|
 The market for
high-performance RF, microwave, analog, and digital circuit simulation software
is
dominated by a small number of vendors whose products are effectively
mandated for official project proposals and regulatory deliverables. These
vendors most familiar to all of us in the field maintain their premium pricing
not solely through superior technical merit, but through a systematic practice
of regulatory and procurement capture. By influencing standards bodies,
government procurement specifications, and academic curricula, these incumbents
ensure their tools become the only legally or practically acceptable options for
signed-off engineering work. The pattern is consistent: a smaller company...
 Here are a couple more
electronics-themed comics from vintage Radio-Craft magazines. Artist
Frank Beaven, who created a huge number of comics and advertisements (e.g., Eveready
batteries, Zippo lighters) for technical and other types of publications (Saturday
Evening Post, New Yorker, Esquire), did both of them. Beaven
must have a fan base since many examples of his drawings are offered for sale on
eBay. Most of his comics credit reader suggestions as the basis for the subject.
I have to admit to not really "getting" the gag in the top comic. Maybe Sinatra's
voice strained the frequency response of simple tabletop radios of the day. The
bottom comic is one of a series entitled ...
 This custom
Communications Engineering crossword puzzle contains some words particular to
radio, radar, analog and digital circuits, components, and other tech-themed words
and clues. Each week for two decades I have created a new technology-themed crossword
puzzle using only words (1,000s of them) from my custom-created lexicon related
to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy, etc. You will
never find among the words names of politicians, mountain ranges, exotic foods or
plants, movie stars, or anything of the sort. You might, however, find someone or
something in the otherwise excluded list directly related to this puzzle's technology
theme, such as Hedy...
 The "Monthly Review" column appearing in
Radio-Craft magazine was an assorted collection of news tidbits about
electronics and communications industry happenings, similar to
contemporary magazines. Looking back to 1947, the world was hopeful about the future
as World War II was finally over and even the loser countries were focusing
on how their societies would be shaped by technology and lessons learned in the
preceding seven to ten years (depending on when a country entered the war). Two
items here are particularly interesting because they refer to ongoing research into
large screen televisions and video phones (aka "televisers"). Large screens at the
time meant either...
 One of the Notable Tech Quotes which has
appeared on RF Cafe is, "The nice thing about standards is that you have so many
to choose from," by computer scientist Andrew Tanenbaum. In the middle of the last
century, a change in the fundamental understanding of current flow precipitated
what has become a very large opportunity for people to misunderstand descriptions
of
current direction caused by a difference in voltage potential
(voltage) - depending on the era a particular description was written. Beginning
with Benjamin Franklin, electron current flow was assumed to be from positive to
negative, ostensibly but incorrectly, because a positive thing must contain an excess...
 "Fortune reports that Elon Musk's SpaceX
and Tesla are constructing Terafab, a chip manufacturing complex that Musk says
will become the largest and most valuable building on Earth. 'Terafab
Texas will be the largest and most valuable building on Earth by far. And it
will be stunningly beautiful,' Musk wrote on X. The New Century Global Center in
Chengdu, China, currently holds the record for the world's largest building at about
18.9 million square feet. Terafab's planned 100 million square feet would exceed
that by more than five times. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said in a press release
that 'the first phase of the Terafab project represents a capital investment of
more than $16.8 billion and will create 3,000 new jobs...
 Computer analysis in 1976 was a job performed
on a corporate, university, or government mainframe. Radio Shack's TRS-80 came
out in 1977, but it did not have the capacity to calculate and plot antenna gain
charts like the one in this QST article. Yes, an ambitious programmer could
write the code necessary to perform the double integrals presented in the article,
but to do all the figuring needed to create all the graphs in Figure 4, the job
would just about be finishing up today - and that's not too much of an exaggeration.
For some reason the authors never mention what computer was used or where it was
based. When I saw the title of "Loops vs.
Dipole," I expected the loop to be...
 Even with having been granted more than
400 patents in his lifetime, and being a major player in the realms of energy, data
storage, and semiconductor research and manufacturing, you - as well as most people
- have probably never heard the name
Stanford Ovshinsky. He was somewhat of a celebrity in the 1960s
and 1970s when working hard to promote his concept of "glassy semiconductors," -
aka Ovonic devices. Ovonics are amorphous materials that are used for making switches
for digital logic and memory devices. Either the Ovshinsky process did not pan out
for high volume commercial production or some other technology displaced the what
it was hoped to dominate...
