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Innovative Power Products (IPP) Baluns & Transformers - RF Cafe

To Be, Or Not to Be [a Metal] - Kirt's Cogitations™ #374

To Be, Or Not to Be [a Metal] - Do Astrophysicists Know the Difference?: Kirt's Cogitations™ #374 - RF CafeAs a multi-decade-long amateur astronomer, I have read countless articles written by astronomers who refer to all elements heavier than helium (#2 on the periodic table of the elements) as "metals." Ostensibly, the origin stems from early detection of heavy elements in stars, based on heliographic spectrum investigations, where iron - being the most abundant stable byproduct of supernova explosions - was most readily observed. I wondered if the "metals" nomenclature came from the next heaviest element, lithium (#3 in the periodic table), being a metal, thereby laying the foundation. Not so, claims AI, since lithium is very rare overall in the universe, and not readily observed. For clarity, I also procured the scientific distinction...

Mac's Radio Service Shop: Mac and Free Estimates

Mac's Radio Service Shop: Mac and Free Estimates, January 1950 Radio & Television News - RF CafeI usually learn something new with each episode of Mac's Radio Service Shop, but not necessarily related to electronics. Such is the case this time where after Mac gives Barney a quick lesson in how to determine a transformer's winding turns ratio when needing to create an impedance match circuit. He then, while discussing whether "free" repair estimates are truly free or of any real value at all, he uses the phrase "a horse on you." Maybe it is because I don't frequent bars that I had never heard that, but after a little research I now know it refers to a bar dice game called "'Horse." "A horse on you" is when you lose the final round of a 2-out-of-3 challenge. "A horse apiece" is when you and your opponent each win one round in a 2-out-of-3...

Superconductors in AI Data Centers

AI Data Centers Turn to High-Temperature Superconductors - RF Cafe"Data centers for AI are turning the world of power generation on its head. There isn't enough power capacity on the grid to even come close to how much energy is needed for the number being built. And traditional transmission and distribution networks aren't efficient enough to take full advantage of all the power available. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, annual transmission and distribution losses average about 5%. The rate is much higher in some other parts of the world. Hence, hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure are investigating every avenue to gain more power and raise efficiency. The potential virtues of high-temperature superconductors..."

The Coming Breakthrough in Thermoelectricity

The Coming Breakthrough in Thermoelectricity, July 1961 Electronics World - RF CafeConsumer grade thermoelectric coolers have been around for so long now that most people probably assume there is nothing wondrous about the discovery that makes them possible. I still marvel at the process that allows the application of a current through physical junction of two dissimilar metals (certain types) to produce a cooling effect rather than the I2R heating normally associated with conductors. This article from a scientist at Westinghouse Electric's research laboratories provides a nice introduction to the subject of thermoelectricity from both electric current generation based on the application of heat to a dissimilar metals junction, and the aforementioned cooling effect possible from passing a current...

Stereophonic FM Multiplex System

Stereophonic FM Multiplex System, July 1961 Electronics World - RF CafeFM radio has been in the news fairly frequently in the last couple years as phone manufacturers and the National Association of Broadcasters lobby the FCC and politicians to mandate the inclusion of FM radio capability into every phone manufactured. In a ploy to exploit the gullibility and egos of said bureaucrats and pols, their primary argument that FM radio is a "first informer in times of crisis," assuming of course that people will miss news of "the big one" when and if it occurs. To my knowledge, successful reception of FM radio on a cellphone requires the listener wear a set of wired ear buds since the wire from the phone to the ear buds functions as the antenna. What percentage of cellphone users would bother to carry a set of ear buds? I, of course, am a huge proponent of...

Popular Electronics Crossword Puzzle

Arthur Brach created many crossword puzzles for Popular Electronics magazine in the 1950s and 1960s. Unlike the hundreds of RF Cafe Crossword Puzzles I designed over more than two decades, the PE puzzles usually have a few words that are not specifically related to electronics and/or technology. Still, they are a good source of a brief break from the day's business. You will need to print out this crossword puzzle to work it, since it is not interactive. Have fun.

Is Fair Trade the Answer to TV Price Cutting Problem?

