Friday the 21st
Thursday the 20th
According to a
two-page spread in a 1963 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine, the
Winegard Colortron antenna was considered the world's best performing VHF
all-channel TV antenna for its size and price. It was designed specifically for
color TV and featured a "genuine" gold anodized finish for permanent protection.
The Colortron model C-42, priced at $34.95 ($364 in 2025 money - an inflation
factor of more than 10x), "is known for its near-perfect performance, with high
sensitivity, sharp directivity, and an
exact 300 Ω non-reactive impedance on every VHF channel from 2 to 13". The
Colortron amplifier, which employed two nuvistors, overcomes service problems
and limitations of other amplifiers, delivering clean, clear pictures without
smear. The buffering action of that amplifier is what provided...
This old man (Kirt
Blattenberger) reaches Social Security (SS) Full Retirement Age (FRA) on
April 18th, so my benefits will begin being paid on May 1st. Being the
progenitor and webmaster of RF Cafe, that makes the following
information relevant. For those not familiar with SS, for my birth year, 1958,
full retirement age occurs at 66 years and 8 months (66y8m). If I had begun
collecting SS prior to now (eligible at 62y0m), my benefit amount would be
reduced to around 60% of the full FRA level. It would never go above that level.
The reduction linearly adjusted from 62y0m through 66y8m, but you are forever
locked in at the rate where you begin. Not only that, but there is a one-for-two
reduction where SS benefits are reduced by one dollar for every two dollars
earned over a specified threshold (currently $21,240). That means if, prior to
FRA, I earned...
This
Electronics Curves Quiz will probably prove to be a little more of a
challenge than some of the ones previously appearing in a 1963 issue of
Popular Electronics magazine. Being a rocket scientist won't help you much
here, but being a seasoned electronics technician, hobbyist, or engineer will
sure come in handy. Be careful to note the axis unit labels - I got tripped up
by that from being lazy and missed one. Surely you won't be hindered by such an
oversight.
Mr. Conrad Young,
whom I have the pleasure of knowing from our days at RFMD and is now the Senior
Microwave Oven Design Engineer at TurboChef Technologies,
Inc., published this excellent whitepaper entitled, "Where
Does 75-Ohms Come from Anyway??" Much has been written on the origin of 50 Ω
coaxial cable (with some disagreement), but not so much about 75 Ω. Most of
us in the RF field know that 75 Ω coax has lower attenuation per unit length
than does 50 Ω (which has high power handling). A delve into 75 Ω's history
with the broadcast TV industry provides a segue into some high level theoretical
discussions and then finally presenting various coaxial cable and connector configurations.
It is a good read with lots of source references for further investigation if you
so desire.
The
term "modern" in the title of any book or article never has set right with me because
it is utterly ambiguous about the era to which "modern" refers. Sure, it sounds
good at the time, but when applied to this 1966 QST magazine article, "modern"
should be replaced with "four-decade-old." However, in this case the content is
still relevant even thought it was written so long ago (or else I would not be reproducing
it here). It may well have been most people's first exposure to elliptical (Cauer)
filters. As you might expect, the rigorous, headache-inducing mathematics is omitted,
but the article does give an example of implementing an audio frequency bandpass
filter by cascading a lowpass filter and a highpass filter. If you are familiar
with filter design, you know that because of phasing and inband...
Wednesday the 19th
As reported in this 1960 Radio-Electronics
magazine infomercial, Bell Laboratories engineer Harold S. Black conceived of the
negative feedback principle while commuting to work, which revolutionized signal
amplification and enabled the expansion of telephone and TV networks, transoceanic
cables, and precise military radar and missile-control systems. Black's achievement,
along with his 60 U.S. patents, earned him the 1957 Lamme Medal from the American
Institute of Electrical Engineers. This accomplishment reflects the innovative spirit
shared by Bell Telephone Laboratories scientists and engineers...
"RF coupling is one of the most important
and tricky issues that RFIC designers always must confront while developing wireless
SoCs.
Wireless system-on-chip (SoC) designs require implementing all circuit domains
on the same die. This enables manufacturers to reduce cost and support integrity.
On the other hand, crosstalk between these domains can be problematic and degrade
the overall performance. Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is caused by radiated
radio-frequency (RF) signals. Various techniques are available to lower EMI in system
design. For instance, radiated RF can be addressed..."
