|
 "The Whistler
and His Dog" is one of those tunes that you have probably heard dozens of times
but never knew the title of it (video at bottom of page).
It is mentioned in this installment of "Mac's Radio Service Shop" from a 1948 edition
of Radio & Television News magazine. Barney is said to have been whistling
it while replacing an output transformer on a receiver-recorder... a wire recorder
at that. The "20 Questions" theme is from the game where the player attempts to
guess the answer by asking a series of questions that narrows the possible results
until only the correct one is left - aka deductive reasoning. BTW, I'll bet "The Syncopated Clock" is another tune you've
heard many times but didn't know the title of it...
 Have
you noticed how many wooden utility poles are
bending under the load of communications cable weight they were never designed
to withstand? Some are ridiculously burdened - and it is not "engineered deflection"
for line tension changes. Power companies want to charge the communications companies
for pole and/or cross bar replacement and/or upgrading, but the FCC just ruled that
pole owners cannot charge the full cost of replacement. That financial deficit,
of course, gets passed on to electric power customers. You wonder why your monthly
bill has skyrocketed in the last few years? That is part of it - along with
us peoples subsidizing wind and solar generation, and paying for free Internet and
cellphones to half the population (including Illlegals). Do you fell violated? I
do.
 Radio-Craft magazine solicited inputs
from its readers for a series of "Radio
WittiQuiz" questions and answers related to radio and electronic, with a stipulation
being that there had to be some aspect of humor included. That meant that some of
the multiple choice answer options needed to be inane. For most of the questions,
the process of elimination is pretty easy, but a couple could cause some head scratching
- especially if you are not really sure of the answer. This group starts at number
28, so obviously preceding issues had questions 1 through 27. At some point I will
probably acquire them and post other Radio WittiQuizzes...
 Having never been a sports aficionado, I
have not spent much money or time at baseball, football, or soccer fields, hockey
rinks, bowling alleys, curling sheets, or basketball courts. When an air show comes
to town, however, I'm there. I'll stand in line for 45 minutes to tour the inside
of a DC-3, B-25, B-17, PBY-5, or just about anything that will admit me. What is
particularly enjoyable is inspecting the radio equipment racks and bays. The sight
and smell (I consider it an aroma) of the old UHF
and VHF sets, recording equipment, power supplies, generators, synchros, and the
associated wiring and connectors is something I never tire of experiencing. I always
imagine the men who operated and maintained everything doing their assigned duties
to keep those wonderful machines flying...
 The
Chronistor, which appeared in a 1958 issue of Popular Electronics magazine,
was a compact elapsed time indicator in the form of a common glass fuse. Powered
by electroplating, it requires roughly 1 mA of DC current to migrate metal
ions from anode to cathode via an electrolyte, resulting in visible cathode deposition
along a glass-printed hour scale. Standard options included 500, 1000, or 2500-hour
ranges, with specials (like a 1-year, 8760-hour version) from Bergen Laboratories.
The article outlines a basic series circuit for AC line operation, comprising a
half-wave rectifier, pilot lamp, and limiting resistor for the Chronostat...
 If
you have kids, you'll probably appreciate these two
comics that appeared in the May 1956 issue of Young Men • Hobbies • Aviation
• Careers magazine. Young Men was a fairly short-lived publication,
having existed for only a couple years around the 1956 timeframe. It was not affiliated
with the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA), which had its own series of magazines.
Howard McEntee, famed radio control pioneer, was on the staff, and Albert L.
Lewis was editor. Unlike the other aviation magazines of the day, Young Men covered
a broad range of activities and hobbies including model boating and cars, electronics,
chemistry, physics, school, amateur magic tricks, shooting, and more.
 "Google's parent Alphabet has reached a
definitive agreement to
acquire renewable energy developer Intersect Power for $4.75B, a transaction
that signals a structural transformation in how Silicon Valley intends to power
the AI era. By owning a power utility, Google can secure energy for its data centers
directly. This acquisition marks a departure from the industry's decade-long standard
of signing Power Purchase Agreements, where companies contract for energy from third-party
developers. Instead, Google is taking ownership of a 3.6-GW pipeline of late-stage
solar and wind projects, along with 3.1 GWh of battery storage..."
