|
 Exodus Advanced
Communications, is a multinational RF communication equipment and engineering
service company serving both commercial and government entities and their
affiliates worldwide. Exodus'
AMP20026 is a rugged 2.0 to 6.0 GHz solid state amplifier delivering a
minimum of 200 W with clean, stable 53 dB gain. It offers excellent gain
flatness, a 20 dB control range, and full protection circuitry. Built for
EMI/RFI, lab, CW/pulse, and EW environments, it delivers instantaneous
bandwidth, superb reliability, rack mount configuration...
 In April of 1952 when this article appeared
in Radio & Television News magazine, the
bipolar junction transistor (BJT) had only made it out of the
experimental laboratory of Messrs. Bardeen, Shockley, and Brattain at Bell Labs
a mere three years earlier in December of 1948. It did not take long for commercial
production to begin. Along with being a great primer for anyone new to transistors,
herein is also some background on how the now ubiquitous BJT schematic symbol was
created. Interestingly, only Dr. William Shockley is mentioned, making me wonder
whether the contributions of Dr. John Bardeen, and Dr. Walter H. Brattain was
not widely publicized early on. Not to worry, though, because all three were duly...
 Mac's Service Shop captures here a moment
of technological transition in 1961 where a new "Loud-speaking
Telephone" impresses his right-hand man, Barney. The device utilizes vacuum-tube
amplifiers and a bulky external control box to allow hands-free communication, enabling
Mac to work while handling customer inquiries. Mac, ever the mentor, contrasts this
tube-based unit with the emerging technology of transistorized speakerphones, which
eliminate the need for external control boxes, external power supplies, and warm-up
times. The 1961 "Loud-speaking" setup, occupying significant space under a workbench,
has been completely replaced by modern smartphones and integrated VoIP systems...
 As with all
RF Cafe
crossword puzzles, this one uses only words pertaining to engineering, science,
mathematics, mechanics, chemistry, astronomy, etc. 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 (e.g., Hedy Lamarr or the Bikini Atoll). The technically inclined cruciverbalists
amongst us will appreciate the effort. Enjoy!
  The microwave klystron was invented in 1937
by brothers
Russell and Sigurd Varian. If you have been in the microwave design
business for a couple decades, you undoubtedly recognize the company name of Varian
Associates, especially if you worked in the aerospace or defense electronics business.
There is a video on YouTube of a segment on Varian done sometime around 1990 by
Walter Cronkite. There is also a historical piece on Varian Associates on the Communications &
Power Industries website. This circa 1952 article covers the fundamentals of klystron
operation and reports on the increasing use of klystrons in high frequency application
- including by amateur radio operators exploring...
 Werbel Microwave began as a consulting firm,
specializing in RF components design, with the ability to rapidly spin low volume
prototypes, and has quickly grown into a major designer and manufacturer with volume
production capacities. The
WMRD02-7.2-S is a resistive splitter that covers up to 7.2 GHz with ultra-wide
bandwidth. This design is useful when there are many low power signals within a
wide spectrum. By design, the nominal insertion loss and isolation is 6 dB,
hence it is often referred to as a "6 dB splitter." Its small size makes it
easy to integrate into compact systems. Designed, assembled, and tested in the USA.
"No Worries with Werbel!"
 Contributors to the Wikipedia article on
the
Yagi–Uda antenna credit Japanese professor Shintaro Uda primarily for the antenna's
development, with Hidetsugu Yagi having played a "lesser role." Other sources assign
the primary role to Yagi. Regardless, history - and this article's author, rightly
or wrongly, has decreed that this highly popular design be referred to commonly
as the Yagi antenna and not the Uda antenna. I don't recall seeing advertisements
for "'Uda" television or amateur radio antennas. Harold Harris, of Channel Master
Corporation, does a nice job explaining the fundamentals of the Yagi antenna. Another
Yagi article appeared in the October 1952 issue of QST magazine...
 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. Custom RF
sources and receivers, components and integrated microwave subsystems as well as
precision electromechanical switches. dB Control also offers specialized contract
manufacturing and repair depot services.
