Friday 27
 The 2020
Consumer Electronics Show (CES), being held in Las Vegas, is only a couple weeks
off (January 7-10). CES is the world's gathering place for all those who thrive
on the business of consumer technologies. It has served as the proving ground for
innovators and breakthrough technologies for 50 years - the global stage where next-generation
innovations are introduced to the marketplace. Owned and produced by the Consumer
Technology Association (CTA), it attracts the world's business leaders and pioneering
thinkers. Alan Jope, of Unilever, is the keynote speaker ...
 RF Superstore is proud to announce the
addition of our fifth new product category in 2019. The latest category launch includes
14 new part numbers for small size, low insertion loss
RF power dividers / combiners, 3 of which are in stock and ready to ship. Applications
include amplifiers, mixers, antennas. and laboratory testing. If you have interest
in pre-ordering the other model numbers, please contact us for current lead times.
Pricing and availability for all power divider / combiner models can be found on
the RF Superstore website. RF coaxial connectors & adapters, coaxial cable &
cable assemblies, surge protectors, attenuators. Items added daily. Free shipping
on orders over $99. We're leading the way again! ...
 Voltage multipliers were found in nearly
every form of battery-powered electronics in the days of vacuum tubes, because of
the 100-volt or more requirement for plate voltages. Primary batteries in 30, 45,
and 67½ volt sizes were produced by Eveready, Burgess, and a few other companies
in order to help simplify biasing circuits. They were bulky and heavy, often comprising
a significant portion of the assembly's volume. Heavy transformers contributed mightily
to the weight and size as well. Exell still manufactures 30, 45, and 67½ V
batteries both for the few products that are still designed to use them, and for
vintage radio owners. Most circuits that need higher DC voltages these days use
DC-DC converters, many of which are ICs ...
 "Fujitsu Limited and Fujitsu Laboratories
have successfully developed the world's first technology for growing a
diamond film with highly-efficient heat dissipation on the surface of gallium
nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors (GaN HEMTs), which are used in
power amplifiers for technologies like weather radars and communications equipment.
The new design reduces the amount of heat generated by the devices during operations
by 40%, leading to simplification of the cooling system and making it possible to
miniaturize radar systems that rely on GaN HEMTs. This improvement to the design
will make it significantly easier to install larger numbers of the devices for applications
including improved weather forecasting and 5G communications ..."
 Sound powers for the following equation in
dBA units are referenced to a picowatt (10-12 W). The
threshold of pain for
the human ear is usually taken to be around 120 dBA. One of the best compilation
of noise power level data can be accessed in Chapter 5 of the OSHA Technical
Manual website. Loudness is the subjective human response to sound. It depends primarily
on sound pressure but is also influenced by frequency. Three different internationally
standardized characteristics are used for sound measurement: weighting networks
A, C, and Z (or "zero" weighting). The A and C weighting networks are the sound
level meter's means of responding to some frequencies more than others ...
 Copper Mountain Technologies develops innovative
and robust RF test and measurement solutions for engineers all over the world. Copper
Mountain's extensive line of unique form factor
Vector Network Analyzers
include an RF measurement module and a software application which runs on any Windows
PC, laptop or tablet, connecting to the measurement hardware via USB interface.
The result is a lower cost, faster, more effective test process that fits into the
modern workspace in lab, production, field and secure testing environments.
Thursday 26
 You can add to the long list of technical
wonders promised - and not delivered - to us by the end of the twentieth century
(this is now the 21st century, btw) a
three-dimensional (3D) television set. This 1958 article from Radio & TV
News magazine described efforts already made by the movie industry for generating
3D films that provided audiences with life-like projections that were designed to
shock their senses by having scary or dangerous objects suddenly hurled at them.
Pictures of a theater filled with people wearing the cardboard-framed red/blue stereoscopic
glasses are a very familiar symbol of the scheme known as stereoscopy. Another method
of 3D image perception was to use horizontal and vertical polarization along with
appropriately configured glasses to separate the images entering the eyes and relying
on the brain to convert a pair of 2-dimensional pictures into a 3-dimensional image ...
