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December 1966 Popular Electronics
 Table of Contents
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles
from
Popular Electronics,
published October 1954 - April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.
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 Looking forward is essential for the advancement of technology, but looking backward to see from whence
we came is beneficial as well. That is why I post so many article from vintage tech
magazines. Not only does familiarizing yourself [hopefully] help
prevent making the same mistakes over again, but it give you an appreciation for the
sacrifices and innovations that paved the way to the current state of the art. The same
argument can be made for social sciences and politics. Unlike social scientists and
politicians, technologists do actually learn from the past. What caught my attention
in this "Zero-Beating the News" feature in a 1966 issue of Popular Electronics
was the photo of IBM engineers integrating and testing the electronics equipment in a
Saturn V rocket body section. I first saw that picture in the
NASA Apollo 11: Owners' Workshop Manual, published
by Haynes (the auto repair manual folks).
RF Industry News
 Tom Thumb Weather Station - With its
state-of-the-art accuracy in measuring basic weather variables, the AN/TMQ-22 Meteorological
Measuring Set made for the U.S. Army by Cambridge Systems, Inc., is said to be the most
advanced portable weather unit to go into the field to date. One man can set it up in
less than 5 minutes.
 Hot Static Cooler - Tremendous heat
and tiny particles in rocket exhausts often produce communications-blanketing static.
This giant octagonal ring, developed by Lockheed Propulsion, is used to study these effects
in an effort to design rockets that do not generate static.
 "Rehabaphone" - Among the unusual equipment
designed by General Telephone and Electronics Corp. are dials in Braille for the blind,
telephones that answer themselves for the paralyzed, and telephones in oversized booths
at convenient heights for wheelchair patients. Shown above is the "Rehabaphone" which
requires only a slight pressure on a switch for dialing.
 World's Largest - The largest weather
radar system ever to be placed aboard a ship is installed on the "Ryofu-Maru." The system
was designed and built for the Japanese Ministry of Transportation by Toshiba, and it
incorporates many new features, one of which is a device that maintains desired antenna
angle, compensating for pitching and rolling in heavy seas.
 Multiplexed Teacher - Educasting Systems,
Inc., has developed a new method by which educational programs are multiplexed on one
regular FM or CATV channel. Four separate supersonic subchannels which correspond to
the choices of answers make it possible for the student to press one of the four buttons
on a special Sylvania-built receiver to indicate his answer. If a wrong answer is selected,
the correct answer is given plus the reasoning behind it
 Saturn Sandwich to Go - The more than
60 component parts which make up an Instrument Unit are assembled and hung inside 3'·thick
slices of a Saturn rocket The slices are fitted between the propulsion stage and the
payload. The Instrument Unit will guide a Saturn vehicle on a suborbital flight. IBM
engineers and technicians check the slices out prior to delivery to Cape Kennedy.
Posted May 2018
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