|
 Conceptual dilemmas in electronics (and
other fields) often arise from foundational misunderstandings that can be resolved
through rigorous analysis. This Popular Electronics magazine article addresses
three primary paradoxes that frequently confuse beginners. First, the "plus-and-minus"
debate regarding current direction is clarified as a semantic convention: while
electrons physically flow from negative to positive, the historical definition of
current often assumes the opposite direction, provided one remains consistent. Second,
the capacitor-charging paradox, which seems to contradict the near-light-speed transmission...
 Here are the schematics, chassis layout,
and service info for the
Howard Explorer Model W Deluxe 19 Tube All-Wave Superheterodyne
radio. The Radio Service Data Sheets that were published in Radio-Craft
magazine usually seem to have more information included than those published in
other magazines, at least in the same era (1940-ish). It might have to do with how
much material is provided by the manufacturer rather than a decision by the magazine
editors. Believe it or not, there are still people searching for such data...
 "SpaceX satellite policy lead Udrivolf Pica
told participants in the International Telecommunication Union Space Connect webcast
about the next-generation Starlink direct-to-device (D2D) cellular service for smartphones.
The revelation of the new service follows SpaceX's October 2025 U.S. trademark filing
for "STARLINK MOBILE" and comes as Elon Musk has recently hinted at Starlink mobile
ambitions. 'We are aiming at peak speeds of
150 Mbps per user,' Pica said, adding, 'So something incredible if you think
about the link budgets from space to the mobile phone..."
 On a fairly regular occasion someone will
write to one of the QST magazine columnists or post on a forum asking about information
on a particular antenna configuration he recalled seeing printed many moons ago,
but can no longer find anything on it. Fortunately, the columnists are guys who
have been in the Ham game for a many decades and not only remember what the writer
references, but knows where to dig out the original info. Even with the plethora
of resources available on the Web, some things still cannot be found because nobody
yet has posted it. That is one of my prime...
 Hiram Percy Maxim is well-known by amateur
radio operators as the founder of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). He died
in 1936 and was buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Hagerstown, Maryland. A few years
ago while visiting relatives in Hagerstown, I went to the cemetery, took some photos,
got the exact GPS coordinates, and posted a short article on it (see
Hiram Percy Maxim's Gravesite in Hagerstown, Maryland). If
not for my documentation, there would be no way to know that the large grave marker
shown in this 1940 QST magazine article does not belong to the esteemed
Mr. Maxim, but to the matron of his wife's family...
 Here are a couple
high tech comics for your enjoyment from the pages of the July
1961 edition of Electronics World magazine. I'm guessing the joke in the
page 72 comic is that unknown parts were/are generically referred to as "Brand
X," so hopefully that would bring in customers who couldn't identify components
(which the repairman probably could). It could also be an unintended warning that
if "Brand X" (knockoff part) is sold there, then there is a good chance inferior
parts will be used in the repair. The page 94 comic is yet another play
on the huge popularity of home hi-fidelity (hi-fi) sound systems of the day. Amplifiers
still used vacuum tubes so building speaker driver circuits that could handle hundreds
of watts was easy to do...
 Fifth in the "Men Who Have Made Radio" series,
Heinrich Hertz is honored here for giving mankind what author Hugo Gernsback appropriately
termed "a sixth sense." Having earned his doctorate with a thesis on "the distribution
of electricity over the surface of moving conductors," Hertz proved through his
experiments the existence of electromagnetic waves - the aforementioned sixth sense.
During his short 37 years on Earth,
Heinrich Hertz accomplished an impressive amount of fundamental
research and discovery. He was remembered fondly as a kind man who placed advancing
the frontiers of science ahead of fighting for credit...
 Werbel Microwave began as a consulting firm,
specializing in RF components design, with the ability to rapidly spin low volume
prototypes. The
WMRD09-7.2-S is a 9-way resistive splitter that covers from DC to 7.2 GHz
with ultra-wide bandwidth. This unique design accomplishes extremely flat frequency
response in a small radial package. Our unique design approach provides higher than
expected isolation between outputs at far ports than would be achieved in a typical
star topology. It has applications in markets such as CATV, T&M, and military
radio...
