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Tuesday the 14th
 "War is hell," as famously stated in various
forms by notable generals. This advertisement by
Bell Telephone System appearing in the May 29, 1943, issue of The Saturday
Evening Post magazine bears witness to one aspect of it. Per the piece, "Wire
repair crews are made up of four men. Three stand guard while the other works."
While U.S. Marine Corpsmen and civilian technicians were installing and maintaining
telephone communications in war-torn regions in the European, African, and Pacific
Theaters of Operation, personnel and material shortages back home required learning
to live without some of what were previously routine products and services. Citizens
were expected to patriotically sacrifice their creature comforts for the sake of
their country; most did so. Note that the cover art for this issue happens to be
the famous "Rosie the Riveter" painting by Norman Rockwell...
 Werner von Braun and his team of rocket scientists
are credited with developing the first useful inertial stabilization platforms for
ballistic missiles. The infamous and formidable V2 rocket wreaked terror upon the
heads of Londoners during the latter days of World War II. It served to keep
the rocket in a fixed orientation during the boost phase of the flight, but did
not serve any active targeting function.
Inertial navigation systems, on the other hand, are used to provide both accurate
positional and attitude information for the pilot (if the platform has one) and
to steer the platform (vehicle) to a predetermined destination. Inertial navigation
systems are therefore much more complex. Early inertial navigation systems relied
on physical spinning gyroscopes mounted within a series of nearly frictionless gimbals
to maintain a fixed reference position in space. Contactless encoders about the
rotation axes of the gimbals sent positional information to a computer, which then
performed necessary calculations and sent formatted data to visual flight instruments...
Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation (BNC)
is a leading manufacturer of precision electronic instrumentation for test, measurement,
and nuclear research. Founded in 1963, BNC initially developed custom pulse generators.
We became known for meeting the most stringent requirements for high precision and
stability, and for producing instruments of unsurpassed reliability and performance.
We continue to maintain a leadership position as a developer of custom pulse, signal,
light, and function generators. Our designs incorporate the latest innovations in
software and hardware engineering, surface mount production, and automated testing
procedures.
 This
just breaking from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: "The
Producer Price Index
for final demand increased 0.8% in November, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics reported today. Final demand prices moved up 0.6% in each of
the 3 prior months. On an unadjusted basis, the final
demand index rose 9.6%
for the 12 months ended in November, the largest advance since 12-month data were
first calculated in November 2010. In November, the index for final demand services
rose 0.7% and prices for final demand goods increased 1.2%." Scan through some of
the detailed tables where you will see some Unprocessed Goods for Intermediate Demand
were up >50%..."
 Except under special circumstances, the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) does not conduct much frequency monitoring activity.
I know first-hand that even when a report of
radio frequency interference (RFI) is made to them, you will be told to figure
out the source on your own and then get back to them*. There have been a lot of
news items lately where the FCC has levied heavy fines on Ham operators found to
be in violation of the regulations, and usually not because of independent complaints.
This article from a 1956 edition of Popular Electronics magazine relates some of
the cases experienced by guys in the FCC Field Engineering and Monitoring Bureau's
according to "Negotiated Rulemaking Committee" (NRMC - now defunct) records...
 Skyworks is pleased to introduce the
Si4694 digital radio coprocessor for DRM for AM radio reception in automotive
infotainment systems and car radios. Designed to work with Skyworks' Si479xx family
of automotive radio tuners, the Si4694 provides a new level of performance and power
efficiency with the lowest system BOM. The Si4694 is part of the Falcon family of
automotive digital radio coprocessors. The Si4694 provides demodulation and source
decoding of DRM for AM signal delivering audio and data. It supports all operating
modes of the DRM for AM digital radio standard (Modes A to D). The Si4694 is a highly
integrated device that requires only a few external components. The Si4694 generates
its internal clocking from an external crystal using an integrated oscillator...
/jobs.htm" target="_top">
 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 /jobs.htm"
target="_top">job openings. HR department employees and/or managers of hiring
companies are welcome to submit opportunities for posting at no charge. 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...
 LadyBug Technologies was founded in 2004
by two microwave engineers with a passion for quality microwave test instrumentation.
