|
 If you have been an RF Cafe website
visitor for a long time, you might recall back in 2010 when I posted How an Electrical
Engineer Spends "Vacation." It showcased the extensive electrical wiring I did on
my daughter's horse riding business. A few years ago, she and her husband, a major
in the USANG, moved to an old former diary farm property. The buildings are old
and dilapidated, but we are slowly patching and improving them. Earlier this month,
the new submersible pump we just installed late last summer stopped working. When
I measured the panel bus voltage, one leg read 120 V, and the other leg was
at about 70 V. Turns out the current that would normally be supplied by the
other 120 V leg was being supplied in series with the submersible pump motor.
This task was within my purview. Having performed many electric service heavy-ups..
 Battery technology experienced a major technology
evolution in the late 1950s similar to the one that took place in the late 1990s.
Prior to the 50s, most common portable batteries were of the carbon-zinc type and
were not rechargeable. Nickel cadmium (NiCad) cells existed, but were not in widespread
use largely because little was known about the chemistry and how it responded to
various charge and discharge cycles. Mercury, NiCad, nickel metal hydride (NiMH),
alkaline-manganese, began gaining popularity in applications requiring longer battery
life and more consistent discharge characteristics. In the 2000s, lithium polymer
(LiPo) and lithium ion (LiIon) underwent a similar evolution. Still, all the aforementioned
battery types are in use today...
 Since 2005, San Francisco Circuits has been
a trusted U.S. provider of advanced PCB manufacturing and assembly solutions for
R&D innovators, prime contractors, and integration experts.
Double-Sided Ball Grid Array (BGA) assembly allows designers to maximize component
density without increasing the board size. From smartphones and IoT devices to medical
and industrial electronics, this approach delivers higher pin counts in a smaller
footprint. BGA technology replaces traditional pins with solder balls under the
package, and placing BGAs on both sides of the PCB increases the usable area, letting
engineers create more compact and complex designs...
 This Radio Service Data Sheet covers the
Ford-Philco radio model FT9, 6-tube auto-radio receiver. A large
list is included at the bottom of the page of similar documents from vintage receiver
schematics, troubleshooting tips, and alignment procedures. They were originally
published in magazines like Radio-Craft, Radio and Television News,
Radio News, etc. I scan and post them for the benefit of hobbyists who
restore and service vintage electronics...
 Prior to atmospheric sounding rockets and
orbiting satellites, all information gained and theories developed on the nature
of Earth's upper atmosphere and its interaction with
electromagnetic waves were purely academic, not the result of
empirical data. That is not to say the theories were wrong (although some were),
just that they were incomplete. For that matter, even today there is still much
to be learned and, according to an excellent article in the October 2015 issue of
the ARRL's QST magazine titled "Five Myths of Propagation Dispelled," there is still a lot of
misinformation being believed and promulgated about shortwaves and how they travel
in the atmosphere. This work is a great testament to the level of expertise that
exists in the realm of Amateur Radio, and the...
 I wonder whether Mr. Jim Fahenstock, author
of this 1960 Popular Electronics magazine article titled "Easy-to-Build
Beam Antennas," was related to Archer Pleasant Fahnestock, president of the
Fahnestock Electric Company, maker of the famous Fahnestock Clips? A Web search
turns up plenty of Fahenstocks all over the country now (including some convicted
criminals!), but how many could there have been in 1960. But I digress... This article
highlights the growing necessity of beam antennas for amateur radio operators facing
increasing spectrum congestion. By utilizing readily available hardware store aluminum,
hobbyists can construct...
 Ok, here's a little dose of
Ham comedy
for your Friday afternoon. It's a little bit kooky by today's standards, but in
1940 the style of humor it fits right in. This could easily have been the plot in
an old TV show like The Honeymooners, or one of the radio situation comedy
(sitcom) programs like The Life of Riley. QRM, by the way, is Ham lingo
for man-made signal interference, as opposed to QRN, which is atmospheric or "natural"
signal interference. Enjoy...
 "Atomically
thin semiconductors such as tungsten disulfide (WS₂) are emerging as key materials
for next-generation photonic technologies. Although they consist of just a single
layer of atoms, they support tightly bound excitons, which are electron-hole pairs
that interact strongly with light. These materials can also produce new colors of
light through nonlinear optical effects such as second-harmonic generation. Because
of these capabilities, they are considered promising for quantum optics, sensing,
and compact on-chip light sources. However, their atomic-scale thickness also presents..."
