 Monday the 7th
 This article describing the "Auto−Sembly"
technique for fully automated processing of electronic assemblies appeared in the
1954 issue of Radio & Television News magazine. Auto−Sembly was developed by
the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and might have first appeared in print in the 1951 issue
of Electronics magazine. Single−sided printed circuit boards (PCBs) with components
mounted on the far side were hot−dipped in a solder bath. All components were through-hole
at the time since surface mount was not in the picture yet. The large mass (weight)
and relatively low adhesion strength of copper foil to the substrates would not
reliably hold the components in place under even normal use. PCBs were just entering
the electronics market, and as with many new technologies was enthusiastically embraced
and encouraged by proponents, or vehemently shunned by opponents. Given that transistors
had only been invented four years earlier, PCBs of the era incorporated vacuum tube
sockets...
 I normally might not bother to promote something
like this "A
Look Ahead to Microwaves & RF in 2023" article, but it has some interesting
readership statistics. Editor Dave Maliniac says in part, "In surveying our audience,
we've found that you're a digitally savvy and digitally centric crew that uses digital
magazines more often than print: 21% of you NEVER subscribes to a print magazine.
72% reads a digital magazine at least every month, if not more often. 35% never
attend in-person events while 85% attend virtual events every year. 89% engaged
with webinar content. Search is the highest used tool for information collection
(70% 'important' or 'very important') and print is of low value (21% 'not important'
or 'not important at all')." Add to that my observations in the past about all the
hard copy magazines in the mail room trash cans. That's a lot of print advertising
$€£¥₹₱ down the drain...
 This schematic and parts list for the
Belmont Model 5P19 vintage radio appeared in a 1947 issue of Radio News magazine.
No functional description or tuning instructions were included. I have scanned and
posted more than 250 of these for the benefit of the many people who restore and
service these vintage radios, and often it can be difficult or impossible to find
schematics and/or tuning information. The Belmont 5P19 is a "suitcase" portable
radio that runs on batteries or house current. Two, 45 volt "B" batteries are
needed to supply 90 volts for the plate bias. A running list of all data sheets
is posted at the page bottom to facilitate a search for other radio models...
 Modern nuclear power generation would obviate
the perceived need for these massive wind and solar farms which are overly expensive
to build and maintain. "A major offshore wind project in the Massachusetts pipeline
'is
no longer viable and would not be able to move forward' under the terms of contracts
filed in May. Both developers behind the state's next two offshore wind projects
are asking state regulators to pause review of the contracts for one month amid
price increases, supply shortages and interest rate hikes. Utility executives working
with assistance from the Baker administration last year chose Avangrid's roughly
1,200-megawatt Commonwealth Wind project and a 400 MW project from Mayflower Wind
in the third round of offshore wind procurement to continue the state’s pursuit
of establishing cleaner offshore wind power. Contracts, or power purchase agreements
(PPAs), for the projects were filed with the Department of Public Utilities in May.
But last week, Commonwealth Wind filed a motion..."
 As with so many topics in electronics, nomenclature
has changed since the time when commercializable solar cells first came on the scene.
Vintage magazines usually referred to them as "solar
batteries," which was really a misnomer since they do not actually store energy
like a battery. In this 1954 edition of Popular Electronics magazine (the
premier issue), solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency rates of 6% are heralded
as wonderful, enough to cause the author to claim "...a wafer-thin slab of crystal,
4 ft. x 15 ft., either resting on or built into the roof of a house, could supply
enough current to operate all the lights, stove, refrigerator, and other appliances
in the house - 24 hours a day." Even with today's efficiencies in the 20-25% realm,
you couldn't power much of a house on a 4x15 foot array. Maybe they meant the number
would be useful if you had gas-powered lights, refrigerator (yes, they exist), and
stove...
 This assortment of custom-designed themes
by RF Cafe includes T-Shirts, Mouse Pads, Clocks, Tote Bags, Coffee Mugs and Steins,
Purses, Sweatshirts, and Baseball Caps. Choose from amazingly clever "We Are the World's
Matchmakers" Smith chart design or the "Engineer's Troubleshooting Flow Chart."
