|
 Dr. Allen Du Mont played a huge role
in making television practical because of the improvements he made to the cathode
ray tube (CRT). Prior to his work, the lifespan of a CRT was measured in tens of
hours, and they were expensive, so their use was limited to special military and
research applications. Du Mont's interest in "wireless" began at an early age,
and he earned his commercial radio operator's license at the age of 14 (in 1915).
He designed and produced oscillographs (i.e., oscilloscopes) that incorporated his
CRTs. His involvement in the television industry was a natural evolution and extension
of the work done in related industries. The DuMont Television Network was formed...
 The 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.
 These two
electronics-themed comics appeared in a 1966 issue of Radio-Electronics
magazine. The page 40 comic is especially funny, IMHO. The term that best fits this
scenario is "anachronism," which is an object or concept that is out of its proper
historical time period. You'll concur once you see the comic. In 1966, real-world
lasers - as opposed to those found in science fiction - had output powers in the
range of watts or tens of watts. Maybe a hundred watts from a CO2 laser in a laboratory
setting like in the page 93 comic. Still, the concept of a laser powerful enough
to be used as a weapon - capable of vaporizing an enemy - was reality in most people's
minds...
 "DNA
strand displacement circuits are inching closer to becoming cellular machines.
Scientists are finding ways to make these programmable nanodevices stable and functional
inside living cells. If successful, they could revolutionize how we interface with
and control biology at the molecular level. A recent review published in Intelligent
Computing, titled 'From the Test Tube to the Cell: A Homecoming for DNA Computing
Circuits?' outlines major advances in the effort to bring DNA computing circuits
into living cells. The authors describe how dynamic nanodevices powered by DNA strand
displacement reactions could soon perform..."
 everything RF is the Internet's largest
source for mmWave scanners, with helpful search function for your specific needs.
mm-Wave Security Scanners use high-frequency millimeter waves
to create detailed 3D images of objects and identify objects concealed under layers
of clothing. mmWaves can penetrate clothing but not the skin or other dense materials,
making them ideal for detecting hidden objects without revealing detailed body contours,
thus addressing privacy concerns. This makes them ideal as security scanners in
Airports and other venues like stadiums, train stations and other high-traffic venues.
mmWave security scanners from the leading manufacturers are listed here.
 A pair of items from this June 1963
Radio-Electronics magazine "News Briefs" column stands out: "Born 15 years
ago this month were the transistor, June 30, and the long-playing record, June 21."
Hard to imagine being there to reading that back in the day. Also noted was the
world's first IEEE convention, held March 25-28 in New York City. Subjects presented
250 papers at 54 session. This online document discusses the IRE's award recipients
to be honored at that March 1963 meeting. This doc is typical of the extremes corporations
go to in order to specify and control their "brand," in this case the simple IEEE
"kite" logo and text - sheesh! More TV sets were then in use abroad than in the
U.S., reported Television Factbook. At the end of 1961, there were 54 million sets
in foreign countries. By October, 1962, the total was 65 million, as compared to
60 million in the U.S. That, of course, is the sum of all countries other than the
U.S.
 Ask and ye shall receive... at least sometimes.
I posted a request for an article by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, of
2001: A Space Odyssey fame, describing a
geostationary satellite system that was published in the October
1945 edition of Wireless World magazine. Thanks to RF Cafe visitor Terry
W., from the great state of Oklahoma, it is now available for everyone to enjoy.
Clarke was not just a sci-fi writer, but also an educated visionary and card-carrying
member of the British Interplanetary Society, who proposed many technological solutions
to issues of his day. In this instance, the challenge was developing an efficient
means to distribute TV signals across Europe and the world. Clarke's calculations
for the necessary number of repeater towers proved that concept impractical, so
he proposed using modified surplus German V2 rockets to launch Earth-orbiting "artificial
satellites," powered...
 Please take a few moments to visit the
everythingRF website to see how they can assist you with your
project. everythingRF is a product discovery platform for RF and microwave products
and services. They currently have 333,423 products from more than 2198 companies
across 460 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.
 Here are two more circuit problems for you
from the August 1966 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine. The first is
a fairly familiar tapered resistance network where you are asked to determine the
input resistance of the infinite network. Out of curiosity, I asked Arya, ChatGPT
4.1, Grok 3, and Gemini 2.5 Pro, to calculate the given formula to 75 decimal places.
