See Page 1 | 2 | of the March 2025 homepage
archives.
 The "Mighty
7th War Loan" was a campaign initiated by the United States government during
World War II to raise funds for the war effort. It was the seventh in a series of
war bond drives, hence the name "Mighty 7th." War bonds were debt securities issued
by the government to finance military operations and other war-related expenses.
The campaign encouraged Americans to purchase these bonds, promoting them as both
a patriotic duty and a financial investment. This promotion appeared in the June
1945 issue of Radio News magazine. Maybe if we went back to funding wars
/ conflicts by the public purchase of war bonds, we wouldn't be running up trillion$
in debt to fund things like the Ukraine debacle and numerous...
 "The project is part of the EU's plan to
strengthen Europe's semiconductor industry and reduce reliance on foreign suppliers
The European Commission has approved €227 million in funding to help Austrian
semiconductor manufacturer ams Osram build a manufacturing plant in Premstätten,
Austria. The new facility will produce wafers used in various industries, including
automotive, consumer electronics, and healthcare. It will integrate advanced technologies
to improve chip performance and reliability. Expected to be fully operational by
2030, the plant will be the first in Europe to produce Grade 0 automotive-certified..."
 Popular Electronics began publishing
a monthly electronics detective story series, "Carl and Jerry: A New Company is
Launched," in the debut October 1954 issue. The two main characters,
Carl Anderson and Jerry Bishop, were the brainchild of John T.
Frye, who also authored the "Mac's Radio Service Shop." Carl and Jerry helped keep
the world safe from miscreants by way of their investigative prowess and deductive
skills, often with the assistance of their Ham radio skills. The Hardy Boys were
a couple of pikers in comparison. The theme and ultimately solving of each mystery
is centered around use of electrical and/or electronics devices and methods, with
a bit of intrigue and humor thrown in. If you enjoy short stories...
 • "640k [of RAM] ought to be enough
for anybody." - Bill Gates, 1981
• "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." - Ken Olson,
president/founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
• "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." - Lord Kelvin
• "Software is like entropy. It is difficult to grasp, weighs nothing, and obeys
the second law of thermodynamics; i.e. it always increases." - Norm Augustine
• "Counting in octal is just like counting in decimal, if you don't use your
thumbs." - Tom Lehrer
 everything RF is a product discovery platform
for RF & Microwave Products/Services. We currently have more than 344,923 RF &
Microwave products from over 2281 companies listed in 470 categories in our database
and enable engineers to search for them using our customized parametric search tool.
Highlighted here is the
Butler
Matrix, which is an analog beamforming network that is used to feed the phased
array antenna elements and control the directions of beams. Many modern wireless
technologies used phased array antennas to provide...
 Plenty of intrigue still surrounds the July
2, 1937, disappearance of
Amelia Earhart in the South Pacific on her way to completing an
around-the-world flight. This article appeared two years prior to that fateful flight
proclaiming the soundness (no pun intended) of her onboard radio. Back in the day,
shortwave radio installations in aircraft required long wires trailing behind, particularly
for long distance requirements like flying from the U.S. mainland to Hawaii. Those
wires were a constant source of trouble due to destructive mechanical oscillations
while waving in the airstream, airframe damage due to striking during the haul in/out
procedure, and breakage. According to an article that appeared in the January 2015
edition of Smithsonian magazine, it is suspected that Earhart's antenna broke early
in her flight...
Monday the 17th
 In the midst of the transition from vacuum
tubes to semiconductors, this 1963 Radio-Electronics magazine infomercial
by Mallory offered guidance on
modernizing old selenium rectifiers with the latest silicon versions. This process,
commonplace at the time, symbolized the shift towards more efficient and compact
electronic components. The article provided a detailed walkthrough for replacing
these rectifiers in a standard TV voltage doubler circuit, recommending specific
models such as the Mallory VB500 or pairs of 1N2095's or A500's. It also cautioned
about potential increases in output voltage (B+) post-replacement, advising the
possible need for a dropping resistor. Furthermore, it highlighted that unchanged
B+ voltage could signal faulty filter capacitors, offering steps for their inspection
and substitution if needed...
 "In August
last year Nokia and Axiom Space announced they were working to equip the latter's
next-generation lunar
spacesuits with 4G/LTE connectivity for the for NASA's Artemis III mission to
the moon. The idea is that arming the new spacesuit, called Axiom Extravehicular
Mobility Unit (AxEMU), with high-speed cellular-network capabilities means it can
support HD video, telemetry data and voice transmission over multiple kilometers
on the moon. This means the Artemis III crewmembers will then be able to capture
real-time video and communications..."
