See Page 1 |
2 | of the August 2025 homepage archives. Friday the 15th
 I found yet another electronics quiz in
a copy of my vintage Popular Electronics magazine collection. Robert P.
Balin published scores of these quizzes over the span of a couple decades. Unless
you have created a few quizzes yourself, it might seem like there is nothing to
it, but even relatively simple ones like this requires the creator to think up the
problems and then guarantee that the answers given are correct. No, it's not rocket
science, but try creating a dozen quizzes with 8 to 10 questions; it could take
a while. Anywho[sic], this
Electronic Switching Quiz requires you to consider the switch
positions and then determine which lamps will turn on...
 "The
U.S. CHIPS and Science Act of
2022 aimed to reestablish advanced manufacturing for logic and memory in the
United States, as well as boost or establish other chipmaking activities. The job
is far from complete, but a look at where the money is expected to go points to
a potentially broad geographic boost for the domestic chip industry. That's assuming
it continues. Not long after the law took effect, the federal government began careful
negotiations and had in hand proposed deals for more than 30 projects by the end
of October 2024. After Donald Trump won the 2024 election, the CHIPS Office went
into high gear..."
 A couple weeks ago, I announced USAF radar
technician Joe Urcheck's
indoctrination into the RF Cafe Radar Shop Hall of Fame. We wrote
back and forth a few times as I learned he had quite an interesting career both
in the USAF and then for decades as an FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) radar
tech. Since a lot of guys with similar backgrounds appreciate being able to read
about their comrades' experiences, I asked Joe if it would be OK to post his comments,
which he did. Read it here, and shoot me a note if you have a story to tell...
 If you believe this 1969
Sylvania General Telephone & Electronics advertisement, you
needed only to stock their specially-designed 60 components to be able to replace
every other component made anywhere in the world. Even in 1969 when semiconductors
were becoming the majority active devices in electronics (replacing vacuum tubes),
the claim is a bit of a stretch. I have my doubts. The ad probably got posted on
a few engineering lab bulletin boards (the physical kind of yore, not computer BB's)
to elicit a few laughs. It reminds me a little of the episode of M.A.S.H. where
a war correspondent asked Captain Hawkeye Pierce what he brought with him from home,
and he responded that he only brought...
• FCC
Finally Gets Its Auction Authority Back
• Cadence
Guilty of Illegally Supplying China Military
• Telecom
Blockchain Market to Reach $25.2B by 2030
• Ham
Radio Helps Locate Missing Mother and Son
• UK Space Agency Reports on
Health of UK Space Industry
 Phase noise measurements quantify the short
term stability of a frequency source. That is because phase and frequency are mathematically
related by a differential function [ω(t) = dΦ(t)/dt] so they are directly connected.
Phase noise also includes amplitude instability due to atomic scale effects like
FM flicker noise (1/f3), white noise (1/f2), PM flicker noise (1/f),
and possibly even voltage supply noise (typically discrete spurs). When the frequency
source is used as a local oscillator in a frequency converter (up- or down-), the
amount of instability (jitter) is modulated onto the transmitter or received signal.
While not usually a major concern in analog systems, in high speed digital communication
systems phase noise can degrade the ability of the receiver to correctly determine
the difference between a "1" and a"0." That is because...
Thursday the 14th
 1965 was the beginning of America's involvement
in Vietnam. A mere decade had passed since the end of the Korean War (or "conflict"
if you prefer), and the Department of Defense had not done much to modernize the
military since then. Unlike with World War II when U.S. factories were turning
out military aircraft, ships, and ground vehicles ahead of formal involvement, Congress
was not interested in making headlines with news of war machines. The "Washington Newsletter" feature of this October 1965 issue of
Electronics magazine reported on, among other military-related items, the
U.S. Air Force's plans to phase out the venerated B-52 Stratofortress bomber by
sometime in the 1970s. Here it is half a century later and the B-52...
 "The global semiconductor market is experiencing
unprecedented growth. Sales of manufacturing equipment are expected to set new record
highs for three consecutive years through 2026. The
rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and advancements in leading-edge
technology are driving this surge. According to SEMI, the industry association representing
the global electronics design and manufacturing supply chain, original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs) forecast total sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment
to hit $125.5B in 2025, marking a 7.4% year-on-year increase. Furthermore, SEMI
expects this robust expansion to continue into 2026, driving sales to reach an even
higher $138.1B..."