Our employees offer many years experience in the design and manufacture of the worlds
best vector network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, power meters and associated components.
The management team has additional experience in optical power testing, military
radar and a variety of programming environments including LabVIEW, VEE and other
languages often used in programmatic systems. Extensive experience in a broad spectrum
of demanding measurement applications. You can be assured that our Power Sensors
are designed, built, tested and calibrated without compromise.
Monday the 13th
 Transmission lines have always been a mystery
to beginners in the RF field - both to newly branded engineers and to hobbyists
and technicians. Many magazine articles on the topic have been written over the
decades, and this one from a 1952 issue of Radio-Electronics is as good
of a primer as any I have seen. Author Hector French incorporates many visual aids
(aka drawings) to assist the uninitiated transmission line student grasp the concepts
of impedance matching, standing waves, power transfer, etc. The only math in the
entire article is characteristic impedance = voltage / current, and it does not
include any scary talk about complex numbers with real and imaginary parts...
 The OurPCB website has some nice articles
on a wide range (>200) of subjects of interest to RF Cafe visitors. "Simple FM Radio: All You Need
to Create One" presents the basics of FM radio and a simple DIY circuit
for building one. "LC Oscillator:
Circuit Working, Types, and Applications" is a good primer on the topic. One
of the latest is of concern to many designers these day: "Everything
You Need to Know About the Global Chip Shortage." It begins: "They are small
and inconspicuous, but semiconductors are the driving force behind almost every
modern technology. Today, millions of products like cars, smartphones, game consoles,
and microwaves rely on computer chips, also known as semiconductor chips. However,
there aren’t enough semiconductor chips to meet current demand, causing many products
to short supply. Why are semiconductor chips important? Why is the world facing
a shortage of semiconductor chips?..."
 Dave Harbaugh drew the semi-regular "Hobnobbing
with Harbaugh" series of comic strips in Popular Electronics. His themes were always
in the situational comedy style of the day where Ham operators were depicted as
victims of their own obsession with amateur radio, their wives' lack of an equal
obsession with amateur radio, or being at the mercy of some well-meaning but ignorant
neighbor, police officer, store clerk, or other such individual. This particular
comic has an on-the-scene
TV anchorman making KN3OB's life heck...
 The magic trick of modern electronics is
to keep making things smaller and even more powerful. Designed by Synzen Precision
Technology, their latest SMD antennas,
ADARA1 and 2, are marvels of miniaturization. ADARA is a compact and complete
solution for Wi-Fi 6 and 6E applications. It is suitable for devices requiring
an integrated antenna solution and which demand high performance from an ultra-small
form factor. With a footprint of only 9.0 x 5.8 x 1.1 mm, ADARA is a corner
mounted SMD antenna for simple integration. This tri-band antenna is also ideal
for MIMO applications using multiples of ADARA antennas all on the same PCBA...
 "Japan's OMOTENASHI, the
world's smallest moon lander, will have an X-band and UHF communication system,
although it will not carry an amateur band transponder. OMOTENASHI is a 6U CubeSat
set for launch via a NASA SLS rocket as early as February 2022. It will have a mission
period of from 4 to 5 days. The name is an acronym for Outstanding Moon Exploration
Technologies demonstrated by Nano Semi-Hard Impactor. Wataru Torii of the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Ham Radio Club, JQ1ZVI, said radio amateurs
can play a role in gathering data from the spacecraft. The spacecraft is made up
of two separable components, both having independent communication systems - an
orbiting module and a surface probe. The orbiting module will take the surface probe
to the moon. It will transmit beacon or digital telemetry data on UHF (437.31 MHz)..."
 RF Cascade Workbook is the next phase in the evolution of
RF Cafe's long-running series, RF Cascade Workbook. Chances are you have
never used a spreadsheet quite like this (click here for screen capture). It is a full-featured RF system
cascade parameter and frequency planner that includes filters and mixers for a mere
$45. Built in MS Excel, using RF Cascade Workbook 2018 is a cinch
and the format is entirely customizable. It is significantly easier and faster than
using a multi-thousand dollar simulator when a high level system analysis is all
that is needed. An intro video takes you through the main features...