 While watching the Avengers: Age of
Ultron movie, at some point when one of the computer voices was speaking, a
memory of the "This
Is DigiTalker" voice suddenly came to mind. Back in the mid-1980s while working
at Westinghouse in Annapolis, Maryland, a couple of the engineers brought a DigiTalker
prototype experimentation board into the super-classified area where I worked. According
to National Semiconductor's datasheet, it was introduced sometime around 1980. The
programmable digital voice IC was a big deal in that unlike other devices that had
a fixed set of...
 Innovative Power Products has been designing
and manufacturing RF and Microwave passive components since 2005. We use the latest
design tools available to build our baluns, 90-degree couplers, directional couplers,
combiners/dividers, single-ended transformers, resistors, terminations, and custom
products. Applications in military, medical, industrial, and commercial markets
are serviced around the world. Products listed on the website link to detailed mechanical
drawings, electrical specifications, and performance data. If you cannot find a
product that meets your requirements on our website, contact us to speak with one
of our experienced design engineers about your project.
 Some things never change - at least at the
fundamentals level.
Electric circuits is one of those things. I don't remember when I first became
interested in electrical apperati, but it must have been due to a natural affinity
to the science because nobody in my family or my circle of friends expressed any
interest. I was the odd man (or boy) out on my street, because while all the other
kids were playing baseball, basketball, and football, I was sticking forks in electric
sockets and disassembling flashlights, battery-powered toys, and building Erector
Set contraptions using the included electric motor. That's not to say I ever got
really good at it, but significantly better than I ever got at playing sports...
 You would be forgiven in this era of ubiquitous
cellphone usage for thinking maybe
Citizen Band (CB) radios are only used these days by techno-throwbacks
like myself, but the fact is many truckers still use them for convenience as well
as to avoid having all their communications intercepted, monitored, and recorded
by government agencies. It can be a deceiving sense of privacy though, because police
officers often monitor CB radio transmissions while in patrol cars, and even solicit
the assistance of other CBers in identifying and apprehending suspected transgressors
- an advantage of public, unencrypted conversation afforded law enforcement which
is not available with cellphones. Also, CB transmission, even though usually regarded
as "hearsay" in legal venues, has many times been admitted as evidence in cases
where "present sense impression," "excited utterance," or some other special...
 I have experienced the problem with low
precision AI calculations; however, it will use high precision if specifically instructed
to do so. "AI has driven an explosion of
new number
formats - the ways in which numbers are represented digitally. Engineers are
looking at every possible way to save computation time and energy, including shortening
the number of bits used to represent data. But what works for AI doesn't necessarily
work for scientific computing, be it for computational physics, biology, fluid dynamics,
or engineering simulations. IEEE Spectrum spoke with Laslo Hunhold..."
 This week's
Science & Engineering Crossword Puzzle, as is the case with all RF Cafe
crossword puzzles, has only words and clues related to science and engineering.
Each week for two decades I have created a new technology-themed crossword puzzle
using only words (1,000s of them) from my custom-created lexicon related to engineering,
science, mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy, etc. You will never find among
the words names of politicians, mountain ranges, exotic foods or plants, movie stars,
or anything of the sort. You might, however, find someone or something in the otherwise
excluded list directly related to this puzzle's technology theme, such as Hedy Lamarr
or the Bikini Atoll, respectively. Avid cruciverbalists amongst us: the gauntlet
has been thrown down.
 "And there is nothing new under the sun."
- Ecclesiastes 1:9, NKJV (did you know that is the origin
of the saying?). This 1930 editorial by Radio-Craft editor Hugo
Gernsback describes a coordinated scam perpetrated by
radio manufacturers to compel consumers to buy new sets rather
than have their existing sets repaired. In short, retail prices were inflated to
accommodate a built-in 'trade-in' allowance that far exceeded the repair cost or
used radio cost. Radio service shops were getting the short shrift because many
people who might have otherwise elected to have repairs made would instead trade
in the old set for a new one...
 It really wasn't all that long ago when
most people worked on computers with Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) that had just
16 colors (4-bit pixels). In the late 1980s (wow, maybe it really was a long time
ago), the luxury of a 256-color (8-bit pixels) Video Graphics Adapter (VGA) monitor
and video card would cost you around $300 each. I recall seeing ads for "16 million
color" displays by ViewSonic that ran north of a kilobuck. My first "real" monitor
was bought in 1987 and was 4-bit monochrome.
