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Physics & Engineering Crossword Puzzle

Physics & Engineering Crossword Puzzle for March 13, 2016 - RF CafeFor the sake of avid cruciverbalists amongst us, each week I create a new crossword puzzle that has a theme related to engineering, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and other technical words. You will never be asked the name of a movie star unless he/she was involved in a technical endeavor (e.g., Hedy Lamar). Clues in this week's puzzle with an asterisk (*) are directly from this week's "High Tech News" column on the RF Cafe homepage (see the Headline Archives page if necessary)...

Thanks Once Again to everythingRF for Long-Time Support!

everything RF Searchable Database - RF CafePlease take a few moments to visit the everythingRF website to see how they can assist you with your project. everythingRF is a product discovery platform for RF and microwave products and services. They currently have 354,801 products from more than 2478 companies across 485 categories in their database and enable engineers to search for them using their customized parametric search tool. Amplifiers, test equipment, power couplers and dividers, coaxial connectors, waveguide, antennas, filters, mixers, power supplies, and everything else. Please visit everythingRF today to see how they can help you.

Electronics-Themed Comics: Short Circuits

Electronics-Themed Comics: Short Circuits - RF CafeIn 1961, when these tech-themed comics appeared in Electronics Illustrated magazine, the "Space Race" was in full swing. That, along with home hi-fi stereo equipment, newfangled color televisions, and - gasp - transistors, filled the headlines. They were also the subject of many forms of humor. These four comics touch on many of those aspects, all centered on the Space Race. Of course, everything is noticeably dated. "Flunking the code test" means not much to Amateur radio licensees who earned their first license (like me, in 2010) after the 5 WPM Morse code requirement was removed. Building something in "kit form" was a good way to save some money and learn something...

Mac's Radio Service Shop: Service Bench Chatter

Mac's Radio Service Shop: Service Bench Chatter, October 1951 Radio & Television News - RF CafeIn our present "No user serviceable parts inside" world of electronic products, it is easy to understand why very few people have an appreciation for the technical prowess needed to troubleshoot and repair them. When reading through these episodes of "Mac's Radio Service Shop" that appeared in mid last century editions of Radio & Television News magazine, I am inspired to envy the skills that small electronics repair shop owners had for working on the old vacuum tube based radio and television sets. Digital electronics has its own unique set of quirks and special knowledge requirements to troubleshoot, but when everything is analog rather than merely being required to be a "0" or a "1"...

FCC Seeks College Grads for Honors Program

FCC Seeks College Grads for Honors Program - RF Cafe"The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that it is once again accepting applications for its Honors Engineer Program. Initiated in 2018, the one-year development program gives selected candidates an opportunity to work with FCC personnel on innovative issues in the communications and high-tech arenas, including 5G communications technology, the national deployment of broadband services, and communications technologies intended to improve access to those with disabilities. Those selected to participate in the Honors Engineer Program will be eligible for continued employment at the agency. Application to the FCC's Honors Engineer Program is open to recent college graduates with an engineering degree..."

Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzle

Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzle for February 21, 2016 - RF CafeThis week's crossword puzzle theme is Amateur Radio. All RF Cafe crossword puzzles are custom made by me, Kirt Blattenberger, and have only words and clues related to RF, microwave, and mm-wave engineering, optics, amateur radio, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and other technical subjects. As always, this crossword puzzle contains no names of politicians, mountain ranges, exotic foods or plants, movie stars, or anything of the sort unless it/he/she is related to this puzzle's technology theme...

Submarines - Are We Open to Sneak Attack?

Submarines - Are We Open to Sneak Attack?, February 1956 Popular Electronics - RF CafeSubmarines first proved their deadly capabilities during World War II when Adolph Hitler's navy used them to torpedo not just military ships but merchant ships in commercial trade routes between the Americas and Europe. Hideki Tojo's navy used subs to conduct surveillance prior to the deadly surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Their naturally stealthy environment - underwater - proved to be a difficult realm both for detection and for attack. Fortunately, sensor technology developed quickly during the war, and soon a combination of air and sea based methods were in use and proved very effective. Submariners no longer sailed in relative security from being treated to a violent, icy burial at sea...