 Are you old enough to remember when in order
to make a measurement on a circuit board it was necessary to physically connect
an oscilloscope probe to a trace or component lead? "Wait," you say, "What are you
talking about? You still do have to physically connect a probe." Right you are,
but 50 years from now your progeny will be asking that question, just as today I
ask you do you remember when in order to get a "screen shot" of an o-scope or spectrum
analyzer display it was necessary to
connect a camera to the front of the CRT? Some instruments had
an(a) output port(s) for driving a pen plotter, but getting a plotter set up and
calibrated was often more work and frustration than hanging a camera on the front.
Most of the cameras used Polaroid film packs to enable "instant" pictures...
 "Japanese electronics firms' real strength is their engineers,
characterized by creativity, ingenuity and an awesome willingness to work long and
hard." That statement by editor Lewis Young is the key point in this article that
appeared in a 1965 issue of Electronics magazine. That Japanese technology
companies were deemed to be only about five years behind the U.S. was a real wake-up
call to America and the European countries. Both Europe and Japan had been very
diligent about rebuilding and modernizing techniques and infrastructure since the
destruction caused by World War II. A few stories about Japan's post-war efforts
report on how the government left most of the responsibility (aka financing) up
to universities...
Wednesday the 13th
 If you have read as many vintage electronics
magazines as I have, one thing that is obvious is how many of the same issues that
plagued the field since the middle of the last century are still with us today -
only in a much worse way by now.
Government meddling, regulation and taxation are amongst the top
offenders. Both the electric power industry and the communications industry have
been hit hard, and huge costs to consumers is the result. Itemized bills from the
utility companies do not give the full picture of what a large percentage of your
monthly premiums go to feed the government beast. You might see some line items
for taxes, surcharges, contributions and user fees, but those being paid for you
by the providers (i.e., absorbed in the base charge) are hidden. One of the more
recent, highly publicized example...
 "Xeledop" is the Word of the Day for October
31; use it often. Xeledop is an acronym for "transmitting elementary dipole with
optional polarity." Nope, I've never heard of it, either. The
Xeledop (probably pronounced "zeh'-le-dop") is an air-towed transmitter
that flies a pre-planned path around the ground-based antenna under test (AUT) whose
radiation pattern is being measured. The circular power level plot at the bottom
of the page shows the results of an actual test flight. In this application, a high
frequency (HF, 3-30 MHz) transmitter is towed behind an airplane like target
drone while it broadcasts signals at eight distinct frequencies toward the AUT,
while the downstream receiver records power levels. The pilot flies on the surface
of an imaginary hemisphere to maintain a constant radius from the antenna. Ground
equipment tracks the aircraft azimuth and slant range is calculated using aircraft
altimeter data and measured elevation angles...
 "Thermoelectric
generators (TEGs) convert heat energy into electrical energy, utilizing heat
explicitly sourced for the application or available as waste heat. To create electrical
energy, a transducer, such as a thermocouple or specialty materials like bismuth
telluride, captures heat, regardless of its source. TEGs have been around for about
150 years and are reliable, have modest cost, and offer consistent operation. They
are used in a broad span of situations, including low-intensity applications where
a camping stove can also generate power or run an airflow-enhancing fan, acting
as a failsafe power source for the valve in gas-fired water heaters, and powering
very remote equipment..."
 The newest release of
Espresso Engineering Workbook includes a Wheatstone Bridge Calculator. It will
determine the value of an unknown resistor in one leg of the bridge based on the
measured value of VOUT, or it will determine the value of VOUT
based on inputting the values of all four resistors in the bridge. Enter VOUT = 0
to get the resistor value to balance the Wheatstone Bridge. There are scores of
other handy calculators, including filters, couplers, inductance, capacitance, Ohm's
law, RF path loss, signal travel time, complex impedance, RLC series and parallel
combinations, opamps, noise figure, skin depth...
 Before there were side-view neon numerical
indicator vacuum tubes there were top-view neon
numerical indicator vacuum tubes. Nixie tubes and pixie tubes
were featured in "Readouts and Counter Tubes" in the October 1959 issue of Electronics
World magazine. At the time, most were top-view designs whose size was restricted
by the diameter of the tube (typically about 0.8"). Switching to a side-view format
did not enable the overall width to increase much, but the aspect ratio permitted
taller displays with characters that appear as normally seen (rather than being
squashed in height). This advertisement in a 1965 issue of Electronics
magazine for numerical indicator tubes from Raytheon were likely some of the first
side-view models available from any manufacturer...
