then, it wasn't until 1991 - a century later - that Sony commercialized
the Li-Ion cell (and varieties thereof) that now dominates...
 Johanson Dielectrics and
Johanson Technology, located in
Camarillo, CA, are now supporting RF Cafe's publication. Johanson Technology designs
and manufactures RF & microwave ceramic chip capacitors, inductors and integrated
passives. These includes chip-format antennas, capacitors, lowpass, highpass, and
bandpass filters, couplers, inductors, baluns, power dividers, substrates, chipsets.
 Johanson Dielectrics has produced ceramic
chip capacitors for over 60 years. They design and manufacture capacitors that include
standard and high-voltage SMT ceramic chip capacitors, as well as a variety of standard
and custom high voltage & high capacitance value ceramic capacitors.
Please return the favor by exploring their offerings when planning your projects!
 Allen Kushner's (Times Wire and Cable) 1968
Electronics World magazine article portrays
coaxial cables as essential microwave components with impedance, power-handling,
attenuation, time-delay, and shielding traits that must hold steady over broad frequency,
temperature, and harsh environmental conditions like moisture, corrosion, and flexing.
Optimal use demands impedance matching for maximum energy transfer, minimizing VSWR,
radiation losses, and delays; dielectric selection -- solid polyolefins/PTFE for
moisture resistance versus low-loss foamed or air-spaced types with aluminum sheaths
reducing attenuation by 20%; and superior shielding, from ~80 dB in single-braid...
 I have to admit to not recalling ever having
heard of Dagmar; have you? Crack electronics technician "Red" mentioned her in this
episode of "Mac's Radio Service Shop" appearing in the March 1952 edition
of Radio & TV News. I thought Prince and Cher were the first man (ostensibly)
and woman, respectively, to use a single-name public moniker, but evidently Dagmar
beat them to the punch ...but I digress. John T. Frye, author of the popular
Carl & Jerry series that appeared later in Popular Electronics magazine,
wrote this series before that time. On this cold and wintry day, Red and Mac are
discussing troubleshooting methods and how looking for and interpreting certain
symptoms...
 "Finding accurate positions in dense urban
areas remains difficult for satellite-based navigation systems, where high-rise
buildings and signal blockages can cause large errors or complete loss of service.
A recent study outlines a deeply integrated positioning method that combines commercial
5G New Radio (NR) signals with Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) to
address these issues. By reinforcing 5G signal tracking and tightly merging it with
satellite measurements, the approach improves both ranging stability and overall
positioning accuracy in demanding city environments..."
 Even with the ready availability of programmable
calculators and smartphone apps, there are still times when having a handy-dandy
nomograph printed out and hanging on the wall for quick reference can be a great
asset. This nomograph which appeared in a 1965 issue of Electronics World
magazine provided ready conversion between two different (input and output) voltage
and power values to equivalent decibel values. It seems strange that the watts and
voltage scale is on the left and the milliwatts and millivolts scale is on the right.
That might be more intuitive for a nomograph of attenuation, but not - at least
to me - for positive gain as through an amplifier...
|
 • AT&T
Drops DEI for $1B Spectrum Deal
• FCC Allocates
60-Meter World-Wide Amateur Band
• AT&T to
Completely Axe DEI
• U.S. Congress Intros
"No Robot Bosses" Bill
• December
Manufacturing Contracts in U.S.
 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.
 Like a lot of Americans (and presumably
some Canadians), I was amazed to watch as a
Chinese spy craft as large as a couple school busses was permitted to drift
over the country from Alaska to South Carolina. It was laden with sophisticated
sensors (optical?, radio frequency?, audio?) and communications equipment, powered
by huge PV arrays. A detailed reverse engineering effort of an intact, possibly
functional inspection could determine the system architecture, electronic component
types, software / firmware, mechanics, optics, battery technology, etc., including
where they came from and who built them. A lot of information can be gleaned from
such an investigation. We are just now being informed that the military knew of
the craft from the time it was launched off the coast of China. We are also now
told that Biden* was not apprised of the situation until it had been spotted over
Montana by civilians and photographed with a cellphone. Then, officials said bringing
it down over populated areas was too risky, even though there was ample opportunity
to do so while it was over unpopulated areas in Alaska and Canada. In fact, it could
probably have been brought down over land gradually via controlled deflation rather
than blowing it out of the sky with a Sidewinder missile. The payload equipment
would then have been more readily accessible and intact for inspection. Prior to
learning the balloon was being tracked even before it flew over the U.S., we were
told that NORAD and all other radars missed it...
