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 A popular meme on chat websites these days
is the posting of some items or scenes indicative of times many moons ago, with
a comment something like, "If you know what this is, you are probably wearing reading
glasses." I recently saw one with a picture of an old cube type flash bulbs that
went on Kodak Instamatic cameras. In fact, I still have my Kodak Instamatic 40
camera and a couple of unused flashcubes. Those flashcubes were expensive for a
guy who never had much pocket cash; maybe that's why I have so few pictures from
back in the day. Anyway, I mention all that because some of the topics of these
electronics-themed comics from a 1962 issue of Electronics Illustrated
magazine would be likely candidates for the meme...
 A new word has been added to my personal lexicon:
"sphenoidal." Author John Kraus used it to describe the wedge shape
of a corner reflector. The Oxford Dictionary defines "sphenoid" thusly: "A compound
bone that forms the base of the cranium, behind the eye and below the front part
of the brain. It has two pairs of broad lateral 'wings' and a number of other projections,
and contains two air-filled sinuses." This "square corner" configuration - essentially
a "V" shape, is shown to exhibit up to 10 dB of gain while being relatively (compared
to a parabolic reflector) insensitive to physical size and driven radiator placement
across a wide band when made sufficiently large. No radiation pattern was...
 As you might know, particularly if you are
a frequent RF Cafe visitor, amateur radio operators (Hams)
were prohibited from broadcasting during the entirety of World War II,
(see
War
Comes) ostensibly as a security measure. The concern was that people
might unintentionally (or intentionally) convey information on troop positions and
family names, domestic factory locations and activities, and the general state of
the nation in regards to attitude and finance. Unlike today, that type of data was
not easily gathered even by a dedicated deployment of internal spies. In the early
1940s, the majority of amateur radio activity was carried out in the form of Morse
code, and operators were understandably concerned...
 Here is a fascinating story from a 1946
issue of the ARRL's QST magazine of the ordeal one Catholic priest experienced
while serving in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation in World War II.
Father Visintainer exploited his personal interest in
radio communications to help keep local residents apprised of the war's
progress and talk to the outside world. Japanese troops confiscated all the
existing shortwave radios and converted them to their own frequencies. Some were
re-converted by daring servicemen and then hidden. Batteries were recharged
using covert water wheel powered generators located in the woods. Drama hit a
peak one day when an attempt to formulate a make-shift battery electrolyte
resulted in an explosion that brought Japanese running to the church lab...
 For decades, the engineering community has
viewed space as the ultimate frontier (Captain Kirk declared it) - a clean, vacuum-sealed
environment that offered a solution to the terrestrial limitations of bandwidth,
range, and latency. Nations and industries have long championed the
democratization of global communications, seeing Direct-to-Device (D2D) connectivity
as the next logical step in our technological evolution. But as we move from the
era of rare satellite backhaul to the age of the "mega-constellation," the engineering
paradigm has shifted. We are no longer just looking at the sky; we are beginning
to occupy it with such density that we risk creating a perpetual "noise floor" for
the rest of humanity. This article examines the thermodynamics, the mechanics of
orbital mesh nodes, and the sheer volume of material required to shift our compute
infrastructure into the heavens...
 Just the other day I saw a greeting card
with a sailboat on the front with the words "Anchors Away," on it. It was not meant
to be a pun on "anchors aweigh;" the card writer didn't know any better. This
episode of "Carl & Jerry" has our teenage Ham radio operators and electronics
hobbyists running a newly built model tugboat powered by a steam engine and navigated
via a radio control system. As is always the case, no activity of the pair goes
without drama of some sort. Author John T. Frye used his writings to present
technical topics within the storyline, both in the "Carl & Jerry" series here
in Popular Electronics magazine and his earlier "Mac's Radio Service Shop"
series that appeared...
 For the sake of all the avid cruciverbalists
amongst us, this
technical-term-themed
crossword puzzle contains only words and clues related to engineering, mathematics,
chemistry, physics, and other technical words. 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., Hedy Lamarr or the Bikini Atoll)...