 If I told you that Lester William Polsfuss
is widely credited with being a major player in the pioneering of electric guitars
due to his solid-body (no acoustic resonance chamber) designs, you might wonder
where I came up with that claim. However, if you know that Mr. Polsfuss is the surname
of Les Paul, then you would quickly agree. As if being a popular musician and, along
with wife Mary Ford, selling millions of records wasn't enough, Les Paul was
also an experimenter and inventor in the electronic music realm. This article entitled
"Les Paul: Technician and Musician" appeared in a 1958 article
in Radio-Electronics magazine, and was at the time a contemporary look
inside his...
 Sam Benzacar, of Anatech Electronics, an
RF and microwave filter company, has published his August 2026 newsletter that,
along with timely news items, features his short op-ed titled "Filtering
for Quantum: A Problem No One's Talking About." Sam aptly points out that as
quantum computers scale in size, specialized laboratory-built components become
both expensive and a schedule liability for development efforts. When a handful
of qubits was considered breakthrough-amazing, building all the parts in-house made
sense since processes and materials were being invented in the process of doing
so. However, at the point when thousands of filters, amplifiers, and other types
of components routinely manufactured...
 Georg Simon Ohm's discovery of the relationship
between voltage, current, and resistance revolutionized our understanding of electrical
circuits. Ohm's Law provided a simple, yet powerful mathematical tool that has become
essential to both theoretical physics and practical engineering. Although it was
initially met with skepticism, Ohm's perseverance and commitment to his scientific
work ultimately transformed the way we interact with electricity, influencing technologies
that define the modern world. His legacy lives on not only in the equation that
bears his name but also in the unit of electrical resistance - the ohm - that honors
his contributions to science...
 When you think about it, the speed at which
a human being is able to accurately copy
Morse code is limited by the same kinds of processes that limit
the speed at which binary data can be sent between electronic transceivers (modems).
Noise introduced into the signal at both the transmitting and receiving ends or
in the transmission path connecting the two, degrades the ability of the receiver
(electronic and human) to discern between a "1" and a "0." It can take the form
of electrical or audio interference and distortion. Phase noise in the electronic
realm is sort of the equivalent of an irregular sending human hand that cannot maintain
equal dwell times for dits and dahs, thus making the recognition...
 Why Phase Stability Matters During RF/Microwave
Testing. When engineers evaluate RF test cables, specifications such as insertion
loss, VSWR, shielding effectiveness, and connector type typically receive the most
attention. Yet for many Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) applications, one characteristic
can have a greater impact on measurement accuracy than all of these combined: phase
stability. Phase stability refers to a cable assembly's ability to maintain a consistent
electrical phase relationship when subjected to movement, flexing, temperature changes,
or repeated...
 Magnetic amplifiers (aka "mag amps") use
a property of saturated core inductors (saturable reactors) to obtain signal amplification
via a transformer-type plus diode-assisted voltage multiplication.
Magnetic amplifiers were preferred over vacuum tube amplifiers
in some circuits because they do not require a high bias voltage, are generally
smaller in size, are quite robust and are practically immune to microphonics. Their
biggest limitation is bandwidth. The high number of turns in the core provides a
lot of interwinding capacitance so the self-resonant frequency is in the low megahertz
range. Additionally, the need for the magnetic amplifier reactor to operate in a
saturated condition further...
 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 &
adapters; o-scopes; power meters & sensors; signal generators; antenna, signal,
spectrum, & vector network analyzers (VNAs); calibration kits; Bluetooth &
WLAN testers; PIM testers; amplifiers; power dividers; antennas. "We've Got You
Covered."
 The National Company, of Malden, Massachusetts,
which made this
cesium-based Atomichron in the mid-to-late 1950s, began life as
a toy manufacturer. It had an output frequency at the nominal resonance frequency
of cesium - 9192.631830 MHz - and was accurate to better than a second in 600
years. The unit was 7 feet tall and weighed 500 pounds. Modern cesium standards
are more stable and are portable. As of January 2013, the NIST-F1 cesium fountain
primary frequency standard is accurate to within one second every 100 million years!
That's a tad better than the Atomichron, non...
 This Bell Telephone Laboratories (aka Bell
Labs) advertisement appearing on the inside back cover of the 1958 issue of
Radio & TV News magazine celebrated the 10th anniversary of their
announcement of the world's first
point contact transfer resistance (transresistance) semiconductor
device - aka the transistor. John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain
recorded the monumental event in a lab notebook on December 23, 1947 - a nice Christmas
present for the world! The trio's invention was not like the robust bipolar
transistors used today, or even ten years later in 1958. Rather than employing point-contact
"cat's whisker" metallic probes for making the emitter and collector...