My "Matchmaker's" design has been ripped off by other people and used on their products,
so please be sure to purchase only official RF Cafe gear. My markup is only a paltry
50¢ per item - Cafe Press gets the rest of your purchase price. These would make
excellent gifts for husbands, wives, kids, significant others, and for handing out
at company events or as rewards for excellent service. It's a great way to help
support RF Cafe. Thanks...
 Anatech Electronics (AEI) manufactures and
supplies RF and microwave filters for military and commercial communication
systems, providing standard LP, HP, BP, BS, notch, diplexer, and custom RF filters,
and RF products. Standard RF filter and cable assembly products are published in
our website database for ease of procurement. Custom RF filters designs are used
when a standard cannot be found, or the requirements dictate a custom approach for
your military and commercial communications needs. Sam Benzacar's monthly newsletters
address contemporary wireless subjects. Please visit Anatech today to see how they
can help your project succeed.
Sunday the 6th
 This week's crossword puzzle for November
6th sports a
radar and radio theme. 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!
 It was a lot of work, but I finally finished
a version of the "RF & Electronics Schematic & Block Diagram Symbols" that
works well with Microsoft Office™ programs Word™, Excel™, and Power Point™.
This is an equivalent of the extensive set of amplifier, mixer, filter, switch,
connector, waveguide, digital, analog, antenna, and other commonly used symbols
for system block diagrams and schematics created for Visio™. Each of the 1,000 or
so symbols was exported individually from Visio in the EMF file format, then imported
into Word on a Drawing Canvas. The EMF format allows an image to be scaled up or
down without becoming pixelated, so all the shapes can be resized in a document
and still look good. The imported symbols can also be UnGrouped into their original
constituent parts for editing. Check them out!
 Axiom Test Equipment allows you to
rent or
buy test equipment,
repair
test equipment, or sell or trade test equipment. They are committed to providing
superior customer service and high quality electronic test equipment. Axiom offers
customers several practical, efficient, and cost effective solutions for their projects'
TE needs and is committed to providing superior customer service and high quality
electronic test equipment. For anyone seeking a way to offload surplus or obsolete
equipment, they offer a trade-in program or they will buy the equipment from you.
Some vintage items are available fully calibrated. Please check out Axiom Test Equipment
today!
Friday the 4th
 Aside from vacuum tubes occasionally going
bad,
capacitors were undoubtedly the most frequently failing components in television
and radio sets. All electronics of the era (and earlier) of this 1954 issue of Radio &
Television News magazine had chassis full of high voltages and high temperatures
which really strained the integrity of capacitors, especially electrolytic types
used in power supplies and plate circuit decoupling circuits. As if a couple hundred
volts wasn't challenging enough, TV cathode ray tubes (CRTs) often had bias voltages
over 10 kilovolts. Most of us over 60 years old recall at least one instance
of a sizzle followed by a loud pop, followed by the television going dark when a
capacitor failed. It always seemed to happen at the most intense point of a program.
Of course when that kind of failure occurred you knew the set would be out of service
for a while since Dad wouldn't be able to fix it by pulling out all the tubes and
taking to the hardware to test them all on the automated machine. In our very low
income house with five kids, everyone scrambled looking for change in pants pockets
and under sofa cushions to help fund a rapid repair...
 Did you know that the examinations for
Amateur Radio Operator licenses were originally conducted by the Commerce Department,
and not the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)? The FCC was established with
passage of the Communications Act of 1934, which abolished the Federal Radio Commission
(FRC) and replaced it with the FCC. The "Act" combined and organized federal regulation
of telephone, telegraph, and radio communications. That's right, bureaucracies were
renaming and reorganizing themselves even back then in order to expand and increase
control and regulatory power. After all, the more segments of society you command,
the more opportunities there are for accepting graft, payola, bribes, contributions
to political campaigns, etc. But, I digress. When I first wrote this (2016), I was
in the process of studying for the Amateur Extra license and am immersed in review
of electronics principles, regulations, procedures, band plans, etc. Unlike in 1931,
today you can buy a manual that has the entire pool of 700 verbatim exam questions
that are used for the test, so in theory, if you can memorize all potential questions
and answer...