I received four different answers. All agreed to 33 decimal places, and three
of them agreed to 51 places, then everything fell apart. Once again I warn: Do not
blindly trust the results of AI clients. Verify everything important!!! The other
problem is to determine the output waveform of a duo-diode vacuum tube circuit.
The semiconductor equivalent is a pair of PN junction diodes with the anodes at
the top.
 "It seems AI jobs are here to stay, based
on the latest data from the 2025 AI Index Report. To better understand the current
state of AI, the annual report from Stanford University's
Institute for Human-Centered
Artificial Intelligence (HAI) collects a wide range of information on model
performance, investment, public opinion, and more. Every year, Spectrum summarizes
our top takeaways from the entire report by plucking out a series of charts, but
here we zero in on the technology's effect on the workforce. Much of the report’s
findings about jobs..."
 In the mid 1960s, Radio-Craft magazine
ran a series of articles on "Inventors of Radio." This April 1966 issue featured
Boris Lvovitch Rosing (1869–1933), a Russia-born physicist and pioneer of television
technology. Rosing was born in St. Petersburg, where he studied under Heinrich
Friedrich Emil Lenz and later taught at the Technological Institute. Beginning in
1902, he experimented with cathode-ray tubes for image transmission, developing
the first electronic television device by 1907, which used rotating drums and a
modulated electron beam to produce images. His breakthrough came in 1911 when he
successfully displayed simple images, earning him recognition and awards. Despite
interruptions from World War I and the Russian Revolution, Rosing continued refining
his designs, achieving higher-resolution scans...
 What's the big deal about
multicolor radar, you might ask? Not much today, but in 1955 color
displays were in their infancy. The earliest color cathode ray tubes (CRTs), developed
by John Logie Baird in the early 1940s, used just two phosphor colors (magenta and
cyan), illuminated by two separate electron guns, to produce a limited color display.
Ernest Lawrence came along later in the decade with his tri-color Chromatron CRT,
which had separate red, blue and green phosphor dots deposited in a triangular pattern
across the inner face of the tube. That is the scheme employed in this first multicolor
radar system. It was a major improvement for air traffic controllers since it facilitated...
 Success won in the realm of
space-based communications has been fraught with many failures.
As with most endeavors, it is thanks to the relative few who have sacrificed and
endured against overwhelming odds to bring significant technological advances in
communications to the many. Space presents a particularly difficult venue because
of the harsh deployment and operational environment, and inaccessibility after deployment.
Personal sacrifice has taken the form of depression, financial ruin, lost opportunity
for other endeavors, broken families, sickness, substance abuse, and other maladies
brought on by an obsession with success. Take a good look at the people in these
photos, and remember they are the ones who laid the foundations for the modern world
we take for granted. Such sacrifice has built the modern world...
 "For decades,
Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) operators were in the communications catbird's
seat 22,000 miles above the Earth, but the arrival of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) networks,
like Elon Musk's Starlink, is bringing the Old Guard in satellite com down to terra
firma. 'The proprietary and specialized GEO infrastructure of the past is now weighing
down space industry incumbents that find themselves needing to rapidly innovate
against mounting competition,' ABI Research Senior Analyst Andrew Cavalier wrote
in a recent research report. An indicator that innovation..."
 If it seems like I've been posting a lot
of these "What's
Your EQ?" features, there's a good reason... I have been posting a lot of them
lately. I had created the pages long ago, and somehow I forgot to go back and complete
them with the drawings. Expect to see a dozen or so more in fairly short order.
The circuit challenges are usually submitted by Radio-Electronics magazine's
readers, but occasionally one of the columnists will contribute. "How Wide?" seems
like you would need the value of L to calculate, but given that the problem is presented
without it, there must be a way, right? With the Series-Parallel circuit, I got
as far...
 RF Cafe's spreadsheet-based engineering
and science calculator -
Espresso
Engineering Workbook™ (click to download) - is a collection of surface area
and volume calculators for many geometric solids. RF Cafe
Espresso Engineering Workbook™ is provided at no cost, compliments of my generous
sponsors. The newest additions are calculators
for Opamps, FM Sidebands, and FM Modulation. That makes 41 worksheets containing
hundreds of calculation. There are many online calculators for these and other functions,
but sometimes having a convenient desktop version makes life easier. While developing
Espresso Engineering Workbook, I conduct extensive research and testing to help
assure the correct equations are used and accurate results are displayed. Download
your copy today, and pass the word onto a friend...
