Tim Shoppa wrote:
A terminology question I suppose about the derivation of the term
"Superheterodyne" more than anything else:

Does the "Super" actually mean anything? Is there a Subheterodyne?

Traditionally superhets mix a higher radio frequency down to a lower
IF frequency, but certainly in the past few decades radios with IF's
above the RF frequency have become very common in broadband
applications, and those are still called superhets, not subhets :-).

The IF frequency is above the signal frequency, hence the "super"
prefix.

There are also "homodyne" receivers, where the local oscillator is
at the same frequency as the received carrier. These convert the input signal
all the way down to the output signal in one step. This was an
early idea, but until phase locked loops were figured out, hard to make work.
It's used today in some microwave and optical systems.

John Nagle