Thanks to PCB Directory for Continued Support!

PCB  Directory - RF CafeThe leading website for the PCB industry. 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.

Hide and Seek - Peenemünde to Canaveral

History's Wildest Game of Hide-and-Seek: Peenemünde to Canaveral, December 1962 Popular Science - Airplanes and RocketsAs the Soviet army closed in on the Peenemünde rocket base in March 1945, German engineers led by Wernher von Braun initiated a desperate evacuation of their revolutionary research. Tasked by von Braun, engineer Dieter Huzel organized the transport of tons of top-secret blueprints and records to avoid capture by the advancing Red Army. Amidst the chaos of collapsing lines and aerial warfare, Huzel successfully secured the documents in an abandoned, ironclad mine near Goslar, shielding them from Soviet hands. After dynamiting the entrance to seal the cache, Huzel and fellow scientists fled westward to surrender to American forces. Following their successful arrival in U.S. lines, the location was revealed...

Lost Your Money? Wire KUBIT

RCA Victor Advertisement from the November 6, 1948, The Saturday Evening Post - RF CafeSending telegraph messages, whether by wire or wireless means, has always been expensive, particularly considering charges are determined by the character (letter, number, symbol). Accordingly, the Shakespearean line from Hamlet declaring that "brevity is the soul of wit" can be reworked to "brevity is the soul of economy." A telegraph wire, unlike a telephone call, is a legally binding communiqué, as is of course a written letter, but a telegram is immediate transmission of information for time-critical messaging. A series of "commercial codes" were developed enabling senders to save often significant money by sending multi-character codes that represented entire phrases and/or sentences. What struck me about this article that appeared in a 1948 issue of The Saturday Evening Post magazine...

Just Starting in EMC?

Just Starting in EMC? - RF Cafe"With all the many pressures you have as a product designer, does electromagnetic compliance (EMC) always seem like a stumbling block to delaying product sales? Is your product exhibiting one of the top three failures: radiated emissions, electrostatic discharge, or radiated immunity? Are you continually cycling between design/fixing - running to the compliance test lab - failing again - and back to shot-gunning more fixes? Wondering how to attack these issues earlier in the design cycle? Would you like to learn how to characterize and troubleshoot simple design issues right on your workbench? Then, this monthly column is for you..."

Radio Service Data Sheets for Vintage Radios

Sears, Roebuck & Co., Silvertone "Rocket" Models 6110 and 6111 Radio Service Data Sheet, January 1939 Radio-Craft - RF CafeIn 1938, the designers at Sears, Roebuck & Company's, Silvertone radio division were truly thinking "outside the box" when they came up with this "Rocket" model Models 6110. It is an ultra compact tabletop design with a unique rounded top and a huge tuning dial that comprised one entire end of the Bakelite cabinet, along with a set of six pushbuttons for station recall.  Also published were datasheets on the Allied Radio Knight Model E10913, the General Electric Model GD-52,, and the Zenith Models 6D302, 6D311, 6D326, 6D336, 6D360. An ever-growing list of models is at the bottom of every page...

Mallory Clutch-Type Potentiometers

Mallory Clutch-Type Potentiometers, February 1947 Radio News - RF CafeWhat drew my attention with this P.R. Mallory & Company advertisement was not an actual electronic component that they are most noted for - potentiometers, capacitors, switches, metal alloys, and of course batteries (later renamed Duracell). Philip Rogers Mallory began his company manufacturing tungsten wire for lamps. Rather what interested me was the huge variety of standard potentiometer and rotary switch extension shafts. Unlike modern electronics where pots and switches are typically mounted to the enclosure with wires running to the circuit assembly, many...

Nathan B. Stubblefield - America's Marconi

Nathan B. Stubblefield - America's Marconi (AI-enhanced) - RF CafeThe failure to recognize Nathan B. Stubblefield as the primary inventor of radio is a classic example of how institutional power, financial interests, and the legal machinery of the telecommunications industry tend to favor those with corporate backing over solitary, unconventional inventors. Stubblefield's technology, which he demonstrated as early as 1892, utilized induction and conduction through the earth and water rather than the electromagnetic wave propagation (Hertzian waves) that ultimately became the standard for modern radio. Because his method was effective only over relatively short distances and functioned on different physical principles, it was eclipsed by the work of Guglielmo Marconi. Marconi was the superior marketing force. He was backed by a massive corporate infrastructure and was savvy in securing international patents...