 Well... it was 50 years ago referenced to
the year this story was published in 1937. That makes it 138 years ago referenced
to 2025. The story's point is that half a century had passed already since the confirmation
of existence of electromagnetic waves as proposed by James Clerk Maxwell.
Heinrich Hertz's "Funken-Induktor" (spark inductor) and his "Knochenhauershen
Scheiben" (Karl-Wilhelm Knochenhauer's disk-type capacitors) were key to his ability
to generate, transmit, and receive EM energy. The work originated from attempts
to prove that light was a form of electromagnetic waves...
 Before the advent of companies like Sam's
Technical Publishing information packets, it was often impossible to obtain schematics
and service information from manufacturers unless you were a certified service shop
and/or dealership. In response to many inquiries from Radio-Craft magazine's
readers, publisher Hugo Gernsback queried the
top manufacturers of the day to determine their policies for distributing such
data. Unlike the last couple decades, procuring service information on commercial
products could be very time consuming, and often resulted in not even obtaining
what you needed. Thanks to the Internet being populated with schematics and mechanical
drawings for seemingly everything ever made, we no longer need to call or mail order
for information needed to repair your radio, television, cellphone, lawn mower,
toaster...
 Werbel Microwave began as a consulting firm,
specializing in RF components design, with the ability to rapidly spin low volume
prototypes, and has quickly grown into a major designer and manufacturer with volume
production capacities. Our
WMC-0.5-20-30dB-S is a wideband 30 dB power coupler is a wideband 4-way
in-line power splitter covering 500 MHz to 18 GHz with very good return
loss, low insertion loss, and high isolation performance. The device covers military
bands C through J (upper UHF band, L, S, C, X, Ku, and K bands), delivering much
value to the program. No Worries with Werbel!...
 A lot of the guys I knew from my time in
the U.S. Air Force as an Air Traffic Control Radar Repairman (AFCS 303x1) went to
work for the government or defense contractors after separation. Many were retirees,
so they were (are) collecting military retirement pay on top of really good pay
doing field service work. At this point, probably most of those guys are now doubly-retired,
and collecting Social Security. They're living pretty well these days, probably
with nice homes paid off long ago. 1957, the year this solicitation for
field engineers appeared in Popular Electronics magazine, was right
at the end of the Korean War, and only a decade after World War II. A lot of
new equipment was designed and delivered...
 While working as an electronics technician
at the Oceanic Division of Westinghouse in Annapolis, MD, in the 1980s, I received
a vintage 1941 Crosley model 03CB console style radio for Christmas from Melanie.
It was in poor condition, having spent the previous few decades sitting in a barn
on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Due to the era of manufacture, vacuum tubes rather
than transistors provided all the necessary amplification. One of the engineers
I worked for at Westinghouse (Mr. Jim Wilson, engineer extraordinaire)
was a Ham radio operator and had been from boyhood in Pittsburgh, PA. After learning
of my Crosley, he gave me his
B&K Dyna-Quik Model 650 tube tester for use in restoring the
radio. The Model 650 was a rather high-end portable tube...
 "Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission
2 with the LuSEE-Night radio
telescope aboard will attempt to become the third successful mission to land
there. The moon's far side is the perfect place for such a telescope. The same RF
waves that carried images of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the lunar surface, Roger
Waters's voice, and hundreds of Ned Potter's space and science segments for the
U.S. broadcast networks CBS and ABC interfere with terrestrial radio telescopes.
If your goal is to detect the extremely faint and heavily redshifted signals of
neutral hydrogen from the cosmic Dark Ages, you just can't do it from Earth..."
 In the early days of television, what we
today refer to as cathode ray tubes were called
kinescopes. The kinescope on the receiving end displayed images generated
by a tube called an iconoscope on the transmission end. Kinescopes had round faces
onto which a rectangular picture was electronically drawn. Once manufacturing technology
evolved sufficiently, it became possible to make them rectangular in order to save
on material and to fit a larger picture in a smaller area. The real story as told
in this 1947 Radio News magazine article from my perspective is appreciating the
ingenuity of the manufacturing engineers for an ability to develop machines that
handle very complex operations. They were wonders of electromechanical manipulation.
Oh, and I learned a new word - "lehr"...
