-- Technical Headlines -- All the News Fit to Link™
-Archive- Mysteries of Earth's Radiation Belts Uncovered by NASA Twin Spacecraft Satellite Cooling System Breakthrough Developed by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Grew 5.2% in 2013 UK to Spend £10M on 'Innovative' Rural Broadband Tech Can iPads Help Students Learn Science? Yes, Says Study (so can paper books, but the students must want to learn) Semi Industry on Track for Highest-Ever Annual Sales (>$300B) in 2013 How Defense Cost-Cutting Can Spur Innovation (has that ever happened w/past cut eras?) USB Type-C Cable Plugs to be Reversible Finance for Engineers: Financial Ratios Tower Crew Hiring Accelerates (these guys often get paid McDonald's wages for dangerous work) Nonlinear Light-Generating Zero-Index Metamaterial Created Intense 2-Color Double X-Ray Laser Pulses Measures Ultrafast Processes Motorola Moves up to Become the 3rd-Ranked Smartphone Manufacturer in USA JILA Team Develops 'Spinning Trap' to Measure Electron Roundness Architects of Nanoworld Behind the Screens Notable Tech Quote  "Twitter is the only place where you're thrilled when a complete stranger starts following you."
- Anon
PMI Intros PIN Diode Transfer
Switch for 0.5 to 18 GHz  PMI Model No. SWN-2181-TRA is a pin diode transfer switch that operates over a frequency range of 0.5 to 18.0 GHz. It has 60 dB min of isolation, max insertion loss of 3.5 dB and a max input power of +10 dBm CW. This model incorporates a TTL compatible driver for easy system integration and is supplied with removable 2.92 mm (F) connectors in a housing that measures 1.0" x 1.0" x 0.25"
Neverware Juicebox
New Life for Old Computers  Remember the old adage about not throwing away that wide tie because someday it will be back in style? Well, the good folks at Neverware have built a business model and product that exploits that concept. "Neverware installs powerful software on schools' existing computers, taking over the 'heavy lifting' and allowing the computers to run like new. Neverware's servers can supercharge any PC - even if it's ten years old and missing its hard drive." Those of us who have been using computers since the 1970s ['78 for me] know this system as a network with dumb terminals. The main difference between then and now is wireless connectivity rather than copper cables. Calling the server a "Juicebox" helps the sales pitch and with cinching the deal - it sounds trendy. I have long predicted that the "personal" computer in business and other large networks like in schools and government offices would eventually come full circle...
Hints and Kinks
for the Experimenter  "Kink" is not a word you hear very often anymore in reference to having a problem in a process or task, but it turns up fairly regularly in hobby and do-it-yourself types of magazines as "Hints and Kinks" columns. Having a kink in the neck or a kink in the garden hose are more familiar uses of the word. "Kink" appears in QST, my older model airplane magazines, in some of the Popular Electronics magazines, and likely in many others. "Hints and Kinks" type columns typically are collections of ideas submitted by readers explaining how they solved a particular problem or how they came up with a new way of doing something. Some are outdated but many are timeless in their application and usefulness. I put all the ones here in to the latter category.
| Notice: Household Move
in Progress Please excuse any delay in response for the next couple days - maybe through Tuesday. Melanie and I are moving to our new (well, new to us) home in Michigan and will be on the road for a bit. Thank you for your patience. Coil Function Quiz  Here is a quick, 10-question quiz about coils (inductors). It appeared in the June 1962 edition of Popular Electronics magazine. Don't be scared off by the vacuum tubes that appear in three drawings. Just pretend they are transistors - it won't affect your answers. One of the coil applications is almost obsolete for most people as the nature of computer monitors and TV screens has changed significantly in the last decade.
Thanks to Windfreak
Technologies for Support!  Windfreak Tech designs, manufactures, tests and sells high value radio frequency products such as RF Signal Generators & Synthesizers, RF Power Detectors, RF Mixers, RF Upconverters and RF downconverters. We develop high quality, reliable, low cost products to make your life  easier. Windfreak Tech is developing high quality, low cost products to make life easier for RF Engineers and hobbyist. Future products will be more synthesizers, transmitters, receivers and test equipment. All at low cost.
The Future of Mobile
Application Development  Forrester Research Report: The Future of Mobile Application Development. This report, which is the vision report of the mobile app development playbook for Application Development and Delivery professionals, focuses on the changes application developers need to understand if they want to build modern applications that deliver contextual customer experiences. With more than 1 billion smartphones worldwide, and tablets numbering in the hundreds of millions, the scope of the mobile revolution rivals that of the move from monolithic systems to client/server computing in the 1990s...
How to Break into
the Aviation Radio Game  Yes, this is another article that will probably appeal to a small percentage of RF Cafe visitors, but please countenance my indulgence in things aeronautical as well as things electrical. The early 1930s was a time when both airplanes and electronics were a wonder and a mystery to most of the public worldwide. Of course today both are still a mystery to the public but the wonder is gone - it's merely taken for granted. Many idiosyncrasies of airborne electronic communications were encountered for the first time, like the need for proper grounding and static electricity dissipation. Ruggedization of chassis assemblies in terms of mechanical vibration and shock as well as for temperature extremes...