Standing Waves on Transmission Lines

Standing Waves on Transmission Lines, December 1942 QST - RF CafeAuthor T.A. Gadwa employs a standing wave mechanism analogy that I don't recall having read before - that of a dam on a river. The river is the transmission line with a lake as the source and then he imagines a dam load. The dam standing waves, per his description, have phase and amplitude characteristics that depend on how tall the dam wall is relative to the surface height of the dammed river. An extensive array of graphs is provided showing how the current of the dam standing waves react to the dam transmission line termination impedance...

Electronic-Themed Comics from 1951

Electronics-Themed Comics October 1951 Radio & Television News - RF CafeHere are a couple more electronics-themed comics, this time ones that appeared in the October 1951 edition of Radio & Television News magazine. When is the last time you saw a comic in a technical magazine? Note the AC power cord attached to the "portable" television. Television was a big deal in the day (I assume the "His" on the guy's towel implies that "Hers" is at the other end of the power cord). Color TV was not commercially available until a few years later. Nowadays, a person would have a smartphone, tablet, or notebook computer while on the can. There is a huge list of other comics at the bottom of the page...

Reviving Teletext for Ham Radio

Reviving Teletext for Ham Radio - RF Cafe"Once upon a time in Europe, television remote controls had a magic teletext button. Years before the internet stole into homes, pressing that button brought up teletext digital information services with hundreds of constantly updated pages. Living in Ireland in the 1980s and '90s, my family accessed the national teletext service - Aertel - multiple times a day for weather and news bulletins, as well as things like TV program guides and updates on airport flight arrivals. It was an elegant system: fast, low bandwidth, unaffected by user load, and delivering readable text even on analog television screens. So when I recently saw it was the 40th anniversary of Aertel's test transmissions, it reactivated a thought that had been rolling around in my head for years..."

Wireless Engineering Crossword Puzzle

Wireless Engineering Crossword Puzzle for February 28, 2016 - RF CafeI have a confession to make regarding the puzzle titles. While all RF Cafe crosswords do in fact use only my hand-entered dictionary of terms and clues (literally thousands accumulated over the years) that pertain exclusively to science, engineering, chemistry, physics, mathematics, astronomy, etc., the choice for a particular title is to help attract search engines to the page. There is nothing deceptive going on, just an attempt to exploit the nature of search engine algorithms that rank pages based on meta tags coinciding with relevant...

Anatech Electronics April 2026 Newsletter

Anatech Electronics April 2026 Newsletter (Bell Labs in Murray Hill Celebrates) - RF CafeSam Benzacar, of Anatech Electronics, an RF and microwave filter company, has published his April 2026 Newsletter that, along with timely news items, features his short op-ed titled "Bell Labs in Murray Hill Celebrates." Sam, whose company is located not far from Murray Hill, extolls the many discoveries and inventions that took place there since its founding in 1925 as Bell Telephone Laboratories. It was originally a subsidiary of AT&T and Western Electric, later becoming part of Lucent Technologies and Alcatel-Lucent before Nokia's acquisition in 2016. Sam reports on the facilities' recent 100th anniversary celebration. The list of accomplishments would will volumes...

Ferrites - The Mighty Midgets of Electronics

Ferrites - The Mighty Midgets of Electronics - RF CafeThe transformative role of ferrites - crystalline structures composed of iron oxide and metallic additives - in advancing modern electronics, is reported in this 1961 Electronics Illustrated magazine article. Ferrites uniquely combine magnetic properties with electrical insulation, enabling high efficiency at frequencies where standard iron cores fail due to eddy current losses. This "electronic wonder material" proved critical for television development, allowing for larger picture tubes through efficient flyback transformers and deflection yokes. Furthermore, ferrites revolutionized computing by providing reliable, compact memory cells, replacing failure-prone vacuum tubes in machines like the Whirlwind I. Beyond these core applications, the material facilitates innovations such as ultrasonic ...