Televisions, as you know, began as black and white (actually a
infinite number of gray levels between black and white). When TVs first arrived
in people's homes, they were glad for any kind of display, but it wasn't long before
marketing gurus convinced the masses that...
![To Be, Or Not to Be [a Metal] - Do Astrophysicists Know the Difference?: Kirt's Cogitations™ #374 - RF Cafe](miscellany/homepage-archive/2026/images/big-bang-universe-creation-kirt-blattenberger-hp.gif) As 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...
 I 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...
 "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..."
 Consumer 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...
 FM 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...
 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.
 "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...
 Yowza, 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..."
|
 • FCC Expands
Unlicensed Use of 6 GHz Band
• Active
Smartphone Installed Base up 2% in 2025
• FDA Clarifies
Wearable Device Rules
• Revisiting the
1996 Telecommunications Act
• China's
BeiDou Satellite (their GPS) Does Emergency Messaging
• How & When Will
Memory Chip Shortage End?
 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.
 Homepage
Archives for July 2023. Items on the RF Cafe homepage come and go at a pretty
fast rate. In order to facilitate fast page loading, I keep the size reasonable - under a megabyte (ebay, Amazon, NY Times, etc., are multiple
megabytes). New items are added at the top of the content area, and within a few
days they shift off the bottom. If you recall seeing something on the homepage
but now it is gone, fret not because many years I have maintained
Homepage Archives.
 Do you know these men, or any of the many
others that appear in the articles I post from vintage magazines? They might be
your father or grandfather, brother or uncle. Once in a great while I will receive
an e-mail from somebody telling me he or she recognized a person whose photo was
posted with the article. I always try to include the names and, if available, cities
of people in picture captions in hopes that the search engines will pick them up.
Tracing family roots is a big hobby today and being able to find such an obscure
source for a relative's past is a thrill to many such Internet sleuths. My hobby
website, AirplanesAndRockets.com, has received many contacts both from people who
see themselves in old articles and who recognize fathers or brothers. In one case
a guy wrote to me saying that the fellow who wrote a monthly column on model rocketry
was the father of the woman he married. Another time a guy wrote saying he was the
photographer who took the edition's cover photo at a contest. Recently, a lady contacted
me to say her father, who was an NCO in the USAF...
 Don't let the title fool you. This "Ultrafax"
system developed by RCA in the late 1940s was essentially the first attempt at video
on demand, or streaming video. Rather than piping the signal over cable or local
broadcast frequency towers, a microwave link was used. While initial system equipment
space and financial requirements meant only corporations, universities, and governments
could procure an Ultrafax, engineers who developed the system envisioned an eventual
culmination of equivalent systems in every home. Even at the end of the last century
it was still not possible for program providers to personalize broadcasts to individuals.
It wasn't until broadband Internet came on the scene in the 2000s that such services
were possible. Now, a decade later, people watch any video they want on cellphones
while riding in a car. We've come a long way, baby...
 What better way is there to resuscitate
a challenging work day than to kick back and enjoy these
electronics-themed comics from a vintage edition of Radio & Television
News magazine? Seeing a comic panel in any modern technical magazine these
days is rare, if for no other reason than a fear amongst publishers (and their lawyers)
that somebody, somewhere might be offended. You have my invitation to create a good-humored
cartoon about me or RF Cafe anytime you wish, and I promise not to sue you. I'll
even post it here on the website if you like. BTW, these comics make great fodder
for the front page of your technical presentations - a good way to soften the edge
going into a meeting, especially if you are not good at delivering jokes...
 Have you ever wondered what is inside the
familiar 9-volt battery (often referred to as a "transistor
radio battery" in the last century)? I have read about there being AAAA cells
(that's right, quadruple-A, A-A-A-A), but wanted to see for myself. So, I used a
small screwdriver and a pair of pliers to remove the outer metal case. This first
picture shows the six AAAA cells bundled together and contained with heat-shrink
tubing. In the bottom photo, you can see that all six AAAA cells are connected in
series. Each individual cell is 1.5 volts, so 6 x 1.5 = 9.0 volts.