 Sam Benzacar, of Anatech Electronics, an
RF and microwave filter company, has published his May 2026 Newsletter that, along
with timely news items, features his short op-ed titled "The
Math of LEO No Longer Adds Up." Sam runs the numbers on Low-Earth-Orbit satellites,
and assesses future plans. "SpaceX now operates more than 10,000 Starlink satellites,
roughly two-thirds of everything in orbit. The next-largest operator, OneWeb, has
fewer than 700." They roam the nighttime sky, with small dots of light tracking
across our already light-polluted skies. The ITU coordination process now confronts
filings for more than a million LEO spacecraft, with half a million projected to
be in orbit by 2040. Now that Internet coverage and even Direct-to-Device (D2D)
networks...
 Meteor scatter communications is an excellent
example of where hobbyists - in this case amateur radio operators - have contributed
mightily to technology. It could be argued that a big part of the reason for such
occasions is that many people involved in science type hobbies are employed professionally
in a similar capacity, and their extracurricular activities are a natural extension
of what pays for the pastimes. It seems amazing to me that
meteor
scatter as a means of achieving upper atmosphere reflections of radio signals
went undiscovered until 1953, but evidently that is the case. Meteor scatter is
a very popular form of amateur radio challenge...
 "Make the most
of your time at
Dayton Hamvention® with the free ARRL Events phone app. Hamvention is the world's
largest annual gathering of radio amateurs, and will be held May 15-17 in Xenia,
Ohio. There is a lot to do and see. Use the ARRL Events app to make sure you don't
miss a beat and plan out your visit now. The ARRL events app is produced by ARRL
The National Association® for Amateur Radio in partnership with Dayton Hamvention.
The app includes Hamvention's full program, so you can browse and schedule forums,
preview the extensive list of exhibitors, and find affiliated events. During the
event, attendees can use..."
 Here's a topic that never goes out of style.
Without bothering to worry about source and load impedances, this brief tutorial
on the fundamentals of
power supply filter design using series inductors and parallel
capacitor combinations. The author offers a rule-of-thumb type formula for guessing
at a good inductor value based on peak-to-average expected current. This is by no
means a comprehensive primer on power supply filter design and is directed more
toward someone new to the concept...
 Werbel's new
WMC-0.5-2-6dB-S, 6 dB directional coupler provides precision attenuation
where it matters most. It covers 500 MHz to 2 GHz with broadband flat coupling response,
high directivity, and excellent return loss performance. The device covers the upper
portion of the UHF band as well as L band in a single unit measuring just 3.60 x
0.60 x 0.38 inches. Minimized reflections increase accuracy of the measurement.
Mainline insertion loss of 1.2 dB (typical) includes coupling factor. The 6 dB coupling
ratio gives an approximate 75/25% splitting ratio and may be used as such to distribute
signals unequally where required, often to make up for asymmetrical losses elsewhere
in a system...
 Connecting a diode backwards across a solenoid
coil to shunt potentially damaging current and/or voltages when the supply is turned
off is a common trick for saving connected circuitry. Depending on the magnitude
of the magnetic field and how quickly the field collapses, some really high voltages
can be produced. In fact, the ignition coil and point (now
solid state) system in exploits exactly that principle to turn the 12 volts
from your car battery into 20-40 kV for firing the spark plugs. Engineers that
designed this early
cyclotron had limited options for what to use given the state
of the art in the early 1940s, and chose to keep the generator permanently connected
to the coil (no switch) so that if the controller failed, the coil's energy...
 In the opening scene of "Gladiators," Quintus
remarks to Maximus (Russell Crowe), "A people should
know when they've been conquered." Such truth is applicable to society today regarding
ubiquitous surveillance. Less than two decades ago the media was
filled with stories of outrage over the discovery of some new form of monitoring
and reporting system having been installed on highways, in shopping malls, along
sidewalks, even bathrooms. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, anything goes with
government snooping. Count the numbers of freedoms you have lost and the inconveniences
suffered because of those 19 men with no identifiable common cause
(wouldn't want to profile). This story from 1956 shows
how long stealth installation...