 This Radio Service Data Sheet for the
Sparton Model 40 6-Tube T.R.F. Automotive Receiver is an example
of the dozens of similar schematic and alignment instruction sheets that have been
posted on RF Cafe over the years. Obtaining technical information on most things,
even readily available items, prior to the Internet era was often very difficult
- if not impossible. Service centers had what was need provided by manufacturers
and distributors, but if you wanted to find a part number or service data on a refrigerator,
radio, lawn mower, garage door opener...
 Here is a great primer on the operation
of
traveling wave tubes (TWT). A controversy exists over who first invented the
TWT - Bell Telephone Labs' Dr. Rudolf Kompfner, or Andrei Haeff while at the Kellogg
Radiation Laboratory at Caltech. Regardless of its provenance, the device was a
major advancement in the development of high power microwaves. A TWT amplifies broadband
microwaves continuously: an electron gun emits a high-speed beam through a vacuum
tube, interacting with the weak input signal propagating along a helical slow-wave
structure. The helix slows the signal's phase velocity to sync...
 Take a break from workaday drudgery by trying
your hand at this week's
Amateur Radio crossword puzzle. Every word in the RF Cafe crossword
puzzle contains the usual collection of science, math, and engineering terms, and
also includes special words related to Amateur Radio (clues labeled with asterisk
*). There are no generic backfill words like many other puzzles give you, so you'll
never see a clue asking for the name of a movie star or a mountain on the Russia-China
border. 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. Enjoy.
 "Advanced threats lead to open architecture
approaches and new
analysis of electronic countermeasures. Over the past decade, preeminent countries
involved in major military conflicts mainly focused on asymmetrical warfare - surprise
attacks by small groups armed with modern, high-tech weaponry. During that same
period, however, near-peer adversaries began attaining impressive electronic warfare
(EW) capabilities. As a result, a plethora of new, dynamic threats flooded the EW
spectrum, pushing threat detection and analysis to keep pace. Large military forces
must now engage in ongoing..."
 Here are a couple more electronics-themed
comics from Electronics World magazine, good for winding down the week.
They appeared in the January 1963 issue. The page 86 comic reminds me of the professor
I had for solid state circuit design. He was supposedly the first person to successfully
use gallium arsenide (GaAs) as a semiconductor, although he also did pioneering
work with silicon. Anyway, Prof. Anderson would say he takes at least one "business"
trip each year to Portugal in order to search for higher quality raw semiconductor
material in sand on the beaches. He spoke Portuguese, BTW. The page 89 comic is
reminiscent of the pre-GPS days of navigation. Raise you hand if you ever drove
around utterly lost while looking for an off-the-beaten-path location...
 In the mid 1930s, hand-assembled products
were by far the rule rather than the exception for most products be they electronics,
furniture, appliances, automobiles, or toys. Many people lament - even curse - the
advent of machine automation in production, but the fact is for the vast majority
of things the consistency and quality of the finished component is typically much
greater. Toiling at the same task, in the same location, day after day, gets unbearable
very quickly for someone like me who likes to accomplish a particular job and then
move on to something new - even if "new" is defined as the same type of endeavor
but with different materials. There are many people, thankfully...
 At Parvoo University, amid relentless November
rain, H-3 dormmates Carl and Jerry pursue H-2's prank: a stolen bronze trophy plaque
hurled into a half-mile muddy stretch of river. Cold, turbid waters bar preclude
dives for a search; non-magnetic bronze defies current-day metal detectors. Jerry
repurposes his cousin's boat depth-finder as an
enhanced sonar, exploiting echo signatures. A motor rotates a neon tube across
a depth-calibrated dial; at zero, contacts trigger a 200-kc ultrasonic pulse from
the transducer in transmit (speaker) mode, flashing initial glow. Bottom echo reflects
to transducer in receive (microphone) mode, amplifying...
 The announcement and public demonstration
of Senatore Guglielmo Marconi's "death ray" device was the coming true of some of the worst fears
of science fiction aficionados. Application of these newly created centimeter wave
"beams" could roast the flesh of man or beast when generated with great enough power.
The diminutive wavelength not only would heat liquids, but also provided a means
of detecting and measuring energy reflected off of "targets" such as aircraft and
boats. It applications were endless. Although not called so, one of the article's
diagrams looks to be an example of a bistatic radar system. The early magnetron
implementation is quite different...
