ad More Scope for yourMoney owerweee 05255 [mum - 15 f F. # Exclusive OS255 $ 859* 'Canadian price. Includes two P612 probes. Duty and federal sales tax included. FOB shipping point. Pr)yinciai taxes extra where applicable Subject to change on parts without notice. and labour FEATURES AVAILABLE FROM STOCK 15MHz, dual trace, For immediate availability from 2mV/cm sensitivity stock visit the ACA Electronic Centre Here's an all new scope at nearest you in Toronto, Montreal, a new low price. The model 100ns/cm to 0.5 sec/cm Calgary and Vancouver. Shop in 0S255 is the first in a new family time base speeds person or by mail. Master Charge and Chargex-Visa accepted. of Gould/Advance scopes Variable sensitivity incorporating more features and sweep speed per dollar than previous scopes. Excellent overall trigger FREE With the 15 MHz, dual trace performance includes model 0S255 you get two PB12 A.C., D.C. or T.V. trigger. CATALOG probes at no extra cost, sum and Algebraic sum Write or phone ELECTRONIC difference capability, channel 2 and difference for your free CENTRES ACA Electronic inversion, and improved trigger of channels 1 and 2 Centre catalog. features. Plus the 0S255 is packaged X -Y display on a new in a new tubular improved 8 x 10 cm CRT housing configura- Reliability, serviceability tion designed for and portability Allan Crawford rugged field use Includes two PB12 and ease (X1, X10) probes Associates Ltd. of servicing. Toronto 416/678-1500. Montreal 514/731-8564 Vancouver 604/294-1326 Ottawa 613/829-9651, Calgary 403/230-1341, Halifax 902/469-7865 Circle No. 1 on Reader Service Card. Vol. 3. No. 9. SEPTEMBER 1979 Editor GRAHAM WIDEMAN BASc Assistant Editor electronics today JOHN VAN LIERDE international ADVERTISING INCORPORATING ELECTRONIC WORKSHOP Advertising Manager MARK CZERWINSKI BASc Advertising Services SHARON WILSON PROJECTS Advertising Representatives JIM O'BRIEN FIELD STRENGTH METER 13 Eastern Canada JEAN SEGUIN & How strong is the smell in YOUR field. ASSOCIATES INC. 601 Cote Vertu, ROAD RUNNER SOUND EFFECTS UNIT 17 St. Laurent, Quebec H4L 1X8. Nifty circuit from Jana makes all sorts of space noises. Telephone (514) 748-6561. DIGITAL WIND METER 21 Engineering overkill, but it's really neat. Subscription Department 56 BEBE LALL UP/DOWN COUNTER applications. Accounts Department Four digit general purpose subsystem for countless SENGA HARRISON Layout and Assembly SARAH -JANE NEWMAN Contributing Editors FEATURES WALLACE PARSONS (Audio) BILL JOHNSON (Amateur Radio) 28 JOHN GARNER (ShortWave Listening) OSI SUPERBOARD II/CHALLENGER 1P REVIEW DICK CARTWRIGHT (Servicing More for less, if you can find one. STEVE RIMMER (Video) SOLAR POWER FROM SATELLITES 46 EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING Yes, but what about the extension cord? OFFICES REED SWITCHES PART 3 60 Unit 6, 25 Overlea Boulevard, Final part of our look at these handy devices. Toronto, Ontario, M4H 1 B1 Telephone (416) 423-3262 Published by Electronics Today International (Canada) Ltd. NEWS &COLUMNS Printed by Livingstone Printing Ltd 4 Delta Web Graphics NEWS DIGEST 9 News Stand Distribution AUDIO TODAY Master Media, Oakville. Preamp and amp design. COPYRIGHT WHAT'S ON 38 Allmaterial is subjectto worldwide Looking at video cameras. copyright protection.All reasonable SERVICE NEWS 43 careistaken to ensure the accuracy Pension plan and technical tips. of the information. FAR EAST LISTENING 58 All ETI PCB Patterns are copyright . Shortwave World looks east. No company may sell boards to our 59 designs without our permission. QRM Why are there so many failures? 65 INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS TEACHERS' TOPICS Electronics Today International, 25-27 CMOS is ideal for experiments. Oxford St., London W1R 1RF U.K. CALCULATOR FOOTBALL 68 Editor Ron Harris Softspot: software for calculators. Electronics Today International FUN OF ELECTRONICS 70 Ryrie House, 15 Boundary St., Rushcutters Bay, Sydney, Australia. Managing Editor Collyn Rivers. Acting Editor Roger Harrison Elrad INFO & MISCELLANEOUS Kommanditgesellschaft, Bissendorfer Next Month In ETI 37 Classified Ads 71 Strasse 8, 3000 Hannover 61 Germany ETI Special Book Service ....51 ETI Project File 72 Editor Udo Wittig Service special des livres ..51,53 Marketplace 73 Subscriptions 54Tower's Trans. Sub. Guide ...73 Postal Information Free Library Subscriptions ...54 General Reader Information ..74 Second ClassMail registration number Reader Service Card 54 Advertisers' Index 74 postage guaranteed. Post 3955. Return Babani Electronics Books ....55 officereturnstoUnit 6, 25 Overlea Blvd., Toronto, Ontario. M4H 181 3 ETI CANADA-SEPTEMBER 1979 NEWS DIGEST procedure andchecksthedata collected. A keyboard is not required for data input. Rather, part of the data is preprinted,suchasthesupplier's