 I wonder why today's editions of the ARRL's
QST magazine does not have a column dedicated to the "YL" (Young
Lady, or female in general) contingent of the amateur radio realm? Ham radio,
as most -if not all - historically male-dominated hobbies has fairly significant
outreach efforts to try attracting women into activities. My Model Aviation
magazine has a monthly column written by a lady whose enthusiasm for model airplanes
equals that of most males - and she's funny to boot! - but it is not dedicated to
female modelers. If there is a girl or woman present at a competition, she is almost
guaranteed to receive coverage...
 The December 1947 issue of Radio News
and the February 1954 issue of Radio & Television News published these
electronics-themed comics. Humor evolves over time, which is apparent when you
look over these and many of the other comics from these vintage electronics magazines.
The AVC comic is the best, IMHO. For those of you not around in the olden days of
vacuum tubes, tapping on a tube would often make it work properly again, either
because of a dirty contact in the socket or crud that had accumulated on the screen
grid. I give this batch a score of about 7 out of 10, but you might think otherwise.
There is a growing list of other comics at the bottom of the page. Enjoy...
 How RF circuits work have long been referred
to as "black magic,... even sometimes by people who fully understand
the theory behind the craft. To me the ways in which a transmission line - be it
coaxial cable, microstrip, or waveguide - can be manipulated and controlled with
various combinations of lengths and terminations is what most qualifies as "magic."
Sure, I know the equations and understand (mostly) what's happening with incident
and reflected waves, etc., and how the impedance and admittance circles of a Smith
chart graphically trace out what's happening, but you have to admit there's something
wonderfully mystical about it all...
 I remember hearing a long time ago about
"The Thing"
- a passive bugging device discovered within a wooden Great Seal gifted to the U.S.
Embassy in Moscow. This 1962 Electronics Illustrated magazine feature explores
the ingenious, battery-less Soviet listening device. Far from a conventional electronic
bug, this passive device utilized a specialized resonant cavity and a diaphragm
that modulated an external 1600 MHz radio beam, essentially acting as an echo-based
microphone that was incredibly difficult to detect. While the article highlights
the device's diabolical simplicity and sensitivity, it contains no mention of the
U-2 incident or Gary Powers; notably, historical records clarify that Ambassador
Lodge displayed the device in 1960 to expose Soviet espionage...
 Based on beleaguered wife Sylvia Kohler's
mention of GE's Electronics Park in this story (surely a fable... or not), she and
unintentional antagonist, superheterodyne hubby (aka "Happy Boy," but we know him
as Popular Electronics cartoonist
Carl Kohler) probably lived in the Syracuse, NY, area. Electronics
Park existed during the hey days of General Electric when the sprawling campus ,
just north of I-90, designed and manufactured a plethora of both household and military
electronics products. GE's Electronics Laboratory ("E-Labs") was the company's pride
and joy. Today, a tiny portion of Electronics Park is still occupied by Lockheed
Martin, who bought that GE division in the 1990s, and the rest belongs the city.
But I digress... enjoy the story (her reason for referring to hubby as a Superheterodyne
is highlighted)...
 Multielement quad antennas are as popular
today as they were in 1967 when this article appeared in the ARRL's QST
magazine. That is not to say they are common. This particular design is for the
10-, 15-, and 20-meters bands, all three
of which are still in use today. If you build a multielement quad as shown here,
you might want to find a substitute for the bamboo frame members; aluminum tubing
is pretty cheap, but if you use metal, you'll need to use insulators at the connection
points. Formulas are provided for determining element lengths and director and reflector...