 Hello. My name is Kirt, and I'm a
vintage magazine and newspaper addict. This affliction has had
a hold on me for two decades now. Call it my middle age crisis. At sixty years old,
there is no sign of abatement in enthusiasm. Nearly every day I still find myself
reading and commenting on articles and advertisements from mid-last-century magazines,
newspapers, and catalogs. Maybe I'm hopeless and will never be able to kick the
habit. I'm not alone, though, based on some of the feedback received from RF Cafe
visitors. For that reason and others, maybe, in truth, I've grown comfortable with
my addiction. While perusing a few vintage newspaper editions from the World War II
era looking for relevant stories, I ran across this November 1, 1940 (exactly 78
years ago) special section in the Harrisburg Telegraph titled, "Radio Industry
Marks 20th Anniversary...
Tuesday the 12th
 The lesson learnt (or learned) by Barney
in this
Mac's Radio Service Shop saga is one that he has learned (or learnt)
before, if you are an regular reader of the feature. As always, the story is a combination
docudrama and tutorial concerned with troubleshooting, handing customers, giving
air to some newfangled device, or instruction on circuit theory. Proprietor Mac
McGregor is usually the teacher and Barney the pupil, but on rare occasions the
roles are reversed. As you will see in this episode, radio and television set designers
ginned up all kinds of ways to accomplish the same end objective - whether to avoid
patent infringements or preferred exercising of creativity - and the nuances between
them could cause no end of frustration to even highly trained and experienced troubleshooters.
An additional inconvenience set upon technicians...
 "In a potential turning point for microelectronics,
scientists in Tokyo have crafted a powerful new
transistor that ditches silicon in favor of a crystalline material called gallium-doped
indium oxide. Engineered with a gate-all-around design - where the transistor's
control gate wraps completely around the current channel - this tiny device achieves
remarkable electron mobility and long-term stability. The result? A breakthrough
transistor that could dramatically boost performance in AI and big-data applications,
and keep Moore's Law alive in a post-silicon world. Transistors are often called..."
 If only eBay had been around at the end
of World War II, this surplus equipment would have dominated the electronics
and electromechanical gizmo categories. Electronics magazines of the post-WWII era
were filled for years with advertisements like this one from
G & G Radio Supply Company in a 1953 issue of
Radio & Television News. That B-29 bomb sight, like the one used on
the Enola Gay, could be purchased brand new for a scant $295, which even in equivalent
2025 dollars of $3,524 (per the BLS), is a steal. This is not the famous Norden
bombsight, but it's still a sweet collector's item, which is available on eBay today
if you would like to own one. Already have a B-29 bombsight? How about a complete
IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) secondary radar system? For a mere $350...
 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. Werbel is proud to announce its Model
WM2PD-2-26.5-S, a wideband 2-way in-line power splitter covering of 2 to 26.5 GHz
with excellent return loss, low insertion loss, and high isolation performance.
Insertion loss is only 0.6 dB typical above 3 dB split loss, with high
isolation of 20 dB typical. Amplitude balance is typically .07 dB, while
input and output return losses are typically 16 and 20 dB, respectively. We
are launching the new 26.5 GHz product line, and this is one of several...
 In this saga of YL (young lady) and OM (old
man) Ham radio operators, General license holder
Carole H. Allen elucidates, with a touch of humor, the woes beset
upon women pertaining to repairing radio equipment. Mrs. Allen's lament is
in fact not the treatment of women participating in the communication aspect of
Ham radio, but the reluctance of men to allow them to engage in the technical aspects
of the electronic equipment. From an operator standpoint, guessing the gender of
the Ham on the other end of the signal can be nearly impossible, particularly with
CW (Morse code). Poor transmission quality can make phone (voice) determination
of YL or OM difficult sometimes as well. Back in the 1960s it was not possible to
simply surf to the FCC's Universal License System website...
 Aegis Power Systems is a leading supplier
of AC-DC and DC-DC power supplies
for custom and special applications. Aegis has been designing and building highly
reliable custom power supplies since 1995. They offer a complete line of switch
mode power supplies and power converters for a variety of markets including defense,
industrial, aircraft, VME, and telecom. Supports military, aircraft, EV, telecom,
and embedded computing applications. Design and manufacture of custom power supply
solutions to meet each customer's exacting specifications. Please visit Aegis Power
Systems today. Manufactured in the USA.
 This is the electronics market prediction
for
United Kingdom, circa 1966. It was part of a comprehensive assessment
by the editors of Electronics magazine of the state of commercial, military,
and consumer electronics at the end of 1965. The British post office was investing
in communications and automation, while Thorn Electric was cranking out TV's. Ecko
Electronics Plessey, and Marconi were manufacturing defense electronics and dabbling
in newfangled computers. Unless you can find a news story on the state of the industry,
detailed reports must be purchased from research companies. Their websites have
a lot of charts on the UK's current electronics market...
