[Elecraft] Puffing to keep up with the Nanofarads...

[Larry Phipps]

Yes, this does seem logical... I have a kit of precision resistors 
that's at least 15 years old that is marked in that way... so it's not 
new. I know there have been recent attempts to standardize on a new 
system for parts... put forth by CCIR or IEEE or someone.

I guess I can deal with change, but there's something comforting about 
the system that was in place when I used to flip through the Allied and 
Lafayette catalogs as a youth... when the warm glow of vacuum tubes 
permeated the shack, when we used to have to trudge through a mile of 6' 
deep snow to go to school, when an atom was only made up of protons, 
neutrons and electrons... and when Superman stood for Truth, Justice and 
the American way ;-)

Larry N8LP


>In Europe at least things seem to have gone another step forward in some  
>quarters with what was expressed as 4.7nF (0.0047uF) now often written as 4n7.  
>This follows through in other decades as 4p7 for 4.7pF, 4u7 for 4.7uF and so 
>on.  The idea also seems to have been used with resistors where a 0.47 ohm is 
>seen as  R47, a 4.7 ohm is now seen as 4R7, a 4.7K ohm as 4K7 and a 4.7M ohm as  
>4M7.
> 
>The method has less chance of misinterpretation it would seem.
> 
>The biggest change on my part was going from metres to kc/s and the like,  
>kc/s to kHz not really representing a problem.
> 
>Bob, G3VVT
>  
>