Today in Science History -
 Here is a handy-dandy baker's dozen of 'kinks,' otherwise known as tricks of the trade, shortcuts, or clever ideas, that could prove useful while working in the lab at work or in your shop at home. One suggestion is to place a sheet of tracing paper over your schematic while wiring a circuit and draw each connection as it is completed, rather than mark up the original drawing. That was definitely good for a time when making a spare copy of a magazine page or assembly instruction from a kit was not as simple a matter as it is today. Whether it be a schematic or a set of plans for a model airplane, I always make a copy to work and draw notes on rather than defacing the original...
 "Scientists at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Socionext have designed the world's smallest all-digital phase-locked loop (PLL). PLLs are critical clocking circuits in virtually all digital applications, and reducing their size and improving their performance is a necessary step to enabling the development of next-generation technologies. New or improved technologies, such as artificial intelligence, 5G cellular communications, and the Internet-of-Things, are expected to bring revolutionary changes in society. But for that to happen, high-performance system-on-a-chip (SoC) devices are indispensable. A core building block of SoC devices is the phase-locked loop (PLL), a circuit that synchronizes with the frequency of a reference oscillation and outputs a signal with the same or higher frequency..."
 The ARRL RFI Book 3rd Edition, written by Mike Gruber (W1RM), will help you to find and resolve interference. This book covers the causes and cures of many interference problems that you may experience. Everything from automotive to television, from computers to DVD players, and audio equipment to telephones can create a problem. The ARRL RFI Book offers a convenient, step-by-step process to eliminate problematic radio frequency interference. As technology increases, the likelihood of interference increases, too. Be ready to battle the noise with The RFI Book 3rd Edition from The American Radio Relay League.
 Stan Goldberg is a familiar name to comic book aficionados for his artistry in Spider Man, the Incredible Hulk, and the Archie series. QST magazine had him listed in the "Silent Keys" column in the November 2014 issue because he passed away in August. A Silent Key, in Hamdom, is usually a title reserved for a deceased licensed operator (the 'key' reference being a Morse code key), but a search of the Internet and the FCC license database web page did not turn up a call sign for him. Unless his record has been dropped from the database, Mr. Goldberg might never have actually been a Ham, but earned the Silent Key acknowledgement because of his involvement in a 1986 special edition comic book titled "Archie's Ham Radio Adventure." It was quite an extensive story that involved all the familiar Archie characters, and even had a section addressed to parents encouraging them to promote both their kids' and their own interest in amateur radio as an educational and character building tool...
 The RF & Microwave 2020 event will be held on March 18th & 19th at Porte de Versailles, Paris. According to the brochure, 7 good reasons to participate include: "RF & Microwave est le seul rendez-vous en France pour les domaines des radiofréquences, des hyperfréquences, du wireless, de la CEM; Vous rencontrez et échangez avec des visiteurs qualifiés; Vous bénéficiez de l'importante communication du salon: newsletters, catalogue, site internet, et gagnez en vivibilité; Ce rendez-vous vous permet de gagner un temps précieux..."
 Withwave manufactures an extensive line of metrology quality coaxial test cable assemblies, connectors (wave-, end-, vertical-launch, board edge, panel mount), calibration kits (SOLT), a fully automated 4-port vector network analyzer (VNA) calibrator, between- and in-series connector adaptors, attenuators, terminations, DC blocks, torque wrenches, test probes & probe positioner. Special test fixtures for calibration and multicoax cable assemblies. Frequency ranges from DC through 110 GHz. Please contact Withwave today to see how they can help your project succeed.
 Reading this article from a 1950 issue of Radio & Television News magazine reminds me of a basic truth - at least for receiving, it is usually possible to realize obtain useful operation with just about any reasonable length of straight wire for an antenna. Transmitting is a different story since poor VSWR conditions on the antenna connection can damage or cause to shut down the output stage of an RF power amplifier. Still, if your transmitter can survive a high VSWR, then chances are you can send out a useful signal. You won't be breaking any DX records or winning any contests, but you won't be dead in the water. Surely anyone over 40 years old has jury-rigged an FM radio antenna out of a length of straight (or bent) wire and/or fashioned a sheet of aluminum foil around a set-top television antenna to pick up an acceptable signal. In many cases where the 300 Ω twin-lead cable was improperly snaked along an aluminum gutter or aluminum siding on a house on its way to the rooftop antenna or had a long length of excess cable coiled...
 If you are an Elon Musk acolyte, which to a degree, I am, then you might want to plan on attending Satellite 2020 in Washington, D.C., from March 9-12. Mr. Musk, whose enterprises include SpaceX and Tesla, will be the keynote speaker. The cost of admittance to just the exhibit hall is $99, and prices go up from there (a la IMS2020). Sometimes you can find an exhibitor to sponsor your attendance since they are usually provided with a number of free tickets. Check the exhibitor list and try contacting someone from a company whose products you use. "SATELLITE's purpose involves cultivating an environment where the individual AND the collective can thrive. We're very proud of our international DNA, it’s reflective of our belief that we can achieve so much more when we work together. It may sound cheesy, but breaking the traditional barriers between people, companies, countries and industries can lead to outcomes that we never imagined possible when we stay in our silos..."
 QST reader Dave Berman, WA2PAY, wrote in the March 2020 issue's "Letters from Our Members" column about an episode of the old "Highway Patrol" television show entitled, "Radioactive," wherein the ARRL (American Radio Relay League" is mentioned and Ham radio operator Pat Conway plays a lead role in the show. Broderick Crawford stars as head highway patrolman Dan Mathews. I did some screen shots of Mel's shack showing the massive transmitter cabinet and the receiving station desk. On a table across the room is a Precision Apparatus Co. E-200-C Signal Generator. Do you recognize any of the other equipment? Note on the chalkboard that the nuclear scientist has beryllium misspelled as "berilium," unless he happens to be an Indonesian, in which case it's OK...
