Calvin & Phineas Hamming It Up^®™: The Phantom QRM

Being a long-time fan of John T. Frye's "Carl & Jerry" technodrama™ series, I have been intending to attempt a contemporary version which has a Ham radio theme. Its purpose, as with "Carl & Jerry," is to encourage young people to adopt electronics as a hobby and even as a career, while using Amateur Radio as an enticement. Ham radio offers practical experience in electronic theory, fabrication, and operation in an environment that encourages community service, mentorship, camaraderie, and self discipline. In the U.S., there are approximately 760,000 licensed amateur radio operators; worldwide, the estimated number is around 3,000,000. The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) and the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) track these statistics. This title of the series is, for now anyway, "Calvin & Phineas Hamming It Up," and the first adventure is called, "The Phantom QRM." Call signs are fictitious, chosen to hopefully not step on someone's real call sign. The boys' names derive from my grandson's name...

Artificial Delay Lines

There are probably few baseband and IF delay lines these days that are constructed from a chain of inductor-capacitor (LC) sections as described in this 1953 Radio-Electronics magazine article. SAW and MEMS devices are the more likely choice for many reasons including cost, weight, and volume savings. The preferred implementation of measured delays nowadays would be in software after sampling with an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). There are still applications for coaxial delay lines such as phase matching or adjustment between system elements, and many companies offer custom designs with delay precision in the tens of picoseconds. I once worked on part of a VHF/UFH transceiver unit that used precise lengths of coax cable as part of a signal cancellation circuit for enabling multiple radios to function in close proximity. I was not the designer...

Wireless vs. Elon Musk

"New Street Research analyst Blair Levin titled today's research note: On C-Band, Who Wins? Musk or Wireless? Right now, he's giving the edge to wireless, but it's early days. Is it time to pop the champagne? Not quite, analysts say. The wireless industry might have won the first round in the upper C-band kerfuffle, but given that Elon Musk is the challenger, nothing is a done deal. What are we talking about? Get the popcorn because this will take a minute. Earlier this week, the wireless industry, namely CTIA, cheered FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's move to launch a Notice of Inquiry (NOI)..."

Channel Master Antenna Advertisement

Channel Master is one of the few television and FM radio antenna companies that has survived the evolution from over-the-air (OTA) broadcasting to cable-based and then Internet-based broadcasting. Up until around the end of the last century - which is incredibly two decades ago - a large number of people still relied on rooftop and set-top antennas for program reception. Airwaves continued to get more crowded both due to additional stations being built and the ambient noise level increasing due to many other lower power devices in use. An increasing number of manmade obstacles that blocked and/or reflected signals resulted in many more low signal strength pockets and areas plagued by multipath signal variability compounded the problem...

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Color TV Has a Problem

Color TV has reached nearly 5 million American homes, but many viewers complain about inaccurate colors due to chroma-phase differences among networks, stations, and cameras. This results in annoying hue changes, making it difficult for viewers to adjust the Hue or Tint control for accurate flesh tones. This 1966 Radio-Electronics magazine article suggests three possible solutions to this problem, emphasizing the need for precise phase agreement among all components of the color TV system. Solving this issue could encourage more people to adopt color TV technology, as the annoyance of inconsistent colors is one of the last reasons the public has found for not making color-TV ownership unanimous. Still plaguing the color TV industry is powerful x-rays emanating from the high...

China Quantum IC 1Mx Faster Than Google

"A research team from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with its partners, has made significant progress in random quantum circuit sampling using Zuchongzhi-3 - a superconducting quantum computing prototype equipped with 105 qubits and 182 couplers. Zuchongzhi-3 operates at an astonishing speed, performing computations 1015 times faster than the most powerful supercomputer available today and one million times faster than Google's latest published quantum computing results. This achievement..."

Burning out Your Circuits Without Really Trying

Acrylic wall-to-wall carpeting really came into vogue in the late 1960s to early 1970s - just in time for the arrival of miniaturized microelectronics (is that redundant or just superfluous?). Gate widths were being shrunken rapidly as the birth of the Moore's Law era was in its infancy (born in a 1965 paper written by Intel engineer and co-founder Gordon Moore). The result was copious quantities of electronic gadgets being zapped when the unsuspecting user would walk across the Van de Graaff generator in the form of floor covering and reach for a dial or switch. A couple thousand volts could easily build up on a body clad in lime green polyester pants (remember the era), then fzzzzt, there goes the clock radio or AM/FM tuner. Vacuum tube circuits from a decade earlier...

BroadWave Technologies 600 Ω Terminations

BroadWave Technologies showcases 600 Ω Impedance Terminations. Model 592-401-005 has a DC-1 GHz operating frequency range and is rated 5-Watts average power at 25°C. The maximum VSWR is 1.20:1 and the RF connector is N male. Developed to simulate load flow on a data bus these terminations are useful in simulating emergency operation conditions. Applications include installations with elements that vary over time such as electric vehicle charging stations. Delivery for up to 25 pieces is from stock to 1-week ARO. Custom impedance and other connector types are also available...