 Axiom Test Equipment, Inc., an electronic
test equipment rental and sales company has published a new blog post entitled "Weighing
the Benefits of Benchtop vs. USB Based Test Equipment," that explains the differences
between benchtop and USB based test equipment to identify the best option for a
user's project. The most glaring difference between USB-controlled units and standard
benchtop units is usually size. A USB unit fits next to a laptop computer on a small
desk while a benchtop unit occupies the better part of a laboratory work area or
6U or more of a standard 19-in.-wide test equipment rack. Another difference between
a USB unit and a traditional benchtop unit is the computer. For USB equipment, the
computer is part of the test setup, whereas for a benchtop unit, it is an option...
 "This
10-cm box will make history as the
smallest radar instrument to be flown in space - and the very first radar to
probe the interior of an asteroid. Its target? The Dimorphos asteroid, which on
the night of 26 September had its orbit diverted and a vast 10,000 km plume sent
out into space by collision with NASA's DART mission. This radar instrument, connected
to a quartet of 1.5 m-long antenna booms, will be flown aboard the aircraft-carry-on-sized
Juventas CubeSat, which will in turn be flown to Dimorphos aboard ESA's Hera spacecraft,
due to be launched in two years' time. Hera - currently taking shape at OHB in Germany
and Avio in Italy - will fly to Didymos to perform a close-up survey of the aftermath
of the DART impact, gathering key information such as the size of DART's crater..."
 This
Electronic Crosswords puzzle appeared in the October 1963 edition of Electronics
World magazine. About half the words used are related directly in some way
to electronics or physics. It's a fairly small puzzle so it shouldn't take you too
long to complete. My RF Cafe crosswords, by the way, have 100% of the words directly
related to the sciences, from a custom lexicon I have created over 20 years of making
puzzles. Enjoy...
RF Cascade Workbook is the next phase in the evolution of
RF Cafe's long-running series, RF Cascade Workbook. Chances are you have
never used a spreadsheet quite like this (click here for screen capture). It is a full-featured RF system
cascade parameter and frequency planner that includes filters and mixers for a mere
$45. Built in MS Excel, using RF Cascade Workbook 2018 is a cinch
and the format is entirely customizable. It is significantly easier and faster than
using a multi-thousand dollar simulator when a high level system analysis is all
that is needed. An intro video takes you through the main features...
 PCB Directory is the largest directory of
Printed Circuit
Board (PCB) Manufacturers, Assembly houses, and Design Services on the Internet.
We have listed the leading printed circuit board manufacturers around the world
and made them searchable by their capabilities - Number of laminates used, Board
thicknesses supported, Number 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.
Thursday the 3rd
 Author Maurice Johnson does a pretty
nice job sizing up the
evolution of communications receivers in his multi-part series in Electronics
World magazine. He begins with the pre−World War II radio sets and
works up through contemporary models. A major step in the evolution was going from
simple heterodyne to superheterodyne frequency conversion; that was actually a WWI
innovation. Heterodyne sets usually went from the radio frequency (RF) frequency
directly to audio frequency (AF). Superheterodyne included an intermediate frequency
(IF) prior to final conversion to audio, which permitted a fixed frequency filtering
and amplification stage independent of the received frequency. Also addressed is
the superregenerative circuit which greatly improved signal sensitivity. A shift
from Morse code (digital) to audio communications drove improvement in detector
technology, where the crude coherer type device was of no use...
 Being a big appreciator of good humor, and
especially
technology-related humor, I made sure to scan these tech-themed comics from
the pages of vintage Radio-Electronics magazines. Some of the same themes
from half a century ago are still applicable today - like inventing a device that
will block television commercials (see the page 132 comic). There are a couple huge
differences between then and now, though. For one thing, the percentage of each
hour consumed by commercials has doubled or tripled since 1958. A Prime Time TV
show in 1958 like The Untouchables ran 54 out of 60 minutes (90% show / 10% commercials).
Big Bang Theory, a 2014 show, had a run time of 22 out of 30 minutes (73% show /
36% commercials)...
Reactel has become one of the industry leaders in the design and manufacture
of RF and microwave
filters, diplexers, and sub-assemblies. They offer the generally known tubular,
LC, cavity, and waveguide designs, as well as state of the art high performance
suspended substrate models. Through a continuous process of research and development,
they have established a full line of filters of filters of all types - lowpass,
highpass, bandpass, bandstop, diplexer, and more. Established in 1979. Please contact
Reactel today to see how they might help your project.