Is Fair Trade The Answer to TV Price Cutting Problem?, October 1949 Radio & Television News - RF Cafe"Fair Trade" was a policy established in the post-WWII era in response to what consumer retail groups considered business-ruining cost cutting by dealers who offered to sell products at or barely above cost in order to steal profit from other stores. So-scheming stores planned to make up for the low profit margin with high sales volumes. Doing so drove a lot of the local competition out of business, leaving the crafty dirty dealers to later raise prices. Stores that had manufacturer-sanctioned service shops often got screwed because they were obligated to repair items like TVs and radios that were bought from another dealer who did not do service work. Profit margins on repair work - at least from honest shops - were typically very low, so the owners depended on new product sales...

Quantum Teleportation: What's New

Quantum Telecom: What's New - RF CafeYowza, yowza, yowza (The Jazz Singer), QentComm's stock will be rising soon! "Quantum technology is already alive and well in telecom networks, and although security is the top-of-mind use case, telcos are also looking at quantum to make networks more resilient and transmit information more quickly. Comcast announced this week it completed a trial with AMD and Classiq that leveraged quantum software to find independent backup paths for network sites. Elsewhere, Deutsche Telekom and Qunnect successfully demonstrated quantum teleportation over an existing fiber network in Berlin..."

Men Who Have Made Radio: Count Georg von Arco

Men Who Have Made Radio - Count Georg von Arco, October 1930 Radio-Craft - RF CafeThe persona of Scott Adams' "Dilbert" is described exactly in the opening sentence of this article in a 1930 edition of Radio-Craft magazine. It is amazing - if not frustrating - to realize how long the perception of science-minded people being introverts has been around. Dilbert's "pointy-haired-boss" is nailed in the second sentence. Georg von Arco is celebrated here as a major contributor to the advancement of early radio, particularly wireless telegraphy equipment development. Interestingly, as brought to my attention by Melanie as she did the text clean-up after OCRing the magazine page, von Arco worked at the Sayville radio transmission station on Long Island, New York, where the Telefunken Company's Dr. K.G. Frank was arrested and interred for the duration of the World War I for sending out "unneutral messages...

Tune Your Antenna with a String

Tune Your Antenna with a String, October 1949 Radio & Television News - RF CafeLots of Hams still use this tried-and-true system for tuning antennas for efficient operation on a variety of bands. There are plenty of multi-band designs that rely on traps to reactively isolate portions of the antenna that properly resonate at the desired frequency, but there is usually a price to be paid in VSWR. Poor VSWR; i.e., higher mismatch loss, can be overcome with higher transmitter output power, but the real sacrifice for poor matching is loss of receiving range. The utter simplicity of using an insulated cord to vary the physical length of the antenna element(s) for tuning is hard to beat. It could be impractical on a setup where access to the antenna mount is difficult, but my guess is most people can make good use of it...

Russian Proposes Global TV

Russian Proposes Global TV, June 1958 Popular Electronics - RF CafeIn this 1958 Popular Science magazine article titled "Russian Proposes Global TV," Soviet engineer V. Petrov proposed a global TV relay using three geosynchronous satellites at 35,800 km altitude, launched 120° apart from the equator at ~6,000 mph to match Earth's 24-hour rotation. Fixed over sites like the USSR, China, and USA, they would relay signals - uplink on meter waves, downlink on microwaves - via inter-satellite links, enabling worldwide broadcasts beyond line-of-sight limits with directional antennas mitigating solar interference. Each would require 10-kW antenna power, potentially reduced via pulsed transmission (note digital waveforms in the drawing). This closely mirrored Arthur C. Clarke's 1945 Wireless World article "Extra-Terrestrial Relays," which...

The "Stenode Radiostat" System

The "Stenode Radiostat" System, October 1930 Radio-Craft - RF CafeFrequency crowding has evidently been an issue since the early days of radio according to this 1930 article in Radio-Craft magazine. The situation was really bad in the earliest times when unfiltered spark type transmitters were the norm. Those pioneers could be credited, I suppose, with being the first users of wideband communications, but it was not because they chose to do so. Here author Clyde Fitch discusses the debate over whether there really were such things as sidebands from modulation and makes an argument for their existence based on analysis of various types of modulation. In particular, he predicts the coming popularity of single sideband receivers with crystal-filtered channels, and the need for matching SSB transmitters with... wait for it... carrier and sideband suppression...