Engineers Kick-Started the Scientific Method

How Engineers Kick-Started the Scientific Method - RF Cafe"In 1627, a year after the death of the philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon, a short, evocative tale of his was published. The New Atlantis describes how a ship blown off course arrives at an unknown island called Bensalem. At its heart stands Salomon's House, an institution devoted to 'the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things' and to 'the effecting of all things possible.' The novel captured Bacon's vision of a science built on skepticism and empiricism and his belief that understanding and creating were one and the same pursuit. No mere scholar's study filled with curiosities, Salomon's House had deep-sunk caves for refrigeration, towering structures for astronomy, sound-houses for acoustics, engine-houses..."

Werbel 2-Way Power Divider for 1.5-20.5 GHz

Werbel Microwave WM2PD-ECO-1.5-20.5-S, 2-Way Power Divider for 1.5-20.5 GHz - RF CafeWerbel's new WM2PD-1.5-20.5-S-ECO, 2-way power divider covers 1.5 to 20.5 GHz and is designed for engineers who need wideband performance in a compact, cost-efficient package. Optimized for size, bandwidth, and manufacturability, it is well suited for high-volume applications, lab use, and general-purpose signal distribution where extreme port match is not required. Designed, assembled, and tested in the USA. "No Worries with Werbel!"

The Electronic Mind - How it Remembers

The Electronic Mind - How it Remembers - RF CafeThe radar system I worked on in the USAF used two early memory types described in this 1956 Popular Electronics magazine article. In fact, the radar was designed during that era, so it is no surprise. Our IFF secondary radar had a whopping 1 kilobyte of magnetic core memory in its processor circuitry. It consisted of 1024 tiny toroids mounted in a square matrix with four hair-width enamel coated wires running through them as x and y magnetization current lines, sense, and inhibit functions. If my memory serves me (pun intended) after three decades away from it, the TTL circuitry (no microprocessor) stored range values to calculate speed and direction from sample to sample. The other memory type was a mercury acoustic delay line contraption having a piezoelectric transducer at one end to launch an electrical pulse along its length and another transducer at the other end to convert back to an electrical pulse...

Technical Headlines - RF Cafe

• European Electronics Distribution Gains Momentum

• UK Secure Quantum Communications Boost

• 2026 PC Sales down 11.3%, Tablets down 7.9%

• Starlink Becoming Mainstream Option

• U.S. Engineering Ph.D. Programs Losing Students?

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-Themed Comics

Electronics-Themed Comics, March 1961 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeMost of the time the tech-themed comics which appeared in vintage electronics industry magazines reflected popular issues of the day. In 1961 when these five comics appeared in Radio-Electronics, home stereo systems and television performance woes (with the need for repair and/or adjustment) were at the top of the list. Less domestic issues like the fledgling satellite technology, digital computer systems, vehicle navigation, and medical instrumentation often made the cut as well. The page 48 and 81 comics address stereo, page 99 does satellites, page 116 covers medicine, and 121 hits on TV. A saying in the world of humor is that in order to be successful, there needs to be some truth in the gag in order to be truly funny. Sometimes the truth element is subtle and might even require the targeted audience to be privy to not so widely known information. Such is the case with a couple of these...

Onboard Radio Operator: Master of His Domain

Onboard Radio Operator: Master of His Domain, October 1932 Radio News - RF CafeShipboard radio operators have been a crucial part of commercial and military transport since first being implemented in the early 20th century. Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company's operators (John "Jack" Phillips and Harold Bride) onboard the RMS Titanic are credited for saving the ship after it ran into an iceberg in the north Atlantic, as are the radio operators aboard the RMS Lusitania after German U-boats mercilessly torpedoed it. Today's sailing vessels, as well as aircraft, are as reliant upon skillful radio operators and radio equipment as back then. Much has been automated, but ultimately it is the human element...