 Exodus Advanced Communications is a multinational
RF communication equipment and engineering service company serving both commercial
and government entities and their affiliates worldwide. Power amplifiers ranging
from 10 kHz to 51 GHz with various output power levels and noise figure
ranges, we fully support custom designs and manufacturing requirements for both
small and large volume levels. decades of combined experience in the RF field for
numerous applications including military jamming, communications, radar, EMI/EMC
and various commercial projects with all designing and manufacturing of our HPA,
MPA, and LNA products in-house.
Sunday the 12th
 This
Science Celebrity themed crossword puzzle for December 12th contains no
fewer than 18 names of notable scientists and engineers (marked with an asterisk
*) known famously to folks like you who visit RF Cafe. It took quite a while
to design. Elsewise, only clues and words which are directly to RF, microwave, and
wireless engineering, optics, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and other science
subjects. As always, this crossword contains no names of politicians, mountain ranges,
exotic foods or plants, movie stars, or anything of the sort unless it/he/she is
related to this puzzle's technology theme (e.g., Reginald Denny or the Tunguska
event in Siberia). The technically inclined cruciverbalists amongst us will appreciate
the effort...
 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.
Friday the 10th
 Hugo Gernsback had a vivid imagination, creativity,
and foresight. Throughout the many decades he penned editorials for his magazines
and authored many books - both fiction and technical - Mr. Gernsback made scores
of predictions which came to fruition (as well as far fewer which did not). In 1952
he published an editorial in Radio-Electronics magazine entitled "Our
Electric Universe," wherein he postulated the immense amount of energy impinging
upon the Earth being transformed into useable forms like electricity, heating water
for environment conditioning, directly driving machinery, and other innovative scenarios.
Is it sort of a follow−up on "The Celestial Audion" he wrote in a 1922 issue of
his Radio−News magazine which likened the makeup of the cosmos to a vacuum
tube. In this article, capturing cosmic rays and other forms of extraterrestrial...
 Many companies (particularly those which
are not publically traded on the stock market and answer to trouble-maker stockholders)
still send "real" Christmas cards to clients. Axiom Test Equipment, a long-time
RF Cafe sponsor, is one of those companies. This year, along with a very nice Christmas
card, the great folks there sent me undoubtedly the coolest custom-designed calendar
I have ever seen - the
Axiom
Test Equipment 2022 Top Hits Calendar. As you can see in the images below, the
"Top Hits" theme borrowed off some well-known Top 40 type bands whose names
lend themselves to slight alteration for matching with some the gear handled by
Axiom Test Equipment. I particularly like the "AC/DC Loads" meme (AC/DC) for the
January calendar page, and also the December page featuring the Transient Generator
Orchestra (Trans−Siberian Orchestra). A couple of the months' bands are admittedly
not as familiar to me...
 "In 1999, a collaborative effort of Jordi
Puig-Suari, a professor at California Polytechnic State University and Bob Twiggs
of Stanford University, created the reference design for
CubeSats. They maintained that the proposed platform can help reduce the cost
of technical developments and scientific investigation. This reduction escalated
the access to space, leading to diversification of its use, and researchers found
it a great platform for quick deployment of their proposals. What Is a CubeSat?
A CubeSat is a miniaturized spacecraft that orbits the earth. As the name suggests,
CubeSat is shaped like a cube of about 10 cm in length, breadth and depth. This
is called one unit or 1U. It is very lightweight, weighing not more than 1.33 kilograms.
CubeSats can be stacked together to form a larger CubeSat of two, three or even
six units. Once in space, this can be used in a variety of applications. CubeSats
are economical and reduce launch cost to a consider able extent...
 ConductRF LSA series of
Low Loss, Performance Flexible RF cable assemblies, provide microwave system
designers with a versatile solution for most applications. Here we offer customers
a solution for 0.086" dia. cable that facilitates greater flexibility and handling
or, 0.141" dia. that exploits the same great performance but with almost half the
loss. Connector options include SMA, Type-N, TNC & SMP that provide excellent
VSWR between DC and 18 GHz, also solutions for MCX & SMB are available
in a wide array of configurations. These assemblies are built using our own double
shielded, FEP jacketed cable, that was developed specifically for performance solutions...