 This Radio Service Data Sheet from a 1932
issue of Radio-Craft magazine provides schematics and parts lists for
Silver-Marshall Model 727-DC Battery-Operated Superheterodyne
receiver. Most - if not all - electronics servicemen had subscriptions to these
magazines because they were a ready source of not just these service sheets, but
because of the extensive articles offering advice on servicing radios and televisions.
In fact, many electronics manufacturers had a policy of supplying service data only
to bona fide shops. A large list is included at the bottom of the page of similar
documents from vintage receiver schematics, troubleshooting tips, and alignment
procedures...
 There is something about these proposed
shorthand circuit symbols that reminds me of the IEEE digital
logic symbols using the distinctive shape (the traditional format) versus the newer
rectangular shape format. The set is quite extensive when all the different flavors
of combinatorial blocks - flip-flops, timers, counters, shift registers, encoders,
decoders, etc. - are included. My personal preference, you might guess, is the original
format with distinctive shapes. Although I do not do a lot of digital work, it is
easier for me to follow the signal flow and mentally perform the logic operations
with the distinctive shapes. But I digress. This article from a 1947 issue of
QST magazine introduces...
 Anritsu has been a global provider of innovative
communications test and measurement solutions for more than 120 years. Anritsu manufactures
a full line of innovative components and accessories for
RF and Microwave Test and Measurement
Equipment including attenuators & terminations; coaxial cables, connectors &
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spectrum, & vector network analyzers (VNAs); calibration kits; Bluetooth &
WLAN testers; PIM testers; amplifiers; power dividers; antennas. "We've Got You
Covered."
 Mac's young technician sidekick Barney decides
to one-up the
do-it-yourself television repair books that were flooding magazine
pages those days by writing a series of do-it-yourself surgery books. He figures
if the other guys can get rich by convincing Joe Sixpack that he can easily fix
problems in his TV set - where potentially lethal voltages lurk in every corner
- in as little as five minutes while saving hundreds of dollars from those rascally
shop owners, then surely those same people might buy his books for removing your
own appendix or tonsils. Deny the greedy doctors...
 This week's
Science & Engineering Crossword Puzzle has a special message
included that has to do with why you might be off work on Monday for a holiday.
Oh, and it also happens to be the world's most revered religious time of commemoration,
which to the delight of some and to the sorrow of others, is rapidly fading into
the shadows of time. The colorful "no-letter" squares were inspired by the type
of candy I am eating as I make the puzzle. As always all the other words are from
a hand assembled file of thousands of terms from science, engineering, mathematics,
chemistry, astronomy, etc. 7 Across + 15 Across to all...
 It really was not all that long ago when
wiring images for news stories literally meant
transmitting photographs over a twisted pair of telephone lines
either to a fax machine or to a computer on standby waiting for incoming files.
Videocasts were being regularly performed via satellite of ground relay microwave
stations since the 1960s, but most still shots were sent via phone lines. For the
last decade and a half, both still shots and videos have been transmitted as a routine
matter via camera-equipped cellphones, and as with most technologies we have quickly
become so accustomed to the convenience that memories of the old ways are quickly
(even thankfully) forgotten. This article from a 1936 edition of Radio-Craft
magazine describes one of the really early systems. Notice that coupling to the
telephone line is...
 On
sale through the end of June! Werbel's new
WM3PD-6-18-S, 3-way Wilkinson divider that operates from 6 to 18 GHz.
It is part of Werbel Microwave's catalog of splitters that offer a wide range of
port count and frequency ranges. Its compact aluminum enclosure measures 1.57 x
1.57 x 0.38 inches. The device is RoHS compliant, however it may be specially
ordered with lead solder. Return loss 14 dB typical input, 15 dB typical
output. Insertion loss above 4.8 dB is 0.3 dB typical. Isolation 23 dB
typical. Phase balance 3.4° typical. Designed and assembled in the USA. "No Worries
with Werbel!"