 For many years, I have been scanning and
posting schematics & parts lists like this one that appeared in radio and electronics
magazines in the middle of the last century. Most use vacuum tubes. This
General Electric Model 280 Farm Radio "Radio Data Sheet" was in
the May 1947 issue of Radio-Craft magazine. The Radio Museum website has
more information on the GE Model 280 Farm Radio. Farm radios were designed to work
on storage batteries since until the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 was put into
effect, most rural properties had no commercial AC electric power service. 11 years
later, work was in progress to light up the entire country, but many locations had
to wait while resources...
 Here are a couple new-old
tech-themed comics from vintage Popular Electronics magazines.
Both have a Ham radio theme, so maybe you need to have been there to appreciate
the scenario... or maybe not. It is possible that the presence of clothes pins on
twin lead or ladder line could de-tune the line, and could crush the internal dielectric
of a coaxial line. There is no metal on boxer shorts, but maybe the clothes pins
are the type with a metal spring. For the other comic, you just need to know what
••• --- ••• is to get it. Enjoy...
 Question: If a fuse is rated at 3 amps,
at what value of current should it "blow?" Answer: Not at 3 amps. As this
Littelfuse company advertisement from a 1954 issue of Radio & Television
News magazine informs us, fuse ratings do not indicate the current value at
which a fuse opens to protect a circuits, but rather the maximum current level at
which it will NOT blow (open circuit). The same goes for circuit breakers. Various
types of fuses are available to handle certain types of applications. For instance,
a highly capacitive load will according to the well-known equation iC(t) = C * dv/dt
could draw a very large amount of initial (inrush) current if there is not enough
series resistance to limit it to prevent...
|
Loading history...
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.
 Who cares about
television antennas these days, you're probably asking? Many people might care
soon. The December 2012 edition of the IEEE's Spectrum magazine had an
article titled, "TV's Future: The Broadcast Empire Strikes Back." According to author
Lynn Claudy, the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) is working on a standard
called Mobile DTV (MDTV) in the United States. MDVT enables broadcast stations to
deliver programming to some cellphones, laptops, tablets and to moving television
screens in cars, trains, and buses. Furthermore, a scheme to enable on-demand programming,
user feedback (voting, polls, quizzes, games), and other advanced features is under
investigation...
 Prior to the invention of gas (CO2,
HeNe) and chemical (iodine, hydrogen fluoride) lasers in the early to middle 1960s,
lasers (light amplification by stimulate emission of radiation) were made using
rare earth gems (ruby). Evolution occurred rapidly in power output, wavelength (color),
stability, purity, and lasing source type.The concept of lasers were introduced
in science fiction, but believe it or not the first recorded instance of the term
"LASER" was in a paper written in 1959 by Gordon Gould. Development flowed from
the preexisting maser (microwave amplification by stimulate emission of radiation)
knowledge. This 1960 news item in Electronics World magazine reported on
Dr. Theodore H. Maiman's work...
 NASA (and its predecessor NACA), and private
and public operators have been monitoring solar events in the optical realm for
many decades while attempting to correlate terrestrial phenomena with it. Auroral
light displays in the extreme polar regions have long been known to be caused by
solar flare and
coronal
mass ejections (CME). With the advent of radio, the electrical nature of the
upper atmosphere became evident when static (AM) and long range propagation
affected long range communications. Extreme CME activity eventually was
associated with behavior of the electrical power grid; indeed, massive blackouts
and brownouts are to blame for many. Last but not least...
 No matter how proud I was of my family name,
I do believe I would refrain from using "Kluge" as a company moniker. Maybe the
word did no connate the same meaning in 1946 when this advertisement for the
Kluge Electronics "California Kilowatt" Amateur Radio Station appeared in
Radio-Craft
magazine. An extensive WWW search turned up no examples of any surviving Kluge "California
Kilowatt" Amateur Radio Stations. One QRZ website discussion supposed that none
were ever manufactured. Per Wikipedia: "A kludge or kluge (klooj) is a workaround
or quick-and-dirty solution that is clumsy, inelegant, inefficient, difficult to
extend and hard to maintain." It has an interesting etymology...
 There is little incentive to build your own
field strength meter these days when commercial instruments are readily available
and relatively inexpensive. For instance, you can buy an MJF-801 FSM with a 100 kHz
to 500 MHz spectrum coverage for just $45, brand new. More sophisticated, calibrated
instruments are available for a lot more, but this basic unit is dirt cheap. However,
if you want to read a little about the theory behind a field strength meter and
see how one goes together, this article from a 1960 issue of Popular Electronics
magazine provides that opportunity...