 Unashamedly I offer up these vintage yet
timeless
electronics-themed comics for your enjoyment. I added color to make them more
interesting. I freely admit to reaching for the comics page(s) of the newspaper
to read the latest antics of Beetle Bailey, Dilbert, Hagar the Horrible, Garfield,
Dennis the Menace, Peanuts, Blondie, and many others. As if that was not bad enough
in some people's opinion, what would really keep me from getting invited to any
more high class dinner parties* if the word got out is the fact that I actually
try to spot the 6 differences in Slylock Fox. Melanie and I also like to work the
crossword puzzles together; supposedly that helps keep ageing gray matter from undergoing
atrophy...
 PCB Directory is the largest directory of
Printed Circuit
Board (PCB) Manufacturers, Assembly houses, and Design Services on the Internet.
We have listed the leading printed circuit board manufacturers around the world
and made them searchable by their capabilities - Number of laminates used, Board
thicknesses supported, Number of layers supported, Types of substrates (FR-4, Rogers,
flexible, rigid), Geographical location (U.S., China), kinds of services (manufacturing,
fabrication, assembly, prototype), and more. Fast turn-around on quotations for
PCB fabrication and assembly.
Thursday the 9th
 Incandescent pilot lights are definitely
a thing of the past; LEDs are the ubiquitous choice these days for obvious reasons
(low cost, low current, long life). Nonetheless, there are still lots of equipment
still in service that do use them. In 1952 when this article appeared in Radio-Electronics
magazine, incandescent (and neon) lamps were standard in test gear, radios, televisions,
tape recorders, record players, kitchen appliances, cars, industrial machinery,
and many other everyday things. Electronics repairmen needed to deal with them on
a regular basis. Although not technically sophisticated, knowing a little something
extra about the little bulbs could be quite handy. One tidbit if useful info in
this article is how the color of the little glass bead that mounted the filament
to the base was often a clue to the current draw of the lamp at nominal operating
voltage...
 As I have noted in before, I greatly appreciate
the fact that throughout all the years (decades, actually) of political correctness
buffoons and most recently the "cancel culture" Nazis, IEEE's Spectrum magazine
has not bent to the pressure of ignoring and/or demonizing the electrical / electronics
industry's significant history. Their authors and editorial staff have consistently
provided meaningful stories that fairly and honestly present information relevant
to our hobbies and/or livelihoods. This piece entitled "When They Electrified
Christmas" is a great example of that which I claim. Author Allison Marsh begins,
"In much of the world, December is a month of twinkling lights. Whether for religious
or secular celebrations, the variety and functionality of lights have exploded in
recent years, abetted by cheap and colorful LEDs and compact electronics..."
 This article entitled "Testing
EMI Materials for Battlefield Applications" recently appeared on the Aerospace
Defense website. It begins: "Aerospace and defense technology must operate
reliably in a wide variety of extreme conditions, including very high and very low
temperatures and amid saltwater and harsh chemicals (from deicing fluids to missile
fuel). Further, manufacturers must meet stringent requirements. As a result, the
testing regimen involved in ensuring battlefield readiness is complex and multifaceted
- not only for the devices that end up in soldiers' hands, but also for the many
component parts that make those devices work. We've spent decades developing the
materials that mitigate electromagnetic interference in aerospace and defense electronics.
The testing regimen for these EMI materials has grown more complex and multifaceted
in recent years, for a couple reasons: Electronics are getting smaller and more
powerful..."
 Even with the ubiquitous (and inexpensive)
presence of digital multimeters, there are still times when a meter sporting an
analog movement is more useful than a numerical display. This is especially true
is when a reading is varying about a mean value rather than being fixed. Sampling
and display update times of digital meters can be too slow to realistically reflect
what a time-varying signal is doing. An
analog meter's pointer can more readily be followed than needing to read and
mentally comprehend a rapidly changing numerical value. Digital meters are great
for reading a fixed value or for precisely setting a fixed value, but tracing signals
through a circuit with a digital meter can be very misleading because unless you
are mainly interested in DC bias levels, the information presented can be misleading.
