Please Explain Correction

In the February “Feedback” under ‘Misleading Survey Results,’ what are you trying to say in the last paragraph? It is a negative statement and is not easily understood.
Bob Langley

Hello Bob,
To summarize, we ran a quick online survey to see what people thought of AVX acquiring American Technical Ceramics. First of all, I was “leading the witness” with the phrasing of the question, asking if it was a good thing, although we do have to “steer” these quick surveys in order to get a “yes” or a “no” answer. But I could have asked it in a more impartial way. Also, there were only seven responses: two for and five against. We automatically post the results on these things but, obviously, you wouldn’t want just seven people electing the next President of the US.

My concern in asking the question was on behalf of American Technical Ceramics, which I have known to be an excellent supplier of caps to many customers and I didn’t want to see that supply jeopardized by the takeover of a larger company that is less known for its RF products and more as a mainstream electronics supplier. I didn’t mean to disparage AVX in any way, which is a fine company and certainly will bring financial stability to ATC. I thus felt the need to apologize publicly, although it may not have been clear as you have pointed out.
Sincerely,
Jack Browne, Technical Director

Clarification On Equations

I would like to point out a series of errors that appear to have occurred in the Cover Feature of your March 2008 issue on the Analog Devices’ low-power AD9313 direct-digital synthesizer (DDS) due to some typesetting mistakes. In equation 1 and in the following text, the parameter C (for number of bits) should appear as a superscript. For example, equation 1 should appear as:
f_O/f_S = M/2^C
Likewise, the mention of the programmable modulus number, N, in the text should appear as N = 2^C.
Jeff Keip

Get To The Right Web Site

In our March issue, the article “Synthesizers Squeeze Into Smaller Spaces” mentioned Elcom Technologies. Unfortunately, when the article was posted on our web site, it listed the wrong web address for that company. Please visit www.elcom-tech.com to learn more about Elcom Technologies. We apologize for any inconvenience.