140 GHz Wireless Transceiver Rivals Fiber

140 GHz Wireless Transceiver Rivaling Fiber-Optic - RF Cafe"A new transceiver developed by electrical engineers at the University of California, Irvine boosts radio frequencies into 140-gigahertz territory, unlocking data speeds that rival those of physical fiber-optic cables and laying the groundwork for a transition to 6G and FutureG data transmission protocols. To create the transceiver, researchers in UC Irvine's Samueli School of Engineering devised a unique architecture that blends digital and analog processing. The result is a silicon chip system, comprising both a transmitter and a receiver, that's capable of processing digital signals significantly faster..."

Rhombic Antennas for Television

Rhombic Antennas for Television, October 1949 Radio & Television News - RF CafeSomehow, after being in the RF business for four decades, I have to admit to not being familiar with the term "acceptance angle" for antennas. That is after having read scores of articles on antennas. Maybe I did and just don't remember - embarrassing. Acceptance angle is mentioned and explained in this article during the description of rhombic antenna characteristics versus dipoles and multi-element designs. Although the author focuses on television installations, information provided on signal reflections, shadowing, ghosting, multipath, etc., is applicable to radio as well...

All About Electrolytic Condensers

All About Electrolytic Condensers, September 1930 Radio-Craft - RF CafeElectrolytic capacitors have long been the components that provide the highest capacitance density factor, that is, they have the highest capacitance value for a given volume of space occupied. Anyone familiar with electrolytic capacitors is aware of the polarization indicated on the package (a marking or unique physical feature), indicating that there is required direction for hookup; in fact, a backwards connection can lead to an explosive failure. While physical construction of electrolytic capacitors have evolved over the decades since this article was published, the fundamental operation has not. It is interesting to note the reference to capacitors as "condensers," a name still commonly used with internal combustion engine ignition systems and with some AC motors that use them at turn-on for providing a starting coil phase shift...

Is Radio Earthbound?

Is Radio Earthbound?, June 1958 Popular Electronics - RF CafeThis 1959 Popular Science magazine reprint of a 1925 Radio News magazine article focused is on visionary physicist Robert H. Goddard's proposed Moon Rocket as a means to test whether radio waves can traverse interstellar space, potentially enabling communication with other planets. Amid recent radio achievements, including mysterious signals during Mars' approach and solar disturbances recorded on Earth, the piece challenges Oliver Heaviside's theory that radio waves are confined by Earth's atmosphere. Goddard's innovative rocket, propelled by successive explosive charges to escape gravity and reach the Moon, would carry a compact radio transmitter in its nose cone, broadcasting signals throughout its flight. Astronomers would track...

RF & Microwave Engineering Crossword Puzzle

RF & Microwave Engineering Crossword Puzzle for September 27, 2015 - RF CafeThis week's crossword puzzle, as with all RF Cafe puzzles, uses only words pertaining to engineering, science, mathematics, mechanics, chemistry, astronomy, etc. You will never find a reference to some obscure geological feature or city, or be asked to recall the name of some numbnut movie star or fashion designer. You will, however, need to know the name of a famous RF filter design software author. Enjoy...

Flat Optical Surface Brakes Major Light Rule

Flat Optical Surface Brakes Major Light Rule - RF Cafe"Broadband achromatic wavefront control plays a central role in next-generation photonic technologies, including full-color imaging and multi-spectral sensing. A research team led by Professor Yijun Feng and Professor Ke Chen at Nanjing University has now reported a significant advance in this field in PhotoniX. The researchers introduced a hybrid-phase cooperative dispersion-engineering approach that combines Aharonov-Anandan (AA) and Pancharatnam–Berry (PB) geometric phases within a single-layer metasurface. This strategy enables independent achromatic control of wavefronts for two different light spin states..."

Luigi Galvani - 200th Anniversary

Luigi Galvani - 200th Anniversary, December 1937 Radio-Craft - RF CafeAs with the article in this month's issue of Radio-Craft magazine (December 1937), the reference to a 200th anniversary is understated by 88 years for 2025. Luigi Galvani was sort of the Benjamin Franklin of biology in that just as Franklin demonstrated that lightning was a form of electricity, Galvani showed that signals sent from the brains to the appendages of animals were electrical in nature. In my high school days in the 1970s, we duplicated his experiment by making deceased frogs' legs twitch when motivated by a D cell. Today, such an exercise would likely be met with demonstrations by animal rights people (whose lives, BTW, have probably in some way been improved as a result of previous such experiments). But, I digress. Mr. Galvani's name is...