 Mrs. Helen McKee, XYL of W9ARK, knew exactly
what she was signing up for when she agreed to marry Mr. McKee. After all, she met
and got familiar with the guy over the air during some rag chewing sessions. This
story is a humorous (and true) account of what life can be like for the
spouses of enthusiastic Ham radio operators. We all hope for such
an understanding "significant other." Melanie has certainly endured and supported
a lot of my pastime endeavors over the past 4-plus years. It's a short read, so
take a break and put a smile on your face...
 As a leading supplier of high-performance
made-to-order RF coaxial cable assemblies, ConductRF is excited to announce the
availability of our complete suite of
VITA 67 RF coaxial cable assemblies and connectors. In line with our commitment
to providing customers with superior flexibility and performance, ConductRF offers
the option to select from all leading VITA 67 connector brands, ensuring optimal
system compatibility and customization. VITA 67 solutions are widely used in military,
aerospace, and other high-reliability applications where precision RF signal transmission...
 English mathematician George Boole published
his "Formal Logic" syllogism system of deductive reasoning in 1847.
Fellow countryman Augustus De Morgan followed on Boole's work to develop the basic
combinational logic rules the AND gates, OR gates, and NOT (negation) operators.
What has become known as Boolean algebra and De Morgan's theorem forms the fundamental
foundation of everything related to digital logic. This second in a three-part series
from a 1974 issue of Popular Electronics introduces both concepts at a beginner's
level. Part 3 will present flip-flops and an overview of how all the parts come
together to build a simple computer...
Friday the 14th
 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...
 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...
 "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 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...
• €1B
European Chips Act Money for Infineon's Dresden Fab
• AM
Radio Mandate Costs Low for Automakers
• Dayton
Hamvention 2025 Award Winners
• FCC's Carr to Persuade Allies on new
Subsea Cable Regs
• AM
Radio for Every Vehicle Act up for Vote
Thursday the 13th
 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...
 "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..."
 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 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...
 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...
 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.
Wednesday the 12th
 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...
 "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 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...
 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...
 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.
Tuesday the 11th
 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...
 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...
 "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..."
 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...
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.
Monday the 10th
 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...
 "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..."
 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 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...
 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...
Friday the 7th
 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...
 The
memristor, short for "memory resistor," is the fourth fundamental passive circuit
element, joining the resistor, capacitor, and inductor. First theorized in 1971
by Leon Chua, it remained a theoretical concept until its physical realization in
2008. The memristor has since become a cornerstone of modern electronics, offering
unique properties that could revolutionize computing, memory storage, and neuromorphic
systems. This article delves into the definition of the memristor, its theoretical
prediction, its role in Ohm's law, its first real-world implementation, ongoing
research activities, and its implementation in production electronics...
 The
battle between the serviceman and the customer is epic. The serviceman
knows the customer is out to cheat him of his rightful due for expertise and availability,
and the customer knows the serviceman will try to inflate the bill to finance his
exorbitant lifestyle. This story from a 1945 edition of Radio-Craft is
a humorous take on the subject at first glance from the customer's perspective,
but after reading it you might ascertain that it is really from the serviceman's
perspective. An article from a 1957 edition of Radio News magazine
titled "Strategy for C.O.D. Service" was written as serious advice to servicemen
to avoid being ripped off by customers typified by the one ostensibly penning this
article...
 Werbel Microwave will be exhibiting at
Satellite 2025 in Washington DC for the first
time. Please visit us at Booth 1554 and see our new product lines of GPS Active
Power Splitters, Multi-Channel Monitor/Inject Directional Couplers and more! Werbel
Microwave is a USA based designer and manufacturer of RF-Microwave coaxial components.
Since 2014, Werbel Microwave has designed and produced high performance radio frequency
components for defense, commercial, test and measurement applications. Werbel Microwave
offers COTS and custom designed microwave components...
 Back in 2012, I posted an article entitled,
"Rationalizing
Pi," wherein I proposed the idea that the accepted convention of equating an
irrational number to an exact number (2π=360°) is a contradiction.
With AI (artificial intelligence) now filling the news and talk shows, I figured
I would pose the dilemma in a slightly different manner to a few of the most prominent,
namely, ChatGPT 4o (OpenAI), Gemini 2.0 (Google), and Grok 3 (xAI).
