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I was hoping that since these electronics-themed comics appeared in December
and January (1967 and 1968, respectively) issues of Radio-Electronics
magazine, they would have Christmas and/or New Year subjects, but unfortunately
that is not the case (these are being posted on the RF Cafe website on Christmas
Eve). Anyone who was around during the vacuum tube circuits days will still
relate to the page 92 and page 26 comics. Lots of opportunities existed for open
or intermittent contacts with all the connectors, tube sockets, and cold solder
joints on terminals where point-to-point wiring was done. While a lot of those
issues went away with solid state and integrated circuitry and printed circuit
boards, the remaining weak link is connectors. My troubleshooting experience
since the disappearance of vacuum tubes has been that the majority of failures
are the result of dirty connector pins and sockets. I bet that
reliability calculations for typical systems - from home appliances to
automobiles - are heavily burdened by connectorized connections. Soldering,
crimping, or welding interconnects that are not usually required other than to
facilitate assembly or replacement would greatly improve product reliability and
lifetime.
Electronics-Themed Comics
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December 1967 Radio-Electronics
 [Table of Contents]
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics.
See articles from Radio-Electronics,
published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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"It's a vibrator ... I got tired of kicking it."
Page 92
December 1967
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January 1968 Radio-Electronics
 [Table of Contents]
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics.
See articles from Radio-Electronics,
published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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"To save
you tie, I've already shook, kicked and jiggled it."
Page 26 January 1968
"No wonder the picture is confusing ... you didn't turn on
the sound and you forgot to turn your radio off."
Page 96 January 1968
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