Topband: Palomar R-X Noise Bridge

[Tom W8JI]

> Maxwell sort of stumbled on it in later years with those tiny beads that 
> seriously overheated with most amps. We "started" with the type that fit 
> over RG-213 and went from there to custom made, the big donuts, and sheet 
> products from pioneers such as Arnold.

Walt Maxwell was not only a real nice guy, he knew his stuff. Walt was a 
senior antenna design engineer for RCA, including satellite antennas.

It is outrageous to say Walt Maxwell "sort of stumbled" on something so 
simple, and that heating of beads relates to amplifiers. The heating is much 
more an issue of abnormal common mode impedances, rather than power levels. 
Walt's article, along with articles by Lewallen, accelerated use of common 
mode chokes and current baluns. They got us away from those silly voltage 
baluns people were using.

People who don't understand how things work are the people who spend a 
lifetime "sort of stumbling" on things.  Why, I remember when Walt patiently 
taught me how conductor losses dominated transmission line loss, and why 
that was important! :-)

73 Tom