 Velocity modulation, aka deflection modulation,
of electronic images was evidently considered by some engineers to be potentially
disruptive technology when this article was published in a 1951 issue of Radio &
Television News magazine. You can see from the pictures that the result is
an image that today's digital software would render with an "emboss'" technique.
More vertical relief seems to be generated with the analog velocity modulation technique
compared to what my graphics program does when embossing the original photo. At
the bottom of the page is a velocity modulation video demonstration found on YouTube...
 Windfreak Technologies designs, manufactures,
tests and sells high value USB powered and controlled radio frequency products such as
RF signal generators, RF synthesizers, RF power detectors, mixers, up / downconverters,
and a 15-band programmable filter (5 MHz-8 GHz). Since the conception
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learn how they might help you with your current project.
 Fortunately, there is a constant flow of
people newly interested in electronics who are seeking information on basic principles.
Some will find an article this one on
Ohm's law fundamentals and decide maybe being just a user of electronics
is good enough. Others will, as did you and I, read this kind of material and be
amazed at how ultimately predictable electrical circuit parameters are. If he or
she continues and launches into a career in electronics or electrical engineering,
it won't be long before he or she will, as do you...
 Whilst reading this Carl Kohler technodrama
entitled "Thin Air My Foot!," I happened upon this word new to me: "din,"
as in "It was dinned into me." OK, maybe you already knew that, but surely I should
have been aware of its alternate meaning other than being a loud noise ("the agitated
cat made quite a din."). Fortunately, I am not subject to a household of people
who refuse to put things back in their respective places when through with them,
but this tale of woe tells what might be a familiar scenario to you. To be honest,
this could have been written about me as a boy - before the U.S. Air Force taught
me a thing or two about organization and neatness - since I continually frustrated
my father by leaving his tools (and hardware and lumber and paint) scattered in
forgotten places around the house and yard...
 Antenna radiation (beam) patterns published
by manufacturers are obtained under ideal - or close to ideal - conditions with
a carefully prepared and calibrated open air test site (OATS) or an enclosed anechoic
chamber. Multipath, imperfect earth ground, obstacles both manmade and natural,
misshapen elements, poor VSWR, antenna orientation (in both azimuth and elevation)
are among the many factors which produce real-world operational results that do
not jive with a manufacturer's datasheet. Without employing some far field 3-dimensional
field strength scheme see
Drone-Based Field Measurement System™), there is no way to obtain a complete
picture of how your antenna performs in all directions...
 It has been quite a while since posting
a
Carl & Jerry adventure tale. The teenage-neighbors-cum-Ham-radio-operators-cum-electronics-hobbyists-cum-amateur-detectives-cum-pranksters
are the creation of John T. Frye. He published a monthly episode in Popular
Electronics magazine. Mr. Frye is also the author of the
Mac's Radio Service Shop series of instructional stories
that ran in Radio & Television News magazine. This adventure is quite
a digression from the typical storyline in that the boys actually engage in a bit
of deceit in order to save face based on a bet...
 Exodus Advanced Communications is a multinational
RF communication equipment and engineering service company serving both commercial
and government entities and their affiliates worldwide. Power amplifiers ranging
from 10 kHz to 51 GHz with various output power levels and noise figure
ranges, we fully support custom designs and manufacturing requirements for both
small and large volume levels. decades of combined experience in the RF field for
numerous applications including military jamming, communications, radar, EMI/EMC
and various commercial projects with all designing and manufacturing of our HPA,
MPA, and LNA products in-house.
 Is
the
BOMARC an airplane or a rocket? If it is an airplane, then it is the pilotless
type (aka "drone"). If it is a rocket, then it is the ultimate in controlled trajectory
hardware - at least in its day. The DoD referred to it as a surface-to-air guided
missile. The name is a combination of "BOeing Airplane Company"
and "Michigan Aeronautical Research
Center." Clever, non? If memory serves me correctly (it's been
30+ years), the AN/TPX-42 IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) secondary radar system
(built by Gilfillan) I maintained as an air traffic control radar technician reserved
a special "X" bit in its data packet to designate the BOMARC - and maybe other guided
missiles. That might have been a military secret at the time...
