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All the News Fit to Link™
-Archive-
National Research Labs Decline - "New System Costs More to Perform Less Science"
World's
1st Carbon-Based 'Spaser' Could Lead to Printed Cellphones
Making Graphene
in Your Kitchen
Ultrafast Snapshots of Light-Driven Superconductivity
'Exotic'
Material is Like a Switch When Super Thin
After
8 Years FCC Shuts Down Pirate in Boston (perp using racism
as an excuse yet again)
NASA:
Engineer Vital to 1969 Moon Landing Dies
Impurity
Size Affects Performance of Emerging Superconductive Material
Google Still Top Pick for Wall Street, Despite Mobile Ad Challenges
Dream Office of the Future: No Email
Device Turns Flat Surface into Spherical Antenna
Nokia Issues
Safety Recall for 30,000 Chargers
LTE Investment
Set to Accelerate Throughout Latin America in 2014
NFC Forum Updates Specs with Support for Pairing at a Distance
Wireless Power Transfer Achieved at 5-Meter Distance
Smartphone Kill Switch Gets Breath of Life
Many Thanks to ISOTEC
for Long-Time Support
 Since
our inception in 1996, ISOTEC has been a leading manufacturer of RF and microwave connectors
such as SMA, MCX, SSMB, Low PIM, N, 7/16 type, and RF components such as attenuators,
 terminations,
power dividers and more, for wireless service providers, and other RF systems designers. We
provide recognized and trusted products and service to our customers in more than 60 countries
worldwide. ISOTEC offers also an extensive product mix with RF Filters and Multiplexers and
others.
A New Round of RF
Magazine Articles
for April
 2014
is continuing to be a great year for magazine articles. These I have
 selected
from Microwaves & RF and Microwave Journal are fine examples.
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Synthesizers: Looking
Beyond the Basics,
Alexander Chenakin
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Software-Defined-Radio
Market Sees Increased
Growth, S.h Mangiola
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Differential Drive Optimizes
Active Mixers, Q. Luu,
B. Sam
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Modern High Efficiency
Amplifier Design: Envelope
Tracking, Doherty and
Outphasing, R. Pengelly,
Z. Wang, D. Holmes,
M. Acar, R. Wesson,
M.P. van der Heijden
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Cost Effective 3D Glass
Microfabrication for
Advanced RF Packages,
J.H. Flemming, R. Cook,
S. Sibbet, C.F. Schmidt,
K. Dunn, J. Gouker
House Bill S.2206
Let Me Google That for You Act
 Question:
What do Google, LinkedIn, Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, Bing, Verizon, Microsoft, Sprint,
etc., etc., etc., all have in common? Answer: They all willingly participate
with the NSA, FBI, CIA, DHS, ATF, etc., etc., etc., in collecting as much data as possible
about you and me. You might say the former group has become an unofficial branch of the later
group. Well, it is about to become official based on
House Bill S.2206
- Let Me Google That for You. It is just as well since the Google twins
(not really twins) already get discount military jet fuel purchases
and, along with other American royalty like Mr. Gates and Jeff Bezos, have open doors to the
White House any time they demand it. The Act is ostensibly a cost-cutting measure...
Anatech Intros Cavity BPF,
Ceramic BPF, & 13 dB Coupler
 Anatech
Electronics has released new designs for a
2,533 MHz cavity bandpass filter, a 749 MHz ceramic bandpass filter, and an 800-2,500
MHz 13 dB directional coupler. All can be ordered directly through their
AMCrf web store.
Please Visit Orbel in
Appreciation of Their Support
 Orbel
is the leading designer and manufacturer of
RF Shielding and EMI/RFI Isolation Products
for printed circuit boards and electronic
 enclosures.
Board level shielding, EMI contact strips and rings, BeCu finger-stock and metalized
fabric gaskets, connector gaskets. Orbel also specializes in thin gauge
Photo Etched Metal Parts
and Precision Metal Stampings
made from a wide variety of material options.
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MPN-13 GCA Radar Model by
USAF Tech Elbert Cook
 Elbert
submitted photos of his completed
MPN-13 GCA model
with a spiffy real-looking camouflage paint job! It includes both the maintenance trailer
and the operations trailer, complete with ASR antenna, PAR antennas
(az/el), VHF and UHF antennas, and navigation hazard lights. The "M" part of "MPN"
stands for "mobile." As such, I and hundreds - maybe thousands - of USAF radar technicians
have over the decades disassembled, transported, and reassembled these radars many times.
My radar shop at Robins AFB, GA, participated in what were code-named "Healthy Strikes" two
or three times each year, whereby a claxon in the barracks rudely awoke 5th Combat Communications
Group members at around 5:00 am to signify the beginning of what would be about a week...