 This "The
Hand of Selene" Carl and Jerry adventure appeared in the November 1960 issue
of Popular Electronics just in time for Halloween. The magazine would have arrived
in mailboxes on newsstands sometime in October. With the great popularity of zombies
and the undead these days (in which I personally have zero interest), the scheme
outlined here to make the hand of Selene (an Egyptian moon goddess) tap out answers
to a soothsayer's questions would be a great scheme to use at a Halloween party.
Read on to discover the tech savvy teenagers' clever implementation...
 This "Radio Service Data Sheet" covers the
International Kadette Model 66 and 666, superheterodyne receiver. Most - if
not all - electronics servicemen had subscriptions to these magazines because they
were a ready source of not just these service sheets, but because of the extensive
articles offering advice on servicing radios and televisions. In fact, many electronics
manufacturers had a policy of supplying service data only to bona fide shops. A
large list is included at the bottom of the page of similar documents from vintage
receiver schematics, troubleshooting tips, and alignment procedures. They were originally
published in magazines like Radio-Craft (this April 1936 issue), Radio
and Television News...
 Compared to the 1960 era, when users relied
on complex manual tuning, analog "whistles," and periodic signal cycles, modern
WWV signals remain broadcast by the NIST but are now accessed by automated hardware
and software-defined radios. This 1960 Popular Electronics magazine article serves
as a technical guide for using NBS WWV radio transmissions as a precision tool for
home laboratory calibration. By tuning a short-wave receiver to WWV’s specific frequencies,
hobbyists could perform direct or harmonic comparisons to calibrate signal...
 This 1934 edition of
Tower Radio magazine was thrown in with a batch of vintage
radio magazines I bought on eBay. Most of the content pertains to entertainers of
the day rather than with technical issues. Reportedly, it was only sold at Woolworth's
stores. Ironically, the number of households with over-the-air radio listeners today,
at least as a percentage of the population if not in absolute numbers, is probably
about the same as in 1934 when commercial radio broadcasting was just getting a
foothold. These days, a majority of people listen to radio and podcasts via cellphone
and/or Internet streaming media than from over-the-air broadcasts, even while in
their cars. Organizations like the National Association of Broadcasters are...
 "Researchers at Cornell University have
achieved something chipmakers have long wanted. Using advanced high-resolution 3D
imaging, they have directly observed
atomic-scale defects inside computer chips for the first time. These tiny flaws
can interfere with performance and reliability in modern electronics. The new imaging
approach was developed in collaboration with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Company (TSMC) and Advanced Semiconductor Materials (ASM). Because computer chips
power everything from smartphones and cars to AI data centers and quantum computers..."
 Well I'll be darned, old Mac the master
radio repairman taught me something else new this month. Along
with giving sidekick Barney a lesson on business ethics and how honest dealing can
pay dividends as societal conditions change, he also put on his Sherlock Holmes
cap and deduced a surprising cause for circuit failure based on the physical location
of a lady's radio; read on to learn the details. As usual, the exact scenarios of
the stories do not apply to today's environment and/or equipment, but the troubleshooting
logic certainly does...
 The old
pushbutton radio tuners were an ingenuous bit of electromechanical
wizardry. For those too young to have experienced them, operation was simple - turn
the radio tuning knob to your broadcast station, pull out the lever/button, and
then push it all the way back in. Done. The next time you pushed that button, the
mechanism would slew the tuning dial to that position, taking the tuning elements
(usually just a variable capacitor) with it. For most modern electronic radios,
you program the station button by pushing and holding it for a few seconds until
a beep is heard. My father never quite got the hang of tuning the pushbutton radio
in his old Rambler (vacuum tubes) or even his 1972 Chevy pickup...
 In the mid- to late- 20th century,
300-ohm twin-lead cable served as the dominant transmission line for connecting
television antennas to receivers. This Popular Electronics magazine article
explains that the "300-ohm" rating represents the characteristic impedance of the
line, which remains constant regardless of length when properly terminated. When
matched at both the antenna and the TV, the cable functions as an "untuned" line,
ensuring maximum signal transfer. If the termination does not match the cable's
impedance, the line becomes "tuned," causing the input impedance to fluctuate wildly...