 In the early 1950s, the U.S. Navy built what
was at the time the world's largest and most powerful radio broadcast transmitter
station at the
Jim Creek Naval Station on Wheeler Mountain in Washington state. Its 1.2 MW,
24.8-to-35 kHz VLF transmitter (call sign NLK) can reach anywhere in the world,
even to submarines. A half wavelength at 24.8 kHz is 19,830 feet. Photos indicate
that the transmitter is located in the middle of a dipole arrangement. "Catenary
cables," if you are unfamiliar with the term, refers to the sagging shape assumed
by both the antenna cables and the tower support cables. "Catenary" stems from the
word "chain," since it is the form a chain takes when suspended at both ends and
allowed to hang freely in a gravitational field. The hyperbolic cosine function
describes it mathematically. It is also the root of the word "concatenate," meaning
to string together...
/2022/Senior-Technician-RF-2604-RGNext-11-3-2022.htm">
 RGNext (Range Generation Next) operates,
maintains, and sustains mission-critical systems to provide safe and effective launch,
testing, and tracking of Department of Defense, civil, commercial, and international
space lift vehicles. Our employees serve on the forefront of global defense and
space operations. We offer our team of experienced, professional employees an environment
of challenging, stimulating and personally and professionally rewarding career opportunities.
This /2022/Senior-Technician-RF-2604-RGNext-11-3-2022.htm">
Senior RF Technician position is located at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
Essential functions include operate and maintain electronic test equipment, to include
oscilloscopes, RF signal generators, spectrum and network analyzers, power meters,
and other test equipment, configure equipment for operations, select the appropriate
antennas, calibrate equipment as necessary, and report when system is ready for
operation...
 I like the title: "Put
PEP in Your Antenna Tuner." For those not familiar with transmitter lingo, PEP
is Peak Envelope Power, but of course the word "pep," as in energy, is a clever
double entendre. This tuner is for the receive side of operations, so it is not
a high power circuit for blasting out signals for DX'ers to hear on the other side
of the world. If you aren't averse to building a vacuum tube circuit and happen
have a 6AG5 in your parts box, then here's a simple antenna tuner circuit for you.
Otherwise, I'm guessing there are many modern, transistorized tuners you can build
instead. It appeared in a 1958 issue of Popular Electronics magazine...
 New Scheme rotates
all Banners in all locations on the page! RF Cafe typically receives 8,000-15,000
website visits each weekday.
RF Cafe is a favorite
of engineers, technicians, hobbyists, and students all over the world. With more
than 12,000 pages in the Google search index, RF Cafe returns in favorable
positions on many types of key searches, both for text and images. 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. I also re-broadcast homepage
items on LinkedIn. If you need your company news to be seen, RF Cafe is the
place to be.
 Empower RF Systems is a global leader in
power amplifier solutions. Empower RF Systems is an established and technologically
superior supplier of high power solid state RF & microwave amplifiers. Our offerings
include modules, intelligent rack-mount amplifiers, and multi-function RF Power
Amplifier solutions to 6 GHz in broadband and band specific designs. Output
power combinations range from tens of watts to multi-kilowatts. Unprecedented size,
weight and power reduction of our amplifiers is superior to anything in the market
at similar frequencies and power levels.
Wednesday the 2nd
 Sixty years ago when this "Evolution
in Electronics: Integrated Circuits" article appeared in Electronics World magazine,
commercially manufactured (as opposed to in laboratories and small volume production)
ICs were at the very beginning of their evolutionary lifetime. It was only 14 years
earlier that the transistor's invention first been announced at Bell Labs. Jack
Kilby, of Texas Instruments, is credited with having built the first practical integrated
circuit in 1958. The Darlington transistor IC was a relatively simple achievement
since there were no passive components on the die. A 2−stage amplifier, as shown
in figures 2 and 4, with on-chip resistors and capacitors was a big deal at the
time...
 This installment of Mac's Radio Service
Shop, entitled "A.C.-D.C.
Bread and Butter," could stand alone as a chapter in a troubleshooting manual
for vacuum tube radios. John Frye's (or a trusty consultant's) knowledge of circuit
operation is abundantly clear here. Recall that Mr. Frye later authored the
Carl & Jerry teenage techno-sleuth series in the next decade. A couple
things stood out to me. The first is the heretofore unfamiliar phrase "play hob
with," which means to cause trouble for. The second is mention of a metal tuning
dial indicator needle making contact with a part of the metal faceplate and thereby
affecting the tuning of the radio. What that means is the needle had some level
of voltage on it that could short to the chassis. It was not unusual to have very
high voltages on the dial and button shafts of user-accessible controls, with only
a plastic or phenolic knob or button separating the user from a potentially lethal
shock. Safety grounds were not part of the supply line cord, further increasing
the danger...