The Superheterodyne Cycle

The Superheterodyne Cycle, September 1930 Radio-Craft - RF CafeSuperheterodyne receivers were originally the sole domain of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), which owned the patents and refused to license them until around 1930. Hugo Gernsback, a contemporary editor of the era, provides a little insight into the superregenerative receiver circuits superheterodyne was about to replace, and why it was an important improvement in technology. Sidebar: The question often arises regarding the difference between a "heterodyne" circuit and a "superheterodyne" circuit. The most popular answer that "super" refers to the IF being located above the range of human hearing, which peaks at about 15 kHz. Doing so assured that any IF leakage into the audio circuits would not be discernable by a radio...

Carl and Jerry: Out of the Depths

Carl and Jerry: Out of the Depths, June 1957 Popular Electronics - RF CafeCarl and Jerry stories are usually a good mixture of teenage curiosity, adventure, and electronics technology, but this "Out of the Depths" episode is a bit too far-fetched. The first ninety percent of this 1957 Popular Electronics magazine tale fulfills expectations, with the boys applying their shared interest in technology while attempting to learn and apply the technique of luring elusive fish from their safe dwelling places and onto the ends of their hooks. A car battery, DC-to-AC inverter, tape recorder, and high-gain microphone are the basis for the scheme. Things were going well, and I expected the normal hard-fought victory with big, fat bass in their creels - and then something only slightly more believable than finding a crashed alien spaceship...

RCA Radio Tubes Advertisement

RCA Radio Tubes Advertisement, January 1939 Radio-Craft - RF CafeRCA, the Radio Corporation of America was not merely a manufacturer of radio, television, and phonograph equipment for home entertainment. The company also made vacuum tubes for all sots of electronic equipment, and produced a weekly radio broadcast called "Magic Key" on the NBC Blue Network. Sticking to their communications roots, RCA today markets televisions, microwave ovens, Android-based tablet computers, DVD / Blu Ray drives, telephones, 2-way radios, radios, clocks, antennas, and many other devices - with no tubes in sight, not even in their TV displays...

AI Finds New Magnetic Materials

AI Tool Identifies 25 Previously Unknown Magnetic Materials - RF Cafe"Scientists at the University of New Hampshire are using artificial intelligence to dramatically speed up the search for new magnetic materials. Their approach has produced a searchable database containing 67,573 magnetic materials, including 25 previously unknown compounds that retain their magnetism at high temperatures, a key requirement for many real-world applications. 'By accelerating the discovery of sustainable magnetic materials, we can reduce dependence on rare earth elements, lower the cost of electric vehicles and renewable energy systems, and strengthen the U.S. manufacturing base,' said Suman Itani, lead author of the study..."

Espresso Engineering Workbook™ v3.2.2026

Espresso Engineering Workbook™ for Excel - RF CafeBreaking News! Espresso Engineering Workbook™ v3.2.2026 has just been released. This makes the 49th worksheet added. It calculates magnitude, phase, and group delay for Butterworth and Chebyshev lowpass, highpass, bandpass, and bandstop filters. Outside of the kilobuck simulators, finding a calculator for phase and group delay is extremely difficult - believe me, I've searched extensively for years. Espresso Engineering Workbook™ can be downloaded free of charge. All you need is Excel™ v2007 or newer. It is provided compliments of my advertisers. Contact me if you would like your company added to the next release.

Electronic Realism in Disneyland

Electronic Realism in Disneyland, April 1956 Popular Electronics - RF CafeDisneyland opened its gates in Anaheim, California on July 17, 1955. It was billed as the most high-tech theme park in the world, with a "wow" factor on par with the World's Fair extravaganzas. One of its much-ballyhooed features was the "realistic" jungle safari tour with life-like animal automatons and authentic 3-D jungle sounds. This article, published less than a year after opening day, highlights some of the equipment and methods used by artists and engineers to achieve the effects...