 Metal-encased vacuum tubes were such a big
deal when they arrived on the scene in the mid 1930s that two successive issues
of Radio-Craft devoted the majority of print space to them. Metal tubes,
as admitted by editor and author Hugo Gernsback, did not perform as well electrically
as glass tubes yet, but that was attributed to the infancy of the technology. Overwhelming
positives, including ruggedness, lower cost of production, longevity and other aspects
would ensure that metal tubes "are here to stay." They never did even come close
to replacing glass tubes. One of the most interesting statements in the article
has nothing to do with metal tubes, but Mr. Gernsback's understanding...
 "At MWC26 in Barcelona, SpaceX introduced
a new phase of its
direct-to-device
(D2D) satellite strategy, renaming the offering Starlink Mobile and outlining
plans to align it more closely with terrestrial 5G networks. The service will run
on the company's second-generation low Earth orbit satellites and is positioned
as complementary to ground-based infrastructure. Michael Nicolls, SVP at SpaceX,
said in a presentation at the event that the upgraded satellites represent a significant
technical step beyond the LTE-compatible messaging, voice, and video services supported
by the first-generation constellation - broadband capabilities to unmodified cell
phones..."
 Here is a brief synopsis on the main difference
between
glass and metal vacuum tubes - the metal case tubes generally
exhibit higher interelectrode capacitances. Unless successfully addressed, that
limits usefulness in high frequency circuits. One of the major advantageous features
of metal tubes is the built-in EMI/RFI shielding both for keeping desirable fields
inside the tubes and keeping undesirable fields from entering...
 This article, in addition to reporting on
early
push-push power amplifier configurations, demonstrates what a
mess AC and DC power distribution systems were in the early days of electric service.
Standardization and regulation was at a minimum, and the plethora of potential hazards
to life and property makes you wonder how more people were not killed, maimed, or
had houses and businesses burned down. You hear a lot about medical issues that
came from lead-based paint on window sills, but the electrical wiring and connected
equipment were a mess. Back to the push-push amplifiers, though. According to the
author, the primary difference from the more familiar push-pull amplifier is that
the configuration removes bias from...
 Crane Aerospace & Electronics' products
and services are organized into six integrated solutions: Cabin Systems, Electrical
Power Solutions, Fluid Management Solutions, Landing Systems, Microwave Solutions,
and Sensing Components & Systems. Our Microwave Solution designs and manufactures
high-performance
RF, IF and millimeter-wave components, subsystems and systems for commercial
aviation, defense, and space including linear & log amplifiers, fixed &
variable attenuators, circulators & isolators, power combiners & dividers,
couplers, mixers, switches & matrices, oscillators & synthesizers.
 Teenage technophiles Carl Anderson and Jerry
Bishop were up to their old tricks again in this "The
Tele-Tattletale" episode of John Frye's monthly adventure in Popular Electronics
magazine. The boys were bitten by the Space Race bug that was in full swing at the
time (1958). Jerry cleverly built himself a telemetering device to mimic some of
the functions being employed on missiles and, soon to be, manned spacecraft (1961).
His setup involved a lot of different technologies and homemade electromechanical
sensors and electronic paraphernalia - all stuff that can be bought for peanuts
on Amazon for use with Arduino configurations. At first I thought maybe Mr. Frye
had slipped in his writing, because in the beginning Jerry had the remote sensor
unit inside a metal freezer...
 In 1936, a high school graduate could expect
to earn about $15 per week, or about 38¢ per hour (40-hour week), in the
nascent
radio business. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Inflation
Calculator, that is the equivalent of around $348 per week in 2026, which is not
much to live on these days. Today, many McDonalds burger flippers are being paid
$15 per hour ($600/40-hour week). That equates to a little over $26 per week in
1936 - nearly twice as much as an electronics technician who likely had military
and/or technical school training. This 1936 Radio-Craft magazine article discusses
the benefits of formal education in regard to potential earnings...
 "NTT DOCOMO, a Japan-based mobile network
operator providing telecommunications services including mobile voice, data, 5G,
and digital solutions for consumers and enterprises and Keio University Haptics
Research Center have conducted a demonstration of high-precision
remote robot operation over commercial 5G. By combining Configured Grant, a
low-latency network slicing technology, with Keio's Real Haptics® technology, force
feedback and tactile sensations were transmitted stably. The demonstration marks
the first instance of Configured Grant being used to enable practical robot teleoperation
over commercial 5G..."