 Center of Telecommunication Technologies
is proud to announce immediate availability of
Antenna Pattern Editor 1.1, a free universal tool to view, create, edit and
convert antenna patterns. The main idea embedded in the program is to provide the
user with the opportunity to quickly create an antenna pattern file using various
methods. Antenna pattern file is a simple text or xml file that describes the main
characteristics of the antennas - radiation patterns, gain, frequency range, name,
manufacturer and other data. These files are used in various radio planning tools
including our RadioPlanner and MLinkPlanner. There are a large number of antenna
pattern file formats, but it often happens that there is no file in the required
format. In this case, using the Antenna Pattern Editor, you can easily convert the
file to the format you need ...
 ConductRF is continually innovating and
developing new and improved solutions for RF Interconnect needs. See the latest
TESTeCON RF
Test Cables for labs. ConductRF makes production and test coax cable assemblies
for amplitude and phased matched VNA applications as well as standard & precision
RF connectors. Over 1,000 solutions for low PIM in-building to choose from in the
iBwave component library. They also provide custom coax solutions for applications
where some standard just won't do. A partnership with Newark assures fast, reliable
access. Please visit ConductRF today to see how they can help your project!
 As in the past, I am posting these Radio
Service Data Sheets as a service to someone who might be doing research on
vintage radios and/or restoring one. Roamio is not producing automobile radios anymore,
but they do now make TiVo recorders and streaming media players. The
Crosley Roamio Automotive Superheterodyne Models 95 and 96 was
made in the early 1930s at a time when cars and trucks were just starting to experience
such luxury. Those sets had the power supply and RF receiver components mounted
in the trunk and/or under the seat, with the operator interface controls (tuning
and volume) mounted in the dashboard. Crosley did not begin manufacturing its own
line of cars until 1939, so none of these radios made it into Crosley autos ...
 Skyworks Solutions is pleased to launch
the SKY85772-11,
a new addition to our family of front-end modules (FEMs) that are designed for growing
retail, carrier and enterprise Wi-Fi 6 applications. The 5 GHz FEM offers
best-in-class power and linearity for devices such as access points, routers and
gateways. The module's logarithmic power detector allows for wide dynamic power
range and its harmonics are FCC compliant, reducing filtering requirements. The
solution also delivers 2 dB higher gain, improving linearity when compared to system-on-chip
(SoC) architectures. The SKY85772-11 is also part of major transceiver reference
designs ...
 "The
5G test cases presented here encompass RF characteristics, radio resource management
(RRM), and protocol suites that work at the chipset, device, and base-station levels
on sub-6-GHz and mmWave frequencies in both lab and field environments. The 5G test
and conformance era is far more challenging than 4G wireless amid a broad range
of new services and technology paradigms. There's a large matrix of test cases that
vary widely, and these changes reinforce the importance of adequately validating
the device performance on 5G networks as specified in the New Radio (NR) standard.
The 5G conformance test spans RF characteristics, radio resource management (RRM),
and communication protocol suites ..."
 ERZIA serves critical aerospace and defense
missions by designing and manufacturing RF, microwave,
and mm-wave amplifiers, integrated assemblies operating from low frequencies
up to 100 GHz, and by providing high reliable satellite communications. The
company was founded in 2002 to become a worldwide reference of advanced engineering,
performance, reliability and ruggedness. Their catalogue of standard amplifier modules
comprises more than 100 different models, having also a high capacity of customization
for amplifiers and integrated assemblies. Some of products have space heritage and
are used in aerospace, commercial, military and scientific systems, having a wide
range of final applications.
Wednesday 25
 Some experts in the field of electronics
engineering have suggested that the use of silicon complementary metal-oxide semiconductors
(CMOS)
will start declining rapidly by the end of 2020. Despite their predictions, a class
of alternative materials that can effectively sustain the computational power of
new devices, while maintaining good energy efficiencies is yet to be clearly established.
Over the past few years, researchers have proposed several materials that could
ultimately substitute current CMOS devices. Some of the most promising candidates ...