Technical Headlines - RF Cafe

• Revisiting the 1996 Telecommunications Act

• China's BeiDou Satellite (their GPS) Does Emergency Messaging

• How & When Will Memory Chip Shortage End?

• At Age 25, Wikipedia Refuses to Evolve

• Amazon Leo Asks FCC for Satellite Launch Extension

• FCC Gives Amazon OK for 4,500 More Satellites

Today in Science History - RF Cafe
Homepage Archives - RF Cafe

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.

Electronics Inventors Quiz

Electronics Inventors Quiz, November 1963 Popular Electronics - RF CafeMost of these matches of the devices and its inventor are pretty easy for people who have been around electronics for any length of time (well, not if the length of time is a day or two), but a couple just might stump you. This Electronics Inventors Quiz appeared in a 1963 edition of Popular Electronics magazine, so you won't be challenged with knowing the inventors of the LCD or MEMS devices, but neither will you have to know who came up with the abacus or the Archimedes screw (or who's buried in Grant's tomb)...

Channel Master Contact Cleaner

Channel Master Contact Cleaner, October 1960 Electronics World - RF CafeAsk anyone who has ever asked me to fix something electrical or electronic and they will tell you my motto on such things, born of extensive experience, is that the vast majority of the problems are caused by poor electrical contacts of one form or another. The culprit can be a dirty or broken connector, a cold or broken solder joint, a dirty potentiometer (contact between wiper and resistor), etc. I have repaired everything from ceiling lights, to car starters, to kitchen appliances, to large screen TVs simply by finding and repairing connections. When possible, I always do a final cleaning with isopropyl alcohol and then spray with a silicon contact protector. This Contact Shield product from Channel Master would be a good choice. I can honestly say I cannot think of a single instance where the restored connection failed again. Of course sometimes it is not that simple, but enough that my initial approach to troubleshooting - unless a broken or burnt component is immediately apparent - is to unplug and inspect connectors (then plug-unplug-plug to wipe contacts clean), flip switches on-off a few times while applying various directional forces (left-right, up-down, twisting), tugging on wires, etc. People's eyes light up in amazement when a sophisticated piece of equipment starts working after doing so. Then, I me

Radio-Electronics Subscription Letter

Radio-Electronics Subscription Letter, July 1969 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeThis subscription renewal for Radio-Electronics magazine was tucked inside one of the group of 1969 issues I bought on eBay. It's not a big deal, but is always interesting to see how the companies communicated with customers in the day. Note that the mailing address for Radio-Electronics is simply Boulder, Colorado, with no street address given - all the mailmen must have known where they were. The cost was $12 per year...

Electromagnetism - What It Is

Electricity - Basic Navy Training Courses, NAVPERS 10622, Chapter 12 - Electromagnetism - RF CafeChapter 12 of the U.S. Navy's basic electronics training course discusses electromagnetism. It follows on the heels of the sections introducing magnetism and electrical currents. The Navy (and the Air Force, I must add) is renowned for its high quality training and for turning out graduates that perform highly in both their service duties and in private industry after separation. It describes the electromagnet as being like a natural or artificial magnet in its attractive force, is tremendous and can hold tons of iron. Because this magnet is powered by an electric current, the magnetism can be turned on and off with the flick of a switch. Electrically-powered magnets are called electromagnets. Electromagnets come in all sizes and shapes...

1924 Montgomery Ward Radio Catalog

1924 Montgomery Ward Radio Catalog - RF CafeYou probably are aware that major retail corporations like Sears and Montgomery Ward contracted with established appliance manufacturers to create their own brands for sale in their mail order catalogs and brick-and-mortar stores. Sears had their Kenmore line of kitchen (also Cold Spot) and laundry products, Craftsman line of tools, and Silvertone line of radios. Wards had the Signature line of appliances, Powr Kraft tools, and Airline radios. Both companies are basically defunct at this point. I was always a big Sears customer, and was sad to see them get scuttled by moron management. Montgomery Ward products all seemed second rate compared to Sears. Montgomery Ward, founded in 1872 closed its last stores in 2001, but unknown to most people is that they still have an Internet presence as wards.com. Sears Roebuck & Co., founded in 1892, still has a few stores open and is online at sears.com (and craftsman.com). Anyhoo, I ran across this 1924 Montgomery Ward Radio catalog that is chock full...