 The production of high-performance transistors
necessitated new methods to achieve extreme purity levels, far beyond standard industrial
capabilities. To reach the required purity of
one part in ten billion, engineers adopted zone melting, a sophisticated technique
pioneered by W. G. Pfann. In this process, radio-frequency heating coils melt a
narrow zone of a semiconductor rod, which is then moved along the crystal to sweep
impurities to one end. Beyond purification, zone melting allows for the precise,
uniform introduction of "dopants" like antimony or indium, which are essential for
creating p-type and n-type semiconductor characteristics. By refining these methods
through continuous processing and floating-zone techniques, manufacturers significantly...
 Here's another advertisement that you probably
wouldn't see in a contemporary RF / microwave engineering magazine. For that matter
you probably wouldn't see it on a contemporary RF / microwave engineering website
... except on RF Cafe where political correctness gets no respect.
Adson Radio & Electronics was located on Fulton Street in New York City,
just a block from the 911 Memorial. the original building might have been destroyed
when the...
 My first thought when seeing the cover for
this edition of Radio-Craft magazine was that it was an April Fools gag,
but it turns out the "hat" being worn by the radio receiver's designer is a
loop antenna for AM reception. Ya' know, he does look like he
could be a suicide bomber. In a way it is the opposite of a tinfoil hat in that
this headgear invites electromagnetic energy around the wearer's head rather than
shielding it. Back in 1936, being seen in public donning a contraption like this
radio would have been akin to Google Glass today - you'd be a superhero to fellow
nerds, and just be confirming your otherworldly nerd status to non-nerds...
 Vreeland Corporation was an early radio
manufacturer located in Hoboken, New Jersey, with multiple patents on file for innovative
circuits. The
Vreeland band selector system mentioned here was originally filed
in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in August of 1927 and had not been awarded
by the time of this November 1929 article in Radio-Craft magazine. In fact,
it wasn't until five years later, in 1932, that the patent was finally assigned.
The official description reads in part, "The general purpose of the invention is
to receive the component frequencies of such a band with such uniformity as to avoid
material distortion of the modulated wave, and to exclude frequencies outside of
the band which the system is designed to receive. Another purpose of the invention
is to provide means for shifting the position of the band...
 In this 1959 Radio-Electronics
magazine promo, Bell Telephone Laboratories showcased its advanced
radio-inertial guidance system, a technological breakthrough enabling precise
long-range missile flight. Developed for the Air Force's Ballistic Missile Division,
this innovation proved its efficacy by guiding a Thor-Able nose cone to a precise
target five thousand miles away, allowing for a successful aerial and maritime recovery.
The system utilized a missile-borne transmitter to feed continuous data to ground-based
radar and a Remington Rand Univac computer, which calculated real-time steering
corrections. By keeping the primary command equipment on the ground...
 It's Friday afternoon as I post this installment
of
Mac's Radio Service Shop from a 1952 edition of Radio &
Television News magazine - the perfect way to burn off the last few minutes
of your work week while waiting for the shift-ending whistle to blow. John T.
Frye authored many of these stories that used main characters Mac McGregor, proprietor
of Mac's Radio Service Shop and sidekick technician Barney to set up a situation
and dialog whereby the highly experienced Mac imparts sage advice to Barney regarding
things electronics in nature. Topics range from safely troubleshooting a high voltage
power supply to tracking down noisy capacitors and how to treat customers equitably.
Today's lesson is on the employment of "repurposed" (a term not yet invented in
1952...
 Thomas Edison applied on November 4, 1879
to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a patent on his "Electric-Lamp." Patent number 223898 A was awarded on January
27, 1880. Remember those years. While searching for technical headlines today, I
ran across an article in the New York Times where they point out the first-ever
mention of electric lights in their newspaper. Per the article "The Arrival of Electric
Light," The New York Times first wrote of the technology on April 15, 1858.
