Design Article
Bird Technologies celebrates 70 years of helping others be heard loud and clear
Steve Taranovich
11/15/2012 7:34 AM EST
The Model 73 coaxwitch is being sold on ebay for $174.99
The Bird THRULINE® Wattmeter model 43 was created, and first produced, in the 50s. The self-contained instrument samples the transmission line energy and uses this sample to determine transmitter output power, as well as antenna match. Its rugged, yet precise design provides for years of service as a high accuracy measurement instrument.
In the 1960s the typical mobile radio installations had the majority of their components mounted in the trunk of a car and was comparable in size to today’s microwave oven. A Bird 43 THRULINE® Wattmeter was used to measure the power output of the two-way mobile radio transmitter and to provide the indication of the antenna match with the antenna commonly mounted on the trunk. The transmission line to the antenna was very short. This provided easy access to the radio equipment which in turn made measurements convenient. Additionally, the same wattmeter was used to measure the RF power in the operational base station.
Next: RF in the front seat
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mmaddox
11/20/2012 3:21 PM EST
Great article on Bird Technologies. I have a very early copy of Bob Widlars resume that was given to me by his brother and on the resume it shows that a very young Bob Widlar worked briefly at Bird Technologies. Bob grew up in the Cleveland area. When you were researching for this article it would be interesting to know if anyone at Bird is even aware that Bob Widlar at one time was one of their employees.
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