 LadyBug Technologies was founded in 2004
by two microwave engineers with a passion for quality microwave test instrumentation.
Our employees offer many years experience in the design and manufacture of the worlds
best vector network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, power meters and associated components.
The management team has additional experience in optical power testing, military
radar and a variety of programming environments including LabVIEW, VEE and other
languages often used in programmatic systems. Extensive experience in a broad spectrum
of demanding measurement applications. You can be assured that our Power Sensors
are designed, built, tested and calibrated without compromise.
 GAA
= gate all around. "At the 75th IEDM from December 3rd to the 7th in San Francisco,
TSMC is giving a paper on a
2D nanosheet GAA transistor. The transistor with a 40 nm gate width produced
a drive current of 410 microamps per micron at Vds of 1 V. TSMC uses a transition-metal
dichalcogenide monolayer for the semiconducting channel in a nanosheet transistor.
TSMC has integrated hafnium-based dielectrics formed by atomic layer deposition
with the monolayer TMD material MoS2, to build a top-gated nFET with a physical
dielectric thickness of 3.4 nm and an electrically equivalent oxide thickness
(EOT) of ~1 nm..."
/2022/RF-Engineer-Principal-2599-2000-RGNext-11-1-2022.htm">
RGNext (Range Generation Next) operates,
maintains, and sustains mission-critical systems to provide safe and effective launch,
testing, and tracking of DoD, civil, commercial, and international space lift vehicles.
We offer our team of experienced, professional employees an environment of challenging,
stimulating and personally and professionally rewarding career opportunities. This
/2022/RF-Engineer-Principal-2599-2000-RGNext-11-1-2022.htm">
Principal RF Engineer position is located at Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA,
and may be eligible for a hybrid telecommuting schedule after initial training period
is complete. Job Summary: Performs engineering functions to design, develop, modify,
integrate and test new subsystems on mono-pulse tracking radars on the Western Test
Range at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Will lead an engineering team with the technical
aspects of projects and the supporting multi-disciplined project teams...
 Are you old enough to remember - or have
you ever heard about - the "cat's
eye" on old tube radios that was used for fine tuning of stations? The "eye"
was generated by a special type of electron-ray vacuum tube like this 6E5 from RCA.
A fluorescent disk at the top of the tube was caused to glow in accordance with
the level of control voltage, as shown in figure 2. The electron-ray tube had to
be mounted horizontally in the chassis so that the "eye" was visible from the front
of the chassis. This article from the January 1955 edition of Popular Electronics
magazine also describes how the electron-ray tube can be used as a voltmeter. As
with most things, RCA 6E5 vacuum tubes can be found for sale on eBay. The original
1930's "Coke bottle" variety like the one in figure 3 usually cost a bit more
than the newer versions with the constant diameter glass envelope...
 With more than 1000
custom-built symbols, this has got to be the most comprehensive set of
Visio Symbols available for RF, analog, and digital system and schematic
drawings! Every object has been built to fit proportionally on the provided
A-, B- and C-size drawing page templates (or can use your own). Symbols are provided
for equipment racks and test equipment, system block diagrams, conceptual drawings,
and schematics. Unlike previous versions, these are NOT Stencils, but instead are
all contained on tabbed pages within a single Visio document. That puts everything
in front of you in its full glory. Just copy and paste what you need on your drawing.
The file format is XML so everything plays nicely with Visio 2013 and later...
 Centric RF is a company offering from stock
various RF and
Microwave coaxial components, including attenuators, adapters, cable assemblies,
terminations, power dividers, and more. We believe in offering high performance
parts from stock at a reasonable cost. Frequency ranges of 0-110 GHz at power
levels from 0.5-500 watts are available off the shelf. Order today, ship today!
Centric RF is currently looking for vendors to partner with them. Please visit Centric
RF today.