 I have noted in the past how humor in the
days of yore was somewhat, shall we say, different, than what it is today. My vintage
aviation, mechanics, and electronics magazine from the early to middle part of the
last century contained comics
and humor pieces that in a lot of cases were not very funny because of a lack
of cleverness, and in some cases were downright stupid. A search of both RFCafe.com
and AirplanesAndRockets.com will bear out my assertion. Look at the stuff from before
1950. This 1933 QST magazine, flagship publication of the American Radio
Relay League (ARRL), is a good example. It was the April edition, which means it
was chock full of puns, comics, gags, and faux articles and news bits. Some of them
are pretty good, but you might need to adopt an alternate frame of mind to "get"
them...
 LadyBug Technologies was founded in 2004
by two microwave engineers with a passion for quality microwave test instrumentation.
Our employees offer many years experience in the design and manufacture of the worlds
best vector network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, power meters and associated components.
The management team has additional experience in optical power testing, military
radar and a variety of programming environments including LabVIEW, VEE and other
languages often used in programmatic systems. Extensive experience in a broad spectrum
of demanding measurement applications. You can be assured that our Power Sensors
are designed, built, tested and calibrated without compromise.
 It's Friday afternoon as I prepare this
trio of
vintage electronics-themed comics for posting. They all appeared in the October
1964 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine. All three reflect the home entertainment
craze of the era, in particular TV. Color TV was making inroads into homes, despite
the relatively high cost, and in 1964, many programs were still being broadcast
in black and white (B&W). Stereo systems were huge as well, and you will find
many comics depicting stereo themes in the large list at the bottom of the page.
The love-hate relationship the public had with electronics equipment repairmen (it
worked both ways) is evident here. Millennials will never be able to relate to the
slings and arrows suffered by those of us who lived during the CRT TV times, but
then we Boomers...
 Exodus Advanced Communications, is a multinational
RF communication equipment and engineering service company serving both commercial
and government entities and their affiliates worldwide. Exodus' model
AMP20160 high power solid state power amplifier (SSHPA) is ideal for broadband
EMI-Lab, communications, and EW applications. Class A/AB linear design accommodates
all modulations & industry standards. It covers 1.0 to 6.0 GHz, producing
750 W minimum, with a 400 W P1dB and 58 dB minimum gain. Excellent
flatness, optional monitoring parameters for forward/reflected power, VSWR, voltage,
current...
 "In particle physics, the smallest problems
often require the biggest solutions. Along the border of France and Switzerland,
around a hundred meters underneath the countryside, protons speed through a 27-km
ring - about 7x the length of the Indy 500 circuit - until they crash into protons
going in the opposite direction. These particle pileups produce a petabyte of data
every second, the most interesting of which is poured into data centers, accessible
to thousands of physicists worldwide. The
Large Hadron Collider (LHC),
arguably the largest experiment ever engineered, is needed to probe the universe's
smallest constituents. In 2012, two teams at the LHC discovered the elusive Higgs
boson, the particle whose existence confirmed..."
• Biggest
Telecoms Kit Market Decline in 20 Years
• Sleep
Mode Cuts 5G Energy Bills by 1/3
• Quantum Market
Has 32% CAGR 2024-35
• More
Pirate
Radio Enforcement Efforts
• Culham to Host
Advanced Tritium Facility
 This item from a 1968 issue of Radio-Electronics
magazine's "Looking Ahead - Current Happenings with Future Overtones" feature might
have been in one of those lists of notable quotes from tech industry leaders that
are ridiculous in retrospect. It was written by editor David Lachenbruch. The
R-E staff is not populated with people who tenaciously hold on to established
technology while shunning new concepts. He cites industry experts who projected
that at the time 83% of new color TV sets were of all-vacuum-tube construction,
with only 3% being all-transistor, thus the claim, "Life
in the Old Girl Yet." While I don't have the numbers, I've read enough magazines
of the era to know that a very rapid transition to semiconductors...