If you are a fan of John T. Frye's "Mac's
Service Shop" series of technodramas, then you might also appreciate this short-run
stories by Bob Eldridge titled, "Another Day in the Shop." Up through maybe the early 1980s, every
town had at least one electronics service shop for taking care of televisions, radios,
record players, tape recorders and players, cameras, computers, and just about anything
else that might be fixed at less cost than buying a replacement unit. In the 1940's
through the 1960's, there was often good money to be made not only with in-shop
repair but also with doing house calls for repair and installation. Electronics
magazines of the era were filled with both self-help and tips for the professionals
regarding troubleshooting, use of test equipment, how to deal with customers, etc.
Electronics World even ran for a while a feature that suggested types and
quantities of replacement tubes, capacitors..."
"Plasmonic
modulators are tiny components that convert electrical signals into optical
signals in order to transport them through optical fibers. A modulator of this kind
had never managed to transmit data at a frequency of over a terahertz. Now, researchers
have succeeded in doing just that. Previous modulators could only convert frequencies
up to 100 or 200 gigahertz - in other words, frequencies that are five to ten times
lower. Modulators of this kind could be used wherever large volumes of data are
transmitted, as a bridge between the electrical world and data transmission using
light..."
Directional
power couplers are key components in RF and microwave systems, designed to sample
a small portion of signal power traveling in one direction while minimizing interference
with the main signal path. They're widely used for monitoring, measurement, and
feedback in various electronic systems. This treatise explores their historical
development, types, construction methods, design principles, fabrication techniques,
and critical performance metrics, providing equations to support practical implementation.
The directional coupler emerged in the 1940s amid advancements in radar technology.
Early engineers needed ways to monitor signal power without invasive methods, leading
to innovations like slotted lines and waveguide-based...
Here is a different type of quiz from
Popular Electronics magazine's master quiz-maker, Robert P. Balin.
In this October 1960 challenge, rather than the typical format where you need to
match a word or another picture with a picture, this one requires you to consider
each description and decide whether it best describes an inductive,
capacitive, or reactive circuit. I confess to messing up on question 20, because
I couldn't remember whether a lagging power factor referred to voltage lagging current
or current lagging voltage. Hint: It refers to current lagging voltage. Another
hint: Remember the ELI the ICE man mnemonic...
Tuesday the 18th
The "Mighty
7th War Loan" was a campaign initiated by the United States government during
World War II to raise funds for the war effort. It was the seventh in a series of
war bond drives, hence the name "Mighty 7th." War bonds were debt securities issued
by the government to finance military operations and other war-related expenses.
The campaign encouraged Americans to purchase these bonds, promoting them as both
a patriotic duty and a financial investment. This promotion appeared in the June
1945 issue of Radio News magazine. Maybe if we went back to funding wars
/ conflicts by the public purchase of war bonds, we wouldn't be running up trillion$
in debt to fund things like the Ukraine debacle and numerous...
"The project is part of the EU's plan to
strengthen Europe's semiconductor industry and reduce reliance on foreign suppliers
The European Commission has approved €227 million in funding to help Austrian
semiconductor manufacturer ams Osram build a manufacturing plant in Premstätten,
Austria. The new facility will produce wafers used in various industries, including
automotive, consumer electronics, and healthcare. It will integrate advanced technologies
to improve chip performance and reliability. Expected to be fully operational by
2030, the plant will be the first in Europe to produce Grade 0 automotive-certified..."
Popular Electronics began publishing
a monthly electronics detective story series, "Carl and Jerry: A New Company is
Launched," in the debut October 1954 issue. The two main characters,
Carl Anderson and Jerry Bishop, were the brainchild of John T.
Frye, who also authored the "Mac's Radio Service Shop." Carl and Jerry helped keep
the world safe from miscreants by way of their investigative prowess and deductive
skills, often with the assistance of their Ham radio skills. The Hardy Boys were
a couple of pikers in comparison. The theme and ultimately solving of each mystery
is centered around use of electrical and/or electronics devices and methods, with
a bit of intrigue and humor thrown in. If you enjoy short stories...