 "Israel's Iron Beam laser weapon that can
destroy drones for a few dollars 'a pop' are being developed and introduced into
combat service. The Chinese
Hurricane 3000 system is another new weapon developed to tackle the growing
use of drones in combat. However, unlike the laser-based Israeli system, the Hurricane
3000 system uses microwaves to disable drones and drone swarms at ranges exceeding
3 kilometers (1.9 miles). This is a similar weapon to the US Army's Leonidas microwave
weapon, although China claims that the 3000's reported three-kilometer-plus range
is over a kilometer more than the Leonidas system...
 This is interesting. The title for the
General Motors S1B radio says it is a 25-cycle model, as compared
to the S1A, 60-cycle model. According to an IEEE Xplore paper, "At 8:53 PM on 12
October 2006, a 66-kV circuit breaker tripped and locked out at the Harper Substation
in Niagara Falls, New York, due to downed transmission conductors near Buffalo,
New York. That event marked the end of over 111 years of 25-Hz alternating current
(ac) electric power service on the American side of the Niagara Frontier." 25 Hz
was considered a good, low frequency for...
 Here is a good
quiz that tests your knowledge of classifications of science fields.
It appeared in a 1949 edition of The Saturday Evening Post magazine. Even
if you do not particularly know the relationships, you should be able to get most
if not all twelve correct with a combination of surety, recognition of word roots,
and a process of elimination. Good luck...
 ConductRF is continually innovating and
developing advanced solutions for RF cable assembly and various RF through millimeterwave
interconnect requirements. We'll be posting their latest RF cables and technical
articles here at RFcafe.com, but to stay abreast, you're encouraged to visit their
Updates section at https://www.conductrf.com/blog
and sign up for their monthly news releases.
 During the early 1960s, Short-Wave Listening
(SWL) was a remarkably popular era-defining hobby, as enthusiasts worldwide competed
to pull in distant broadcasts from London, Moscow, or Hong Kong. "How
to DX Satellites" challenged these listeners to advance beyond Earth-bound stations
to the ultimate frontier: intercepting signals from orbiting spacecraft. While skeptics
dismissed satellite DXing as impossible due to extreme distances, low power, and
elusive verification, the author maintained it was achievable for those with the
right patience and gear. Successful monitoring required sensitive communications
receivers, crystal calibrators...
 Radio
Shack, like so many of America's original great companies, was born and lived
long and prospered during its glory days, then eventually waned into insignificance
and obsolescence within the last decade or so. It is not always simply an unwillingness
to adapt to new technologies and methods that dooms them. The forces behind those
life cycles are often beyond their control because start-ups vying for market share
do not carry the burden of and have to deal with established investments in people,
facilities, and infrastructure...
 Although obviously (but getting less so)
before my time, the mention of this airborne radar surveillance system having been
built by
General Electric, in Utica, New York, struck a chord since that
is where I had my first engineering job after having graduated from the University
of Vermont with a BSEE degree. It seems to me the work at the time was all done
in the converted textile complex on Broad Street. They were the glory days of GE,
Westinghouse, Collins, Raytheon, and other electronics titans whose engineers, technicians,
assemblers, and program managers...
 The June 1949 issue of Radio & Television
News had four
television-themed comics. Television at that time was a relatively
new home appliance, so there was a huge amount of interest in the technology. It
hadn't really been all that long since the public got used to hearing sound (i.e.,
'talkies') in the movie theater, so the mystique that surrounded television made
it the subject of a lot of puns and jokes. 1949 was a mere four years after the
end of World War II, and the post-war economic boom was primed by a surplus
of left-over electronic components along with lots of available talent both in the
areas of design and assembly...