Some of the responses to my original assertion that 2π=360° challenged my
use of 360 degrees, since it was an arbitrarily assigned measure. Fair enough, since
I could declare a full rotation equals 100 centichunks. So, I recouched my assertion
to the validity of equating exactly 1 full rotation to create a unit circle, to
2π (an inexact
number) radians of rotation. Responses are shown below. Here are the responses in
both instances...
 When this article on component (resistor,
capacitor, and inductor) measurement appeared in a 1957 issue of Radio&
TV News magazine, readily available, inexpensive multimeters were not in existence.
For about $20 you can now buy a brand new handheld DMM that will make very accurate
resistance measurements and reasonably good capacitance measurements at frequencies
up to a few MHz, where lead inductance starts to be significant (test frequency
is usually only a few kHz). Finding an affordable, accurate inductance meter is
another story. Cheap
LCR meters can be purchased on Amazon for around $35-$50, and the quality is
supposedly...
• 2024
Wafer Revenues down 6.5%
• FCC Issues Annual
Communications Marketplace Report
• Mexico
Cancels Upcoming 5G Spectrum Auction
• European
Telco Investment Drops, Connectivity Gap Remains
• Sony Kills
Recordable Blu-Ray and Other Vintage Media
Thursday the 6th
 In "The
G-Line Transmission Line" from a 1964 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine,
Owen G. Patrick recounts his innovative solution to bring distant TV signals to
his Carmel Valley home, spurred by his wife's desire for "good channels" enjoyed
by neighbors atop a ridge 5 miles away, despite a 100-mile gap from broadcast sources
like San Francisco. Facing high-loss coaxial cables and problematic open-wire lines,
Patrick opted for a surface waveguide dubbed the G-line - a single insulated wire
developed by George Goubau (the "G" in G-line) in 1953 - offering low loss (6 dB/mile)...
 "Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Thursday announced
Ocelot, its
first-generation
quantum computing chip, as it enters the race against fellow tech giants in
harnessing the experimental technology. Developed by the AWS Center for Quantum
Computing at the California Institute of Technology, the new chip can reduce the
costs of implementing quantum error correction by up to 90 percent, according to
the company. Unlike conventional computers, which use bits representing values of
either 1 or 0, quantum computers utilize quantum bits, or 'qubits,'..."
 This installment of the After Class series
in the December 1957 edition of Popular Electronics deals with inductors.
It is a beginner-level introduction to how
reactive components behave in circuits. For some reason the concept
of magnetism's influence on electrical current (present with inductors but not capacitors)
seems to be more difficult to comprehend than that of electrons, even though James
Clerk Maxwell shows in the mid 1800s that the two phenomena are interrelated. I
am tempted to say that back in the 1950s when this article appeared, people were
less familiar with the relatively new concept of electronics, but in thinking about
it, your typical 2019 reader is probably even less likely to know anything at all
about electronics or the way basic components work. I would bet that maybe 1% could
even tell you the difference between AC and DC current...
 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 March, including a 680 MHz
ceramic bandpass filter with a 44 MHz bandwidth, a 365 MHz LC bandpass
filter with a 38 MHz bandwidth, and a 860-920 MHz notch filter. Custom
RF power filter and directional couplers designs can be designed and produced with
required connector types when a standard cannot be found...
 With a last name like Blattenberger and
an unusually spelled first (Kirt), I learned a long time ago not to poke fun at
anybody's name, but surely the parents of Dr. Hal F. Fruth had a sense of humor
when assigning their little bundle of joy in such a manner (HalF Truth?). Maybe
I assume too much. Anyway, the good doctor published in this issue of Radio
News magazine a very extensive treatise on the art and science of mass producing
radio frequency crystals at a time when the country - and free
world - was in urgent need of them. He notes that, "Prior to Pearl Harbor Day, the
world production of these plates and bars could be counted by the thousands. The
present production rate has skyrocketed more than one hundred fold so that the present
production rate is nearly 30,000,000 units per year...
 Werbel Microwave is a manufacturer of RF
directional and bidirectional couplers (6 dB to 50 dB) and RF power dividers
/ combiners (2- to 16-way) with select models operating up to 26.5 GHz and
100 W of CW power (3 kW peak). All are RoHS and REACH compliant and are
designed and manufactured in our Whippany, NJ, location. Custom products and private
label service available. Please take a couple minutes to visit their website and
see how Werbel Microwave can help you today.