Tuesday the 1st
 Author Lon Edwards provided a good introductory
lesson on the subject of
white noise. Since digital communications was not yet a major technology when
the piece appeared in a 1962 issue of Electronics World magazine, pink
noise, a pseudorandom version of the truly random nature of white, was not a concept
well known in the electronics realm. White noise in the audio spectrum is the focus
here, but the general principles apply at all frequencies. Interestingly, he states,
"The word 'white' has been borrowed (inaccurately) from optics and is used to mean
the long-time average energy distribution of the electrical voltages over a specified
frequency spectrum." Solitron Devices (still in business), where Mr. Edwards
was employed, manufactured a noise diode they called the Sounvister SD1−W, a double-diffused,
silicon junction diode. An Internet search did not turn up a single instance of
a surviving Sounvistor...
 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.
 Innovative Power Products (IPP), with more
than 30 years of experience designing & manufacturing RF & microwave passive
components, is pleased to introduce the
IPP−8111, 20 dB directional coupler for 2 to 6 GHz. The IPP−8111 is
a unique broadband design which provides separate coupled ports for both forward
and reflected signals with internal terminations. This coupler is produced in a
surface mount (SMD) package of 0.48" x 0.65" and is available on tape and reel at
a competitive price for high volume applications. Its insertion loss is less than
0.35 dB, main line VSWR is less than 1.35:1, coupling value is 20 dB, coupled flatness
is ±2.0 dB, and directivity is greater than 17 dB. The IPP-8111 is available for
both military and commercial use. View the outline drawings, test data and other
details for the IPP−8111...
 Incredibly, author Ray Larson saw this post
and wrote in with a little background on his motivation for the
7031 kHz article!
Back in 2011 when I first posted it, I wrote, "How many 'Old Al' types - the antithesis
of an 'Elmer' - are out there who knowingly or unknowingly frustrate others from
participating in an otherwise fun activity because he insists on beating up on a
trivial topic ad nauseam? You can feel the angst in the author's voice while reading.
Ray, are you out there? Is this story real or fictitious? It could easily be either."
Well, turns out Al is "out there..."
 "Should
circuit designers use shielding, active EMI suppression, or something else to
mitigate EMI? Circuit designers want to design the best kinds of circuits with
optimum performance. Those designers usually dread having to add a pesky electromagnetic-interference
(EMI) filtering circuit to their nice, neat, and creative design. In this article,
we will demonstrate some relatively simple EMI blocking circuitry to ease a designer's
pain. In today's modern, tight packaging of electronic circuitry, creativity is
becoming necessary to ensure EMI shielding. How do we minimize the weight, thicknesses,
and cost of shielding in our circuit design? Enter direct-spray EMI coating processes.
For instance, there's a direct-spray process known as Ultra-Thin Coating Application
Technology or t-CAT..."
 Have you ever heard of a "nuvistor?"
I'm not sure whether I had prior to reading this article from the June 1959 issue
of Popular Electronics. If I ever used one, I didn't know about it. There is an
entry in Wikipedia for the nuvistor. It was supposed to be a real paradigm changer,
but alas, that never happened. RCA could have made billions off the concept. The
other subject of this article on miniaturization, micro-modules, definitely did
gain huge popularity. They are ubiquitous today in the form of multifunction hybrid
modules, plug-and-play system elements, mixed signal ICs with stacked die, etc.
A nuvistor was used in the front end of the HP3400A True RMS Voltmeter (thanks to
Michael M. for that). Also, thanks to Bob Davis for pointing out that the Lafayette
HB-400 CB radio sported a Nuvistor in the receiver front end...
It was a lot of work, but I finally finished
a version of the "RF & Electronics Schematic & Block Diagram Symbols" that
works well with Microsoft Office™ programs Word™, Excel™, and Power Point™.
This is an equivalent of the extensive set of amplifier, mixer, filter, switch,
connector, waveguide, digital, analog, antenna, and other commonly used symbols
for system block diagrams and schematics created for Visio™. Each of the 1,000 or
so symbols was exported individually from Visio in the EMF file format, then imported
into Word on a Drawing Canvas. The EMF format allows an image to be scaled up or
down without becoming pixelated, so all the shapes can be resized in a document
and still look good. The imported symbols can also be UnGrouped into their original
constituent parts for editing. Check them out!
