Solid State
From the mid 1950s and through mid 1970s,
Popular Electronics magazine ran a series of articles entitled "Solid State"
in order to facilitate the electronics industry's effort to move people from vacuum
tubes to semiconductors. In fact, if Solid State ran every months since its beginning,
this being installment 182 means it began in 1956 - just eight years after the transistor
was invented. Even though the commercial industry had already shifted to almost
exclusively transistorized products, a large part of the consumer base had been
raised on tube radios and televisions. In this case, the news is in regard to Bell
Telephone Labs' recent invention of the
semiconductor charge coupled device (CCD) - the heart of all modern imaging
systems. Prior to the CCD, a vidicon tube, which as the name...
Raytheon Manufacturing Company Needs Vacuum Tube Engineers
You don't see jobs advertisements like this
anymore. Here is an ad that appeared in the the July 1944 edition of QST
(the American Radio Relay League's, ARRL's, monthly magazine), placed by
Raytheon
Manufacturing Company (now just Raytheon Company), looking for tube design,
test, and processing engineers. Licensed amateur radio operators were in high demand
during the war years because of their knowledge and enthusiasm for electronics and
wireless communications. I hope you didn't come to this page hoping to really find
a tube designer job available. Of course, there are still vacuum tubes being designed
for TWTs and magnetrons, but those are few and far between...
Engineering & Science Crossword Puzzle for June 23
Since 2000, I have been creating custom engineering-
and
science-themed crossword puzzles for the brain-exercising benefit and pleasure
of RF Cafe visitors who are fellow cruciverbalists. The jury is out on whether or
not this type of mental challenge helps keep your gray matter from atrophying in
old age, but it certainly helps maintain your vocabulary and cognitive skills at
all ages. A database of thousands of words has been built up over the years and
contains only clues and terms associated with engineering, science, physical, astronomy,
mathematics, chemistry, etc. 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...
YL News and Views
"YL" is the shorthand used by amateur radio
operators when referring to female operators -
Young Lady.
Although still chosen as a hobby in larger number by men, ladies have long been
avid participants in the art/science of Ham radio. The American Amateur Radio
League's QST magazine devoted this "YL News and Views" column to their
contributions many years ago - trendsetting in its day. This particular issue
introduces Louise Ramsey Moreau as its new editor. Her interest in Ham radio was
piqued when she realized "all the women heard on their receivers were not 'just
wives,' but licensed operators." The rest, as said, is history...
The Longitude Problem
Knowing that I am an avid consumer of literature
pertaining to time and astronomy, Melanie picked up a book at the library for me
titled,
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem
of His Time, by Dava Sobel. When Christopher Columbus discovered
America, his intended target was, if you recall, the Indies. His original
charter was to find a direct westerly pathway from the Atlantic coast of Europe
to the immensely profitable trade production region of the Indies as an
alternative to to sailing around the treacherous Cape of Good Hope at the
southern tip of Africa. How could such an experienced navigator have missed his
mark by so far, you might reasonably ask? Didn't Columbus know how to use a
sextant, or at least have a navigator who could? The answer to the second
question is, "no." The answer to the first question is complicated...
Electronic Measurement Quiz
The early 1960s was evidently a good time
for printing quizzes in electronics magazines. Popular Electronics was
no exception. As I look through my collection I am finding quite a few. Here is
the latest, from the January 1963 edition, that tests basic knowledge of
using analog multimeters (digital types were not around yet). All are
pretty straightforward; however, be careful with question 9. At first I thought
maybe it was a trick question, but the key to arriving at the correct answer is
noting that you are measuring a low resistance. Be sure to consider the
properties of a standard multimeter of the era. Give it a try for yourself to
see how well you fare...
Hugo Gernsback on Radio Astronomy
Hugo Gernsback wrote this editorial about
the state of the art of
radio astronomy in a 1953 issue of his Radio-Electronics magazine.
He cites Dr. Jansky's discovery of radio frequency signals emanating from
the center of our Milky Way galaxy, and the subsequent work done by radio
astronomers in the interim. Little did Gernsback know that a mere decade later
later, Bell Telephone Labs engineers Dr. Wilson and Dr. Penzias would
serendipitously discover, using the company's "sugar-scoop" antenna, the
ubiquitous cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) believed to be a
signature of the "Big Bang" era. He predicted that, as is true for most realms
of theoretical research, much collateral technology would be created as a
result. Ultra low noise, cryogenically cooled receivers are an obvious
example...
Electronic Terminology Crossword Puzzle from the October 1960 Electronics World
Electronics magazines of the last century
regularly published theme-based crosswords, like this "Electronic
Terminology Crossword Puzzle" one from a 1960 edition of Electronics World.
Working crossword puzzles has been shown to be a simple activity that can help
prevent or at least stave off some forms of mental atrophy. It is a medical fact
that as you grow old and/or cease presenting yourself on a regular basis with
mental and physical challenges, your brain actually begins to lose gray matter
and synapse interconnections are lost. Working crossword puzzles is a healthy
mental exercise that helps increase your vocabulary and improve cognitive
skills. That is one reason I create my own weekly crossword puzzle for RF Cafe
visitors...