Engineering & Science Crossword Puzzle for February 23

Engineering & Science Crossword Puzzle February 23, 2020 - RF CafeAs with my hundreds of previous science and engineering-themed crossword puzzles, this one for February 23, 2020, contains only clues and terms associated with engineering, science, physical, astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, etc., which I have built up over nearly two decades. Many new words and company names have been added that had not even been created when I started in the year 2002. You will never find a word taxing your knowledge of a numbnut soap opera star or the name of some obscure village in the Andes mountains. You might, however, encounter the name of a movie star like Hedy Lamarr or a geographical location like Tunguska, Russia, for reasons which, if you don't already know, might surprise you.

Hallicrafters' Christmas Message for 1940

Hallicrafters: Message for Christmas, January 1941 QST - RF CafeHalli(gan) and (hand)crafters, a portmanteau of those two indicated words, was founded in Chicago in 1932 by William J. Halligan. The company designed and manufactured radio equipment for hobby, commercial, and military applications and quickly became very popular amongst their users. As was customary for U.S. businesses, Hallicrafters ran a Christmas advertisement in the January issue of magazines where they appeared, as with this 1941 issue of QST. The January edition, as is common even now, is typically mailed in early December, getting it in the hands of readers in time for Christmas... 

Engineering & Science Crossword Puzzle for December 2

Engineering & Science Crossword Puzzle for December 2, 2018 - RF CafeEach week, for the sake of all avid cruciverbalists amongst us, I create a new technology-themed crossword puzzle using only words 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, see someone or something in the exclusion list who or that is directly related to this puzzle's theme, such as Hedy Lamar or the Bikini Atoll, respectively. Enjoy...

Low-Frequency Narrow-Band FM

Low-Frequency Narrow-Band FM, July 1947 QST - RF CafeNarrow-band frequency modulation (NFM) was a relatively new technology in 1947, having been advanced significantly during World War II. Amateur radio operators were just getting their gear back on the air after having been prohibited from transmitting for the duration of the war (see "War Comes," January 1942 QST). Few were probably thinking about adopting and exploiting new modulation techniques, but for those who were and recognized FM as the path to the future of radio, QST published this fairly comprehensive treatment of both frequency modulation (FM) and phase modulation (PM). Mathematically, FM is the time derivative of PM. Both modulation schemes vary the carrier frequency in some proportion to the baseband signal. Author Byron Goodman provides some insight into the techniques...

Engineering & Science Crossword Puzzle May 3, 2020

Engineering & Science Crossword Puzzle May 3, 2020 - RF CafeAs with my hundreds of previous engineering and science-themed crossword puzzles, this one for May 3, 2020, contains only clues and terms associated with engineering, science, physical, astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, etc., which I have built up over nearly two decades. Many new words and company names have been added that had not even been created when I started in the year 2002. You will never find a word taxing your knowledge of a numbnut soap opera star or the name of some obscure village in the Andes mountains. You might, however, encounter the name of a movie star like Hedy Lamarr or a geographical location like Tunguska, Russia, for reasons which, if you don't already know, might surprise you.

Electronics-Themed Comics

Electronics-Themed Comics, April 1960 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeHmmmm, I'm not quite getting the comic on page 59, unless it's referring to the remoteness of the "customer." In 1960 when it appeared in Radio-Electronics magazine, some would have likely considered it scandalous. The editor probably justified the theme the way National Geographic did their jungle tribeswomen exposés (pun intended). I like the page 78 comic with the unique typeface used to represent the guy's hurt foot. In 1960, such characters would require hand-drawing or the special Dial-A-Type typewrite ball sold to enable direct typing onto paper. On page 118, what kind of clip is that? (get it?). 1960 was also the era of wireless remote control of everything, as implied in the page 128 comic. Enjoy.

Loral Distributor Products

Loral Distributor Products, November 1968 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeHere is another one of those ads you would not likely see in a present day engineering magazine. Today, you'll routinely find racier images in JC Penny and Target advertisements (although in the latter example the girl might not be a real girl). Loral Electronics is a well-known defense systems contractor founded in the late 1940s by William Lorenz and Leon Alpert. Loral specialized in aerospace and avionics (airborne) systems like radar, radios, satellite navigation and communications. They also had a component distribution division which sold, among other items, the Arcolytic capacitors represented in this 1968 Radio-Electronics magazine promotion. Lockheed Martin bought Loral in 1996, the same year Loral was accused of transferring missile stabilization technology to China, which was useful in their Long March intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program.