Wednesday the 5th
 In "How
We See Color," Eric Leslie explores the mechanics behind the color television
picture tube, a revolutionary leap from black & white sets in 1966, driven by
a trio of innovations: a three-electron-gun assembly, a shadow mask with over 300,000
holes, and a phosphor screen dotted with about a million red, green, and blue color
points. Each gun, arranged in an equilateral triangle at the tube's neck - blue
atop, green lower left, red lower right - fires a beam modulated by color and brightness
signals, guided through the shadow mask's precise apertures to strike only its matching
phosphor dots, ensuring accurate color reproduction. The intricate convergence process,
both static (via neck magnets) and dynamic (via yoke circuitry), aligns the beams...
 "In the mid-18th century, Benjamin Franklin
helped elucidate the nature of lightning and endorsed the protective value of lightning
rods. And yet, a hundred years later, much of the public remained unconvinced. As
a result, lightning continued to strike church steeples, ship masts, and other tall
structures, causing severe damage. Frustrated scientists turned to visual aids to
help make their case for the
lightning rod.
The exploding thunder house is one example. When a small amount of gunpowder was
deposited inside the dollhouse-size structure and a charge was applied, the house
would either explode or not, depending..."
 Given that this
Circuitry Crossword was created at the peak of the post-war television
popularity wave, it is no surprise that the main focus is on TV-related terms. Still,
most people who lived during the era of "real" television sets with cathode ray
tubes (CRTs), will probably have no problem completing it successfully. If you have
ever adjusted the horizontal and vertical hold controls on a TV, you're in the club.
After nearly two decades with LCD computer and television displays, the days of
less than perfect images are fading like an over-the-air broadcast on a stormy day.
Unlike the time it took me days to figure out that two heavy speakers sitting on
a shelf over top of my CRT computer monitor was causing a weird distortion in the
picture ...
 everything RF is providing full coverage
of the MWC 2025
event happening now (March 3-6) in Barcelona, Spain. MWC Barcelona is the one time
of year where everyone who's anyone, in the world of connectivity, comes together
under one roof. Tens of thousands of senior leaders from top global companies, international
governments and trailblazing tech businesses converge to connect and create the
future. This year, there are 48 keynote speakers who are leading the conversation
on the technology you need for your business and its wider implications...
 I couldn't resist posting this; it's ripe
for comedy. This is a pot head's dream - of hallucination. Once word gets out, we'll
see reports of hemp insulation being ripped from the walls of home under construction,
like copper wire and pipe is now. Desperate pot heads will set homes on fire and
stand by outside to inhale. If a home is ablaze with hemp insulation, the people
inside might get so high from the fumes that they don't feel the need to exit. Possibilities
abound. "It's a fairly niche product now, but a new study from Georgia Tech engineers
suggests
insulation made from hemp fibers could be a viable industry in the U.S., creating
jobs, a manufacturing base, and greener homes and buildings..."
 In 2015 we would hardly think of electromagnetic
radiation in the 5 cm wavelength realm as being "quasi-optical" as far as circuit-based
manipulation is concerned.
Optical wavelengths begin at around 6,300 Å for red light,
which is 6.3x10-5 cm, or 630 nm. The 5 cm wavelength used an example
in a 1932 article in Short Wave Craft magazine is equivalent to 6 GHz.
6 GHz was an extraordinarily high frequency to be using for communications
back then, and the author did not intend to liken it to anywhere near visible light.
Instead, his terming its properties as 'quasi-optical' referred to how the waves
interacted with physical objects; e.g., reflection, refraction, absorption, and
scattering. Barkhausen oscillations were a popular subject of the era, as I
pointed out recently in the article "The Spook - Another Weird Effect to Haunt TV..."
Tuesday the 4th
 In this 1966 edition of Radio-Electronics
magazine article, editor Forest Belt tells how three service-association leaders
were discussing the difficulty of hiring skilled technicians for their electronic
service shops due to
low wages. The average salary for a TV service technician in 1965 was under
$110 per week ($1,102 in 2025 money per the BLM's CPI calculator - not bad, really),
a mere 6% increase from 1960, which is less than the change in the cost-of-living
index (the CPI calculator says 6% inflation over that time period, so somebody's
numbers were/are wrong). Many technicians are leaving for higher-paying jobs in
the industry. To tackle this issue, service shop owners should improve business
practices, charge enough for their services, hire and train the best technicians,
and invest in modern...
 "Researchers based in China claim 'breakthrough'
performance for
complementary logic (CL) circuits based on gallium nitride field-effect transistors
(FETs) in work presented at the International Electron Devices Meeting in December
2024. The team from Peking University, Beijing University of Technology, University
of Science and Technology of China, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology,
comments: 'The work demonstrates the potential of GaN complementary logic for MHz
power integrated circuits (PICs) and harsh-environment electronics..."