GATT, Bell Labs, Space Needles, & In-Car Entertainment Systems
The General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trades (GATT) has been around for a really long time - since 1947, shortly
after the end of World War II. It changed its name to the World Trade Organization
(WTO) in 1995. Japan was admitted as a GATT signatory in 1964 according to this
Electronics magazine newsletter. One of the conditions for membership
was allowing foreign ownership of businesses on Japanese soil - previously
prohibited. Texas Instruments was the first American company to establish a
presence there. Japanese industry was just getting a foothold on manufacturing
and selling into foreign markets in the mid 1960s, and was still working to shed
its reputation - deserved or not - of producing inferior quality goods.
Increasing foreign presence and dependence on the country's economic well-being
was a good thing for them. In fact, many pundits believe that the globalization
of production is key to preserving peace (or at least not war) between certain
countries...
Parallel Circuits per U.S. Navy NAVPERS 10622
The study of
parallel circuits typically follows on the heels of series circuits
because at least for resistance and inductance, the math is easier. Capacitance
in parallel, on the other hand, use the equations and methods of resistance and
inductance in series. Unfortunately, though, for newcomers, series capacitance
uses the equations and methods of resistance and inductance in parallel. Sure,
most RF Cafe visitors covered all that stuff years ago, but as I've mentioned
before, there are always new people coming into the electrical and electronics
craft. These NAVPER Basic Navy Training Courses were and still are heralded as
being excellent introductory material for students entering the realm. I don't
know if it's still so, but back in the post World War II era and up through the
1980s civilian employers assigned great regard to and preference to for U.S.
Navy (and, ahem, Air Force) electronic technicians when hiring...
Inexpensive R.F. Wattmeter
Amateur radio operators (Hams) and electronics
hobbyists are always on the lookout for a good deal on a good piece of test equipment
(TE). One way to accumulate a budget minded bench of TE is to find a way to combine
the functions of separate pieces to effect a new instrument. This
RF wattmeter was R.A. Thomason's method. It uses a simple application of
Ohm's law for converting electrical current into power values using a bank of
high power resistors and an external ammeter. Hand-dandy conversion charts are
provided for two different values of detector resistors, but the scales could
easily be changed to accommodate any resistor value. Note that the power
dissipating resistor bank is composed of two series-connected sets of eight
parallel-connected...
Editorial Comment on Grounding, March 9th "The Wireless World"
As radio equipment builders and operators,
we still battle two fundamental issues that have been around since the beginning
of time (well, from Marconi's time, anyway) -
grounding and power supply fluxuations. Both topics are addressed briefly here
in this editorial column from a 1932 The Wireless World magazine. Back
in the day, grounding was referred to as "earthing," and was/is essential to
optimal wireless and wired performance. Line voltage fluxuations are generally
much less severe today than in the 1930s thanks to better transformers,
automated monitoring and adjusting of line voltages, and better distribution
designs. The worst type of power line fluxuation - a lightning-induced surge -
has been greatly reduced thanks to superior engineering, primarily by the simple
running of a grounded neutral "static" wire running at the top of all the lines
below it on utility poles and transmission towers...
Uncommon Ground Difficulties
"Ground
is ground the world around," is an oft repeated saying when talking about making
electrical connections to Earth ground. In a general sense that is true, especially
when referring to electromagnetic radio signals and antenna systems that are in
some manner dependent on the common connection. However, when you are working within
the confines of a localized electronic circuit such as on a printed circuit board
or inside a chassis, there is no guarantee that without proper precautions ground
is not at the same potential everywhere. Poor (high impedance) soldered, crimped,
and bolted connections are among the prime offenders that cause voltage differentials
to arise between points intended to be equipotential. RF frequency signals are particularly
sensitive to even a minor divergence...
Integrated Circuit: Is Price War On?
When you read about price wars in the
integrated circuit (IC) realm, you naturally think of manufacturers in Asian
countries, since even the products of American companies are made overseas nowadays
(unfortunately). Such was not the case in the early days of ICs when corporations
kept their trade secrets within the shores of their home countries, and government
technology export laws prohibited practices that would have required processing
knowledge and equipment to be located offshore in order to be successful. In the
1960s, it was companies like Fairchild, Clevite, Motorola, Texas Instruments, IBM,
Westinghouse, General Electric, et al, who were in fierce competition to dominate
the semiconductor...
Behind the Giant Brains
Radio & Television News ran
a two-part article on the state of the art of computers in the late 1950s (this
is part 1). It had only been since ENIAC's (Electronic
Numerical Integrator And Computer) debut in 1946 at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) that the public (or science community for that matter) was getting
used to regularly hearing about computers in the news. By 1957 there were many companies
popping up with electronic computer offerings. Originally the exclusive purview
of university research labs and defense installations, the size and cost of computers
was moving into the realm of affordability by corporations that used them for accounting
and bookkeeping, and in some cases even rented idle time to outside users. Desktop
PCs and notebook computers were still the realm of crazy dreamers...