number, on magnetized code cards, and part is fed in automatically, as for example, the volume and temperature of the milk intake. F M W d MAW MIMS aMIIM Al MUMS After electronic checking, the data ; M6. ISM It 44 drte. are stored in a plug-in type of data ISM IA! carrier which has a solid-statememory It *ISM SR V, and does notrequire batteries. aMIMICCM . M to k U OIMIMDMMIr Consequently,the chance of I OIL ISM - accidental memory loss is eliminated. "C(MUMIM I5 iN VW S ,M0V065G The mobile unit on the tanker may contain a printer so that the information in storage can be printed for each milk supplier, with or without a copy for a milksample. The RMO System complies with standards laid down by weights and measures authoritiesinthe Netherlands. Modular design of the unit makesitpossible tofulfillspecific requirements of individual customers. For further details, please write to the Weidner Communications Model 100 Translator. Comprehensive editing facilitiesare Royal Netherlands Embassy, ConGill designed to aid the human translator, not replace him. The deviceis aimed at small compa- nies which do large amounts of business in two languages. Building, 275 Slater Street, Ottawa KIP 5H9, Ontario, Canada. English/French Translation word being translated could have more System thanone meaningintheoutput Weidner Communications has recently language. The translator selects the demonstrated a computerized appropriate word and pushes a button MEM languageconversionsystemthat to insert it into the translation. He can instantly translates written documents also rearrange the sentence as desired. from English to French and French to Once he is finished with this refinement English in this country. process, the translation comes out of o o I The translation system has been the system via the printer in camera- developed and is now being marketed ready form. by Weidner Communications Inc. of La The idea of using computers in Jolla, Calif. translationis not new. A variety of The Weidner system, introduced in experiments in this field have been New Yorklastfallwithan made for almost 30 years, but none has English/Spanishcapability,supple- proved commercially feasible. ments rather than replaces the work of the human translator, enabling him to Error -Proof Data System For function as an editor, devoting his time Milk Tankers and attention to thefew wordsthat need A new electronic data collection system refinement. built specifically for bulk milk tank The Weidner100,asthe trucks is claimed to virtually eliminate English/French systemiscalled,is errors in recording the quantities of designed to be cost effective for any milk picked up from local farms and firm that has as few as two translators processing plants. on staff. The system can translate raw Already test marketed under adverse data from a source language to a target conditions,thenew "RMOData language at a speed of 20,000 words an System" produced by Enraf Nonius hour. N.V.oftheNetherlands,willbe The Weidner system reserves the introduced soon in North America. By humantranslator'sskillsforthe using the well-known Hamming Code, refinement of the raw text that the the system unscrambles and corrects system rapidly translates and projects errors caused in the machine itself. on the CRT screen. A computerized The heart of the system is a mobile word finder provides a selection of unit mounted on a tanker. This unit RMO Data System provides a means of accu- words at the top of the screen when a supervises the loading and discharging rately measuring quantities of milk. 4 ETI CANADA-SEPTEMBER 1979 Computer Catalog Feedback Dan O'Hara of CompuShop Canada in Alberta sends along some corrections for our Apple write-up in June '79 ETI. More Info For Readers: SpecificallythatInteger BASIC requires 7K bytes and that Apple Soft ETI Introduces Reader Service Cards need ten and a half. Also all unitssold in the last year have six colours in high resolution instead of four. He also noted that prices quoted were 20% higher than those in Alberta. A 16K Apple II is priced at $1775 as opposed to The advertisersinthismagazine are more information will be on its way to the $2200 we quoted. interested in talking to you about their you. Formoreinformation,writeto products o- services. That is, of course, The Reader Service Card will also CompuShop Canada Ltd., #107 Atrium why they are advertising. But they provide advertisers with usefulinfor- Square, 4014 Macleod Trail South, can't necessarily say all they would like, mation about what products interest Calgary, Alberta T2N OW2. Tell them and besides, theycan'tanticipate readers, and how best to present their ETI sent you. allyour questions. So you may be advertisements. The end resultisa Austin Hook of The Computer Shop left wanting more information. better response