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Among the ruins ... two seven-foot klystrons — specialized vacuum tubes that amplify radio frequencies — that had somehow survived the crash nearly intact. They
by rkagerer 6y ago
Among the ruins ... two seven-foot klystrons — specialized vacuum tubes that amplify radio frequencies — that had somehow survived the crash nearly intact. They had been installed shortly before the first cable broke and had never been used.
Neat example of where vacuum tubes are (were) still in use!
- emptybits 6y ago"The Arecibo Planetary Radar used two klystrons that provided a total power output of 1 MW (continuous) at 2380 MHz."[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klystron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klystron
- myself248 6y agoKlystrons also power LINACs and probably other types of particle accelerators, too. You'll also see large vacuum tubes in industrial RF heaters, typically operating at 13.56MHz, which is a "garbage" frequency set aside for such uses.
- snypher 6y agoI found this pretty interesting, there's a few classic frequencies in this list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISM_radio_band https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISM_radio_band
- kweks 6y agoIt's also specifically the frequency of the a majority of RFID / NFC cards.
- myself248 6y agoThat's why -- it's a band that's by definition insensitive to noise, so nobody cares if there are a thousand industrial furnaces and a billion RFID readers screeching into it.