 According to the Transistor Museum website,
"The
Philco Surface Barrier Transistor (SBT) was the 'hottest' transistor around
until the late 1950s. This device performed very well at high frequencies and was
used extensively in radio and computer circuits. Hobbyists were delighted to find
such an inexpensive high frequency device... [Edwin] Bohr authored many well-remembered
transistor construction projects in the 1950s/60s." Many of Bohr's construction
articles featuring SBTs were published in Radio Electronics magazine, and
this was one of them from 1957. The manufacturing process is described where jet
streams of an electrolyte were shot at both sides of the germanium crystal to etch
it as required - Neanderthal in nature...
 Many people find their way to RF Cafe as
a result of a Google (or other) search about electronics, so even though regular
visitors might find this primer on
Ohm's law to be a redundant review (is that phrase redundant?), it will be valuable
to the aforementioned people. Electronics technology has moved forward at lightning
speed in the last century, but the fundamentals of Ohm's law remain unchanged -
at least in the Newtonian physics realm. Indeed, we would be in trouble if voltage
no longer equaled the product of current and voltage (E = I x R).
National Radio-TV News magazine was published monthly (1928 - 1980) by
National Radio Institute, a correspondence school that did business from 1914 through
2002. A bonus electronics-themed comic is included...
 In a continuing effort to provide archival
material for researchers and for anyone seeking information on a particular radio
restoration project, this Radio Service Data Sheet for the
Crosley "Chief" Model 132-1 radio from a 1933 edition of Radio-Craft is being
posted. An Internet search will show that there are many people engaging in such
activities. Restoring my Crosley Model 03BC console radio would have been more difficult
if not for others who have done similar work to assist the "community." I generally
despise the phrase "giving back" because it is usually uttered by people that really
owe nothing to anyone, but somehow feel obligated to do so or are conditioned to
automatically say such things. This is a case where I benefitted from somebody else's
work and there is an opportunity to return the favor...
 This "Electronic
Crossword" showed up in a 1965 issue of Electronics World magazine. Most of
the words are directly related to the title's subject, but a few are everyday words
to fill in where needed (as opposed to my RF Cafe crossword puzzles, which contain
only applicable words). For instance the 22 Down clue of "Shoshonian Indian,"
while at first consideration might be deemed unrelated to a crossword puzzle with
an electronics theme, it could be a reference to the Indians featured in many of
the company advertisements back in the day, as Sangamo (and here, here, here) often
did. Or, maybe the Indian chief in the old broadcast TV test pattern hailed from
the tribe. Some of the clues include (colloq.) after them, which stands for colloquialism,
or a shortcut / abbreviation often used to refer to the technical name. An example
(not in this puzzle) would calling an attenuator a "pad"...
 Here is your custom made
Microwaves Themed Crossword Puzzle for July 31st, 2022. 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, 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
crossword puzzle from a 1958 issue of Popular Electronics magazine
is a little trickier than some because it uses abbreviations rather than full words.
Not everyone uses the same abbreviation, so some answers are a bit more subjective.
For instance, many people abbreviate the word 'transformer' as 'xfmr,' while others
use 'trans' or 'trr' (I use xfmr). Where you really have to be careful, though,
is with evolutional changes in terminology as is the case for frequency units, where
'cps' was most often used in 1958 rather than today's 'Hz." Enjoy.
 One of the Notable Tech Quotes which has
appeared on RF Cafe is, "The nice thing about standards is that you have so many
to choose from," by computer scientist Andrew Tanenbaum. In the middle of the last
century, a change in the fundamental understanding of current flow precipitated
what has become a very large opportunity for people to misunderstand descriptions
of
current direction caused by a difference in voltage potential
(voltage) - depending on the era a particular description was written. Beginning
with Benjamin Franklin, electron current flow was assumed to be from positive to
negative, ostensibly but incorrectly, because a positive thing must contain an
excess of something (charge carriers - electrons) and a negative thing must have
a deficiency. Hence, current flowed from an excess source to a deficient sink.
We now know that negative things contain more electrons (relatively) than a
positive thing. "Conventional current" is defined as charge carriers...