 Here is a snapshot of how a
career in electronics looked in the year 1960, per an article in Electronics
World magazine. The field of electronics was in transition from vacuum tube
technology to semiconductors, from point-to-point wiring in chassis to printed circuit
boards, and from analog to digital. Opportunities abounded from all angles - legacy,
contemporary, and futuristic. Jobs in electronics were readily available for people
of education levels ranging from high school to post-graduate. Annual pay began
at around $2,600 for assembly line workers to over $5,000 for experienced technicians.
Assistant engineers and communications specialists with some college began at around $3,000...
 One sure giveaway to the age of a picture
is the presence of a wheat penny, a buffalo nickel, or a Mercury dime. This 1957
advertisement in Radio & Television News magazine for
Channel Master antennas has all three. It shows a walking Liberty half dollar
as well. Quarters haven't changed much over the years, with George Washington's
head on the obverse side since 1932. The wheat penny design ended in 1959 when the
Lincoln Memorial was put on the reverse side in its place. Thomas Jefferson's head
has been on the nickel since 1938. Theodore Roosevelt's head was ensconced on the
obverse of the dime in 1946. John F. Kennedy was placed on the half dollar obverse
in 1964. This ad is about...
 This
Radio
Theme crossword puzzle for August 15th, 2021, 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). The technically
inclined cruciverbalists amongst us will appreciate the effort. Enjoy!
 It has been a while since posting on of these
Radio Data Sheet 333 that often appeared in vintage electronics magazines like
Radio-Craft. This one is for
General Electric Radio Models 100, 101, 103 and 105. The RadioMuseum.org website
has a very nicely restored General Electric Model 103 radio. Per their description:
"The General Electric 103 is an AC/DC operated 5 tube BC band receiver. The BC band
frequency tuning range is 540-1600 kHz. Has built-in loop antenna with provisions
for connecting an external antenna. The following models use the same schematic
and chassis but have different cabinets..." A few Model 100 versions show up on
eBay in case you might...
 If you have seen many of the articles I post
from vintage electronics magazines, you know I often compare prices from the magazine's
era to today's prices. The online Inflation Calculator from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) is as good as any, so it is used. This RCA advertisement in a 1946
issue of Radio-Craft magazine boasts of how drastically the
cost of
vacuum tubes has come down since 1923. It claims a $9 tube in 1923 costs a mere
80¢ in 1946; that is about 1/11th of the original price. Prior to around 1965, inflation
was very low, so the inflation-adjusted price for the $9.00 tube would be $9.80
in 1946 - a full 23 years later (a 9% increase, per the BLS). Therefore, the 80¢
price...
 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...
 Radio-Craft magazine's "Radio Term
Illustrated" feature of electronics-themed comics was very popular. Famous artist
Frank Beaven, who created illustrations for numerous publications at the time, took
ideas submitted by readers and turned them into clever word (or phrase) pictures.
You will need to consider some of them from the viewpoint of someone in the 1945
era in which they were made. I don't know if women Navy personnel are referred to
as WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service ) anymore - probably not.
Arcing from motor armature brushes was a common cause of radio interference in the
days of AM broadcasting, hence "brush discharge." Enjoy!
 While a bit far-fetched, this Carl &
Jerry saga from the June 1963 issue of Popular Electronics magazine has
the two amateur radio hobbyists cum detectives applying their knowledge of standing
waves and an invention called SNARE, "Signal
Net for Actuating Radio-sensitive Explosives," by Irwin Ehlmann, to thwart an
assassination attempt on a visiting foreign dignitary. The name of the patent is
actually "Method and apparatus for detonating radio frequency sensitive blasting
caps," but the principal is the same. The choice by author John T. Frye of
a halo antenna on their mobile shortwave rig was probably no coincidence given the
guardian angel role it played in the adventure...
 On December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor, the FCC issued a "Notice to All Amateur Licensees" that
began thusly: "All amateur licensees are hereby notified that the Commission has
ordered the
immediate suspension of all amateur radio operation in the continental United States,
its territories, and possessions." The October 1945 issue of Radio-Craft magazine
announced the long-awaited planned resumption of transmitting operations. On November
15, 1945, amateurs were finally allowed back on the air, but only on the 10 and
2 meter bands. Another end to an FCC wartime policy announced was the requirement
to reduce output power by 1 dB...
 This
Engineering Theme crossword puzzle for August 8th, 2021, 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).
The technically inclined cruciverbalists amongst us will appreciate the effort.
Enjoy! |