 Radio-Craft magazine ran a series
of feature articles on "Men Who Made Radio." The January 1930 edition honored Canadian
engineer
Reginald A. Fessenden, who is credited for making the first
wireless voice transmission. Mr. Fessended worked with both Thomas Edison and
George Westinghouse, eventually inventing the rectifying electrolytic detector,
which was the successor of the coherer and the precursor of the crystal and the
tube detectors. His interest in communications extended beyond radio to include
sonic devices like sonar, a field in which he also gained significant renown...
 What was considered in 1937 to be a breakthrough
feat for a full-size airplane is today accomplished regularly in model airplanes.
What took hundreds of pounds of generators, radio gear, sensors, and actuators to
perform the first-ever
fully automatic landing is now done with a few ounces of microminiaturized
GPS receiver, processor, MEMS sensors, servos, and a LiPo battery. The HobbyZone
Sportsman S+RTF (see video at bottom) is an example. Most modern commercial aircraft
are capable of landing themselves in an emergency situation. Just today there was
a news report of an American Airlines pilot that died in flight and the copilot
took over to land the airplane...
|
 • How
Hackers Break into Chip Fabs
• European
Digital Market Collision
• ARRL -
3 Questions Removed from NCVEC Question Pool
• Manufacturing
Expands Amid Surging Prices
• 6G
Spectrum Sharing Shows Promise
• FCC Expands
Unlicensed Use of 6 GHz Band
 The
RF Cafe Homepage Archive
is a comprehensive collection of every item appearing daily on this website since
2008 - and many from earlier years. Many thousands of pages of unique content have
been added since then.
 Ribbon cable has been around and familiar
to most of us for as long as we can remember. The advent of personal computers in
the 1980s brought ribbon cable into the homes of millions of people in the form
of the interface to disk drives. In 1957, however, when this news story appeared
in Popular Electronics, ribbon cable, known initially as "tape cable,"
was just being introduced to industry. There was also a story on what might have
been the first flat panel display screen, the "Sylvatron,"
photoconductance device developed by Sylvania. Commercial versions for TV sets were
at least four or five years away (more like three decades away). Finally, we have
a report on bouncing radio signals off the moon for calibrating newly commissioned
satellite tracking stations, which, at the time the story was written, was waiting
for the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, to launch...
 OK, I give up. What is a "pukka amateur?"
According to an online dictionary: pukka, adj (esp in India) 1. properly or perfectly
done, constructed, etc. a pukka road 2. genuine pukka sahib. Next up: A
Blattnerphone. That sounds an awful lot like Blattenberger, or
maybe more like Blattnerberger. Anyway, a Blattnerphone was an early attempt at
recording sound on a steel tape. I thought my native language was English, but evidently
there are still some good words to learn. If you read enough vintage magazines from
the first half of the 20th century, you will run across many words and phrases that
are still in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, but you hardly ever see or hear them
used anymore...
 It is safe to say that all realms of semiconductor
technology have advanced significantly since the 1970s. Gate widths, wafer purity, doping
compounds, feature dimensions, layer stacking, power handling, operational frequency,
physical and ESD ruggedness, cost, reliability - like I said, all realms - have improved.
Laser diodes were a major development due to lower cost, compactness, spectral purity,
and lower operational voltage, as compared to lasers built from rare earth elements and
noble gases. Of course a solid state laser will never (probably) be able to shoot an
inbound ICBM out of the sky, but the vast majority of laser applications today require
only micro- or pico-power. Optical media read / write devices alone comprise a
huge fraction of the low power laser market. Modern laser diodes are employed
in, among other things, chemical analysis, range measurement, motion / position
sensors, and even play toys for cats and dogs...
 With more than 1000
custom-built stencils, this has got to be the most comprehensive set of
Visio Stencils
available for RF, analog, and digital system and schematic drawings! Every stencil
symbol has been built to fit proportionally on the included A-, B-, and C-size drawing
page templates (or use your own page if preferred). Components are provided for
system block diagrams, conceptual drawings, schematics, test equipment, racks, and
more. Page templates are provided with a preset scale (changeable) for a good presentation
that can incorporate all provided symbols...
 History keeps repeating itself. While reading
this c1966 "Radiomanship"
article by Mr. Paul Amis you might think it is a contemporary piece lamenting
the lack of technical understanding - or even interest in the technical aspects
- of amateur radio equipment. Just as with the perpetual frustration by seasoned
hobbyist veterans of all fields, concern for younger participants with their short
attention spans and busyness with many other forms of time-consuming distractions
causes the aforementioned old-timers to loose precious sleep. ...and yet our hobbies
live on, albeit maybe under different manifestations and rules. Interestingly, this
might be the first time I have read in one of these vintage QST magazines
about computers capable of talking - or about computers...
