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Monday, November 22, 2021

Superheterodyne


The Superheterodyne Radio: No really, that's its name
Technology Connections

I ran into heterodyne in a post on View From The Porch. Heterodyne is a nice, normal term relating to radio technology, but Tam's post doesn't have anything to do with radios. Is there another definition I am not familiar with? No, her usage is just a clever adaptation.

Diagram of the concept of the heterodyne frequency measurement. a) and b) Signals differing in frequency by 10%, c) Squared sum of signals, d) Beat signal.

While I'm looking up heterodyne I come across superheterodyne which I haven't heard in a coon's age. It used to be the cat's pajamas but evidently cats have quit wearing those kind of pajamas. Anyway I'm looking for an image and I'm not finding much, so I go to YouTube and found this video.

Some words from the video:
Hertz - measure of frequency in cycles per second.

Hert - Funny play on wordz. One cycle per second.

heterodyne - Combine two high-frequency signals to produce a lower frequency. Technical term from radio electronics.

superheterodyne - Same as heterodyne except all of the frequencies are well beyond the audible range, and thus "supersonic", giving rise to the name superheterodyne.

spectra hydromagnetic - a flowery marketing term, possibly derived from hydromagnetic spectra, which is the energy spectrum present around a hydromagnetic device or circuit.


1 comment:

xoxoxoBruce said...

Thank you, when I was a teen I inherited a floor model console radio from my grandfather that said superheterodyne on it but I never knew what that meant.