Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Radio Guide?????
On another list, populated by people with good guessing skills, poor memories
and so on, the question of where did the RG numbers come from? The most popular answer told with the most auhtority is that RG stands for "Radio Guide", as a device, the predecessor to wave guides. I was under the impression, and may have read from a better source that it does indeed stand for Radio Guide, but that was a tile of a book. Is that the case, are we all wrong? If it is from the title of a book, does anyone have a link to, or can send me a (scanned?) copy of it? TIA, Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, N3OWJ/4X1GM/KBUH7245/KBUW5379 "Owning a smartphone: Technology's equivalent to learning to play chopsticks on the piano as a child and thinking you're a musician." (sent to me by a friend) |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Radio Guide?????
In article ,
"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" wrote: On another list, populated by people with good guessing skills, poor memories and so on, the question of where did the RG numbers come from? The most popular answer told with the most auhtority is that RG stands for "Radio Guide", as a device, the predecessor to wave guides. I was under the impression, and may have read from a better source that it does indeed stand for Radio Guide, but that was a tile of a book. Is that the case, are we all wrong? Geoff- One problem I've found when researching old information on the internet, is that history appears to have started with the internet's invention. There is a lot of old printed data that may never be typed into machine-readable form unless someone needs it. This is the first time I've heard this explanation of RG. It was my understanding that RG was a relatively arbitrary military designation. You will find other designations related to Co-ax connectors such as UG. I'd look for older military documents that listed various other designations, such as ARC-5, BC-459, et cetera, where each letter has a meaning related to the equipment's use. I doubt that "guide" was used prior to microwaves. Co-ax has two conductors. A waveguide has a single "conductor": its inside wall. In other words, it appears to guide the energy rather than conduct it. Fred K4DII |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Radio Guide?????
On Mon, 29 Oct 2012 21:19:05 +0000 (UTC), "Geoffrey S. Mendelson"
wrote: On another list, populated by people with good guessing skills, poor memories and so on, the question of where did the RG numbers come from? The most popular answer told with the most auhtority is that RG stands for "Radio Guide", as a device, the predecessor to wave guides. I was under the impression, and may have read from a better source that it does indeed stand for Radio Guide, but that was a tile of a book. Is that the case, are we all wrong? If it is from the title of a book, does anyone have a link to, or can send me a (scanned?) copy of it? The current consensus is that it means "Radio Guide" and that it was a big heavy printed book called "Army-Navy List of Preferred Cables" as part of MIL-HDBK-216. The problem is that nobody I can find has ever seen such a book or offered a scanned image of at least one page. http://www.avsforum.com/t/1433989/rg11-compression-connector-installation#post_22497621 Note that the book was dated in the early 1960's. I believe coax cable was in use with the RG designation long before 1960. Methinks the whole thing is rubbish. 2nd best is "Radio Grade", which simply means that it's suitable for use on a radio. That begs the question why it would be necessary to even have such a designation, making that rather improbable. My guess(tm) is that it's someone's initials or a combination of the last names of the draftsmen that were charged with documenting the cables. Coax cable was invented at AT&T by Lloyd Espenschied and Herman Affel in about 1928 or 1929, a patent issued in 1931, and commercialized in 1941. My guess(tm) is that the RG designation appeared somewhat after commercialization and sales to the military during WWII. Original coax cable patent. http://www.google.com/patents?vid=1835031 -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Radio Guide?????
In Press Jones (N8UG) Wirebook IV, he writes "Cables used at radio
frequencies and manufactured for the government in this country have identified and classified with the "RG" legend since the 1940s. R = Radio Frequency G = Government 8 = an example of the sequential number assigned to the government approval, thus, RG8/U U = Universal Specification .... unquote Bob k5qwg On Mon, 29 Oct 2012 21:19:05 +0000 (UTC), "Geoffrey S. Mendelson" wrote: On another list, populated by people with good guessing skills, poor memories and so on, the question of where did the RG numbers come from? The most popular answer told with the most auhtority is that RG stands for "Radio Guide", as a device, the predecessor to wave guides. I was under the impression, and may have read from a better source that it does indeed stand for Radio Guide, but that was a tile of a book. Is that the case, are we all wrong? If it is from the title of a book, does anyone have a link to, or can send me a (scanned?) copy of it? TIA, Geoff. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Radio Guide?????
"Jeff Liebermann" wrote in message
... On Mon, 29 Oct 2012 21:19:05 +0000 (UTC), "Geoffrey S. Mendelson" wrote: On another list, populated by people with good guessing skills, poor memories and so on, the question of where did the RG numbers come from? The most popular answer told with the most auhtority is that RG stands for "Radio Guide", as a device, the predecessor to wave guides. I was under the impression, and may have read from a better source that it does indeed stand for Radio Guide, but that was a tile of a book. Is that the case, are we all wrong? If it is from the title of a book, does anyone have a link to, or can send me a (scanned?) copy of it? The current consensus is that it means "Radio Guide" and that it was a big heavy printed book called "Army-Navy List of Preferred Cables" as part of MIL-HDBK-216. The problem is that nobody I can find has ever seen such a book or offered a scanned image of at least one page. http://www.avsforum.com/t/1433989/rg11-compression-connector-installation#post_22497621 Note that the book was dated in the early 1960's. I believe coax cable was in use with the RG designation long before 1960. Methinks the whole thing is rubbish. 2nd best is "Radio Grade", which simply means that it's suitable for use on a radio. That begs the question why it would be necessary to even have such a designation, making that rather improbable. My guess(tm) is that it's someone's initials or a combination of the last names of the draftsmen that were charged with documenting the cables. Coax cable was invented at AT&T by Lloyd Espenschied and Herman Affel in about 1928 or 1929, a patent issued in 1931, and commercialized in 1941. My guess(tm) is that the RG designation appeared somewhat after commercialization and sales to the military during WWII. Original coax cable patent. http://www.google.com/patents?vid=1835031 -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 There's evidence that Oliver Heaviside patented a new arrangement of two conductors that would include co-axial in 1880, in a British patent numbered 1407. I haven't found a FOC source for downloading a copy of that patent but there's reference to it on the web (e.g. by Googling 'heaviside coaxial cable patent'). Google Books has 'Oliver Heaviside: The life, work and times of an electrical genius of the Victorian age' in which Page xvi refers. I didn't spot any reference to such prior art in the AT&T patent but, of course, they may have had no knowledge of something patented across the pond 51 years earlier ... particularly before the advent of under-sea co-axial cables! However, where I used to work we had an extensive set of transcriptions of the work of Heaviside (Heaviside. O. Electromagnetic theory. Benn Brothers Ltd., London, 1922) and when I tried to research Heaviside's condition for a distortionless line (G/C = R/L) I was bogged down by an awful lot of waffle and found it impossible to determine what he actually meant by 'distortionless' - some say absence of dispersion, I thought absence of a limited frequency response. So, sacriligeous as it may seem, I wonder if the US patent is actually the first one about co-axial conductors that anyone other than the patentee actually understood! Chris (cynic) |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Chicago Radio Guide | Broadcasting | |||
FREE for POSTAGE: 1990 Radio Shack Police Call Radio Guide Volume #4 - IL, IN, WI, KY | Scanner | |||
A weekly guide to Ham Radio | Homebrew | |||
A weekly guide to Ham Radio | Homebrew | |||
Guide to the rec.radio Newsgroups | Antenna |