Windfreak 5 MHz-8 GHz, 15-Band RF Filter

Windfreak Intros 5 MHz to 8 GHz, 15-Band, Switchable RF Filter - RF CafeWindfreak Technologies is proud to announces the availability of our FT108, an innovative programmable bidirectional filter bank spanning a frequency range of 5 MHz to 8 GHz in 15 bands. Band selection can be controlled through USB, UART or at high speeds through powerful triggering modes. Each unit is factory tested via network analyzer with unique data stored in the device to help with its use. Crossover frequencies are stored so the user can send a frequency command and the FT108 will utilizes Intelligent Band Selection logic to automatically toggle the optimal filter path based on minimum insertion loss. Readback of FT108 insertion loss at any frequency between crossover points allows for easy amplitude leveling...

H.F. Crystal Diodes

H.F. Crystal Diodes, March 1946, Radio-Craft - RF CafeCrystal diodes have been used as detectors in radio circuits since the 1910s. Originally, the rectification process was effected via a point contact "whisker" (aka "cats whisker") pressed against the crystal's face. It was not mechanically rugged (vibration could cause erratic operation), was sensitive to heat and humidity (if not contained in a hermetic case), and operated at fairly low frequencies. Vacuum tube diodes provided some improvement, but were still limited to operation in the lower hundreds of MHz. Once germanium and silicon crystals became available, operational frequencies climbed into the upper MHz to lower GHz realm, even though, as shown in this 1946 Radio-Craft article, the diodes were of the point contact type. PN junctions at those frequencies were still a few years off. Their smaller size and construction largely mitigated the environmental issues of the early types. The 1950s- vintage S-band radar...

Sunspots Mar TV Reception

Sunspots Mar TV Reception, August 1957 Radio & TV News - RF CafeWe have long known that activity on our sun affects electromagnetic communications. Energetic particles, primarily electrons, explode from the sun's surface (coronal mass ejections and flares) and are hurled at blazing speeds towards the earth at an average speed of around 424 km/s (263 mi/s). They begin affecting our upper atmosphere about four days later by ionizing atoms, thereby altering electrical conduction properties. This in turn determines how and whether electromagnetic signals either pass through the atmosphere into space or get refracted (bent) back down toward Earth. Long distance communications in particular are effected, but often even local communications are impacted as well. Some events have little effect, some cause minor disruptions in communications, some cause local communications blackouts, and some are significant enough to cause entire power grids to fault and shut down. Frequency and intensity of the CMEs and flares is correlated with the well-established 11-year (approximately) cycle between solar maximums...

Comics with an Electronics Theme, March 1967 Popular Electronics

Comics with an Electronics Theme, March 1967 Popular Electronics - RF CafeHere are a couple more electronics-themed comics from the March 1967 issue of Popular Electronics magazine for your TGIF enjoyment. The comic on page 100 especially appeals to me since I am finishing the installation of a Channel Master CM-5020 antenna. It has been a long time since I installed a traditional style TV antenna - about 40 years ago when I put a Radio Shack antenna on the roof of my mother's house. The entire 109" long by 100" wide antenna, including mounting hardware, weighs only 11.5 pounds and presents a wind resistance of 30 pounds. This is Channel Master's best antenna.Gain is 10 dB at VFH and 16 dB at UHF. I plan to use it for FM radio as well. A vintage Alliance Tenna-Rotor will make it steerable...

Hobnobbing with Harbaugh: School Days

Hobnobbing with Harbaugh: School Days - School Days, December 1963 Popular Electronics - RF CafeDave Harbaugh did a number of different humorous features for Popular Electronics magazine back in the 1960s and '70s (see list at bottom of page). "Hobnobbing with Harbaugh" was one of the more popular comic series he did. Article topics ranged from husband-wife relationships where the husband is an über-enthusiastic technophile of some sort and the wife has to put up with his crazy schemes and inventions. These comics poke fun at technical schools and colleges, and their alumni. My favorite is the "suicidal" waveform.

Lamp Brightness Quiz

Lamp Brightness Quiz, January 1969 Popular Electronics - RF CafeHere is an electronics Lamp Brightness Quiz for you to try, compliments of Popular Electronics magazine. Intuition from experience goes a long way here, but if all else fails you can work out the details of the rectifier circuits to determine which lamp received the most current. Keep in mind that the diode symbols are not LEDs; it is the 'A,' 'B,' and 'C' symbols inside circles that are the lamps whose brightnesses are being considered. LEDs did exist at the time this quiz was created in 1969, but the circuits would perform differently if in fact LEDs were used for double duty of rectification and illumination. Good luck...