Monday the 11th
 Here is a good, brief introduction to
harmonic and intermodulation distortion measurement methods that
were commonly used in the 1960s. Total harmonic distortion (THD) was used often,
especially for audio equipment, which of course most frequency conversion circuits
ultimately were in the era since digital data transmission over the air was not
too common. Author Charles Moore worked for Hewlett-Packard (HP) and references
HP Application Note 15, "Distortion and Intermodulation" which, thankfully,
is made available by Hewlett-Packard / Agilent / Keysight on their website. In fact,
a complete list of all the vintage app notes are available on this page by downloading
the Excel file. I highly recommend that you download and save all you think...
 "Ultra-intense lasers can hurl electrons
to almost light speed in a single wave cycle, making them indispensable for exploring
the most extreme corners of physics. Yet their rapid flickers and intricate structure
have long defied real-time measurement. Traditional methods needed hundreds of shots
to stitch together a single snapshot, leaving scientists with only a blurred sense
of these fleeting pulses. A team from the University of Oxford and Ludwig-Maximilian
University of Munich has now cracked the problem with an inventive tool called RAVEN
- short for
Real-time Acquisition of Vectorial Electromagnetic Near-fields..."
 It is probably safe to say that most people,
especially today, believe that the United States was suddenly and unexpectedly thrust
into involvement in
World War II on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese navy
launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The fact is the U.S. was "unofficially"
engaged for over a year beforehand by "lending" both equipment and personnel to
British, Russian, Chinese, French, and other militaries as part of their effort
to drive back invading German, Italian, and Japanese Axis forces. World War II
actually began in the Fall of1939 with Hitler's invasion of Poland. Americans, being
safely separated from the front lines by the Seven Seas, knew little of and were
concerned little about the goings on "Over There." Once the call to arms was sounded
with the Pearl Harbor attack, the country quickly and enthusiastically converted
to full wartime mode. Manufacturing plants...
 It is said
that if your career is doing something you love, you'll never work another day in
your life. Here are a couple new opportunities for Ham radio enthusiasts. ARRL,
the National Association for Amateur Radio®, is seeking qualified applicants for
several positions
at our headquarters in Newington, Connecticut. ARRL is a great place for a ham
to work: (1) Dynamic and experienced Membership Manager to lead strategies focused
on membership growth, engagement, and retention. (2) Ham with on-air experience
to join our team as a W1AW Operator. (3) Technical Editor to contribute to the quality
and accuracy of technical content. These positions are 100% on-site, and there are
no remote options...
 This is the electronics market prediction
for
West Germany, circa 1966. It was part of a comprehensive assessment
by the editors of Electronics magazine of the state of commercial, military,
and consumer electronics at the end of 1965. West Germany was intent on being a
player in the Space Race with Siemens and Telefunken providing expertise. Bochumer
Verein was pushing the electronic computer frontiers forward. The article states
that only about 5% of West Germany's factories including heavy industry have anything
approaching the automation of American industry. Factory automation was viewed as
a threat to the German workers. Unless you can find a news story on the state of
the industry, detailed reports must be purchased from research companies...
 LadyBug Technologies was founded in 2004
by two microwave engineers with a passion for quality microwave test instrumentation.
Our employees offer many years experience in the design and manufacture of the worlds
best vector network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, power meters and associated components.
The management team has additional experience in optical power testing, military
radar and a variety of programming environments including LabVIEW, VEE and other
languages often used in programmatic systems. Extensive experience in a broad spectrum
of demanding measurement applications. You can be assured that our Power Sensors
are designed, built, tested and calibrated without compromise.
Friday the 8th
 Robert Radford's (not to be confused with
Robert Redford) "Electromaze Puzzle" is a unique - and weird - sort of word puzzle
that first appeared in this February 1966 issue of Popular Electronics
magazine. Some people have been confused about the strategy, believing that all
the white spaces needed to be filled in. They do not. Just because a letter might
have an empty square adjacent to it does not imply that another letter must fill
it. Also, read the instruction carefully, especially the part about the last letter
of one word being the first letter of another word. You will probably want to print
out the maze grid and find an old guy who should still have a pencil stowed away
somewhere you can borrow to use for filling in the boxes...
 "AirComp approaches do more than transmit
data from point A to point B. It's easy to take for granted the seamless way information
is preprocessed, transmitted wirelessly, and nicely processed on another device.
But the future of wireless communications may be even more sophisticated, as scientists
work toward a concept in which data isn't just transmitted wirelessly but also
processed
in midair. The concept, called over-the-air computation - or AirComp for short
- is still in its early stages. A team of researchers from China and Singapore has
demonstrated through simulations..."