Carl & Jerry: Aiding an Instinct
 By
1962, John T. Frye's techie troubleshooting teenagers
Carl and Jerry had graduated from high school and were attending Parvoo University
(PU?) as electrical engineering students. It was a natural progression.
Unlike many of the company names and products - like the Delco DN278 transistor mentioned
here - that appeared in the Popular Science series, the college's name is fictional.
Maybe author Frye had a connection to Porvoo, Finland, and Anglicized the name. I ran "parvoo"
through a couple online anagram solvers to see if it was a disguised name
(which would be apropos for a detective story) and the closest
it came to a real word is 'vaporo,' which is an Esperanto term...
!!! FREE SMA Finger Wrench !!!
Courtesy Bracke Mfg.
 We
now have a source for those much-sought-after plastic
SMA
finger wrenches! Bracke Mfg manager Lawrence P. sent me an email today saying that
Bracke will be glad to mail anyone who requests them a sample of up to 5 of the SMA finger
wrenches - what a guy! I'm guessing he saw the plea posted here on RF Cafe and on various
forums for people looking desperately for the things. The
SMA
finger (thumb) wrench, known also by its Latin binomial nomenclature of 'digitus
divellit,' is a rare breed of tool for the RF / microwave engineer, and appears to be
indigenous to industry trade shows like MTT-S and European Microwave Conference...
New RF Cafe Quiz:
Microwave Circulator Design
 This
10-question quiz tests your knowledge about
microwave circulator
design. Circulator design has advanced significantly since the first edition of this book
was published 25 years ago. The objective of this second edition is to present theory, information,
and design procedures that will enable microwave engineers and technicians to design and build
circulators successfully. This resource contains a discussion of the various units used in
the circulator design computations, as well as covers the theory of operation. This book presents
numerous applications, giving microwave engineers new ideas about how to solve problems using
circulators.
Cover Sistemi Uses Microwave
Office to Design UWB Receiver
 Cover
Sistemi, an Italian electronics developer, used AWR software to
design a UWB
receiver from concept to final production in a single pass. Specifications were for a
complete design starting from the antenna through to the entire RF/baseband analog chain down
to the AD converter. Cover Sistemi used Microwave Office® for the circuit design and AXIEM®
for the EM simulation. The scope of work included all design phases, from high-level simulation
to circuit-level design and final verification of pre-layout and post-layout.
New Dilbert Book: I Sense
a Coldness to Your Mentoring
 You
can't go wrong with a good Dilbert book like
I Sense a Coldness to Your Mentoring, by Scott Adams. Dilbert is the most photocopied,
pinned-up, downloaded, faxed, and e-mailed comic strip in the world. Dubbed "the cartoon hero
of the workplace" by the San Francisco Examiner, Dilbert has been syndicated since 1989 and
now appears in 2,000 newspapers in 65 countries and 25 languages.
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Wireless Crossword Puzzle
for April 20, 2014
 I
considered not bothering to create these custom
engineering themed crossword
puzzles anymore, but in checking the website statistics, I discovered that my collection
of crosswords that began more than a decade ago has generated more than 58,000 page views
just in the last year alone. Evidently there are people who are interested. Since I make each
one new every week, it is easy for me to create a custom puzzle for your company, school,
club, event, etc. Send me an
email if you
have a request.
Walter Drake Releases Guide
to Thermoformed Packaging
 Walter
Drake, a thermoformed packaging manufacturer, has recently released the "Purchasers
Guide to Thermoformed Packaging". The guide will assist buyers and
 specifiers
in the correct selection of thermoformed packaging such as plastic clamshells, thermoformed
trays and blister packs. Walter Drake designs and manufactures custom thermoformed plastic
packaging in the form of clamshells, trays and blisters for the medical, pharmaceutical, electronic
(ESD,
static dissipative), consumer and industrial packaging applications.
ECM Announces Distribution
Agreement w/MECA Electronics
 ECM
announced a new authorized distribution agreement with
MECA Electronics to supply the manufacturer's line of USA made rugged & reliable RF/microwave
passive DC – 20 GHz microwave components and solutions globally.
MECA serves all areas of the RF/Microwave industries including world class network providers. They
have long been the "backbone" of high performance wired and air-interfaced networks such as
in-building applications, satellite communications, radar, radio communications, telemetry
applications, mobile radio, aviation and air traffic communications...