The Wavelength Factor - Part 2

The Wavelength Factor - Part 2, May 1952 QST - RF CafeIn this series, author Yardley Beers discusses propagation effects, modulation systems, and receiver techniques. Part 1 of this 3-part article entitled "Influence of the Antenna of the Choice of Wavelength for Best Communications," appeared in the February 1952 issue of the ARRL's QST magazine. This second part concerns "Propagation, Modulation, and Receivers." I have also posted Part 3, which subsequently appeared in the August 1952 edition. A particularly interesting topic included in this installment is that of using a form of pulse modulation in FM broadcasting in order to exploit the "capture effect" whereby a signal in the presence of noise will tend to suppress the noise. I don't think modern stations use that method, possibly because of incompatibility with stereo channels and data added for digital readouts...

Sir Ambrose Fleming Obituary

Sir Ambrose Fleming Obituary, June 1945 Radio-Craft - RF CafeThe June 1945 edition of Radio-Craft magazine published a death notice for diode electron tube ("valve" in British parlance) inventor Sir Ambrose Fleming. The date given was April 19th, but every source I can find says he died on April 18th. With having been born on November 29, 1849, that made the good fellow 95½ years old. According to a calculator on the TimeAndDate.com website, that's a grand total of 34,900 days. Who's going to argue over a potential 0.00287% error, especially from back in a era when communications and fact checking was not as easy as it is today?

Model Plane Control ... with 27-mc Signals

Model Plane Control ... with 27-mc Signals, June 1952 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeDuring the early days of remote (radio) controlled models - airplanes, boats, and cars - the only way to legally operate an R/C was by possessing an amateur radio operator's license. At some point in time around when this article appeared in a 1952 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine, part of the 27 MHz band allocated to Citizens' Band radio was opened to low power radio control. Even then, a radio operator's permit from the FCC was required for use, which in 1974 I paid to obtain (too bad I don't still have it). My first R/C system, purchased used from a guy down the road who was heavily into radio controlled models of all sorts, was on 27.195 MHz. It was a 3-channel Digitron DP-3 system manufactured by OS Digital (in Japan), although there was only analog circuits in the transmitter, receiver, and servos. The FCC designated five frequencies for R/C in the 72 MHz band in 1965, then a total of about 60 channels by the late 1980s. In 2004, the first spread spectrum R/C system was introduced, operating in the 2.4 GHz ISM band. In 1952, there was not much in the way of proportional control of movable surfaces - rudder, elevator, aileron, engine throttle, etc. Motorized servos were just beginning to come to market, but they were basically neutral, full throw left, or full throw right. It was an electromechanical substitute...

Thanks to Brad B. for Many New W-J Tech Notes

Watkins Johnson Tech-Notes Archive - RF CafeRF Cafe visitor Brad B. just provided the following Watkins-Johnson Tech Notes for the collection: v5-3, v5-4, v5-5, v5-6, v6-2, v6-3, v6-4, v6-5, v6-6, v8-1, v8-4, v9-1, v9-2, v9-3, v9-4, v9-5, v10-2, v10-5, v10-6. They run the gamut from Solid State Limiting Amplifiers and Antenna Polarizations to Digital Signal Processing for Multichannel Receiving Systems. Many old-timers consider the W-J Tech Notes to be some of the best sources of circuit and systems design guides ever written, especially for military, defense, and aerospace applications.

Hi-Fi: Guest List

Hi-Fi: Guest List, May 1959 Popular Electronics - RF CafeThis series of comics describes the reactions you might expect to receive from various kinds people who, while visiting your home, are introduced to your new stereo setup. Although they appeared in a 1959 edition of Popular Electronics magazine, the scenarios still hold true today, only now you can extend the equipment types to include a gaming computer, a wide screen television, a personal robot, and other modern electromechanical wonders. Now, however, while "admiring" your equipment, he/she will simultaneously be referring constantly to his/her smartphone. It is rare to see this kind of entertainment in newer publications - probably for fear of being sued by an overly sensitive person who sees himself/herself as being lampooned...