 This is a different type of Radio Service
Data Sheet in that rather than presenting a schematic and service data on a particular
piece of electronic equipment, it provides a table of "The
First 10 Metal Tubes" introduced to the industry. As reported in other articles
I have posted from the mid-1930s era magazines, the advent of vacuum tubes that
used a metal envelope rather than the typical glass envelope was pitched as the
most significant advancement in electronics since the invention of the amplifier
tube itself (Lee de Forest's Audion) in 1906. In fact, much of this October
1935 edition of Radio-Craft is dedicated to doting over the metal tube...
 I have never seen study-at-home audio-visual
(AV) physics courses offered by Albert Einstein or AV courses on chemistry promoted
by Ernest Rutherford, but I can now say I have seen study-at-home AV courses offered
by electronics pioneer Lee de Forest. This full-page advertisement for the
de Forest's Training, Inc., company of Chicago, Illinois, appeared in a 1945
edition of Radio-Craft magazine. The vaunted (at least by the company)
"Syncro-Graphic" training was an early attempt at the paperless classroom. The
student watched films reels of instruction rather than "frequent flipping of
pages to refer back or ahead to illustrations mentioned in text." It would be
another 50 years before useful computer-based-training (CBT) courses became
available for home use, but you have to give the "Father of Radio" credit for
being ahead of his time in instruction techniques...
 TrueTone was the brand name for electronic
equipment sold through Western Auto (Supply Company). Western Auto started business
in 1909 and died, sadly, in 2003. Other well-known companies had branded electronics
as well; e.g., Sears had Silverline and Montgomery Ward had Airline.
TrueTone models D1747 and D1748 were cabinet-style combination radio receiver
and phonograph. This schematic and parts list set from a 1947 issue of Radio News
magazine did not include any service data, as was provided for most radios published.
There are still many people who restore and service these vintage radios, and often
it can be difficult or impossible to find schematics and/or tuning information.
A running list of all data sheets is shown at the bottom of the page to facilitate
a search...
 Polystyrene has been commonly used in capacitors
since long before I came on the electronics scene. Its widespread use in electronic
and electrical components was first adopted in Europe in the 1920s, and then later
became popular in the U.S. where scientists improved its characteristics and lowered
its cost to where it could be found just about anywhere current flowed. This 1939
QST magazine article provides a brief introduction to polystyrene. In its present-day
form, polystyrene can be easily bent, cut, turned, polished, melted, drilled and
tapped - truly a versatile material. While polystyrene capacitors offer excellent
electrical characteristics, they are relatively large in size compared to modern
capacitor technologies. As a result, their usage has become less common in recent
years, with other smaller and more cost-effective dielectric materials dominating
the market...
 In this 1953 QST magazine article, Authors
Cohen and Hessinger warn about the need to consider the
capacitive loading effects of shielded and closely-space test leads when measuring
other than direct current or very low audio or line frequencies. Lead capacitance
is especially likely to affect measured values when the frequency is high and/or
the source and load impedances are high. As was common in the day, capacitance units
of μμfd (micro-micro farads = 10-6 x 10-6 = 10-12 F) are cited, which is equivalent
to units of pF (10-12 F)...
 Much more than just a self-serving video
of my new R/C airplane flight agility, this model represents a plethora of modern
electronics. Although the radio control system in this plane is a standard narrow
band FM variety on 72.170 MHz (as opposed to my 2.4 GHz, spread spectrum
system), the motor is a state-of-the-art 3-phase brushless model (E-flite 450)with
a sensorless electronic
speed control (E-flite EFLA331, 20 A). Power for both the radio and the
motor is supplied by a 3-cell (11.1 V) lithium polymer (Li-Po) battery rated
at 2,100 mAh with a 15C discharge current capacity. There was a time not so
long ago when no one though that electric power could ever provide a equivalent
to the nitro methane gulping internal combustion engines, but the time has come.
This all-electric setup is fairly small in size, but there are much larger motors...
 Just yesterday I posted an article titled "Understanding
Your Triggered Sweep Scope," that appeared in the May 1973 issue of Popular Electronics,
so I figured this "Scope-Trace
Quiz" would make a good compliment. It is from a 1965 issue of Popular Electronics.