 An April 1942 issue of Life magazine,
just four months into WWII, carried this full-page advertisement celebrating the
Lockheed
P-38 Lightning, a revolutionary fighter aircraft hailed as the world' s fastest
- nearing the speed of sound - with unmatched maneuverability, outclassing enemy
planes in combat. Built by Lockheed for the U.S. Army and British RAF, the P-38
embodied American ingenuity and freedom, flown by daring pilots defending democracy.
The ad positions the Lightning as a symbol of U.S. air supremacy, critical to Allied
victory in WWII, while promoting Lockheed's role in advancing aviation for both
wartime protection and postwar progress. The closing tagline, "Look to Lockheed
for Leadership," reinforces the company's wartime prestige and vision for the future...
|
 Joe Cahak, owner of Sunshine Design Engineering
Services, has submitted another fine article for posting here. Joe has many years
of automated RF testing experience to leverage when writing this paper on the basics
of power measurement. Joe has published many articles here on RF Cafe. This
Ponderings on Power Measurements article begins: "A power measurement is a scalar
quantity and is a measure of power detected. These measurements can be made a variety
of ways. Most of us are familiar with the notion that voltage (volts) multiplied
by current (amps) is power (watts) and power multiplied by time is energy. At DC
or low frequencies these power measurements from the current or voltage is relatively
easy and not very complicated. As we get to higher frequencies the typical means
of measuring voltage or current breakdown and are not accurate..."
 This August 1962 installment of "Mac's
Electronics Service" entitled "Openers, Anyone?" discussed remote garage door
openers that were getting popular in the day. As usual there is a valuable lesson
taught in the story, but what really stands out in this case is how the diodes in
the schematic have a "+" sign shown on the cathode. Surely it was a printer's mistake
since even though that was the era when great debates were taking place over whether
electrical current flowed from positive to negative or vice-versa, there was no
argument over whether the more negative voltage needed to be connected to the cathode
(vacuum tube or semiconductor) in order for current to flow. The header image accompanying
John Frye's "Mac's Service Shop" technodramas underwent half a dozen or so versions
throughout its multi-decade run. It is the first I recall seeing this particular
version. The title of the series also evolved over time to reflect the era...
 Do you remember back in the 1980s when adoption
of the IEEE-type logic schematic symbols* got a big push? It proposed a logical
approach (pun intended) to building any type of combinational logic or sequential
logic devices based on strict rules of construction. Curved lines are nowhere in
sight. Interestingly, the same type of schematic symbol "simplification" was proposed
in the 1940s. The motivation for removing curved lines was to prevent draftsmen
from needing to use a compass or special drawing template rather than using only
a straight edge. Vacuum tube outlines, light bulbs, inductors, etc., required more
time to pencil in. In 1944, this article entitled "Are
Radio Symbols Wrong?" appeared in Radio-Craft magazine...
 I would love to see a modern electromagnetic (EM)
field software simulation of this antenna design. Imagine attempting a ray-tracing model
of the symmetrical combination of multiple linear and circular radiating elements of
the antenna shown in this 1964 article that appeared in Electronics magazine.
Doing so would have required hours of expensive time on an ENIAC or weeks from a team
of woman "computers" such as the kind NASA used for plotting Apollo trajectories (see
Hidden Figures). I'd like to see Joel Hallas (W1ZR) model it in EZNEC. Supposedly,
at least one working WARLA (Wide
Aperture Radio Location Array) system was built and tested, but details of
the results are not provided (probably classified at the time)...
 Prior to the advent of
FET-input multimeters, obtaining a very high input impedance meter required
the use of a vacuum tube circuit that used a buffer stage to isolate the measured
signal from the loading effects of the meter movement. As most people reading this
article already know, the voltage value indicated by a non-buffered meter can be
greatly affected by the meter's loading of the device under test (DUT) if the meter's
impedance is not many times greater than the DUT's impedance. The voltmeter is used
in parallel with the circuit under test, so for example if the impedance of the
DUT is 100 kΩ and the meter's impedance is also 100 kΩ, the meter will
display a value as if the DUT itself had only a 50 kΩ impedance, which represents
a huge error. The problem was that VTVMs were relatively expensive and beyond the
budget of most amateurs...
 America's interstate highway system and telephone
system are often named as two of the most important factors in building an economy
that reigned over the rest of the world. Together, they constituted a monumental
logistical synergy that enables planning and implementing coast-to-coast transportation
of goods and services that could exploit local concentrations of talent and resources
and have the capability of distributing it across the country and around the world
quickly and cheaply.