On that day, "Our Own Correspondent" in Havana described celebrations of Holy Week
that included "an electric light" cast across the harbor...
 This is part 5 in a series that began in
the October 1951 issue of Radio & Television News magazine. Previous
articles dealt with
crystal diodes in AM and FM radios, and this article shift gears
by moving into television applications. Crystal diodes were and are still used in
frequency generation, envelope detection, frequency mixing, and AC signal rectification.
Vacuum tubes could be used for the latter three applications but many physical issues
such as size, weight, power consumption, and heat dissipation proved to be major
drawbacks as designers strived to reduce the size of electronics assemblies, make
them more energy efficient, lower the cost of manufacturing, increase reliability,
and decrease weight...
 This article from a 1959 issue of Radio-Electronics
magazine details a simple, effective method to
convert a standard dipole antenna into a unidirectional, broadband performer
by bending it into a circular loop and terminating the ends with a non-inductive
resistor. By utilizing a cross-shaped support frame with TV standoff insulators,
a builder can easily construct this antenna for the 6-meter band or higher. The
design is noted for its impressive front-to-back ratio and surprising operational
versatility across a wide frequency range, even maintaining performance when improperly
sized. Offering increased gain at harmonic...
 As evidenced in these mid-last-century magazine
advertisements,
Sylvania Electric marketing moguls learned early what sells products
by exploiting the nature of their audience. The cartoon-style ads shown here appeared
in social publications like Look, Life, and Collier's, where both men and women
- many of them numbnuts - are the expected audience. Compare these with the type
of ad run by Sylvania in a "serious" magazine like
Radio-Craft...
 Billed at the time as the longest microwave
relay system in the world, this report on Bell Telephone Systems'
transcontinental installation came just a month after being put into commercial
service. At a cost of $40 million ($512 million in 2026 dollars per BLS Inflation
Calculator), the system relays telephone calls and radio and video program material
along a chain of 107 microwave towers, spaced approximately 30 miles apart. It was
a big deal to be able to watch a TV show from New York City in Los Angeles, and
vice versa; we take worldwide broadcasts for granted nowadays...
 Anatech Electronics offers the industry's
largest portfolio of high-performance standard and customized RF and microwave filters
and filter-related products for military, commercial, aerospace and defense, and
industrial applications up to 40 GHz. Three new models have been added to the
product line in April, including a 4.9 to 24 GHz MHz suspended stripline
highpass filter, a 9200 MHz cavity bandpass filter with 250 MHz bandwidth,
and a 1 MHz LC bandpass filter with 350 kHz bandwidth. Custom RF power
filter and directional couplers designs...
 Today as I write this it is New Year's Eve.
The year 1935 could be considered "metal tube's eve" as a new paradigm was about
to hit the world of high frequency circuit design. Thentofore[sic], vacuum tubes
were almost exclusively encased in a glass envelope.
Metal-encased tubes provided, among others, benefits like better
heat dissipation, smaller physical size, ruggedness, inherent RF shielding, and
lower parasitic values of capacitance and inductance due to smaller plate areas
and shorter lead lengths, respectively. The highest barrier to widespread adoption,
history would show, was the higher cost of production that made consumer products
more expensive at a time when not every household saw the need for...
 "Squegging,"
a phenomenon likened to the rhythmic spurts of a manual water pump, occurs when
an oscillator undergoes periodic cycles of oscillation followed by a dead period.
This happens when an excessive time constant in the grid circuit, often caused by
a faulty resistor or capacitor, drives the tube to cutoff, only for it to restart
once the bias bleeds off. In radio and television, this manifests as audible buzzing,
intermittent sound, or dark holes in the picture. Historically, the term "squeg"
emerged in the specialized fields of radio engineering and electronics during the
early 20th century, likely originating as a form of "self-quenching," descriptive
of the erratic...