Driver circuits all include a sinewave source in parallel with a series resistor and
diode, connected to the vertical and horizontal o-scope inputs. The resulting Lissajous
waveforms resemble hands on a clock face thanks to the diode. Shamefully, I only scored
70%, but in my own defense I'll say I didn't take the time to draw them out on paper.
Pay careful attention to the scope...
 In the years between graduating from high
school and the time I enlisted in the USAF that I worked as an electrician and did
many in-home service calls, never once did I encounter a situation like our hero
Pete did here. In fact, I doubt many television and radio servicemen ever did, either.
According to most of the anecdotes related by electronics servicemen, homeowners
were more likely to be abusive than dotingly appreciative. In the era (c1962) when
this
Precision Apparatus Model CR-60 Picture Tube Tester and Rejuvenator advertisement
appeared in Radio-Electronics magazine, people were crazy about their televisions,
especially as color broadcasts occurred more frequently, and many got helplessly
depressed when the set went on the blink...
 Before the ready availability of inexpensive,
accurate multimeters, obtaining a highly precise measurement of resistance required
something like a
Wheatstone bridge. According to Wikipedia, "The Wheatstone bridge was invented
by Samuel Hunter Christie in 1833 and improved and popularized by Sir Charles Wheatstone
in 1843. One of the Wheatstone bridge's initial uses was for the purpose of soils
analysis and comparison." This article from a 1972 issue of Popular Electronics
magazine discusses the operation of the Wheatstone bridge and includes a construction
project for anyone interested...
 According
to a 2001 paper published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST, formerly National Bureau of Standards, NBS), "The end of the era of quartz
frequency standards began in 1949 with the development at NBS of the world's first
atomic frequency standard based on an ammonia absorption line at 23.87 GHz."
Further, "The Bureau supported work on both technologies for the next decade, but
the rapid advances in the accuracy of atomic frequency standards could not be matched
by
quartz devices, and the work on quartz frequency standards was
stopped in 1959." This article from a 1957 edition of Popular Electronics
claims that the "master of all master-clocks" resided at the U.S. Naval Observatory
at the time - not quite accurate from what my research indicates...
 Here is a handy-dandy baker's dozen of
"kinks,"
otherwise known as
tricks of the trade, shortcuts, or clever ideas, that could prove useful while
working in the lab at work or in your shop at home. They appeared in a 1935
issue of Hugo Gernsback's Short Wave Craft magazine. One suggestion is to place a
sheet of tracing paper over your schematic while wiring a circuit and draw each
connection as it is completed, rather than mark up the original drawing. That was
definitely good for a time when making a spare copy of a magazine page or assembly
instruction from a kit was not as simple a matter as it is today. Whether it be
a schematic or a set of plans for a model airplane, I always make a copy to work
and draw notes on rather than defacing the original...
 "Are
we killing the broadcasting goose, layer of many golden eggs?" Dr. Lee de Forest
asked in his inaugural address, upon his election to the presidency of the Institute
of Radio Engineers. So went the opening editorial in a 1930 edition of Radio
News magazine. It was directed at the question of whether excessive, "gratuitous"
advertising was going to be so offensive to listeners that they would turn off the
set and go back to their former silent worlds. Remember that many, if not most,
households, and certainly not automobiles, even had radios at the time. Building
an audience was essential to nurturing the new phenomenon of radio, and to saturate
the listeners with commercials would surely doom the medium. Dr. de Forest would
be truly depressed if he could see the commercial broadcast landscape today with
it consisting of 15-20% advertising content and much of the rest filled with political...
 Here
is an odd mistake I found in this May 1955 installment of John Frye's "Carl & Jerry" teen-techno-sleuth article. When Jerry heard
a sound coming from the vicinity of his cohort Carl and did not spy an operating
radio anywhere nearby, he learned that it was coming from Carl's pocket. Turns out
it was one of the world's first transistorized radios that, according to owner Carl,
had appeared in the January 1955 issue of Popular Electronics magazine. Being an
owner of that issue, I checked and did not find mention of it there, but I did remember
seeing it in the January 1955 edition of Radio & Television News magazine in
an article entitled "A New Pocket Radio," that being the Regency TR-1 transistor
radio, priced at $49.95. Why the confusion, you might ask? Simple... |
