Template:Did you know nominations/Slotted line

Slotted line

 * Symbol question.svg ... that a slotted line for microwave measurement can be made for under $10, 40 decibels cheaper than a network analyzer?
 * Reviewed: Neanderthals of Gibraltar

Created by Spinningspark (talk). Self nominated at 01:01, 6 May 2013 (UTC).


 * Date and length good. Lots of offline book sources. Hook is confusing. Slotted_line says it's a Thomas H. Lee quote. 40 decibels = 10,000, so $100,000? CallawayRox (talk) 19:48, 8 May 2013 (UTC) new reviewer
 * Hook is confusing, that's what makes it hooky! Yes, he does mean $100,000.  Spinning Spark  00:11, 9 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Symbol redirect vote 4.svg  Needs a review. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 01:06, 27 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Symbol question.svg The hook doesn't work for me. The article doesn't present the $10 cost as fact. Rather, this is presented only in a footnote and only as what one author claims. Furthermore, the source (published in 2004, which means prices aren't current) indicates that the materials for a slotted line should cost $10 or less (that price neglects the cost of the labor to make it). Additionally, I find the assertion about a "40 dB" cost reduction to be excessively obscure -- particularly because the article footnote doesn't explain that this remark refers to a four-orders-of-magnitude cost reduction (also because the footnote refers me to two different passages in the book, and this obscure remark is found in only one of them).
 * It shouldn't be necessary to use the obscure reference to 40 dB to make this hook interesting. Revise the article so that its text (ot just a footnote) provides some substantive information about the relative costs of the two devices, then revise the hook to say something like this:
 * Symbol confirmed.svg ALT1: ... that a slotted line for microwave measurement can be made for roughly one ten-thousandth of the cost of a network analyzer? --Orlady (talk) 01:01, 2 June 2013 (UTC)
 * I can go for that. I thought the 40dB hook was quite amusing, but perhaps it only works for engineers.  Article amended appropriately.  Spinning  Spark  05:35, 2 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Symbol confirmed.svg Seems acceptable now. However, I'd prefer it if the fact were in the article text, not just the footnote. Whoever considers promoting this hook should see what they think before promoting it. --Orlady (talk) 19:57, 2 June 2013 (UTC)