 Erie Technological Products, located in
my adopted hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania, was a re-branding of Erie Resistor Company
as the concern had begun manufacturing a wide variety of discrete electronic devices
- resistors, capacitors, feed-through filters, silicon rectifiers. The Erie Resistor
complex on 12th Street in Erie occupies a huge amount of real estate on both sides
of the road. The overhead foot bridge can be seen in this photo. The buildings have
long been vacated and stand with many others as reminders of the thriving manufacturing
center that Erie once was. We still have a good bit of manufacturing here, but nothing
like back in the hey days of the last century...
• OpenAI Launches GPT-5
• Japan
Vying for Quantum Computing Leadership
• Businesses Adapt to
Shifting Supply Chain Risks
• T-Mobile
Wipes out DEI Programs
• Solar
Flares Kick off Summer 2025
 Anatech Electronics offers the industry's
largest portfolio of high-performance
standard and customized RF and microwave filters and filter-related products
for military, commercial, aerospace and defense, and industrial applications up
to 40 GHz. Three new filter models have been added to the product line in August,
including a highpass filter with a passband frequency of 2574-2700 MHz, a 10 MHz
crystal bandpass filter with a 3 dB bandwidth of 10 kHz min, and a 1850-1910
MHz / 1930-1990 MHz ceramic duplexer. Custom RF power filter and directional
couplers designs can be designed and produced with required connector types when
a standard cannot be found, or the requirements are such that a custom...
Switzerland Electronics
Market
 This is the electronics market prediction
for
Switzerland, circa 1966. It was part of a comprehensive assessment
by the editors of Electronics magazine of the state of commercial, military,
and consumer electronics at the end of 1965. This statement was a bit unexpected:
"Although the Swiss are renowned for their precision work in watchmaking, machine
tools and instruments, their country is regarded as 'a bit backward' in electronics."
Not many major national production companies resided in Switzerland; IBM and RCA
had a large presence, though. Unless you can find a news story on the state of the
industry, detailed reports must be purchased from research companies...
Thursday the 7th
 The extreme level of complexity and consolidation
of circuit functions in today's functional integrated circuit (IC) blocks makes
it so that people with almost no instruction or experience in circuit and system
design can assemble and make work some pretty impressive creations. The days of
vacuum tubes and early discrete semiconductors required a designer to know how to
properly bias and interface various sections of circuits and systems. Nowadays,
with the ready availability of impedance-matched amplifiers, filters, mixers, couplers,
detectors, and other pre-packaged components, even RF and microwave frequency systems
are within the reach of relative amateurs. Likewise, people interested in digital
and microprocessor circuits...
 From IEEE Spectrum magazine: "One
EMC engineer's perspective on the important aspects of the
history of Part 15 - Low Power Devices, under the Federal Communications Commission's
rules. From the time that Heinrich Rudolf Hertz first demonstrated the transfer
of electrical energy from one antenna to another in the late 1880s, humanity has
witnessed, observed, and enjoyed the fruits of electromagnetic radiated fields.
The electromagnetic waves first produced by Hertz in his lab in 1886 were proof
that James Clerk Maxwell's 1864 theory of 'electromagnetic waves' was correct..."
 Exodus Advanced Communications, is a multinational
RF communication equipment and engineering service company serving both commercial
and government entities and their affiliates worldwide. Exodus'
AMP40041 pulse amplifier is ideal for EMC Mil-Std 461 (HIRF), and pulse radar
applications. It provides 60 dB gain throughout the 4.0 to 6.0 GHz band,
has superb pulse fidelity up to 100 µs pulse widths, as well as monitoring
for forward & reflected power, VSWR, voltage, current, and temperature sensing
in a rugged 5U chassis...
 If - and that's a big "if" - you can find
a hobby shop today, it is still a great source of tools and materials for building
electronics projects. Just as the convenience, vast selection of products, and competitive
prices of the Internet has been killing all sorts of brick and mortar stores since
the early 21st century,
local hobby shops (LHS's) have all but disappeared from most towns.
There are still a handful of full-featured, well-stocked hobby shops to be found,
but they are rare anymore. A lot of the small hobby-type hand tools (X-acto knives
and saws, Dremel tools & bits) can be bought in home improvement stores, and
the large craft stores often carry balsa, aircraft plywood, poplar wood, small gauge
brass and aluminum tubing and sheets, plastic models and paint, and Estes rockets...