 Temwell is a manufacturer of 5G wireless communications filters
for aerospace, satellite communication, AIoT, 5G networking, IoV, drone, mining
transmission, IoT, medical, military, laboratory, transportation, energy, broadcasting
(CATV), and etc. An RF helical bandpass specialist since 1994, we have posted >5,000
completed spec sheets online for all kinds of RF filters including helical, cavity,
LC, and SMD. Standard highpass, lowpass, bandpass, and bandstop, as well as duplexer/diplexer,
multiplexer. Also RF combiners, splitters, power dividers, attenuators, circulators,
couplers, PA, LNA, and obsolete coil & inductor solutions.
 Both my father and grandfather were
stamp collectors - philatelists is the technical word - who dabbled
in a recreational way with commemoratives from foreign countries. Nearly all were
canceled (used) stamps that today, as back in their
day, have no real value other than to someone interested in history. Of course none
are the rare types. I now possess many of those stamps in an album that was painstakingly
hand-illustrated and assembled to arrange each stamp according to its country and
issue date. At one time I, too, dabbled in the hobby, having collected many plate
blocks and special issue U.S. stamps in the 1970s and 1980s, along with purchasing
a few designs of special purpose such as those with aerospace and communications
themes...
 Exodus Advanced Communications offers a
scalable portfolio of
high-power solid-state RF amplifiers designed for electronic warfare, GPS/GNSS denial,
and counter-drone applications. These systems are engineered to support high-power
RF denial architectures capable of disrupting control, navigation, and payload links
across multiple frequency bands. Integrated into mobile, fixed, and expeditionary
platforms, Exodus amplifiers enable reliable, long-range electronic attack performance
in complex and evolving threat environments. These solutions are deployed within
high-power RF denial systems across mobile and fixed counter-UAS platforms, as illustrated...
 "Measuring low-frequency electric fields
with high precision remains a significant challenge. Existing sensing technologies
often cannot deliver traceability, compact design, and the ability to detect field
direction all in one system.
Rydberg atoms are gaining attention in electric-field quantum metrology because
they have large electric dipole moments and their behavior can be tied to well-defined
atomic properties. Most current methods for detecting low-frequency or DC electric
fields using Rydberg atoms rely on vapor-cell electromagnetically induced transparency
(EIT) spectroscopy. However, this technique is limited..."
 Here are the
Majestic Chassis Models 380 A.C. T.R.F., and 400 A.C.-D.C. Superheterodyne
and
Delco 32-Volt Radio Receiver Chassis Radio Service Data Sheets
as featured in a 1933 edition of
Radio-Craft magazine. As mentioned many times in the past,
I post these online for the benefit of hobbyists looking for information to assist
in repairing or restoring vintage communication equipment. Even with the availability
of SAMS Photofacts, there are some models that cannot be found anywhere other than
in these vintage magazines...
 For the sake of avid cruciverbalists amongst
us, each week I create a new
crossword
puzzle that has a theme related to engineering, mathematics, chemistry, physics,
and other technical words. You will never be asked the name of a movie star unless
he/she was involved in a technical endeavor (e.g., Hedy Lamar). Clues in this week's
puzzle with an asterisk (*) are directly from this week's "High Tech News" column
on the RF Cafe homepage (see the Headline Archives page if necessary)...
 Please take a few moments to visit the
everythingRF website to see how they can assist you with your
project. everythingRF is a product discovery platform for RF and microwave products
and services. They currently have 354,801 products from more than 2478 companies
across 485 categories in their database and enable engineers to search for them
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they can help you.
 In 1961, when these
tech-themed comics appeared in Electronics Illustrated magazine, the
"Space Race" was in full swing. That, along with home hi-fi stereo equipment, newfangled
color televisions, and - gasp - transistors, filled the headlines. They were also
the subject of many forms of humor. These four comics touch on many of those aspects,
all centered on the Space Race. Of course, everything is noticeably dated. "Flunking
the code test" means not much to Amateur radio licensees who earned their first
license (like me, in 2010) after the 5 WPM Morse code requirement was removed. Building
something in "kit form" was a good way to save some money and learn something...