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
is looking for qualified applicants for
Field Agents in seven Enforcement
Bureau (EB) offices across the United States: Atlanta, GA; Boston, MA; Chicago,
IL; Dallas, TX; New Orleans, LA; New York, NY, and Portland, OR. Incumbents will
resolve Radio Frequency (RF) interference, educate users, and enforce regulations.
The GS levels for this position have been expanded to GS 7, opening the opportunity
for new college graduates. One year of work experience is not required for this
position. Closing date is March 2, 2026...
 If you are from a family of electronics
hobbyists and/or professionals, then there is a good chance your grandfather and
possibly even your father kept a handy-dandy list of common
circuit design formulas handy. Part 2 of the list appeared here in a 1930 issue
of Radio-Craft magazine. All the formulas on this page dealt primarily
with vacuum tubes, the schematics for which were presented in Part 1 of the series.
There are still lots of hobbyists who restore and/or modify vintage sets, so the
equations are still worth publishing. There was not an "app for that" back in those
days. Prior to a smartphone in every pocket, notes were pinned to a lab wall or
kept in a hand-written notebook...
 The name
Frank Conrad probably does not sound familiar to most people in
the electronics communications field today, but at one time he was the assistant
chief engineer to the Westinghouse Company. Back when voice radio (as opposed to
Morse code, aka CW) was being pioneered, Mr. Conrad was widely known for his efforts
in commissioning the country's first commercial broadcast installation - KDKA in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His arranging for live coverage of election night results
in 1920 is credited for launching a huge interest by consumers in purchasing radio
sets for their homes (Warren Harding beat James Cox that night, BTW). Toward the
end of his career, Conrad was active in helping develop...
|
 • FCC Gives
Amazon OK for 4,500 More Satellites
• China
Memory Producers Race to Exploit Shortage
• U.S.
Manufacturing Sector Returns to Growth
• ARRL
Student Coding Contest $25k Award
• Shielding
Electronics Supply Chain from Cyberthreats
• Fund Opens
Defence Contracts to UK Startups
 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.
 This article from a 1955 issue of Popular
Electronics magazine describes my evolution from electrician to electronics
technician to
electronics engineer. For that matter, it describes the paths
many people I have worked with over the years have taken. My mentor at my first
job as an RF engineer after graduating with a BSEE from the University of Vermont
began as a technician in the Army, and then he went to school part-time while working
a full-time job to earn his BSEE. In my next job as an RF engineer there were at
least two guys I knew who had also taken that path. Although not by any means absolute
criteria for judging an engineer's enthusiasm, I will say that at least as a distinct
segment of RF engineering, those who are amateur radio operators and/or those who
began life as a technician...
 There does not seem to be anything particularly
stand-out-ish about the
Wells-Gardner Series 062 automotive superheterodyne radio. As was typical of
car radios in 1932 when this Radio Service Data Sheet appeared in Radio-Craft
magazine, the main electronics was housed in a chassis that got mounted in the trunk
or under a seat, and the controls either got mounted in or under the dashboard,
connecting tot he electronics via a cable. The "eliminator" option of the "eliminator
or battery" label presumably refers to an AC-to-DC power supply that can be used
either during maintenance or if the listener chooses to employ the radio in use
outside of a vehicle - or else has a very long extension cord ;-) No examples of
surviving Wells-Gardner Series 062 automotive radios could be found anywhere online.
As with all these radio data service pages, this one is posted for the benefit of
both researchers and for restoration types who need troubleshooting and alignment
information...
 The
area code system was developed by AT&T and Bell Laboratories in the 1940's,
and went into effect in 1947. It was called the North American Numbering Plan (NANP)
and included the United States and Canada. States and provinces that had a single
area code were assigned three digit codes with 0 as the middle number. There were
86 area codes at that time. States and provinces that had more than one area code
distributed to them were given three digit codes with 1 as the middle number. The
first and third digits were allotted according to population density in the city
or region, with the most populated areas getting the lowest numbers. When other
countries adopted a similar system a single number prefix, designated the World
Zone, was added to the area codes. Since North America was the first to implement
the area code system, it received the number 1. That is why North America phone
numbers are of the form 1-[3-digit area code]-[7-digit phone number]...