 This is the electronics market prediction
for
Italy, circa 1966. It was part of a comprehensive assessment by
the editors of Electronics magazine of the state of commercial, military,
and consumer electronics at the end of 1965. Computers, military communications,
numerically controlled factory automation, and consumer electronics drove the Italian
markets, as was the case for every first-world nation. A bigger concentration on
exports was becoming an important part of the equation. Unless you can find a news
story on the state of the industry, detailed reports must be purchased from research
companies. Their websites have a lot of charts on Italy's current electronics market
showing revenue...
Wednesday the 6th
 In 1970, engineers at the Hamilton Watch
Company introduced the world's first solid state electronic digital watch called
the
Pulsar Time Computer. It went on sale commercially two years later,
just a few months after this article appeared in the December 1971 issue of
Popular Electronics magazine. Motorola created this "$25,000 Sundial," which
represents the research and development cost of the LED clock display that the company
predicted would one day lead to an inexpensive wristwatch. Maybe they hadn't seen
the The Tonight Show show where it made its debut in 1970. The Pulsar Big
Time watch retailed for $295 in 1972, which in 2018 is the equivalent of $1,777
(per the BLS Inflation Calculator). That's about three times the cost of the top
end Series 4 Apple Watch today, and all the Pulsar watch could do was tell time...
 "It's 2025 and the U.S. is awash in semiconductor
manufacturing investments, from TSMC's landmark $100 billion, five-facility plan
announced in March to GlobalWafers' recent $4 billion capital infusion. As more
global chip giants set their sights on American capabilities, U.S. semiconductor
manufacturing capacity is poised to triple from 2022 to 2032. But there's a big
problem: We
don't have enough engineers and technicians to do the work. A 2024 report estimated
that of the approximately 115,000 jobs the industry will add by 2030, 67,000 (or
58%) risk going unfilled..."
 Electronica 2018 is just a month away, it
being held in Munich, Germany, on November 13th through 16th. It is held every two
years at the Messe München trade-fair center. You would be forgiven for believing
that because the show has always been based in Germany that it was a German nation
brainchild. However, based on the article in a 1964 issue of Electronics
magazine - the first year of Electronica - its progenitor was the American trade
group International Electronics Association (IEA - no longer in operation). Its
founders wanted to usurp France's Salle de Composants as Europe's largest components
trade show. And now you know... the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would end
his broadcast. Strong opposition was provided by Germany's Central Association of
the Electro-Technical Industry (ZVEI - still in operation today). In the pre-Internet world, getting
the word out - especially in other countries - about a company's new product offerings...
 If you have ever had the occasion to use
an
Artificial Intelligence (AI) image generator, you have probably been frustrated
when attempting to get it to parse your description into exactly (or even nearly)
what you are after. Sure, the pictures it returns are utterly amazing, but the AI
beast seems to have a hard time understanding simple (to you) instructions. And,
for some reason, AI image generators seem to have a hard time spelling words. I
have spent half an hour or more refining and rewording my desired image - sometimes
finally giving up. Grok 4 was happy to supply an explanation of the image generation
process. The initial response was so full of technical and mathematical jargon that
while I fully comprehended it (not), it would be difficult...
 This is the electronics market prediction
for
France, circa 1966. It was part of a comprehensive assessment
by the editors of Electronics magazine of the state of commercial, military,
and consumer electronics at the end of 1965. President Charles de Gaulle wanted
more money spent on the military - their "force de frappe" (strike force). Compagnie
Générale de Télégraphie Sans Fil (later Thomson CSF) was building ground and airborne
radars, IC productions was ramping up; computers were coming online, and basic R&D
funding was increasing. Unless you can find a news story on the state of the industry,
detailed reports must be purchased from research companies like Statista. Their
website has a lot of charts on France's current electronics market showing revenue
in the consumer...
Tuesday the 5th
 According to authors Neal Jensen and Alexander
Burawa,
magnetic reed switches were developed as recently as 1940 at the
Bell Telephone Laboratories to replace the expensive and power-hungry traditional
solenoid-based relays. Development cost was reportedly $100 million ($750M in 2018
dollars). I would have guessed reed switches were invented half a century earlier,
given how fundamental their concept and construction is. Maybe there was no perceived
urgency back when power efficiency was not such a big concern given the wattage
used by vacuum tube circuits that often employed the relays. As in increasing number
of homes and businesses had telephones installed and party lines (shared by two
or more users) gave way to private lines, the physical...
 everything RF, the leading online publication
for the RF and Microwave industry, has published an eBook titled
RF Switch Matrix Handbook. The eBook consists of some interesting whitepapers
and articles on Switch Matrix, a fundamental RF component that enables the routing
of high-frequency signals between multiple inputs and outputs. RF switch matrices
play a critical role in modern RF test and communication environments. These systems
simplify complex testing scenarios, automate signal distribution, and improve the
efficiency of lab and production workflows. Whether used to connect multiple instruments
to a single device under test (DUT) or to distribute signals across various components,
RF switch matrices ensure flexibility...