 Triad RF Systems designs and manufactures
RF power amplifiers and systems.
Triad RF Systems comprises three partners (hence 'Triad')
with over 40 years of accumulated knowledge of what is required to design, manufacture,
market, sell and service RF/Microwave amplifiers and amplifier systems. PA, LNA,
bi-directional, and frequency translating amplifiers are available, in formats including
tower mount, benchtop, rack mount, and chassis mount. "We view Triad more as a technology
partner than a vendor for our line-of-sight communications product line." Please
check to see how they can help your project.
Tuesday 24
 Canadian researchers use laser pulses to
record frame-by-frame how electrons react with atomic vibrations in solids, revealing
superconductivity mechanisms. New insights into superconductivity could be gleaned
from the technique, discussed by physicists from the Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter
Institute (SBQMI) at the University of British Columbia and their colleagues in
Science. The researchers have developed a new extreme-ultraviolet laser source to
enable a technique called time-resolved photoemission spectroscopy ...
 Modelithics® the leader in providing simulation
models for RF, microwave and mm-wave devices, is pleased to welcome
Chris DeMartino to the company as Sales and Applications Engineer. In this role,
Mr. DeMartino will be responsible for technical support and application development
for Modelithics products and services. He joins the Modelithics team from Informa
PLC (formerly Penton Media), where he served as the editor of Microwaves & RF
magazine. At this position, his responsibilities included generating technical content
to serve the needs of the RF/microwave engineering community. Prior to assuming
the role of editor of Microwaves & RF in May 2015, he was able to gain valuable
experience in RF/microwave design and testing. DeMartino holds a M.S. degree in
Electrical Engineering and has worked for several companies in the RF/microwave
industry ...
 Transient Specialists specializes in
EMC test equipment rentals
and carries a complete line of ESD guns, surge immunity test equipment, and EFT
generators. Rentals available for military (Mil-Std 461), automotive (ISO 7637),
and commercial (IEC 61000-4) EMC testing. Flexible terms, accredited calibrations
and technical support on EMC testing equipment offered. Equipment consists of top
EMC Test System manufacturers, including Teseq, Thermo Keytek, EM Test and EMC Partner.
Contact Transient Specialists today for your ESD / EMC / RFI testing needs.
Monday 23
 War Bonds were used by countries, including
the United States, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom, to help finance the
expense of war without causing massive inflation caused by printing more money.
Particularly during war times, governments were concerned with any amount of inflation
since it would raise the cost of procuring necessary materials. A meme popularized
(by the government) during World War II was, "Use it up. Wear it out. Make
it do, or do without." Similar to how modern day Savings Bonds work, citizens
bought the bonds at some fraction of the face value (typically 1/2 or 3/4) with
a maturity date of 10, 20, or more years. On or after the maturity date, the bonds
could/can be redeemed for the face value plus and amount of interest which might
have accumulated during the period. I remember while in elementary school in the
early--to-mid 1960s taking a dime to class each week to buy a stamp for a $25 savings
bond. Those bonds matured in the mid 1980s and sat in a box ...
 A special 25% discount is being offered for
a limited time from Artech House publishers for the purchase of Practical
Antenna Design for Wireless Products, a new book written by Henry Lau of Lexiwave
Technology that features NI AWR software. This comprehensive resource covers the
fundamentals and implementation strategies for practical antenna design and helps
readers understand how to effectively use electromagnetic (EM) simulation for the
design of real-world antenna products. Topics include PCB layout, component placement,
and casing design. Design examples of wearable electronic products are presented.
Available for purchase in hardback or digital download through Artech House (25%
discount with promotional code NI25), or get it from
Amazon.com.
