February 1943 QST
 Table
of Contents
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles
from
QST, published December 1915 - present (visit ARRL
for info). All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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If subjects pertaining to electronics - particularly
vacuum tubes - are like music to your ears, then this poem entitled "What Is It?,"
from the February 1943 edition of QST magazine, should suit you just fine. The rhyming
words are supplied by author Frank Judd; you just need to supply the harmony. You
might recognize paraphrasing of other familiar works such as Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride." Poems like
this one were actually quite common back in the day. In fact if you look through
the list of articles that I have posted from vintage QSTs, you will find about a
dozen.
Here are a few other electronics-themed poems:
A Radioman's Nightmare,
The Day Before Christmas,
Sonnet of a Ham,
Unpopular Electronics,
Ode to a New Rig,
Power Supply,
More "Tower" to You, Requiem,
Pre-Radio,
What Is It?,
Ravin
What Is It?
By Frank E. Judd
 What is the thing that's
in a tube
That people call the mu? It is a silly-sounding word - What
does the blamed thing do?
Well, listen, child, and you shall hear How simple such things are, And
you may then astonish The people near and far.
A grid can make a current flow, Or stop it, if you please; It only needs
a voltage To accelerate or cease.
This current flow is to the plate, And from the tube's cathode. 'Tis
so in multielement Or simplified diode.
Now, positive potential, When placed upon a plate, Can also make a current
flow But at a lesser rate.
Compared with what the grid can do Its pull is pretty lame. The grid
can make a bigger flow With current just the same.
Divide the oomph that grid can show By what the plate can do: You will
derive that magic thing That people call the mu.
And when you've found out all that stuff, Without or with assistance,
The next thing that they'll ask you Is, "What is plate resistance?"
Well, that is just as easy, Believe it true or not. When there's a current
to the plate There's voltage on the spot.
And when you've done that little thing At school or in your patio, You'll
find that volt and current change Are at a certain ratio.
And when you have determined That ratio or rate, Know then that you have
found the Resistance of the plate.
Now, there is still another thing I mention with reluctance. It is a
sixty-dollar word - They call it transconductance.
It is the ratio of the change In current to the plate Divided by the
voltage change Back at the grid, they state.
Now do not be alarmed by this; Just place yourself above it. And if they
ask you this in Quiz Why, just think nothing of it!
Posted May 21, 2024
(updated from original post on 12/6/2012)
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