 Electronic
Design magazine posted this "Basics
of Lithium-Ion Battery Behavior" quiz that you might enjoy. They dominate our
cordless existence nowadays. "Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are used extensively
due to their high energy density, low self-discharge, high cell voltage, and long
cycle life. While there are many different types of Li-ion batteries, they all work
by transferring lithium ions between the anode and cathode through an electrolyte,
generating an electric current in the process. Their capacity and longevity depend
on everything from chemistry, materials, and packaging..."
 These
electronics-themed comics from vintage issues of electronics magazines
were usually funny even without being privy to the particulars of the topic to which
it alludes. A couple guys shipwrecked on a floating hunk of wooden hull is usually
the basis for a laughable comic. However, in this case the zip code mention was
particularly significant in 1965 since the U.S. Post Office had only recently, in
1963, implemented the nationwide 5-digit zip code system, so it was in the news
and in the forefront of people's minds. High fidelity stereo systems were also all
the rage in the mid 1960's, as evidenced by all the print space allocated to it
in Popular Electronics and other magazines. I took the liberty of colorizing
them for you...
 The final 1965 edition of Electronics
magazine produced reports on the status of electronics markets in
Western Europe and Russia. This is the opening statement proclaiming
"The boom continues." Separate reports are included for West Germany (the Berlin
Wall was still up then), the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, Belgium,
Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Italy are covered in separate sections. Russia,
although obviously not part of Europe, is also covered. All will be posted within
the next couple weeks for the benefit of historians...
 Temwell is a manufacturer of 5G wireless communications filters
for aerospace, satellite communication, AIoT, 5G networking, IoV, drone, mining
transmission, IoT, medical, military, laboratory, transportation, energy, broadcasting
(CATV), and etc. An RF helical bandpass specialist since 1994, we have posted >5,000
completed spec sheets online for all kinds of RF filters including helical, cavity,
LC, and SMD. Standard highpass, lowpass, bandpass, and bandstop, as well as duplexer/diplexer,
multiplexer. Also RF combiners, splitters, power dividers, attenuators, circulators,
couplers, PA, LNA, and obsolete coil & inductor solutions.
Monday the 4th
 This
1946 Popular Science magazine ad trumpets the Link trainer as the first
ground device that "feels" like real flight. Drawing parallel with the Atlantic-crossing
dirigible R-34, it claims Link alone lets novices master controls, banks, climbs,
stalls, and instrument flying in darkness or weather - before leaving the ground.
Used by the Armed Forces and airlines, it cuts training time and boosts safety,
the ad says; if you want to own a private plane, Link training is "your first step
into the Flying Age." Engine instructor Ed Link cobbled together the first "Pilot
Maker" in a Binghamton, New York, garage during 1929 and peddled it as a carnival
novelty until the Army Air Corps - embarrassed by a spate of fatal 1934 airmail
crashes...
 "Data
centers projects are piling up not just in the U.S. but increasingly in the
Middle East and Africa Egypt is one of the markets flying under the radar New entrants
- not hyperscalers - are leading the charge in these regions The UAE's Stargate
project dominated recent digital infrastructure headlines, but the project is one
of many ramping in the Middle East and Africa as both regions seek to establish
themselves as up-and-coming digital infrastructure players. As we've noted before,
the UAE and Saudi Arabia are leading the pack when it comes to data center deployments.
The countries currently have 56 and 43 data centers respectively, according..."
 As was the case for many of America's electronics
manufacturing giants of the 20th century - General Electric, Westinghouse, Crosley,
etc. - Philco also had extensive lines of household appliances (Crosley might have
outdone them all by producing automobiles as well). Here is an advertisement for
a
Philco refrigerator-freezer which appeared in the November 6,
1948, edition of The Saturday Evening Post. Interestingly, the Alice
in Wonderland theme occurred a few years before the 1951 Disney movie, so its
popularity would have been based on the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,
book published by Lewis Carroll in 1865. Note that the huge "freezer locker" is
not claimed to be frost-free (aka frostless)...
Fellow USAF Radar Technician
Joe Urcheck dropped me a note the
other day summarizing his stint at Incirlik Air Base, in the early 1980s. He is
now a career FAA radar tech. I learned a new term from him: REDHORSE. Joe was 303x1
from 1982 through 1986, beginning - like the rest of us - with school at Keesler.