Radar - Secret Weapon No. 1

Radar - Secret Weapon No. 1, October 1945 Radio-Craft - RF CafeBy the beginning of 1945 when most people believed the War was all but won, the national and global attitude began to shift from a wartime footing back to a commercial and domestic mindset. For the Axis powers the prospect was one of shame and contrition, while knowing that unlike if they had been the victors, Allied nations would deal harshly only with the leaders of the aggression and destruction while showing mercy, humanity, and graciousness to the general populations. In fact we became very good friends with Germany, Italy, and Japan in the years immediately following their respective unconditional surrenders. As the end of hostilities neared, information began being released by the government about some of the previously closely guarded secrets of technical developments in the previous half decade - such as the radar systems covered in this October 1945 issue of Radio-Craft magazine...

Comics from National Radio News

Comics from 1929 - 1941 National Radio News - RF CafeNational Radio Schools published a monthly (sometimes bimonthly) magazine titled National Radio News. The later editions usually had an electronics themed comic panel that addressed contemporary topics. Earlier editions usually featured student-drawn comics that were primarily propaganda to promote the school more so than humor. It sort of reminds me of the way the Amway faithful were in the 1960's through 1990's - most losing money while cheering on the very few multimillionaire "'Diamonds." Actually, such devotion and company/cause spirit was common in the early part of the 20th century as men desperately sought to secure their places in the American capitalist dream...

Can You Run Two Brushless Motors from a Single ESC?

Can You Run Two Brushless Motors from a Single ESC? - Airplanes and RocketsI am in the process of building a Douglas DC-3 control line model that uses a pair of ElectriFly Rimfire .10 motors, and wanted to know whether it would be possible to use a single electronic speed controller (ESC) for them. Unlike brushed DC motors with which you can - and I have in the past - gotten away with powering two motors from a single ESC, the brushless motors use a three-phase signal that is both amplitude and pulse width modulated. Such a waveform is not likely to be able to drive more than one motor properly, particularly given the motor's interaction with the ESC due to its time-variable complex impedance. I did a fairly extensive Internet search trying to find a definitive answer as to whether it can be done, but they were all just guesses. Many people seemed very knowledgeable on brushless motors and their controllers...

Sending Pictures by Telephone

Sending Pictures by Telephone, July 1936 Radio-Craft - RF CafeIt really was not all that long ago when wiring images for news stories literally meant transmitting photographs over a twisted pair of telephone lines either to a fax machine or to a computer on standby waiting for incoming files. Videocasts were being regularly performed via satellite of ground relay microwave stations since the 1960s, but most still shots were sent via phone lines. For the last decade and a half, both still shots and videos have been transmitted as a routine matter via camera-equipped cellphones, and as with most technologies we have quickly become so accustomed to the convenience that memories of the old ways are quickly (even thankfully) forgotten. This article from a 1936 edition of Radio-Craft describes one of the really early systems. Notice that coupling to the telephone line is via induction to the handset, not via a hardwire connection to the phone circuit...

Operation Radio Airwatch

Operation Radio Airwatch, July 1959 Popular Electronics - RF CafeWow, a $50,000 helicopter! You can't touch a new heli these days for less than a third of a million dollars (like a Robinson R22). 1959 marked the early days of helicopter traffic reports, I'm guessing before the really good noise cancellation headsets were available, so drivers down in the traffic snarl tuned in their AM radios and got a lot of reporters yelling into the microphone to overcome the rotor chop-chop-chop sound in the background. According to this 1959 Popular Electronics magazine article, an airborne GE unit of the era transmitted 3 watts at 26.19 mc (MHz), and received on a triple conversion, crystal-controlled receiver. If you look at the one photo, you'll see a Handie-Talkie on the passenger seat...

Clean Layout Technique

Clean Layout Technique, August 1965 Popular Electronics - RF CafeUsually an article about clean layout techniques would be about printed circuit board layout; however, this one refers to chassis layout. Having built many electronics chassis in my days as an electronics technician (prior to earning an engineering degree), I have a great appreciation for a professional-looking job. Some of the work done by hobbyists that appear in magazines like QST, Nuts & Volts, and the older titles like Poplar Electronics looks pretty darn nice - both for kits and homebrews. It's a short article, but worth a quick look...