Bell Telephone Laboratories (Labs) ran many advertisements in print, on radio,
and on television pitching the major role it played in the big scheme of things.
One statement in this promo appearing in a 1949 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine
encourages telephone users to discover new ways to utilize the equipment. Facsimile
(fax) was already in a primarily experimental mode, but shortly thereafter it became
a fundamental way of exchanging data...
 Navy Electricity and Electronics Training
Series (NEETS) Module 4 -
Introduction
to Electrical Conductors, Wiring Techniques, and Schematic Reading. Upon completing
this chapter, you should be able to: 1. Recall the definitions of unit size, mil-foot,
square mil, and circular mil and the mathematical equations and calculations for
each. 2. Define specific resistance and recall the three factors used to calculate
it in ohms. 3. Describe the proper use of the American Wire Gauge when making wire
measurements. 4. Recall the factors required in selecting proper size wire. 5. State
the advantages and disadvantages of copper or aluminum as conductors. 6. Define
insulation resistance and dielectric strength including how the dielectric strength
of an insulator is determined. 7. Identify the safety precautions to be taken when
working with insulating materials...
 September 27th's custom
Engineering themed crossword puzzle contains only only words from my custom-created
lexicon related to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy,
etc. (1,000s of them). 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 Lamarr or the Bikini Atoll,
respectively. The technically inclined cruciverbalists amongst us will appreciate
the effort...
 It was only the first day at engineering
college and already their first familiar techno-caper was underway. Indiana's Parvoo
University was about to get an initiation into the world of
Carl Anderson and Jerry Bishop, who during their high school years together
solved many a mystery and pulled many a prank in their hometown somewhere in northern
Indiana. As with all of John Frye's tales this one mixes serious electronics topics
with a bit of fun and a life lesson. There were no 'bad guys' here as in many other
episodes, but the boys did get an unexpected introduction to Parvoo U.'s president!
Despite the story's title, the day ended well ...
 When this article on ionospheric and tropospheric
scatter radio communications was published in 1960, satellite communications was
in its infancy and only a very few subsea telephone and telegraph cables had been laid
between continents. Wideband communications was typically considered to mean a few hundred
kilohertz worth of data. Less than two decades had passed since it was discovered that
the theoretical prediction of cripplingly high attenuation above a "smooth earth" would
ultimately limit the usefulness of over-the-horizon (i.e., not line-of-sight) HF, VHF,
and UHF transmissions to a few hundred miles. In fact, so thoroughly had the commercial
broadcast community...
 At least 10 clues with an asterisk (*)
in this
technology-themed crossword puzzle are pulled from this past week's (6/18 - 6/22)
"Tech Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage. For the sake of all the avid
cruciverbalists amongst us, each week I create a new technology-themed crossword puzzle
using only words from my custom-created 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...
 This
RF Cafe Engineering & Technical Headlines Crossword Puzzle contains at least
10 words from headlines posted on the homepage during the week of September 16 through
September 20, 2019 (marked with an asterisk*). These custom-made engineering and
science-themed crossword puzzles are done weekly for the brain-exercising benefit
and pleasure of RF Cafe visitors who are fellow cruciverbalists. Every word and
clue - without exception - in these RF Cafe puzzles has been personally entered
into a very large database that encompasses engineering, science, physical, astronomy,
mathematics, chemistry, etc. Let me know if you would like a custom crossword puzzle
built for your company, school, club, etc. (no charge).
 This 1971 article from Popular Electronics
magazine was the twelfth in a long series of features reporting on electronics
related college degrees, technical schools, on-the-job training, military
training, areas of specialty, career planning and options, current hiring
practices and companies doing the hiring, salaries and hourly rates, worker's
compensation and insurance, etc. All the issues of importance today were being
covered even half a century ago, although the names have been changed for some
entities. For instance the state employment bureaus are now referred to as
departments of labor and industry; e.g., here in Pennsylvania, the DLI supplies
statistics on labor...
