Was Matt Groening Inspired by a CDMA Plot?

Besides loads of useful stuff over at www.microwaves101.com, the authors have posted what they call a ”politically incorrect”  microwave slang glossary.  While it predictably features some of the usual crude and sophmoric lab humor, there’s a lot of amusing terms that will ring familiar to most engineers – myself included.

A Simpsons fan, I’m particularly fond of Bart’s Head: 

“‘Bart’s Head’ is the colloquial term for the waveform in the frequency domain of a CDMA signal as viewed on a spectrum analyzer. When operating correctly, it looks a lot like Bart Simpson’s head. Square sides, kind of choppy on the top. You might hear something like; ” I looked at the Bart’s head at the antenna port, and it rolls pretty sharply, I think the duplexer is tweaked” “

3 Comments

1. 
   Frank Baehr
   October 31, 2008

   There is indeed such a plug. It is CEI 23-16/VII and apparently used in Itally, Chile and parts of North Africa.

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2. 
   Frank Baehr
   October 31, 2008

   It should have been “Italy”, of course. The keyboard was faster than my aging hand.

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3. 
   dominic hayes
   November 26, 2008

   That looks more like an OFDM spectra to me.

   reply