 In our present "No user serviceable parts
inside" world of electronic products, it is easy to understand why very few people
have an appreciation for the technical prowess needed to troubleshoot and repair
them. When reading through these episodes of "Mac's Radio Service Shop" that appeared in mid last century editions
of Radio & Television News magazine, I am inspired to envy the skills
that small electronics repair shop owners had for working on the old vacuum tube
based radio and television sets. Digital electronics has its own unique set of quirks
and special knowledge requirements to troubleshoot, but when everything is analog
rather than merely being required to be a "0" or a "1"...
 "The U.S. Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) has announced that it is once again accepting applications for its
Honors Engineer Program. Initiated in 2018, the one-year development program
gives selected candidates an opportunity to work with FCC personnel on innovative
issues in the communications and high-tech arenas, including 5G communications technology,
the national deployment of broadband services, and communications technologies intended
to improve access to those with disabilities. Those selected to participate in the
Honors Engineer Program will be eligible for continued employment at the agency.
Application to the FCC's Honors Engineer Program is open to recent college graduates
with an engineering degree..."
 This week's crossword puzzle theme is
Amateur
Radio. All RF Cafe crossword puzzles are custom made by me, Kirt Blattenberger,
and have only words and clues related to RF, microwave, and mm-wave engineering,
optics, amateur radio, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and other technical subjects.
As always, this crossword puzzle contains no names of politicians, mountain ranges,
exotic foods or plants, movie stars, or anything of the sort unless it/he/she is
related to this puzzle's technology theme...
 Submarines first proved their deadly capabilities
during World War II when Adolph Hitler's navy used them to torpedo not just
military ships but merchant ships in commercial trade routes between the Americas
and Europe. Hideki Tojo's navy used subs to conduct surveillance prior to the deadly
surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Their naturally stealthy environment - underwater
- proved to be a difficult realm both for detection and for attack. Fortunately,
sensor technology developed quickly during the war, and soon a combination of air
and sea based methods were in use and proved very effective. Submariners no longer
sailed in relative security from being treated to a violent, icy burial at sea...
 The leading website for the PCB industry.
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the leading printed circuit board manufacturers around the world and made them searchable
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of layers supported, Types of substrates (FR-4, Rogers, flexible, rigid), Geographical
location (U.S., China), kinds of services (manufacturing, fabrication, assembly,
prototype), and more. Fast turn-around on quotations for PCB fabrication and assembly.
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- and don't miss the blog articles!
 If you are just starting out in the realm
of electronics or maybe just need a little freshening up of your
basic math skills, this rather extensive article from a 1942 issue
of QST magazine is just what you need. Author Dawkins Espy does a really
nice job of laying out the basics of algebraic operations, Ohm's law, trigonometry,
and logarithms. Examples are provided for each category. In this day of calculators
doing all the hard work of calculating logs, antilogs, and trig functions, it does
even seasoned veterans at electronics calculations a bit of good to do a quick read-through
to knock off cobwebs in the gray matter. How long has it been since you have seen
tables of sine, cosine, and tangent values and/or tables of logarithms? Not long
enough, you say?
 Astronomers
consider all elements heavier than helium to be metals. That definition obviously
does not jive with the standard chemical definition of a metal as an element that
readily conducts electricity, but a concept called "metallicity"
argues that from a star (and therefore the universe) formation perspective, extremely
high temperatures and pressures in first generation stars (like our sun) preclude
the identification of distinct elements other than hydrogen and helium. Heavier
elements, such as lithium (#3 on the periodic chart and a major component in LiIon
batteries, is classified as a metal in chemistry) are overwhelmingly created after
a massive enough hydrogen star collapses and begins fusing H and He into heavier
elements. The relative abundance of hydrogen in the universe is deemed to be about
92%, and helium is 7.1%, so together they comprise about 99% of all elements...
2016 April - 1
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