Abstract: A ball is formed at the tip of a wire by an arc. The arc is initiated and maintained across an air gap between the wire tip and an electrode by applying timed RF and DC voltages between them.

Abstract: Transmitter are receiver systems are disclosed including an encoder and a decorder, respectively. The encoder samples an incoming analog video signal and operates a periodic bipolar pulse pair whose phase separation is proportional to the amplitudes of the sampled data, thus pulse position modulation (PPM). In one embodiment of the invention the coded in-phase pulses are applied to a first channel having an intermediate frequency (IF) dispersive delay line with a positive-sloped transfer function. The out-of-phase pulses are applied to a second channel having a dispersive delay line with a negative-sloped, or conjugate, transfer function. The two channels of positive and negative dispersed pulses are added together resulting in a complex IF waveform. The complex IF waveform is frequency translated to a suitable time varying DC voltage waveform for controlling a transmitter.