 Although
Heathkit is probably the most familiar line of build-it-yourself electronics products
running from about the late 1950s through the 1980s, there were others. Allied Electronics,
under the brand name of Allied Radio, had a line of "knight-kits" (many of which can be bought on eBay) that included
oscilloscopes, multimeters, stereo amplifiers, signal generators, citizen band radios,
amateur radio transmitters and receivers, AM/FM radios, vacuum tube test sets, audio
and RF generators, and much more. In the days before just about everything electronic
was manufactured in China by poor souls get paid practically nothing for longs hours
of work, it was often cheaper to buy and assemble a kit than to buy a ready-to-use
equivalent item. It is always interesting to plug prices from vintage magazine ads
into ...
 Not everyone who visits RF Cafe is
a seasoned engineer or technician. Some are just getting into electronics
as part of a career path and/or hobby endeavor and appreciate the availability
of entry-level information. As an oft-quoted sage-type person famously said,
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step." Accordingly, here
is a short article explaining the basic physics and application of the of
backward diode, which is akin to a Zener diode and tunnel diode in that
it is meant to operate in the reverse bias region. National Semiconductor,
Texas Instruments (TI), and Raytheon were the manufacturers in 1958 when this
article appeared in Radio-Electronics magazine. National Semiconductor was
swallowed up by Texas instruments in 2011...
 In this episode of John T. Frye's "Carl &
Jerry" series, the intrepid pair of teenage electronics hobbyists and Ham radio
operators are experimenting with an audio amplifier rig that uses a parabolic dish
for concentrating sound waves at a focal point where they have a microphone mounted.
Aside from picking up bird noises and a neighbor lady scolding her husband for not
properly washing the windows during a round of Spring cleaning, Carl imposes upon
Jerry for a lesson in
feedback techniques - both positive and negative - and the reasons one is preferred
over the other. The story winds up with a clever double entendre comment referring
to osculation...'
 Did you know that Sperry was assigned a trademark
on the term "klystron?"
The klystron vacuum tube type was actually invented by invented in 1937 by American
electrical engineers Russell and Sigurd Varian (I'm old enough to have had Varian
Associates catalogs). According to this full-page advertisement in a 1944 issue
of Radio News magazine, not only did Sperry develop the klystron vacuum
tube, but they also coined a term to describe any study or application of it: "klystronics."
Here is a very interesting excerpt from the Wikipedia page, "The work of physicist
W.W. Hansen was instrumental in the development of the klystron and was cited by
the Varian brothers in their 1939 paper...
 Genius
takes on many forms, not the least of which is the ability to concoct and compose
an [almost] believable a story describing in the utmost detail the technical workings
of a complex mechanical gadget. Items such as a mizule wrench, meta-phasic shielding,
blinker fluid, a left-handed screwdriver, and - one of my favorites - the muffler
bearing, have been heard in comic routines... er... routinely. No matter how many
times you hear them you always laugh again. Some are actually a portmanteau and
just sound funny while others are completely made up. This
Digital Decabulator article that appeared in a 1966 issue of
R/C Modeler magazine is amazing; it pegs the B.S. detector from beginning
to end ...
 Color television was a big hit with homeowners
and was adopted fairly rapidly in the 1960s even considering the relatively high
cost and low number of network color broadcasts in the beginning years. The enthusiasm
underwent a severe reduction when word got out that large doses of
x-rays were streaming out of the front of the CRT for sets that did not take
precautions to prevent it (which was the majority of sets initially). The major
cause was extremely high voltages applied between the electron gun and
phosphorescent raster grid - in the neighborhood of 35 kV or more - when the
high voltage regulator circuit malfunctioned. Note that even when everything was
working properly, a small amount of x-ray radiation was emitted. The x-ray
problem...
 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...
 In the last few years, many color photos
from the WWII era have been appearing, being a stark contrast to the B&W photos
we have been used to seeing. The Smithsonian Institute's Air & Space
magazine published this photo of what appears to be an
electrical
cable production station. Obviously it was a staged public relations shot, but
its color content, snaking arrays of cables, and excellent lighting effect could
easily win it a prize. At first glance I though it might be steel control cables
for the PB2Y flying boats into which they were installed. A close look at the ends
of the cables inside the work station assembly area reveals ring lugs on the ends
of the cables, as might be found on control lines between cockpit elevator and aileron
control yokes (or joy sticks), rudder pedals, wing flaps, trim tabs, etc. However,
notice that the cables are being terminated inside a rather small junction box,
which suggests... |