 If
Radio
Corporation of America (RCA) was still in existence today, undoubtedly it would
be running an advertisement mentioning not just radio and television in their list
of wireless communications accomplishments, but also cellphones, satellite navigation
(GPS), cable television, and Wi-Fi. Founded in 1919, RCA was bought by General Electric
in 1986 and then subsequently broken into components and sold off to other companies
like Sony, NBC (National Broadcasting Company), and Comcast. This RCA advertisement
heralding Marconi's Morse code message "first forged in 1901 from the mere sound
of three dots" appeared in a 1952 issue of Radio & Television News
magazine...
|
 • UK's
Fractile Chip Facility Gets £100m Expansion
• Choosing an
Antenna for Compliance Testing
• Huawei
Wins 8 GLOMO Awards at MWC Barcelona
• Smartphone
Shipments to Fall 7% in 2026
• February
Chip Sales up 61.8% YoY
 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.
 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.
 Banner Ads are rotated in all locations
on the page! RF Cafe typically receives 8,000-15,000 visits each
weekday. RF Cafe
is a favorite of engineers, technicians, hobbyists, and students all over the world.
With more than 17,000 pages in the Google search index, RF Cafe returns in
favorable positions on many types of key searches, both for text and images.
Your Banner Ads are displayed on average 225,000 times per year! New content
is added on a daily basis, which keeps the major search engines interested enough
to spider it multiple times each day. Items added on the homepage often can be found
in a Google search within a few hours of being posted. If you need your company
news to be seen, RF Cafe is the place to be...
 Here is yet another treatise on the subject
of
reactance and resistance. Considering that the date on this Radio-Craft magazine
is 1931, it was probably amongst the first to publically discuss such newfangled
topics outside of a formal university setting. The layman just was not accustomed
to being bothered with such esoteric concepts. After all, not many decades previous
a person might be burned at the stake for exercising such witchcraft as speaking
of "imaginary" numbers as is required for a complete analysis of alternating circuits.
This article, however, does not actually get into complex numbers, but future ones
did...
 "QRT" is the Q-code used in amateur radio
to tell someone to stop transmitting. Hams very much anticipated the day when Germany
and Japan would be defeated, the war would end, and they could go home to resume
their beloved radio hobby. You might know - or not - that during
World War II ham radio transmissions were prohibited in the U.S. for a
mix of reasons. Foremost was to inhibit the broadcasting of information, intentionally
or unintentionally, that might give away strategic military strategy. Innocent chatter
about whose son left for boot camp, where he was going afterwards, what his ambitions
and fortes were, which factory Mom and Aunt Rosie worked for and what they did (Auntie
was riveter, maybe), who died in service to his country, blackout hours, scrap material
recycling collections, all was potential fodder for enemy tacticians. Another reason
for the prohibition was to free up production materials and labor for the making
of military equipment. The fate of the free world depended on it - literally...
 Gray market electronics components have been
a problem for a long time. An extensive article appeared recently in EE Times
reporting on a case based on a small operation in south Florida that was importing
and re-selling counterfeit parts to military, aerospace, medical, and other product
manufacturers. The Feds charged them "with conspiracy, trafficking in counterfeit
goods and mail fraud for knowingly importing more than 3,200 shipments of suspected
or confirmed counterfeit semiconductors into the United States, marketing some of
the products as "military grade" and selling them to customers that included the
U.S. Navy and defense contractors." The good news might be that this particular
scam operation was caught and stopped, but the bad news is, according to the story,
that many more are never prosecuted...
 Finding the equation for the inductance
of a standard
tightly-wound, single-layer inductor is very easy. What, though, if you needed
to determine how to build an iron-core inductor or to build a choke coil with a
silicon steel laminated transformer-iron core where the windings have an air gap
between them? Who ya gonna call? Alfred Ghirardi, of course, or at least his ghost
through this article from a 1934 edition of Radio News and the Short-Wave
magazine. If you also need advice - complete with drawings - on how to wind a coil
that will not induce a killer counter-EMF when a switch is opened (as with a solenoid),
then here, too, is your source...
 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...
