A Big Thank you
Dear Don,
A very big ‘thank-you’ to all those who responded to my ‘Plea for Help’ in the March issue of PW. I have had many offers of help and advice both via PW and to me directly. All have offered straightforward practical assistance for which I am grateful. I now feel reasonably proficient when it comes to complex numbers.
Shortly after submitting my plea, I decided I had better help myself and got on the internet and found an excellent set of tutorials (free) from the Khan Academy. These come at the problem from the mathematical angle using the operator ‘i’ rather than ‘j’ that we use in radio electronics and helped considerably in brushing up my long forgotten, and to be honest never fully acquired, algebra. In maths i follows the complex part of the number, in radio j precedes the complex component. j is used rather than i to avoid confusion with the symbol for current: ‘i’. As soon as my letter was published I received a number of letters and emails that I followed up. There was also the news that PW had recruited an author to write an article on Complex Numbers for the June Issue.
I hope correspondents will understand I was then distracted for some time owing to a family matter and also some other demands: car to be MOT’d, installing Ron Taylor’s Spectre LSB converter (See January 2019 PW) in the Marconi Challenger/Oceanic set up at Internal Fire – Museum of Power then the preparations and participation in Marconi Day, some circuit boards to complete, not to mention Ofcom’s new rules about RF exposure, which are critical at the Museum. I think I am just about clear of these distractions now and back on board with complex numbers. Of course, June PW saw the publication of
Dr Doug Fenna’s excellent article, Complex Numbers for Dummies. This is exactly what was needed going from basics, vectors, Argand diagrams, manipulation of expressions through to real-life examples. As one of my correspondents said, “you don’t want to use complex numbers as a maths wrangler” − I just want to arrive at a component that I can solder into my circuit.
I shall now be continuing my learning with a view to arriving at that practical solution.
On another topic. Thanks to Ron Taylor for his letter in June PW ‘Replacing SMD ICs’. His ingenious solutions to removing large multipin SMD devices and removing solder bridges adds to the armoury of procedures for dealing with SMDs. It is also good to see Frank Howell
K4FMH’s answer to holding SMDs while soldering.
Many thanks and best wishes to all. Michael Jones GW7BBY/GB2MOP Llangeler