Sherlock Ohms: Bulging Capacitors & Dopey Design

In the latest adventure of Sherlock Ohms, Mr. Frank Karkota tells of his experience with a used digital satellite receiver for reception of free-to-air (FTA) programs. "The receiver worked great, and I mapped hundreds of television and radio stations on the various satellites. Later, some of the stations disappeared. Then, more started disappearing, until I couldn't find any stations. Since my analog receiver still worked, I concluded that the digital receiver had failed. I opened the receiver and found that in one corner was the RF section, another corner had the digital section, and the other side housed the power supply..."

Posted June 2013

WithWave microwave devices - RF Cafe Website

RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...