 Prior to the advent of personal computers
and handy-dandy antenna design software like EZNEC, determining the effects of varying
parameters - element spacing, angles and length, ground plane distance and extent,
feedpoint impedance, the presence of conductive structures, etc. - it was necessary
to make a series of often complex mathematical calculations and ultimately perform
real-world measurement. Huge amounts of time would be invested in the design and
verification process. It has been know for a long time that the distance an antenna
sits above a ground plane has a significant effect on the radiation pattern - particularly
the vertical pattern. The information provided in this 1954 Radio & TV News
magazine article undoubtedly required many hours to assimilate and required someone
(author William Harrison) with a lot of knowledge in the science/art of antennas.
While some empirical testing is still needed for critical applications, in most
cases these days the results of computer simulations suffice...
 Electronics World magazine often published
electronics-themed crossword puzzles. Unlike RF Cafe engineering crosswords
I created for two decades that use only technical words and clues, this one does
include some unrelated words. A couple clues I was surprised to see pertain to radar;
e.g., 32A: Small visible mark on a radar or scope screen, and 44A: Identification
Friend or Foe. Some words require a familiarity with technology of the era, but
you shouldn't have much trouble. You'll need to print this out on paper to work
it...
 If anything qualifies for meeting the criteria
of the old adage that says "Necessity is the mother of invention," it is
coaxial
transmission cable. Wireless communications during World War II was the
necessity that drove the rapid development and continuous improvement of coax. Other
than materials technology for wire, dielectric, protective jacket, etc., the basics
of coax cable have not changed since this article appeared in a 1946 issue of
QST magazine. It was during the war that polyethylene was developed and
adopted as a dielectric material much superior to previously used copolene. Understanding
of how electromagnetic fields propagate within and, under non-ideal conditions -
on the outside of the cable has increased significantly thanks for refined theory
and high speed computer simulations. RG-58 were early 50 Ω coax types, and
RG-59, RG-11, and RG-6 were early 75 Ω coax types that are all still in significant
use today...
 While a bit far-fetched, this Carl &
Jerry saga from the June 1963 issue of Popular Electronics magazine has
the two amateur radio hobbyists cum detectives applying their knowledge of standing
waves and an invention called SNARE, "Signal
Net for Actuating Radio-sensitive Explosives," by Irwin Ehlmann, to thwart an
assassination attempt on a visiting foreign dignitary. The name of the patent is
actually "Method and apparatus for detonating radio frequency sensitive blasting
caps," but the principal is the same. The choice by author John T. Frye of
a halo antenna on their mobile shortwave rig was probably no coincidence given the
guardian angel role it played in the adventure...
 This
Science
Theme Crossword Puzzle for June 20th has many words and clues related to RF,
microwave, and mm-wave engineering, optics, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and
other technical subjects. Also, it contains a message for this special day (celebrated
in the USA and other countries). As always, this crossword 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 (e.g., Reginald
Denny or the Tunguska event in Siberia). The technically inclined cruciverbalists
amongst us will appreciate the effort. Enjoy!
 For many years I have been scanning and posting
Radio Service Data Sheets for sets like this
Westinghouse Model WR 207 & WR 208 5-tube dual-band superheterodyne tabletop
radio model. Hundreds of them appeared in magazines like Radio-Craft and Radio News
from the 1910's up until around the 1960's. This one appeared in a 1936 issue. There
were a couple companies (Sams Photofact, most notably) that sold packages of service
data for all new domestic use electronics products, but smaller service shops could
not easily afford the subscription cost, and the do-it-yourselfer was out of luck
because the manufacturers did not sell such data to non-licensed dealers. Today
it is even harder to come by the information. Often, images of these radios can
be found on websites like RadioMuseum.org and RadioAttic.com. Another great source
is eBay, but usually those are not as photogenic because they are in need of restoration...
 This might be the first (and only) appearance
of Carl's father, at least in a drawing. In this episode, John T. Frye's high-tech
teen duo Carl and Jerry design and build a "polecat detector." In the process, a
little drama is thrown in when a stander-by mistakenly believes he is being insulted.
Even if, in spite of the detailed description by Jerry, you don't learn how a photocell-based
threshold crossing circuit works, you might just learn the meaning of 'lugubriously.'
Mr. Frye always worked valuable technical information into his stories about
"Carl & Jerry," "Mac's Service Shop," and other regular features which appeared
in electronics magazines for decades.