 ConductRF is continually innovating and
developing new and improved solutions for RF Interconnect needs. See the latest
TESTeCON RF Test
Cables for labs. ConductRF makes production and test coax cable assemblies for
amplitude and phased matched VNA applications as well as standard & precision
RF connectors. Over 1,000 solutions for low PIM in-building to choose from in the
iBwave component library. They also provide custom coax solutions for applications
where some standard just won't do. A partnership with Newark assures fast, reliable
access. Please visit ConductRF today to see how they can help your project!
Monday the 31st
 This "The Hand of Selene"
Carl and Jerry adventure appeared in the November 1960 issue of Popular
Electronics just in time for Halloween. The magazine would have arrived in
mailboxes on newsstands sometime in October. With the great popularity of zombies
and the undead these days (in which I personally have zero interest), the scheme
outlined here to make the hand of Selene (an Egyptian moon goddess) tap out answers
to a soothsayer's questions would be a great scheme to use at a Halloween party.
Read on to discover the tech savvy teenagers' clever implementation...
 Just keep repeating, "There is no inflation.
We are not in a recession." The Bloomberg report on Halloween candy cost increases
this year surely must be wrong, but I reposted some of them here anyway (see thumbnail).
I've dubbed it "Candyflation."
Reese's candy is up 35% over a year ago. Twix is up 53%. That's nothing; I just
paid $118 for a roll of 14-2 Romex wire that cost about $40-$45 two years ago. Gasoline's
gone from $2.10/gallon to north of $4/gallon, depending on where you live. Electricity
rates here have gone up >10% in two years and
Duke Energy wants another 14% or more. Don't blame it on insane levels of deficit
spending the last couple years, though. It can't be infrastructure costs and supply
shortages needed to accommodate
>5M
illegal aliens crossing our southern border in the last two years. Of course not.
It's that darn Putin causing all the problems, don't you know! We're being devastated
here at RF Cafe.
 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 (for which I own the entire DVD set). Anyway,
this article, written in the days of over-the-air television broadcasts, presents
a solution to the annoying "spook" effect caused by poor oscillator circuit shielding...
 TotalTemp Technologies has more than 40 years
of combined experience providing thermal platforms.
Thermal Platforms
are available to provide temperatures between −100°C and +200°C for cryogenic cooling,
recirculating circulating coolers, temperature chambers and temperature controllers,
thermal range safety controllers, space simulation chambers, hybrid benchtop chambers,
custom systems and platforms. Manual and automated configurations for laboratory
and production environments. Please contact TotalTemp Technologies today to learn
how they can help your project.
 Haunting the renewable energy extremists
this Halloween is the reality of a need for cheap, reliable electricity. The "renewable"
adjective is a farce since once a form of energy is converted to another form it
cannot be used again - unless you have a >100%
Sterling machine. It
is a feel-good term for activists. Faced with a freezing citizenry this winter,
we learn: "A wind farm in Germany is being dismantled to
expand the Garzweiler lignite mine. One of eight turbines installed at the location
in 2001 has already been removed. Nevertheless, the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia
said it would phase out coal by 2030, as did RWE, the company that owns the mine."
Ach du lieber!
 Just in time for Halloween, John T. Frye's
teenage sleuths
Carl & Jerry unexpectedly recorded a late-night conversation between two
men where they plot how to dispose of the "body" when death occurred as a result
of prolonged choking. Employing their trademark technical prowess and scheming ability,
the pair sets a trap for the perpetrators and dutifully summon the authorities as
they complete their nefarious act of the night before. Halloween comes into play
because the recordings were made for use in creating sound effects during the reading
of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Cask of Amontillado." This
story, which appeared in a 1955 issue of Popular Electronics magazine, is a little
dark compared to a typical Carl & Jerry story...
 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 (EIA 19", ETSI 21"), and more. Test equipment and racks are built at a 1:1
scale so that measurements can be made directly using Visio built-in dimensioning
objects. Page templates are provided with a preset scale (changeable) for a good
presentation that can incorporate all provided symbols...
 Copper Mountain Technologies develops innovative
and robust RF test and measurement solutions for engineers all over the world. Copper
Mountain's extensive line of unique form factor
Vector
Network Analyzers include an RF measurement module and a software application
which runs on any Windows PC, laptop or tablet, connecting to the measurement hardware
via USB interface. The result is a lower cost, faster, more effective test process
that fits into the modern workspace in lab, production, field and secure testing
environments.
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