 Center of Telecommunication Technologies
is proud to announce immediate availability of their
RadioPlanner 2.1 wireless network software simulation tool for modeling microwave
point-to-point (PtP) and point-to-multipoint (PtMP) links. Perform frequency planning
of radio networks considering co-channel and adjacent channels interference, points
calculation showing the profile of the path, losses, and levels of the signal and
interference on co-channel and adjacent channels. You can import the measurement
results of the received signal power levels for comparison with calculated values
and adjust propagation model parameters, and save the result of the coverage calculation
as an interactive web page or as a raster image. Flexibly adjust the layers on the
base map, show custom vector layers. RadioPlanner 2.1 uses propagation models that
include ITU-R P.1812-4 (for mobile and broadcasting), Longley-Rice (ITM) v 1.2.2
(for broadcasting only, for mobile coming soon), ITU-R P.1546-6 (for broadcasting
only), and combined ITU-R P.528-3 + P.526-14 model (for aeronautical radio only ...
 RF
Cafe's raison d'être is and always has been to provide useful, quality content for
engineers, technicians, engineering managers, students, and hobbyists. Part of that
mission is offering to post applicable job openings. HR department employees and/or managers of hiring
companies are welcome to submit opportunities for posting at no charge (of course
a gratuity will be graciously accepted). 3rd party recruiters and temp agencies
are not included so as to assure a high quality of listings. Please read through
the easy procedure to benefit from RF Cafe's high quality visitors ...
 "Using a clever technique that causes unruly
crystals of iron selenide to snap into alignment, Rice University physicists have
drawn a detailed map that reveals the "rules
of the road" for electrons both in normal conditions and in the critical moments
just before the material transforms into a superconductor. In a study online this
week in the American Physical Society journal Physical Review X (PRX), physicist
Ming Yi and colleagues offer up a band structure map for iron selenide, a material
that has long puzzled physicists because of its structural simplicity and behavioral
complexity. The map, which details the electronic states of the material, is a visual
summary of data gathered from measurements of a single crystal of iron selenide
as it was cooled to the point of superconductivity ..."
 An
RF Cafe visitor sent this equation to me a few years ago. It can be found all over
the Internet (including here), but I cannot determine a definite origin. Mathematicians
claim that math can explain everything in the universe, which is not quite true.
It can't for example, explain why my next-door neighbor is a junk hoarder. This
Christmas equation does not appear
to begin with a particular application; it looks like something from a set of textbook
end-of-chapter problems. Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, it provides a secondary
benefit by demonstrating rules for the manipulation of logarithms and exponents
along with basic algebraic rearrangements of terms.
 Please take a few moments to visit the
everythingRF website to see how they can assist you with your
project. everythingRF is a product discovery platform for RF and microwave products
and services. They currently have 227,460 products from more than 1210 companies
across 285 categories in their database and enable engineers to search for them
using their customized parametric search tool. Amplifiers, test equipment, power
couplers and dividers, coaxial connectors, waveguide, antennas, filters, mixers,
power supplies, and everything else. Please visit everythingRF today to see how
they can help you.
Sunday 22
 Each week, for the sake of all avid cruciverbalists
amongst us, I create a new technology-themed crossword puzzle using only words from
my custom-created lexicon related to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry,
physics, astronomy, etc. This week's puzzle contains a
special holiday message (clues with asterisks) to all RF Cafe visitors. You
will never find among the words names of politicians, mountain ranges, exotic foods
or plants, movie stars, or anything of the sort. You might, however, see someone
or something in the exclusion list who or that is directly related to this puzzle's
theme, such as Hedy Lamarr or the Bikini Atoll, respectively. Enjoy! ...
Friday 20
 There are few better ways to wind down
a work week than with some good old-fashioned (literally)
technology-themed comics. This three fifths of a handful of comics appeared
in a 1944 issue of Radio News magazine. You need to know when looking at these scenarios
that people in the 1940s cherished and revered their radio sets like people today
do with their cellphones. Magical and supernatural attributes were assigned to them
by some, especially the non-technically inclined. Entire families gathered around
the radio in eager anticipation of the latest episode of "The Shadow," The Lone
Ranger," "Little Orphan Annie," "Jack Benny," and "Inner Sanctum Mystery." BTW,
if you want to experience the aura of old time radio shows, many of them are available
for listening online on the Old Time Radio Catalog website and others ...
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