 Puzzlemeister Edmund Braun refers to his
challenge as an "only-across-word
puzzle." It is similar to others he has created for Radio-Electronics magazine
- this one appearing in the August 1967 issue. Not having "cross-words" running
vertically can make things a bit more difficult, but he does provide at least one
letter for each word. In spite of its era, you shouldn't have too much problems
with most of it. There are a couple component types that are no longer part of the
electronics experience. Others, like number 5, now usually go by a different name
(I mistaken thought it was a variation of gutta-percha, based on the "tt" near the
end). The symbols shown have no bearing on the puzzle, BTW. Of the two longest words,
number 1 is easy, but number 15 will be known only by those familiar with older
analog calculator methods. I'll admit to knowing the root part of the word, but
not the prefix (hint: it begins with "a")...
 Since 2000, I have been creating custom
technology-themed crossword puzzles for the brain-exercising benefit and
pleasure of RF Cafe visitors who are fellow cruciverbalists. The jury is out on
whether or not this type of mental challenge helps keep your gray matter from
atrophying in old age, but it certainly helps maintain your vocabulary and
cognitive skills at all ages. A database of thousands of words has been built up
over the years and contains only clues and terms associated with engineering,
science, physical, astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, etc. You will never find a
word taxing your knowledge of a numbnut soap opera star or the name of some
obscure village in the Andes mountains. You might, however, encounter the name
of a movie star like Hedy Lamarr or...
 Mac McGregor, owner of
Mac's Radio Service Shop, can always be counted on to provide his apprentice
technician, Barney, with a lesson from his own life-long attendance at the School
of Hard Knocks. Barney is your stereotypical young buck whose level of seriousness
needs occasional alignment, just as do the radio and television sets he services.
In this episode, I can't find where Mac actually solved the intermittent electrical
condition believed to be causing the problem - weird. The "Mac's Radio Service Shop"
series ran in Radio & Television News magazine for many years prior
to a similar electronics story series called "Carl & Jerry" that appeared in
Popular Electronics. Both were created by consummate storyteller John T. Frye...
 Although the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
on December 7, 1941, was a complete surprise and shock to the nation, that fact
that the United States would eventually be drawn officially into World War II
was well known. The
amateur radio
community had begun talking about the potential impact on radio communications
hobbyists earlier in the year, as evidenced by articles printed in QST
and other magazines. Within a couple weeks of Congress declaring war, all unauthorized
transmissions from Ham stations were terminated in order to prevent both intentionally
and unintentionally conveyance of information that could proves useful by the enemy.
Along with being a patriotic bunch that were eager to help defeat Axis powers, they
also loved their hobby and willingly (in most instances) made critical components
of their equipment available for battlefield use. Items such as meter movements,
tuning capacitors, and even energy storage cells (lead-acid batteries) were needed
for troops on the ground, at sea, and in the air. The American Radio Relay League
(ARRL) devoted a lot of print space to promoting an attitude of service and sacrifice,
as with this article...
 Bell Telephone Laboratories was largely
responsible for designing and building a communications system that was the envy
of the world. Innovation on the part of Bell engineers, manufacturing staff that
produced the equipment, and technicians who serviced the systems deserve the credit
as do management types who made funds and opportunity available to the aforementioned.
As the number of telephone service subscribers grew and reliability became even
more vital to business, law enforcement, and national defense, new methods had to
be devised. In the late 1950s, Bell introduced the concept of wireless microwave
links at 11 GHz (X band), which at the time X band was primarily used (at 10 GHz)
by precision approach aircraft radar. This advertisement in a 1959 issue of
Electronics World magazine promoted Bell's achievement...
