[Elecraft] (no subject)

[John Ragle]

  Har, har, Tom...

Transitive Verb:

Infinitive
*to discretize*

	
	

Third person singular
*discretizes <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/discretizes>*

	
	

Simple past
*discretized <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/discretized>*

	
	

Past participle
*discretized <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/discretized>*

	
	

Present participle
*discretizing <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/discretizing>*

*to discretize* (/third-person singular simple present/ *discretizes 
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/discretizes>*, /present participle/ 
*discretizing <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/discretizing>*, /simple 
past and past participle/ *discretized 
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/discretized>*)

This is not a "New Age" word at all. It refers to a process which has 
been taken from one with */continuous/* variables (variable capacitors, 
roller inductors) to one in which the L,C components are fixed, but 
relays switch from one discrete value to another, as in most automatic 
antenna tuners. ATUs are not "discrete" (can any of them keep a secret?) 
but rather "discretized" --  big difference. I think you need a new 
dictionary.

My vocabulary training took place in a very conservative (not-quite) 
one-room school house many many years ago. Although we didn't use "Horn 
Books," we did practice Palmer Penmanship (which I hated). I graduated 
from high school in 1950.

I might add that the "Fast Fourier Transform," which is so important in 
communications and with which you are doubtless familiar, is a species 
of DFT, "discretized Fourier Transform," where the integral sign of a 
normal FT is replaced by a summation sign, and the signal is chopped up 
into small but finite bits. To call it a "discrete" FT again risks 
wondering about its ability to keep secrets.  ;-)
 
There doesn't seem to be a word that refers to the reverse process, but 
it would be something like "continuous-ized" if it did exist (which it 
doesn't, thankfully).

73,

JLR

==================================


Radio Amateur N5GE wrote:
> On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:25:45 -0400, John Ragle <tpcj1r03 at crocker.com>
> wrote:
>
> Dr. Ragle,
>
> What does the word discretized mean?  I looked in the dictionary and
> can't find it.  Is it one of those new "ized/tized" words that buzz
> word users are so fond of now days?
>
> Wouldn't it be easier and more concise to type discrete?
>
> TOM, N5GE BT
>
> 73 ES GUD LUK
> AR DE N5GE SK 
>