For a size comparison, a standard triple-A (AAA) cell is shown next to one of the
AAAA cells. Here are the specifications for the Duracell Ultra 9V battery: Battery
Capacity: 550 mAh Battery Technology: Alkaline (Single Use) Current: 2.1000 A Depth:
17.0 mm Height: 48.5 mm Width: 26.2mm Voltage: 9.00 V Weight: 44.0 g Since the cells
are connected in series, than means the overall current rating for the battery assembly
is the same for each AAAA cell. So, each AAAA cell is rated at 2.1 amps with an
energy capacity of 550 mAh (milliamp-hours)...
 This full-page advertisement by Bell Telephone
Laboratories in the June 1956 issue of Radio & television News seems to imply
that their Dr. S. Weisbaum and/or his contemporaries was/were the original
developer/s of the
waveguide isolator. If so, it would be no surprise since Bell Labs was responsible
for many technology innovations during its history - RF, microwaves, telephony,
switching, transmission lines, test and measurement, and much more. Other information
available on the Internet assigns credit to Bell Labs in the same timeframe. From
the ad: "This isolator is a slab of ferrite which is mounted inside the waveguide,
and is kept magnetized by a permanent magnet strapped to the outside. The magnetized
ferrite..."
 Anyone who watched the
WKRP in Cincinnati
sitcom back in the 1970s has to remember what was one of the funniest episodes ever.
Here is the 4 minutes that made Prime Time history. In this Thanksgiving episode,
station owner Arthur Carlson decided he would surprise the community with good deed
- that doubled as a promotional stunt for his radio station - by dropping turkeys
from a helicopter for lucky shoppers at the local shopping mall. Watch the disaster
unfold as Les Nessman reports live, and then hear Carlson's final comment that
is still used or alluded to in many comic routines. Posting this video is an RF
Cafe tradition. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!...
 The old adage about a picture being worth
a thousand words is still true today, even in the Information Age in which we live.
A lot of people, especially those new to the field of electronics, struggle with
the
concept of decibels as applied to power and voltage (and to a lesser degree
current). A plethora of computer, browser, and phone app programs are available
to make individual, specific conversions, but what has been learned about the fundamental
relationship? A nomograph is still one of the best tools both for teaching and performing
conversions. This article that discusses properly matching impedances of amplification
stages includes a nice nomograph...
 Being that we are entering the forest fire
season with the onset of summer, this story from a 1932 edition of Radio News
magazine is an appropriate recognition of the sacrifice offered by firefighters
who battle the destructive conflagrations. Firefighters of all specialties have
relied on radio communications nearly since its inception, and particularly once
battery-powered versions became available for portability. It is hard to imagine
a time when such a convenience - even a necessity - was not part of the standard
firefighting outfit. Nowadays the radios are compact and clip onto a shoulder lapel,
but in 1932 the vacuum tubes, large transformers and batteries meant even a primitive
radio was in the form of a
harness-mounted manpack radio (a word not yet coined at the time). The portable
half-wave dipole antenna in the picture looks almost exactly like ones I have seen
advertised in contemporary issues of QST magazine...
 A year after the two atom bombs were dropped
to end World War II, the newly formed Atomic Energy Commission conducted detailed
detonation tests at the Bikini Atoll, in the South Pacific. Most people more than
40 years old are very familiar with the images of the giant mushroom cloud that
formed over the site. This "Radio
in the Atom Tests" article from the July 1946 issue of Radio-Craft
magazine reports on plans being made for measure and record sound pressure, nuclear
radiation, radio and radar signatures, temperature, light spectrum and intensity,
and other parameters. The information would be used for improved bomb making, nuclear
power generation, medical imaging and treatment, and general research on nuclear
fission and fusion (a fission implosion is to initiate a fusion reaction)...
 Here is one of the first "call to arms" for
the
amateur radio community published in an American electronics magazine. It appeared
in the February 1942 issue of Radio News, which would have been the first
printing following the official declaration of war against Japan following the December
7th, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii. A couple months of lead
time was required back then for submitting content and layout for a printing cycle,
so since the February issue was likely mailed in late January, anything that happened
in December probably wouldn't have made the cut. No mention is made of the soon
to follow prohibition against unauthorized transmitting by Hams for the duration
of the war, which went into effect December 8th (QST managed to get the
news into the January edition)...
 Yay for us. Our
pollution production levels
are way down compared to what they were in the middle of the last century. Seriously,
things were getting really bad. Pittsburgh was considered such a hopeless mess that
famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, whose landmark Fallingwater home sat nearby,
when asked what to do about Pittsburg's terrible pollution responded, "Abandon it."