Hams in the FBIS

We hear and read a lot in the news about the electronic surveillance carried out by governments - on both foreign entities and civilians. If you think this is a phenomenon that has only existed since the age of cellphones and the Internet, you might be interested in this article that appeared in a 1945 issue of the ARRL's QST magazine. Long before the entire textual content of the Encyclopedia Britannica could be carried on a USB stick in your pocket - and access virtually all the information in the world on your iPhone, engineers were developing recording media to facilitate the capturing and later analysis of over-the-air and wired communications. They wanted both encrypted and unencrypted conversations. The National Archives has a huge store of magnetic tapes, vinyl discs...

Please Thank IPP for Their Long-Time Support!

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.

Arc, Surge, and Noise Suppression

Even though this article was written more than half a century ago, the fundamentals of protecting relays against interference from either internally generated or externally generated noise haven't changed. Sometimes a datasheet will recommend protection and noise suppression techniques, and when that is that case, the manufacturer's advice should be followed (unless you have a really good reason to deviate, possibly voiding a warranty). When you find yourself on your own with the design, whether a new creation or modifying an existing circuit, use this article and the very comprehensive table of application examples. This reminds me of the early 2000's when the RFIC company I worked for was in a frenzy developing ways to protect the inputs and outputs of their devices...

Chip-Based System for Terahertz Waves

"The use of terahertz waves, which have shorter wavelengths and higher frequencies than radio waves, could enable faster data transmission, more precise medical imaging, and higher-resolution radar. But effectively generating terahertz waves using a semiconductor chip, which is essential for incorporation into electronic devices, is notoriously difficult. Many current techniques can't generate waves with enough radiating power for useful applications unless they utilize bulky and expensive silicon lenses. Higher radiating power allows terahertz signals to travel farther. Such lenses..."

Withwave Multi-Channel SMPS Cable Assemblies

Withwave is a leading designer and developer of a broad range of RF, microwave, and millimeter-wave test solutions and subsystems with a focus on electromagnetic field analysis and signal processing. Withwave's new Multi-Channel SMPS Cable Assemblies (WMCS Series) provide a wide range of multiple coax connectors and flexible cable assemblies with a choice of 26.5, 40, 50 & 67 GHz configurations based on precision array design and superior high frequency cabling solutions. These products consist of high performance flexible assemblies which can be bundled in housings (2, 4, & 8 channels) and the interface to board is compression type which provides lower total cost of testing by avoiding costly soldering components...

CBS Tubes Advertisement

This full-page advertisement by CBS Tubes caught my eye because of the vast array of vacuum tube shapes and sizes. It appeared in a 1958 issue of Radio & TV News magazine. Most people, even back in the era of tube-based electronic equipment, think of the standard 12AX7 type rounded top, cylindrical glass package with a plastic or phenolic base and some metal pins sticking out of the bottom. Television and radio sets were full of them, and those are what you or your parents or grandparents would yank from the chassis and take to the local drug store or electronics shop to plug into the big tube tester that was commonplace back then. However, as this photo shows there was a great variety of special glass and inner electrode configurations. If you have ever attended the MTTS (IMS) show, you might have seen the equipment display provided by the National Electronics Museum...

Thanks to Exodus Advanced Communications for Continued Support

Exodus Advanced Communications is a multinational RF communication equipment and engineering service company serving both commercial and government entities and their affiliates worldwide. Power amplifiers ranging from 10 kHz to 51 GHz with various output power levels and noise figure ranges, we fully support custom designs and manufacturing requirements for both small and large volume levels. decades of combined experience in the RF field for numerous applications including military jamming, communications, radar, EMI/EMC and various commercial projects with all designing and manufacturing of our HPA, MPA, and LNA products in-house.

The Picturephone in Your Future

On April 20, 1964, AT&T introduced the Picturephone at the New York World's Fair, enabling coast-to-coast video communication. The device, which featured a 4-3/8" x 5-3/4" screen and push-button controls allowing users to display themselves, others, or nothing at all, went into commercial service on June 24 with public booths in New York, Washington, and Chicago. The article notes that the concept of video telephony was first imagined in Hugo Gernsback's 1911 science fiction novel "Ralph 124C 41+," where it was called the "Telephot." While initially expensive ($16-$27 for 3 minutes depending on cities connected), the Mr. Gernsback, in this 1964 editorial, predicts the technology would eventually become more affordable and evolve to include features like language translation, 3D capabilities...