 In times of peace and times of war,
Amateur radio operators are the first in line to serve their countrymen
and citizens all over the world. As documented in the pages of the American Radio
Relay League's QST magazines throughout the years of World War II, Hams
proved to be invaluable to the effort. Even though probably none had previous radar
system experience, their practiced aptitude for electronics made them perfect candidates
for the task. In appreciation for their heroic efforts to help ultimately win the
war on all fronts, the U.S. military put a lot of effort into preparing radiomen
and radarmen for life in the civilian world. This article from April 1945, nearing
the end of the war, discusses the value of military experience...
 Exodus Advanced Communications, is a multinational
RF communication equipment and engineering service company serving both commercial
and government entities and their affiliates worldwide. Exodus' model
AMP20141 Pulse SSPA is designed for pulse, EMC/EMI Mil-Std 461 and pulse radar
applications. Provides superb pulse fidelity up to 100 μsec pulse widths. Duty
cycles to 6% with a minimum 66 dB gain. Available monitoring parameters for
forward / reflected power in watts and dBm, VSWR, voltage, current, temperature
sensing for outstanding reliability and ruggedness in a compact...
 The
Josephson effect was predicted in 1962 by British physicist Brian
David Josephson. It postulated the possibility of a resistance-less path for electrical
current across an extremely thin insulator sandwiched between two superconductors.
Dr. Juri Matisoo, of IBM, is credited with building the first Josephson junction
switch in 1967, demonstrating sub-nanosecond switching times. Back in the day, superconducting
materials, like graphene, were resources available only to well-funded research
establishments like major corporations, universities, and government facilities.
Now, anyone with an interest can order both...
Monday the 3rd
 When this "Antennas
for Mobile Radio" article appeared in a 1968 issue of Radio-Electronics
magazine, the term "mobile" referred mostly to Hams, commercial dispatch operators,
law enforcement, and the military. Nowadays, "mobile " is heard and seen all the
time in reference to cellphones and notebook computers. The funny thing is that
the vast majority of people do not think of their phones and Wi-Fi-connected notebook
computers as a form of radio. They just have some sort of invisible cord connecting
them to anywhere in the world. It is only when a good connection cannot be had that
the concept of radio waves might occur, but even then, it is pre-Millennials...
 "A U.S. company successfully landed its
spacecraft on the Moon on Sunday, marking only the second private mission to achieve
the milestone -- and the first to do so upright.
Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down at 0834 GMT near Mons
Latreille, a volcanic formation in Mare Crisium on the Moon's northeastern near
side. The mission control team in Austin, Texas, erupted in cheers as CEO Jason
Kim confirmed that the spacecraft was 'stable and upright.' That stood in stark
contrast to the first private lunar landing last February, which toppled over upon
arrival, dulling the achievement of being the first U.S. Moon touchdown since the
crewed Apollo 17 mission of 1972. 'We're on the Moon!"
 "YL" in amateur-ese stands for "young
lady." It refers to any ham operator of the female gender regardless of age.
I don't know how many women were Hams in 1966 when this article appeared in
QST magazine, but according to Communities of the Air: Introducing Radio
to the World, author Susan M. Squier, by 2003 women made up 40% of new license
applicants. Judging by amateur radio club rosters and field day events, YLs don't
make up anywhere near 40% of the Ham population, but maybe they just tend to shun
the public light. A 2008 presentation on the YL Radio Website estimated 15% in 2000...
 "In Part 1, we looked at charge generation
and dissipation and how this leads to specifying a maximum resistance to ground
Rg to control electrostatic charge buildup. Charge is stored in the capacitance
C and, at the same time, dissipates away through Rg. In Part 2, we look at the discharge
path when
electrostatic discharge (ESD) occurs and applying our understanding in ESD controls.
In our simple circuit, the components to the left of the vertical dotted line represent
the ESD source capacitance C and its internal resistance Rs. Stored charge in C
represents stored energy ready to dump into ESD. Most ESD sources are charged isolated..."
 Radio-Craft magazine ran a monthly
series of short articles paying tribute to some of the shakers and movers in the
field of science - this time it was
Sir Oliver Lodge. "While Hertz was discovering radio waves in
air, Lodge was determining the laws of the corresponding activity which takes place
in electrical conductors. It was Lodge who demonstrated the possibility of radio
communication, experimentally, as Marconi did its commercial value - just as Henry
created the telegraph and Morse made it of practical utility." See other "Men Who
Made Radio" features on...
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