Lake Erie had been declared officially dead. Love Canal dominated headlines. Los
Angeles air was (and still is, BTW) unbreathable. After huge public awareness campaigns,
cleanup efforts, and stricter enforcement of pollution laws, the trend halted and
has reversed. That is unquestionably good news. The bad news is that as pollution
control got better, companies found continuing manufacturing operations in the U.S.
was unprofitable based on what people were willing to pay for their products. Steel,
the literal and figurative backbone of industry, could not be mined, smelted, and
processed into finished goods at a price that would encourage innovation and growth...
 Although the details about types of electronics
schools, locations, specific career goals, funding sources, etc., are a bit different
today than they were in 1952 when this "Selecting
the Right Radio School" article appeared in Radio-Electronics magazine,
the advice offered for consideration is still applicable. You are investing a significant
amount of resources - financially and commitment-wise - so the prudent approach
is to do as much up-front research as possible to help assure you will not regret
your decision. Of course there is always the chance that at some point you'll opt
for a different career - it happens to a lot of people. One big difference these
days is there is probably a lot more in the way of financial assistance available
than back in the 1950s. One of the best ways then and now is to enlist in the military
and take advantage of the schoolroom training and on the job training (OJT), while
collecting a paycheck and having some of the best medical coverage available...
 In 1957, only a top-of-the-line automobile
deserved a radio containing 13 discrete transistors and four crystal diodes. Only
buyers of such a top-of-the-line vehicle could afford the luxury offered by an electronic
marvel that promised instant-on music with superior sensitivity and selectivity
over the vacuum tube models that lesser humans endured. As shown in this 1957 issue
of Radio & TV News magazine,
Delco's Model 7268085 was up to the task as it populated the dashboards of Cadillac's
Eldorado Brougham. Modern day radios use a single IC for performing all reception,
filtering, amplification, and tuning functions, with superior performance compared
to the Delco without all the interstage tuning transformers, Rs, Ls, and Cs. Most
of the rest of the circuitry in your car radio is for microprocessor control...
 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...
 Here in the February 1947 issue of Radio-Craft
magazine is part three of a six-part series on
Antenna Principles. The first two parts concentrated on dipole antennas and
feeders, and multi-element long-line and rhombic antennas. Part three is on directional
arrays and radiation fields. In addition to a bit of theory, real-world examples
are given of various directional antenna configurations along with field strength
graphs. Without powerful computers to calculate and plot out predicted radiation
patterns, a large combination of experience and in-situ measurements was required.
A huge amount of time was spent for even relatively simple arrays. Finitely detailed
topographical and structural models are now available which, along with very precise
electromagnetic field calculation algorithms allows efficient and accurate planning...
 If you think the title of this piece, "I Will Not
Bite His Ear, or the Rover Radio Boys on the Moon," has anything to do with
the story, you would be in error ... at least as far as I can reckon there's no
connection. Keep in mind that this mini-novel appeared in the "April Fool" section
of the April 1933 QST magazine issue. I have posted a couple of the "Fools" pieces
which accompanied it (see TOC beginning on page 25). Read with caution. The image
of Queen Elizabeth cradling a vacuum valve (not tube!) under her arm like a rugby
football (to continue the Eurocentric theme) in the comic certainly grabs one's
attention, as do the "250-watter lights" on the the royal bathroom wall. You need
to switch into a early twentieth century mindset while perusing the story in order
to appreciate the humor...
 Radio-Electronics magazine ran regular
column entitled "The Radio Month" with industry, government, and academic news briefs.
This 1951 issue included, amongst other tidbits, a report on TV pioneers Hugo Gernsback,
publisher of Radio-Electronics, and Isidor Goldberg, president of Pilot
Radio Corporation, having been presented scrolls by student members of the Institute
of Radio Engineers and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers at New York
University in recognition of their contributions to the development of television.
Pilot Radio manufactured kits for electronics hobbyists. In other news, the FCC
discovered its first instance of an
illegal television broadcast. It never takes long for the criminally insane
to corrupt a good thing; however, in this case it was a Sylvania Electric Products
test site operating without a license. Evidently they had adopted the philosophy
of "It's easier to beg forgiveness than to ask for permission... |