Scatter Communication

If you are a Ham radio operator - especially a DX (long distance) operator, you have been required to study and learn about how the various layers of the Earth's ionosphere can, under predictable conditions, be an excellent reflector of certain radio wavelengths, thereby facilitating over-the-horizon communications. Reading this article is like a flashback from the license preparation manuals - particularly for the General license exam. There is a lot of information here. When this article was published in a 1958 issue of Radio & TV News magazine, the world was nearing the end of the International Geophysical Year (IGY), which had as its goal learning as much as possible about the properties of the upper atmosphere. The first earth-orbiting satellites were being launched and manned space flight was only months away, so there was much interest in learning...

Majorana 1 Quantum Chip

"Microsoft this week introduced its first quantum chip. The chip, called Majorana 1, is powered by a new Topological Core architecture. Without getting too much into the weeds, topoconductor is 'breakthrough class of materials' that will allow Microsoft to create topological superconductivity, which Chetan Nayak, technical fellow and corporate vice president of Quantum Hardware at Microsoft, described in a blog post as 'a new state of matter that previously existed only in theory.' So, something that is topological is not a solid, or a liquid, or a gas - it's topological. While classical phases of matter correspond to local..."

Bilectro "One Hander" Soldering Tool

It seemed like a reasonable idea, but the absence of "One Hander" soldering tools on the market today - or any time in the last half century for that matter - is empirical proof that the concept is not feasible. In principle, being able to feed the solder into the joint area with a squeezable pistol grip setup is not so different than modern wire welding machines that basically do the same thing (I have one). It was probably the lack of stiffness of the solder wire that caused the problem since keeping it on the joint would be difficult. Preventing the flux from jamming the solder feed tube was no doubt an issue as well. Oh well, it was worth a try. Today's surface mounted components could never be soldered with such a device, even if modernized to accommodate the smaller sizes...

Please Thank IPP for Their Long-Time Support!

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.

Decibels Debugged

Articles like "Decibels Debugged" from the July 1964 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine will always be useful, which is why similar articles appear regularly in electronics magazines over all time. When I was first introduced to logarithms in high school, my eyes rolled back in my head and I was completely lost. The same thing happened with factoring polynomials. Maybe it was because there was no apparent direct link to my everyday life. Electrical concepts were easily grasped, but the math behind it - other than various forms of Ohm's law - had me running for cover. I barely passed 9th grade due to poor grades in math and science, and would still be waiting to graduate high school (half a century later) if not for being able to spend three years in high school in an electrical vocational program. Rather...

Nano-Antenna Revolutionizes Wireless

"By levitating nanoparticles with laser beams, scientists have built an antenna 10,000 times smaller than typical low-frequency receivers. This innovation sidesteps the usual size limitations, enabling strong signal reception despite its microscopic dimensions. With high tunability and real-world transmission tests proving its viability, the nano-antenna could transform communications in extreme environments. A research team led by Professor Huizhu Hu from Zhejiang University and Zhejiang Lab has developed an innovative low-frequency receiving antenna using optically levitated nanoparticles. This breakthrough has resulted in an antenna that is nearly 10,000 times smaller..."

Checkers by Radio

Game playing with a remote opponent is routine these days thanks to the Internet, but a couple decades ago it was not quite so easy. A checkers or chess match via telephone, snail mail (the only kind of mail at the time), or even fax machine were the venues available to the common man, but Hams had another means - radio! Using either Morse code or voice (aka phone) and a playing board set up like the one shown in this article, two players could easily match wits anywhere in the world where signals could be exchanged. Evidently the participants could get so wrapped up in the game that they risked forgetting to broadcast their call signs at the legally required interval (every 10 minutes), so author Utterback provides a friendly admonition at the end...

everything RF Custom Waveguide Directional Coupler Tool

everything RF is a product discovery platform for RF & Microwave Products/Services. We currently have more than 344,477 RF & Microwave Products from over 2278 Companies listed in 469 categories in our database and enable engineers to search for them using our customized parametric search tool. The parametric product search tool on everything RF has been designed to replace paper and PDF catalogs. This "Custom Waveguide Directional Couplers" tool get you quotes from multiple companies by filling out a single form. Just enter your particular waveguide directional coupler requirements and select manufacturers from whom you would like a quotation...

Heat Without Flame

Electric induction heating has been used in manufacturing processes since shortly after Benjamin Franklin invented electricity. Of course I jest about Franklin; he didn't invent electricity but discovered that lightning was a form of electrical discharge. One of the most energy-consuming forms of induction heating is that used by Alcoa for smelting aluminum. Beyond that are many thousands of processes ranging from forming, tempering, and joining metal parts to cooking food and curing adhesives. Both Tocco and Ajax-Northrup, now Ajax Tocco, brands of equipment are featured in this 1955 article which appeared in Popular Electronics magazine. Some processes work by directly inducing a high current in the primary target object - usually metallic - being treated...