 Sam Benzacar of Anatech Electronics, an RF and microwave filter company, has published his February newsletter that features his short op−ed entitled "Dynamic Spectrum Sharing Coming Next Year," which discusses the quandary the wireless industry finds itself in with very limited spectrum available in the millimeter-wave bands that can accommodate high data rates necessary for 5G schemes. I like a statement made from another source about 5G being the first wireless protocol to perform like wired connections, but without the wires. Until more spectrum is freed up, some form of spectrum sharing plan is needed, and service providers are working on what had been dubbed "dynamic spectrum sharing" (an innovation claimed Ericsson), which allows available segments of spectrum to be accessed...
 "DARPA has selected nine research teams to develop advanced RF mixed-mode electronics critical to emerging defense applications in communications, radar, and electronic warfare under the Technologies for Mixed-mode Ultra Scaled Integrated Circuits (T-MUSIC) program. T-MUSIC was first announced in January 2019 as a part of the second phase of DARPA’s Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI). These RF mixed-mode interfaces will target the current limitation of in-efficiency of CMOS platforms, where they are unable to support operations at higher frequencies with larger signal bandwidths. Today’s defense electronics systems rely on radio frequency (RF) mixed-mode electronics..."
 With more than 1000 custom-built symbols, this has got to be the most comprehensive set of Visio Symbols for RF, analog, and digital system and schematic drawings! Every object has been built to fit proportionally on the provided A-, B- and C-size drawing page templates (or can use your own). Symbols are provided for equipment racks and test equipment, system block diagrams, conceptual drawings, and schematics. Unlike previous versions, these are NOT Stencils, but instead are all contained on tabbed pages within a single Visio document. That puts everything in front of you in its full glory. Just copy and paste what you need on your drawing. The file format is XML so everything plays nicely with Visio 2013 and later...
 TotalTemp Technologies has more than 40 years of combined experience providing thermal platforms. Thermal Platforms are available to provide temperatures between −100°C and +200°C for cryogenic cooling, recirculating circulating coolers, temperature chambers and temperature controllers, thermal range safety controllers, space simulation chambers, hybrid benchtop chambers, custom systems and platforms. Manual and automated configurations for laboratory and production environments. Please contact TotalTemp Technologies today to learn how they can help your project.
 As with my hundreds of previous science and engineering-themed crossword puzzles, this one for February 23, 2020, contains only clues and terms associated with engineering, science, physical, astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, etc., which I have built up over nearly two decades. Many new words and company names have been added that had not even been created when I started in the year 2002. You will never find a word taxing your knowledge of a numbnut soap opera star or the name of some obscure village in the Andes mountains. You might, however, encounter the name of a movie star like Hedy Lamarr or a geographical location like Tunguska, Russia, for reasons which, if you don't already know, might surprise you.
 In 1971 the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), convened a meeting dubbed the World Administrative Radio Conference for Space Telecommunications (WARC-ST). The ITU was a specialized agency of the United Nations for telecommunications, with a membership of 140 nations. Satellite communications was barely a decade old, but already the need for international agreements on spectrum usage had become very apparent. Prior to the 1971 meeting, there was the 1963 Extraordinary Administrative Radio Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland. Amateur radio had its presence in the game acknowledged with further allocations for its members' OSCAR birds; six had been flown already. As of this writing there are about 20 OSCAR satellites still in operation. Amateur satellites take many forms these days, including the newest trend in CubeSat platforms with a well-defined set of specifications on dimensions and mass per cube. Launches are provided on a space available basis at a substantially discounted cost...
 To help grow the next generation of RF Engineers, Copper Mountain Technologies (CMT) has become a corporate partner with the Purdue University Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Program in West Lafayette, Indiana. The mission of CMT is to extend the reach of engineers by providing vector network analyzers that are portable, accessible, and affordable. By partnering with Purdue, we hope to promote growth in the increasingly important field of RF engineering. Despite a recent rise in engineering students and degree options, there is a shortage of RF engineers. With the abundance of wireless and IoT devices being created around the world, the requirement for engineers researching, designing, and working with these devices has grown and the demand for these professionals is not being met. There is a wide range of job opportunities for RF engineers in industries...
 QST did a regular series of articles titled "Hams in Combat" during World War II. This story is unique in nature in that it tells of a newspaperman-turned-soldier who, in the story writer's mind, would have been the most suited for the job of author. It tells a far different story of the South Pacific than we were treated to in weekly episodes of McHale's Navy! "Had this story been written by the man who should have written it - Capt. William H. Graham, W9BNC - it would have been one of the greatest "Hams in Combat" yarns ever told in these pages. But Bill Graham never got around to writing his story. He was too intensely occupied with the living of it - too keenly aware of the new paragraph... Note the letter I received from Capt. Graham's great grandson.
 "Emerging 5G mobile wireless networking technologies are slated to dramatically increase in both scale and speed, enabling much faster access to data collected from billions of connected devices. This supercharged information highway is envisioned to play an important role across several industries, ranging from medicine to manufacturing. Major advances in 5G, including new core network features will make it easier to customize the network at a wide variety of locations. This new flexibility offers many benefits, but at the same time introduces novel security challenges. Today's proprietary 5G technologies make it difficult to achieve the transparency necessary for security-related risk analysis and mitigation. This lack of security assurance makes it harder..."
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