Upon graduation, he was off to "The Lick," a nickname for the Incirlik, Turkey,
location. Joe worked on the AN/MPN-13 mobile radar system (ASR/PAR), and the AN/GPN-20
fixed airport surveillance radar. TDY to RAF Bentwaters, England, for BRITE 2
training, then, back to The Lick. Finished up my USAF career at Macdill 84-86. Finally
got picked up by FAA in Cleveland OH in Dec 87...
 Empower RF Systems, a recognized leader
in RF and microwave power amplifier solutions, proudly announces the recent granting
of
several
additional U.S. and international patents that further strengthen its position
at the forefront of innovative amplifier technology. The technical team at Empower
RF Systems now has seven recognized patent awards. This award winning technology
is integral to the company's high performance standard product and configured systems
portfolio. The hardware and software architectures driven by these innovations...
 This is the electronics market prediction
for
Austria, circa 1966. It was part of a comprehensive assessment
by the editors of Electronics magazine of the state of commercial, military,
and consumer electronics at the end of 1965. Interesting is the comment about Austria
importing of computers to be leased to Communist countries in Eastern Europe. It
is not clear whether Austria was importing or producing televisions. "Invest in
Austria" is a contemporary website set up to promote business in the country. Separate
reports are included for West Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Austria,
Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland...
Friday the 1st
 Out of the nearly half a hundred quizzes
I have posted from vintage Popular Electronics magazines, this
Semiconductor Quiz that appeared in a 1967 issue is the first
I can remember that was not created by Robert P. Balin. A fellow named Warren Todd
made it. If you are younger than maybe 50 years old, symbols B and I might stump
you, but the rest are still pretty common. Some of the labels (names) presented
in the quiz are a little outdated so I have identified the abbreviations for you.
That will make things much easier. For example, SBS is a silicon bidirectional switch.
Bonne chance...
 "As the race toward 2nm nodes and advanced
3D architectures intensifies, the use of
AI for discovery of new materials will be key to achieving a competitive advantage.
From mobile processors to memory chips and sensors, each new generation of semiconductor
devices demands materials that are thinner, faster, and more thermally efficient.
As fabrication processes move toward 2nm nodes, 3D integration, 2D materials for
ultra-thin channels, high-k dielectrics, and heterogeneous packaging, the need for
novel materials used in etching, deposition, and thermal management has never been
greater. But discovering and validating..."
 Take a look at this
ARRA (Antenna & Radome Research Associates) attenuator advertisement
that appeared in the September 2018 issue of Microwaves & RF
magazine. It is reminiscent of something you might have seen in the 1960's through
1980's. That might not have been the intention, but seeing it sure triggered my
nostalgia mechanism. Even the tag line, "When it comes to attenuators, nobody -
but nobody - can fill our shoes," idiom, being somewhat dated, conjures up memories
of vintage company slogans. Of course the black and white motif feeds the perception.
Maybe I'm wrong, but if it appeals to me for any reason, the ad designers have done
their job...
 Electronic Design magazine has
a piece entitled "Noise
Considerations in ADC Signal Chains" that is a good introduction to the issue.
"Many noise sources can plague high-speed radio-frequency (RF) analog signal chains,
making design considerations that much more challenging. Both megahertz and sub-terahertz
sampling-rate converters have analog, clock, and power inputs, which realize the
converter as a multi-input 'mixer' with a digital back end. With continuously constrained
converter headroom, maintaining a noise spectral density of 150 dBFS/Hz..."
• FCC
Expands Oversight of Foreign Licensees
• China
to Have 30% Foundry Capacity by 2030
• TSMC
Q2 up 39% YoY
• Cell
Phone Satisfaction at 10-Year Low
• Electronics
Supply Chain Playbook
 This is part 4 of the "All About IC's" series
that appeared in Radio-Electronics magazine in 1969, where author Bob Hibberd
discusses the various types of integrate circuit (IC) families. He is not referring
to TTL and CMOS with divisions into small scale integration (SSI), medium scale
integration (MSI), large scale integration (LSI), and very large scale integration
(VLSI) like we have today. Back in 1969 the IC world was still evolving through
basic circuit structures like diode-diode logic (DDL), diode-transistor logic (DTL),
resistor-transistor logic (RTL), direct-coupled transistor logic (DCTL), etc. What
seems obvious now needed to be learned and dealt with then. It is like struggling
with a homework problem and being able to look at the answer worked out in the back
of the book where the solution then looks obvious...
These archive pages are provided in order to make it easier for you to find items
that you remember seeing on the RF Cafe homepage. Of course probably the easiest
way to find anything on the website is to use the "Search
RF Cafe" box at the top of every page.
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