 In the early 1930s, QST magazine
(ARRL's monthly publication) usually ran a line at the bottom of every page in the
back half of each issue that said, "Say You Saw
It in QST - It Identifies You and Helps QST." They even got the capitalization
correct (all lower case short prepositions and conjunctions, but I digress). The
December 1933 edition was a bit different, however, in that all the left-hand pages
had the message translated into one of fourteen different languages while the right-hand
pages used English. I deemed that discovery cool enough to scan and post here. Since
the only languages I speak with any fluency are English and Pig Latin...
 Unless I find one I missed from my collection
of vintage Popular Electronics magazines, this could be the last Friday electronics
quiz for a while. All of the quizzes were created by Robert p. Balin, and range
in difficulty from relatively easy to head scratchers (for typical test takers like myownself).
Sometimes modern readers will be stumped by references to dated drawings and/or terms
like vacuum tubes and CRTs (which are themselves vacuum tubes, of course). This
Electronics Geometry Quiz might require a Millennial handicap on item "E" if you
spaz out over the picture, but if you get the other nine correct, you'll get all ten
by default. This is probably...
 A lot of us still use older test equipment
at home and even in the company lab. As discussed in this 1972 article from
Popular Electronics magazine, the displayed rise time on an oscilloscope display
is not necessarily that
true rise time of a signal - particularly when the speed approaches the rated
bandwidth of the equipment. In that case, it is necessary to mathematically compensate
for the rise times of each individual component used for making the measurement.
Hooking the o-scope probe tip to the calibration point on the front of the instrument
and adjusting the probe's trim capacitor for a flat response is not always good
enough. Most modern o-scopes can calculate and apply corrections automatically,
negating the need for a manual correction. If your application is not super critical
from a timing standpoint, then you do not need to bother with correction, but it
is worth keeping rise time measurement inaccuracies in mind just in case you run
into an otherwise...
 A few days ago Bob Davis sent me a link
to a YouTube video documentary, "Transistorized," of the development of the transistor.
It was originally produced in 1989. Narrator Mr. Ira Flatow begins by saying
that the story behind the transistor, arguably one of the most important inventions
of the 20th century, was one of "clashing egos
and top secret research." Anyone familiar with the collaborative effort of Drs.
John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain, at Bell Telephone Laboratories
(aka Bell Labs) knows of the strain between them at times. I will not attempt to
embellish the huge amount of information presented; you will get all you want to
know from the film. As you might expect, in addition to the "Transistorized" video
there are other videos telling the story of the transistor's history. A couple really
good ones are also embedded below. One covers Japan's successful climb to the top
of the electronics product food chain based on their early adoptation of transistor...
 National Union Radio Corporation was ahead
of its time in terms of hiring women engineers. Admittedly, they and all other manufacturers
were dealing with a shortage of male engineers due to the ongoing need by the military
for fending off the scourges of fascism, Nazism, communism, socialism, and all the
other "isms" of the day that threatened to overtake the world. However, they should
receive due credit for going out of the way to promote the sciences as careers for
the fairer gender. The advertised positions required the successful applicant to
have earned a bona fide degree in physics, electrical engineering, chemical engineering,
mechanical engineering, mathematics or chemistry. According to a page on the Harvard
Business School website, "The National Union Radio Corporation was incorporated
in September 1929 to acquire...
 In this article from a 1942 issue of
QST magazine, 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 (presumably) 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. I always wonder when seeing electrical-mechanical parity examples
whether, as with this case, there are any dam magazine articles out there that
use an electrical transmission line to help fellow civil engineers...
 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 Lamar or the Bikini Atoll, respectively. Enjoy...
 Even though most electrical meters have gone
to a digital format, there are still many millions of
analog meter movements doing service in equipment around the world. Analog meters
are especially good for when the value being reported is changing rapidly and trying
to read a numerical value would be tiring or impossible. A perfect example of comparing
analog to digital is the Internet speed test display used by most companies. Run
this speed test from Spectrum and watch the two indicator types simultaneously.
Of course many pre-electronic meters are driven by sources other than electricity;
e.g., fluid flow rate pressure meters, your bathroom scale, automobile speedometers,
etc. A lot of modern "analog" meter indicator needles...
 This
Chart of Radio Symbols would make a nice wall poster for your office, lab, or
Ham shack. It has a nice vintage look to it - because having been scanned from a
1935 edition of Radio-Craft magazine, it is a true vintage relic. Although it would
look great in its gray scale format, importing it into a graphics program and adding
a little color would really jazz it up. A bit of brown would provide an aged sepia
look, or you could go all out and custom color each square (I created one for you).
Click on the image to have the high resolution version display for printing...
 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... |