Weather Radar Makes Flying Safer

Once upon a time, long, long ago, I believed that someday I would be a military pilot for a couple decades, then retire and work for the airlines. I enlisted in the Air Force (1978) with plans to earn a degree during off-duty time. Having begun flying training prior to entering, I figured working as a technician on weather equipment would be a good gig whilst earning that sheepskin. Working as an Air Traffic Control Radar Repairman (AFSC 303x1) job turned out well, but the mobile communications squadron I was assigned to made taking college courses nearly impossible. So, after a four-year stint, I got out and graduate with a BSEE degree in 1989. This article encompasses two...

Today in Science History

How to Target RFCafe.com for Your Google Ads

One aspect of advertising on the RF Cafe website I have not covered is using Google AdSense. The reason is that I never took the time to explore how - or even whether it is possible - to target a specific website for displaying your banner ads. A couple display opportunities have always been provided for Google Ads to display, but the vast majority of advertising on RF Cafe is done via private advertisers. That is, companies deal with me directly and I handle inserting their banner ads into the html page code that randomly selects and displays them. My advertising scheme is what the industry refers to as a "Tenancy Campaign," whereby a flat price per month is paid regardless of number of impressions or clicks. It is the simplest format and has seemed to work well for many companies. With nearly 4 million pageviews per year for RFCafe.com, the average impression rate per banner ad is about 225,000k per year (in eight locations on each page, with >17k pages)...

Meteor Detection by Amateur Radio

The 1940s and 1950s was an era of much advancement in our knowledge of Earth's upper atmosphere and its affects on radio communications - both good and bad as reported by this 1947 issue of QST magazine. Industry, government, academic, and amateur groups all played major roles in conducting experiments and publishing findings for the interested community to share and build upon. Still today a huge amount of research is being carried out to better understand how the various layers of the atmosphere - from ground level to space - are affected by extraterrestrial influences. A year ago I posted an article, along with a bit of editorializing, from the July 1958 edition of Radio-Electronics entitled..."

Engineering Crossword Puzzle for October 27

Here is the last engineering- and science-themed crossword puzzle for October. These custom-made crosswords are done weekly 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, encounter the name of a movie star like Hedy Lamarr...

Communications Satellites - Success in Space

Satellite evolution occurred at a rapid pace once Sputnik and Echo were successfully launched in the late 1950s. Sputnik was a simple beacon transmitter whose signal was used to measure orbital and atmospheric properties and their effects on radio signals. Oh, and also to announce to the world that the USSR had accomplished the world's first satellite mission - I'd brag, too.  Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite, launched the following year, measured and broadcast Van Allen Radiation Belt data. This Electronics World article appeared about a decade into the satellite aspect of the "Space Race." By then...

Electronics-Themed Comics

Here are a couple more technology-themed comics that appeared in the May 1956 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine. Both are indicative of the issues commonly encountered in the day. The era was during the transition between vacuum tubes and semiconductors, but inhabitants of either can understand and appreciate the humor. The comic from page 52 does require you to be familiar with the copper oxide or selenium type of rectifier that spanned both eras. Otherwise, you might wonder what the funny-looking hat on the guy's head is (hint - it's not a hat). The 1950s was also a time of transition from electromagnetic speaker magnets to iron magnets, so AC hum in radios could get in not just through the audio circuits but also through the speaker itself. The page 126 comic addresses that issue...

RF Cafe Engineering & src="../miscellany/homepage-archive/2019 Puzzle April 22

Each week, for the sake of all avid cruciverbalists amongst us, I create a new technology-themed crossword puzzle using only words 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, see someone or something in the exclusion list who or that is directly related to this puzzle's theme, such as Hedy...

"-Tron" Teasers - An Electronic Quiz

Thyratrons, klystrons, and magnetrons I've heard of, but trochotrons, charactrons, tonotrons I ain't heard of. That made this quiz more of a learning exercise for me than a test of any sort of knowledge possessed. Heck, I thought an 'ignitron' was a pejorative term for a really dumb techie wannabe. In all there are 17 types of '-tron' devices given for which to match from a list of descriptions. You'll probably do better than I did on this quiz that appeared in the October 1963 issue of Electronics World magazine.

Mac's Service Shop: Soldering

Listen to the RF Cafe Podcast. It is a rare thing when I take exception (i.e., disagree) with anything Mac McGregor has to say, but on the subject of soldering I must object. In this 1956 installment of Mac's Service Shop, Mac and Barney are discussing the plusses and minuses of making a solder joint mechanically sound prior to applying solder. Barney mentions an article he read where the author asserts that the only way to make a quality solder joint is to wrap component leads and wire ends around posts, lugs, eyes, etc. and then flowing the solder. Both Mac and Barney argue that a perfectly sound solder joint can be made simply by laying the lead or wire in place and applying solder. From a servicing perspective that sounds good, because - as I can attest to from much experience...