World map on tape Laying its cloaks and daggers aside for the moment, the Central Intelligence Agency has come up with something that should interest any serious world watcher—a new cartographic data base that will enable the user to find his or her way around this earth via just five magnetic tapes.

World Data Bank II, which is being offered by the CIA through the U.S. Department of Commerce, is the latest commercial digital data base for generating maps on graphics displays. It contains about six million points to represent natural and man-made fea-tures of the world, compared with some 100 000 points in an earlier offering, World Data Base I.

The new data base divides the world into five geographic areas — North America, South America, Europe, Af-rica, and Asia—and each area is con-tained on a single magnetic tape. Coastlines, islands, and lakes that ap-pear on all maps are among the natural features found in World Data Bank II, as are intermittent lakes, reefs, ice shelves, and even glaciers. It also de-tails waterways such as major and minor rivers and canals for commerce and for irrigation.

Man-made features include perma-nent international boundaries, bound-aries that may be indefinite or in dis-pute, and other lines of separation or sovereignty on land.

For use with World Data Bank II, the CIA also provides an edition of the CAM (cartographic automatic map-

ping) Fortran program to perform a wide variety of cartographic functions. For example, CAM can connect points with straight lines or circles and can draw line grids and range rings, el-lipses, or cones, and produce symbols and azimuths.

Details are available from the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Technical Information Service, Springfield Va. 22151.

Learn about fiber optics from an engineering kit "Do it yourself" is in. There are kits for everything, from model airplanes to model homes. The latest: two en-gineering kits from Centronic, each of which contains all of the essential components for a fiber optics system that can simulate an existing hard-wired transmission link—two transmit-ting diodes, two receiving diodes, and one or two lengths of optical fiber ca-ble, plus an applications manual. The kits differ in system-bandwidth capa-bility.

The first kit offers one 300-ìË¥ in-frared and one 2^W red LED trans-mitter, both suitable for modulation frequencies of 1 and 5 MHz. The re-ceivers have compatible response speeds, and one is a hybrid unit with an integral preamplifier. One 5-meter cable is included.

The other kit features a high (1-mW) infrared laser-diode transmitter with a 40-MHz bandwidth. A second trans-mitter is a 1-MHz infrared LED. One of the two receivers, a fast photodiode, has an 80-MHz bandwidth, and the other, with an integral preamplifier, has a 6-MHz bandwidth. The kit has both 5- and 20-meter cables.

All cables have relatively high at-tenuation (1 dB/m) so that short lengths convenient for experiments can simu-late actual installation of much longer distances.

For more information, write to Cen-tronic, Mountainside, N.J. 07092.

Inventions are focus of new publication The world of invention is the province of New Products magazine, a new quar-terly publication designed for the eyes of manufacturers, development en-gineers, and product planners.

Some 150 inventions — ranging from simple, effective solutions to everyday problems to specialized devices that improve operations or speed produc-tion in commercial uses — are covered, in the first issue. Its contents, for example, run the gamut from a direct/ remote automobile ignition starter and a light-switch timer device to a wind-operated amphibious vehicle and a flush-tank water saver. Plans for sub-sequent issues include digests of arti-cles from other publications, a section on new technology, and information on projected programs of major indus-tries.

New Products magazine is available on a subscription basis only, at $36 per year. For a free introductory copy, con-tact Associate Editor Alan Adelson, L,awrence Peska Associates, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10036.

Nipper meets Hugo For radio-history buffs, there's good news tonight. Nipper, RCA's familiar fox terrier, is costarring with a new sheepdog friend, Hugo, in an extensive sales-promotion campaign for the company's line of 40-channel citizens-band radios.

Since the turn of the century, Nipper and the "His Master's Voice" trademark have been closely as-sociated with RCA's sound-reproduction equipment. RCA hopes

the same kind of association will de-velop between Nipper and Hugo and a new line of nine CB radios. The com-pany has starred the two in television commercials and on promotional de-vices ranging from statuettes of Nipper to Nipper and Hugo key chains and coffee mugs.

The 49-MHz club Feel a need to belong? All you need is an interest in radio, and you too can be a member of the not-so-exclusive 49-MHz Radio Club—an international organization promoting and encourag-ing personal radio communication.

It all goes back to last January, when the Federal Communications Com-mission officially set aside the 49.82-49.90-MHz band for personal com-munications. Anyone can use the

band. No FCC license is required, and ^ there is no age restriction. Communi-cations equipment may be either com-mercial or home-made. FCC regula-tions permit any modulation bandwidth (as long as the 49.82-49.90-band is not exceeded), any kind of modulation, and up to 100 milliwatts of modulated RF power.

When you join the club by sending in your registration fee of $5, you receive a registration certificate with an "on-the-air" identification number, listing in the "49-MHz Register of Radio Operators," an identification plate to mount on radio or personal property, and a listing of FCC rules and regula-tions regarding operation in the band.

To join or to receive more informa-tion, write to the 49-MHz Radio Club, P.O. Box 1400, Downey, Calif. 90240.

IEEE spectrum DECEMBER 1977 15