Mac's Radio Service Shop: Open Wire Lines

Mac's Radio Service Shop: "Open Wire Lines", July 1952 Radio & Television News - RF CafeI have mentioned this before, but nearly always the setting for John Frye's "Mac's Service Shop" technodrama stories coincide with the time of year corresponding to the month in which it appeared (for the northern hemisphere) - in this case the July 1952 issue of Radio & Television News magazine. In addition to that, Barney's crack about Mac using his slide rule to try calculating who the president would be is also time-appropriate since 1952, being a Leap Year, was also an election year (Eisenhower beat Stevenson, BTW) ...but I digress. Mac's actual preoccupation was with open wire transmission lines. With the rise of UFH broadcasting on the horizon, he predicted that such lines would become popular due to their lower signal attenuation compared to standard 300 Ω plastic-insulated twin lead. Open line (aka ladder line or window line) at 500 MHz exhibits about a quarter the loss when dry and as much a twentieth the loss when wet (depending on the quality of the standard 300 Ω twin lead)...

Electricity in Motion: Current

Electricity in Motion: Current, Basic Navy Training Courses, NAVPERS 10622, Chapter 3 - RF CafeOne 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 of something (charge carriers - electrons) and a negative thing must have a deficiency. Hence, current flowed from an excess source to a deficient sink. We now know that negative things contain more electrons (relatively) than a positive...

Satellite Experiments in Space

Satellite Experiments in Space, July 1965 Electronics World - RF CafeSpace exploration and exploitation has always advanced quickly. Sputnik and Explorer were launched in 1957 and 1958, respectively. They were the world's first artificial satellites, and had only one-way communications from onboard scientific payloads to earth stations which picked up the signals (many amateur radio operators received the data as well). In a little over half a decade, multiple two-way communications satellites were in orbit, and instrumented probes had already reached the moon, Venus, and Mars. Results of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) effort are rightfully credited with setting everything in motion. This article from a 1965 issue of Popular Electronics magazine reports on the state of the art in satellite technology. Not mentioned is the concurrent rapid advances being made in rockets, tracking stations, and orbital and space navigation capabilities which were an integral part of the program...

How Radio Waves Are Propagated

How Radio Waves Are Propagated, October 1935 Short Wave Craft - RF CafeIf you or someone you know is just starting in the realm of radio and want a really nice pictorial presentation of the basics of radio wave propagation, then this one-page article from a 1935 edition of Short Wave Craft is just what you need. Phormula phobia (aka formula fobia) will not be an issue for anyone. The fundamentals have not changed in the intervening 85 years, and this same sort of analogy is still used in introductory physics classes today.

Behind the U.L. Label

Behind the U.L. Label, August 1955 Popular Electronics - RF CafeThe Underwriter's Laboratory (UL) is an entity that seems to have been around forever. A lot of people - maybe most people - assume that it is a government entity. In fact, it is a non-profit organization sponsored by the National Board of Fire Underwriters. Its roots are traceable back to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Concern over the potential fire hazard of Edison's light bulbs was the impetus for the effort. Another aspect of the UL that a lot of people don't know is that the UL label of approval is no guarantee that the device works properly, only that is passes standards of safety as it relates to fire hazards. This article in the August 1955 edition of Popular Electronics magazine gives a brief history...

Carl & Jerry: Pure Research Rewarded

Carl & Jerry: Pure Research Rewarded, June 1962 Popular Electronics - RF CafeCarl Anderson and Jerry Bishop in handcuffs? Say it ain't so! Has the pair of good-natured, upstanding high-tech sleuths gone to the Dark Side (George Lucas was 18 years old in 1962 when this was written)? Read the tale entitled "Pure Research Rewarded" as told in this 1962 issue of Popular Electronics magazine to see how the two figure into a plot to kill a local judge, and why they decide to cannibalize a service station television set for parts. What has come over Carl and Jerry?

Innovative Power Products (IPP) Baluns & Transformers - RF Cafe