• "640k [of RAM] ought to be enough
for anybody." - Bill Gates, 1981
• "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." - Ken Olson,
president/founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
• "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." - Lord Kelvin
• "Software is like entropy. It is difficult to grasp, weighs nothing, and obeys
the second law of thermodynamics; i.e. it always increases." - Norm Augustine
• "Counting in octal is just like counting in decimal, if you don't use your
thumbs." - Tom Lehrer
everything RF is a product discovery platform
for RF & Microwave Products/Services. We currently have more than 344,923 RF &
Microwave products from over 2281 companies listed in 470 categories in our database
and enable engineers to search for them using our customized parametric search tool.
Highlighted here is the
Butler
Matrix, which is an analog beamforming network that is used to feed the phased
array antenna elements and control the directions of beams. Many modern wireless
technologies used phased array antennas to provide...
Plenty of intrigue still surrounds the July
2, 1937, disappearance of
Amelia Earhart in the South Pacific on her way to completing an
around-the-world flight. This article appeared two years prior to that fateful flight
proclaiming the soundness (no pun intended) of her onboard radio. Back in the day,
shortwave radio installations in aircraft required long wires trailing behind, particularly
for long distance requirements like flying from the U.S. mainland to Hawaii. Those
wires were a constant source of trouble due to destructive mechanical oscillations
while waving in the airstream, airframe damage due to striking during the haul in/out
procedure, and breakage. According to an article that appeared in the January 2015
edition of Smithsonian magazine, it is suspected that Earhart's antenna broke early
in her flight...
Monday the 17th
In the midst of the transition from vacuum
tubes to semiconductors, this 1963 Radio-Electronics magazine infomercial
by Mallory offered guidance on
modernizing old selenium rectifiers with the latest silicon versions. This process,
commonplace at the time, symbolized the shift towards more efficient and compact
electronic components. The article provided a detailed walkthrough for replacing
these rectifiers in a standard TV voltage doubler circuit, recommending specific
models such as the Mallory VB500 or pairs of 1N2095's or A500's. It also cautioned
about potential increases in output voltage (B+) post-replacement, advising the
possible need for a dropping resistor. Furthermore, it highlighted that unchanged
B+ voltage could signal faulty filter capacitors, offering steps for their inspection
and substitution if needed...
"In
August last year Nokia and Axiom Space announced they were working to equip the
latter's next-generation lunar
spacesuits with 4G/LTE connectivity for the for NASA's Artemis III mission to
the moon. The idea is that arming the new spacesuit, called Axiom Extravehicular
Mobility Unit (AxEMU), with high-speed cellular-network capabilities means it can
support HD video, telemetry data and voice transmission over multiple kilometers
on the moon. This means the Artemis III crewmembers will then be able to capture
real-time video and communications..."
Mrs. Helen McKee, XYL of W9ARK, knew exactly
what she was signing up for when she agreed to marry Mr. McKee. After all, she met
and got familiar with the guy over the air during some rag chewing sessions. This
story is a humorous (and true) account of what life can be like for the
spouses
of enthusiastic Ham radio operators. We all hope for such an understanding "significant
other." Melanie has certainly endured and supported a lot of my pastime endeavors
over the past 4-plus years. It's a short read, so take a break and put a smile on
your face...
As a leading supplier of high-performance
made-to-order RF coaxial cable assemblies, ConductRF is excited to announce the
availability of our complete suite of
VITA 67 RF coaxial cable assemblies and connectors. In line with our commitment
to providing customers with superior flexibility and performance, ConductRF offers
the option to select from all leading VITA 67 connector brands, ensuring optimal
system compatibility and customization. VITA 67 solutions are widely used in military,
aerospace, and other high-reliability applications where precision RF signal transmission...
English mathematician George Boole published
his "Formal Logic" syllogism system of deductive reasoning in 1847.
Fellow countryman Augustus De Morgan followed on Boole's work to develop the basic
combinational logic rules the AND gates, OR gates, and NOT (negation) operators.
What has become known as Boolean algebra and De Morgan's theorem forms the fundamental
foundation of everything related to digital logic. This second in a three-part series
from a 1974 issue of Popular Electronics introduces both concepts at a beginner's
level. Part 3 will present flip-flops and an overview of how all the parts come
together to build a simple computer...