Mary Burke, W3CUL Wins
1956 Edison Award  $5,000 in 1956 currency is equivalent to about $43,000 in 2013, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' "Inflation Calculator." That is the value of the amateur radio equipment used by Mrs. Mary Burke in her work handling "an average of 3000 messages per month, principally for service personnel overseas." For her tireless efforts, she was the first woman to win the coveted Edison Award Cup (sponsored by General Electric). Most of Mrs. Burke's communications was via Morse code, where she restrained herself to "about 30 words a minute to maintain accuracy". Way to go, Mary!
| Modeling Radiation Patterns
of Whip Antennas  Computer modeling of antenna radiation patterns has evolved from a relatively simple electric field equation that diminishes as the inverse of the distance from the source, to exotic, highly sophisticated numerical methods that account for conducting and dielectric surfaces and volumes. A spreadsheet can be built rather quickly to calculate and graph the free-space azimuth and elevation e-field patterns for a 1/4-wave whip or a dipole antenna using textbook formulas, but building a model for displaying the 3D radiation patterns of a cellphone placed next to a human head, or a UHF radio antenna on top of an aircraft takes some pretty serious computing power. In large part we owe a debt of gratitude to the Ph.D. types who have labored hard to make such tools...
Please Thank Nova Microwave
for Their Support  Nova Microwave is a leader in technically differentiated electronic and radio frequency Ferrite Circulators and Isolators that connect, protect and control critical systems  for the global microwave electronics market place including commercial and military wireless telecommunications. Dedicated to R&D of standard and custom design quality Ferrite Circulators and Isolators from 380 MHz to 23.6 GHz.
Baluns: What They Do
and How They Do It  Baluns are not devices familiar to most engineers even if they have been in the RF business for many years. Most have heard of them but few probably really know what a balun is, how it works, and how it is used. Admittedly, it wasn't until maybe a decade ago that I ever even came into contact with one - at least that I was aware of. Having spent most of my career connecting cables and waveguide to pre-designed, pre-packaged components, there was never a need to convert between balanced and unbalanced transmission lines. The many analog circuits that I did always used ICs that had single- or double-ended inputs and/or outputs so it was never necessary to be concerned with the details. Now that I have been reading the ARRL's QST magazine monthly for the last few years, an appreciation for...
Featured Books
- Gift Suggestions -  Your New Job Title Is "Accomplice," by Scott Adams. If you are looking for a gift for your engineer spouse, friend, son, or daughter, then what could be better than the latest collection of Dilbert comics?  Both traditional paperback and newfangled Kindle versions are available. Not the reading type? How about a Dilbert 2014 Calendar? Seriously, if you are buying the calendar because your engineer is not a reader, then  he/she would be better served with Learn to Read, by Zac the Rat (the name doesn't really rhyme, BTW).
Sagetech Announces Principal
Development Engineer Position  This is one of the best job descriptions I have ever seen. It reads like it was written by real engineers who need a really good person to work with the team. To wit:
EE UAV Avionics Design and Certification
"Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in civil airspace are the next big thing. Sagetech is a leader in UAV avionics and has exciting projects starting now in FAA / military UAV design and certification. We are building a kick-ass team. You might fit if this grabs you: We seek highly talented, disciplined, imaginative engineers (RF design, embedded, or FPGA programmers) who love creating novel and highly efficient solutions in a requirements-based design environment. That’s not easy. We seek team members who are like us, who are energized by challenge." | Electrical Engineering
Crossword Puzzle  Every Sunday I create a crossword puzzle using a word list that I personally created and added to during over a decade of making puzzles. All of the words are related to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, etc. There are no numbnut clues about movie stars or clothing designers. Enjoy.
Anatech Intros Duplexer, BPF,
Isolator, & Directional Coupler  Anatech Electronics has released new designs for a 902 to 928 MHz cavity bandpass filter, an 1850 to 1910 MHz / 1930 to 1990 MHz cavity duplexer, a 840 to 960 MHz circulator , and a 5 to 18 GHz 8-way power divider. All can be ordered directly through their AMCrf web store.
Selected Job Tips from IEEE  Here are this week's suggestions, plus a couple others I found as well.
- 6 Memorable Engineering
Interview Questions
- 7 Missed Opportunities
That Can Cost You That
Dream Job
- Can You Make a Workplace
U-Turn? (leave, then go back)
- How's the Engineering Job
Market? Depends on Whom
You Ask
- Engineering the Perfect
Cover Letter
- U. of Maryland School of
Engineering job Search Tips What is a Servomechanism?  Servo-mechanisms are all around us in the form of electronically actuated controls for our cars, stepper motors in our ink jet printers, overhead garage door openers, and anywhere else you can identify where a combination of electricity and mechanics operates with some form of positional sensing and feedback. The author of this article in one instance declares a control circuit with a human operator as part of the operation as being "open loop," but I contend that the human element is part of the loop and therefore constitutes a component in the effectively "closed" loop, albeit not strictly a pure electromechanical system. Those of us who operate radio-controlled model airplanes, boats, cars, etc., are very familiar with servos for moving control surfaces as commanded by the transmitter's joystick position.
Does Anyone Still Make
Vacuum Tubes?  Does anyone still manufacture new vacuum tubes? The simple answer is yes if you are referring to the kind used in household radio and television sets, but don't expect to find a full line of replacements. Also, don't expect them to be made anywhere other than places like China and Russia. China does it because mainly to service the rest of the world's demand for restoring and maintaining vintage equipment. Russia probably does it to supply its own military and civilian populace which largely still hasn't heard of transistorized electronics (just joking, kinda). Three of the most widely available newly produced vacuum tubes are made by JJ Electronics, Valve Art, and Ruby Tubes. They are all over...
Please Thank Reactel
for Helping Deliver RF Cafe  Established in 1979, Reactel is an industry leader in the design and manufacture of RF and Microwave filters, diplexers, and sub-assemblies. We offer a line of filters covering DC-50 GHz. The latest in CAD/CAM methods and equipment in all of our design and manufacturing processes are used. We feature a modern, well-equipped machine shop complete with multiple CNCs, which gives us the ability to produce long production runs quickly and economically. Our testing department is equipped with the latest in Agilent Technologies Network Analyzers offering quick, dependable, and accurate measurements.
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Kirt