 This advertisement for a
Zig-Zag Antenna, offered by Trio Manufacturing, appeared in a 1952 issue of
Radio-Electronics magazine, states "patent pending." When I looked up "zig-zag
antenna" at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the earliest assignment
I could find for that configuration was US3213457A, "Zig-zag antenna," designed
by John W. Carr and assigned to Lockheed Corporation, in 1961. Maybe Trio never
received a patent, or my search wasn't thorough enough. The claim to fame from Trio's
design is that the zig-zag pattern consisted of various element lengths that resonated
on specific channels while all others acted as parasitic elements. I don't know
if it is coincidence or intention (probably the latter), but there are twelve sections
that might correspond to channels 2 through 13. There are not many (if any) zig-zag
antennas being sold by companies today for amateur or other uses. It evidently was
just another fad to have something different from all the rest - and there were
lots of unique TV antenna configurations back in the day which promised to pull
in far-away stations, reduce ghosts, noise, etc...
 It's been a little while since I posted
any of the great
electronics-themed comics from my vintage magazines, so here are half a dozen
from the April 1948 issue of Radio News. My favorite is the one from page
102 where the farmer mistook his wife's waffle iron for a heating pad (stereotyping
rural dwellers as ignoramuses was fair game in humor back then). To fully appreciate
the page 130 comic requires you noting that World War II had just ended a couple
years earlier and there were a lot of electronics and communications technicians
(former soldiers) who were by then working in the private realm. Just as nowadays
the publically spoken words of politicians are available online, in the record and
magnetic tape era many speeches were made available to the public. I have an LP
record of speeches delivered by Winston Churchill, General Patton, Franklin Roosevelt,
and other notables of the 1940s. In the page 192 comic, during an argument with
a friend over some point, he is armed with recordings of President Harry S. Truman
to support his case...
 A few years ago I posted a note about a technical
faux pas on an episode of Star Trek titled "Court Martial," where Captain Kirk makes
a comment ordering the ship's auditory sensors to be boosted "on the order of
1 to the 4th power," (14) in order to pick up heart
beats. RF Cafe visitor Sam M. just sent me a note offering a possible - and
plausible - explanation for the gaff. If you are a devoted Trekkie looking for a
response to your apostate friends when confronted over the scene, read on...
 Transistors always have been and always will
be prone to damage or destruction if operated at temperatures higher than their
designed ranges. Modern foundry processes have made it possible for greater heat
tolerances for a given transistor size, but care must be taken during circuit design
to assure that the devices will under normal ambient conditions not exceed their
intended temperature range. Often a
heatsink is required in order to use a transistor at its full rated temperature,
and sometimes extensive measures are needed to keep the heatsink within an acceptable
maximum temperature. Take a look inside your computer for an example of how far
heatsink technology has come. The liquid-cooled (desktop) and heat pipe-cooled (laptop)
schemes are amazingly efficient and capable of dissipating heat from the CPU package,
which would otherwise fry in milliseconds without it...
 The General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trades (GATT) has been around for a really long time - since 1947, shortly
after the end of World War II. It changed its name to the World Trade Organization
(WTO) in 1995. Japan was admitted as a GATT signatory in 1964 according to this
Electronics magazine newsletter. One of the conditions for membership
was allowing foreign ownership of businesses on Japanese soil - previously
prohibited. Texas Instruments was the first American company to establish a
presence there. Japanese industry was just getting a foothold on manufacturing
and selling into foreign markets in the mid 1960s, and was still working to shed
its reputation - deserved or not - of producing inferior quality goods.
Increasing foreign presence and dependence on the country's economic well-being
was a good thing for them. In fact, many pundits believe that the globalization
of production is key to preserving peace (or at least not war) between certain
countries...
 Competition amongst countries and businesses
existed long before the advent of radio receivers. Here is an interesting story
which demonstrates how international politics and corporate policies has been part
of the electronics industry since its inception. In order to circumvent what were
considered to be outlandish patent licensing fees, Danish engineer Carl Arne Scheimann
Jensen developed a new "gridless" type of vacuum tube (aka valve) which was called
the "Renode."
Rather than using a screen grid in the path between the cathode and plate, the Renode
employed two sets of beam concentrator and deflector plates on either side of the
electron beam's path to modulate the conduction. According to measurements it provided
a slight improvement in both linearity and selectivity. The article's author hints
at the possibility that further manipulations and back-room deals might eventually
scuttle the effort to bring Renodes to the mass market... |