123D Circuits
for Arduino Development
 If
you haven't yet heard about the
Arduino single board
computer (SBC) experimenter's platform, then either you have
been in a coma or you are just now entering the tech world. Think of Arduino as the electronic
version of the famous mechanical Erector Set that was popular beginning in the early 20th
century. Or, consider it the "grown-up" version of Lego's computerized Mindstorms building
sets. Per the official website, "Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform
based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers,
hobbyists and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments..."
After Class:
Explaining Tuned Circuits
 Fundamentals
of resonant
tank circuits has not changed since they were first investigated more than a century ago.
This "After Class" tutorial that ran in the May 1961 edition of Popular Electronics
is typical of the series where the author speaks as though he was giving an impromptu lesson
to a gathering of students after the scheduled classroom period was over or, in this instance
as though he was having a casual discussion with a friend who was perplexed by a particular
electronics phenomenon. Figures and equations are often drawn by hand to augment the informal
setting rather than being typeset. Here, "Larry" is amazed...
What to Do with a Tape
Recorder (until the hi-fi arrives)
 Remember
tape recorders? They began going the way of the typewriter about two decades ago when
solid state voice recorders hit the market, but now smartphones with sound recording have
made even those devices seem outdated. In fact, when my daughter's house burned down a few
weeks ago, all of the on-site conversations with the insurance adjuster, fire marshal, and
housing contractors were recorded to ensure an accurate account of what was said by all parties. Even
though I was 800 miles away at the time, I was still able to listen to the dialog. In North
Carolina, law does not require you to apprise other parties...
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MegaRF Design Services
 MegaRF
Design, of Escondido, CA, is a relatively new startup engineering design and development
service. Owner
Steve
Massey, with his many years of circuit and system experience, is currently consulting
with major RF and microwave companies to provide engineering design services to develop products
for the commercial communications and military marketplace. All levels of service are provided.
He will work with you from conception to schematics to layout to physical products, and everything
in-between. RF testing and PCB prototyping services are available to complement the consultant
design services (see extensive list of
in-house equipment
and software). Please call Steve at 760-748-MEGA (6342) to learn more. "Let's go get it
done!"
Do You Need an Expert
to Sue an Expert?
 This
article by Bob Ambrogi, of
IMS Expert Services,
rhetorically asks the question of whether an 'expert' is required in order to
sue another 'expert' because of his sworn testimony.
 In
this particular case an expert was hired to help prove claims of wrongdoing by a neighboring
industrial complex. Being declared qualified as an 'expert' varies from state to state, but
it usually requires extensive documented professional experience, and/or an advanced college
degree, and/or professional registration as a result of special testing. I, for example, would
likely not qualify to serve as an expert witness in a trial. Like it or not - and many people
believe it to be a form of acceptable payola...
Don't Quit!
 When
I first saw the title of this poem from a 1941 edition of National Radio News, I thought it
was going to be a plea to amateur radio operators not to give up their hobby just because
the government would eventually prohibit broadcasting during the World War II years.
As it turns out, the poem predated that era and is instead a generic encouragement to the
magazine's readers to press on regardless of obstacles. It did show up in the Christmas issue,
so maybe it was simply a message in the spirit of peace on Earth and goodwill toward man.
In these harsh years of the government fomenting division and class envy amongst its citizens,
it's kind of hard to relate to such a gentle, kindly mindset, but indeed it did once exist
in America. Anyway, I though it was worth reprinting here. "Don't
Quit" is sort of a simpler version of Rudyard Kipling's famous poem of inspiration titled
"If."
Space Electronics:
Satellites and ET EM Waves
 Prior
to around 1960, the nature of electromagnetic radiation outside the Earth's atmosphere was
entirely a matter of scientific conjecture. As is evidenced by this 1961 article, at the time
it was still not known for certain whether
electromagnetic energy outside the bands transmitted through the ionosphere existed for
sure. There was of course no reason to believe that low frequency, long wavelength radio waves
were not present along with the rest of the spectrum, but experiments needed to be developed
that would launch satellites above the atmosphere to detect probable out-of-band signals and
then re-transmit them on frequencies known to easily penetrate the 'ether.' Many failures
occurred along the way, but persistence paid off...
An Interesting Experiment
in Weighing the Electron
 "We
might say almost, that all modern scientific investigation in the basic sciences, and a good
deal of all practical developments, are connected in some way or other with the electron."
So writes Dr. Irving J. Sax in 1932 regarding the incentive for determining as precisely
as possible the
mass and electrical
charge of an electron. The Bohr atomic model had just been introduced two decades earlier,
so the entire concept of particle physics was still in its infancy. As with most areas of
physics, experiments are conducted with particular biases and expectations such that often
the results are manipulated as needed to conform to preconceptions. Look no further than the
complex retrograde motion planetary models devised and perfected by early astronomers...
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Kirt