 You've heard of the Fahrenheit, Centigrade
(Celsius), Kelvin, and Rankine
temperature scales, but what about the Réaumur scale? This 1965 Electronics
World magazine article presents all five along with formulas for converting
between them. Each temperature scale is named in honor of its creator. Daniel Gabriel
Fahrenheit came up with his scale where, under standard atmospheric pressure pure
water freezes at 32° and boils at 212°. Anders Celsius decided a more sensible temperature
scale would place freezing water at 0° and boiling water at 100°. William Thomson,
1st Baron Kelvin set his scale, which has been adopted as the International System
of Units standard, declares 0° to be absolute zero, where no thermal energy is present.
William Rankine, of ideal heat engine fame, combined Fahrenheit's scale with Kelvin's
absolute zero concept. Lastly, but not leastly, René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur
selected the freezing point of water to be 0° and the boiling point to be 80°, primarily
to accommodate his preference of alcohol over mercury as a thermometer medium...
 Did you know that you are likely a TLV? That's
right, a
Television Looker. The modern equivalent is CP - Couch Potato. In the early
years of television, TLVs were as fascinated with the device itself and the technology
as they were with the information being displayed. As this story tells, Hams were
involved in TV transmission (ATV) early on. I did not know that amateur television
was banned during World War II. During WWII, all amateur radio operations were suspended
with the exception of those authorized to continue under the Radio Amateur Civil
Emergency Service (RACES)...
 In today's lingo this project might be considered
a cross between the Steampunk and the Maker realms. It is more than just a desktop conversation
piece - although it would be a very fitting fixture - in that the "Milliwatter"
Morse code transceiver is fully functional, portable (with it's steam engine power source)
radio. All the parts needed to build your own model - miniature working steam engine,
DC generator (aka a Dc motor), code keyer, and electronic components - are still available.
It appears you can build a bare-bones version for under $100, or go all out with vintage-looking
components for about $300-$400. If you undertake this project, I'll be glad to post a
photo of your masterpiece here...
 This being an April issue of Popular Electronics
magazine, I am not sure whether this is an April Fools gag article of the real McCoy.
The Iron Curtain was in full force, the Cuban Missile Crisis was a mere five years
earlier and the Gary Powers U-2 incident just seven years hence, so anything related
to the USSR (aka Soviet Union) was considered mysterious and possibly nefarious.
Seeing Ruskie text was a real attention-getter. The article entitled "НЕОБЫЧНАЯ
ТЕЛЕВИДЕНИЕ АНТЕННА" reportedly appeared in the April 1966 issue of the Soviet Union's
"Radio" magazine (still in print). I did a search for it and could find the March
and June 1966 issues, but not April. BTW, if you plug the Russian text into the
Duck Duck Go translator, it does indeed come back with "Unusual TV Antenna," just
as author Joseph Zelle claimed in 1966. Now, as to whether the article's claim is
legit or not, I can't say...
 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...
 The dichotomy between the customer who is
worried about the service
shop owner ripping him off and the service shop owner who is worried about the
customer ripping him off is an old one. Given how even normally honest people allow
themselves a "white lie" here and there to consummate a business deal or pacify
the whims of an acquaintance, it is understandable how such suspicions come to be.
In this 1958 issue of Radio & TV News, Mac McGregor and trusty sidekick
Barney Jameson discuss how to handle customers who imply the desire for or outright
request (even demand) special consideration on repair services and/or replacement
parts. The steadfast policy of Mac's Service Shop was "cash-only" - no exceptions.
In the days before readily available credit cards and cash advances from ATMs, it
was usually up to the business to extend and take the risk for credit. Often collecting
on the promised funds consumed significant effort and on occasion resulted in failure... Sunday 1
 This
RF Cafe
Engineering & Technical Headlines Crossword Puzzle contains
at least 10 words from headlines posted on the homepage during the week of August
26 through August 30, 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
must be the early prototype for Google Glass," was the first thing that came to
mind when I saw this story in a 1962 edition of Popular Electronics. It
is intended to allow 'future' astronauts to have improved situational awareness
by providing means to look behind himself without needing to turn around, and to
receive mission data via a miniature CRT embedded within the viewer. Voice communications
is featured as well. Hughes Aircraft Company might just want to consider assigning
a handful of its highly paid attorneys to look into a patent infringement action
based on the original content of its "Electrocular"
headset paperwork. A small percentage of any award will be appreciated... |