In order to use an analog meter meaningfully, you really need to understand...
 Good News! A
web app version of Visio is being integrated into Office 365 subscription
per this Microsoft news item: "A
lightweight version of the Visio web app is currently rolling out to all Microsoft
365 commercial subscribers." Until it is available with your version, the standard
$5/month Visio plan is all you need to be able to use the magnificent
RF &
Electronics Symbols for Visio collection of more than 1,000 shapes. You can
also get the Office 365 Personal
plan for a mere $5/month so you will have access to all the Office applications
that can utilize the
RF & Electronics Symbols for Office collection of more than 1,000 shapes.
With Excel, you can benefit from the amazing
RF Cascade Workbook system designer.
 This assortment of custom-designed themes
by RF Cafe includes T-Shirts, Mouse Pads, Clocks, Tote Bags, Coffee Mugs and Steins,
Purses, Sweatshirts, and Baseball Caps. Choose from amazingly clever "We Are the World's
Matchmakers" Smith chart design or the "Engineer's Troubleshooting Flow Chart."
My "Matchmaker's" design has been ripped off by other people and used on their products,
so please be sure to purchase only official RF Cafe gear. My markup is only a paltry
50¢ per item - Cafe Press gets the rest of your purchase price. These would make
excellent gifts for husbands, wives, kids, significant others, and for handing out
at company events or as rewards for excellent service. It's a great way to help
support RF Cafe. Thanks...
 Empower RF Systems is a global leader in
power amplifier solutions. Empower RF Systems is an established and technologically
superior supplier of high power solid state RF & microwave amplifiers. Our offerings
include modules, intelligent rack-mount amplifiers, and multi-function RF Power
Amplifier solutions to 6 GHz in broadband and band specific designs. Output
power combinations range from tens of watts to multi-kilowatts. Unprecedented size,
weight and power reduction of our amplifiers is superior to anything in the market
at similar frequencies and power levels.
Wednesday the 8th
 Innovation, out-of-the-box thinking has been
responsible for a large part of the world's more successful ventures - ranging from
small-time operators to the corporate and university scale. The "War Years" were
notably difficult for a lot of businesses not directly involved in wartime production
and/or service due to the shortage of supplies and workers. Radio News
magazine and others of the era printed many stories to both inform and encourage
electronics industry participants. This October 1945 story tells of how radio service
and sales shop owner Pat Murphy, of Carthage, New York, devised a system to successfully
tap an otherwise avoided customer base - rural farm and home owners. His scheme
made a lot of people happy and provided a source of income to others as a reward
for facilitating the endeavor. "Reaching
the Ruralist" is a great, short read...
 Little America was a series of Antarctic
exploration bases begun by Admiral Richard Byrd in 1929, located on the Ross Ice
Shelf, south of the Bay of Whales at the South Pole. In those days such expeditions
captivated the imaginations of Americans and folks worldwide for that matter. CBS
radio broadcasted a weekly show that featured in part communications from Byrd's
team. Listeners sat in rapt attention as the announcer described the S.S. Jacob
Ruppert passage through the Panama Canal en route to New Zealand and then on to
the South Pole for the "Byrd
Antarctic Expedition II." As reported in this 1934 issue of Radio News
magazine, KFZ, Byrd's station call sign, used an aerial constructed of a horizontal,
diamond-shaped type known as a Bruce antenna. The wires are stretched between four
60-foot telegraph poles. Shortwave frequencies between 6,650 and 21,625 kilocycles
were accessible by both amateur radio operators and by non-technical types with
their commercial receivers...
 Modelithics is pleased to announce the
Modelithics System Components Library for Keysight PathWave System Design (SystemVue).
This library includes models for system-level components like amplifiers, filters,
attenuators, couplers, and packages. Models are available for components from a
wide range of manufacturers, including Barry, IMS, Kyocera AVX, Mini-Circuits, Murata,
and Qorvo. In total, the current Modelithics System Components Library offering
contains nearly 160 models. Combining Keysight PathWave System Design (SystemVue)
with the Modelithics System Components Library makes it possible for designers to
predict system performance in the presence of real-world environmental effects like
interference...
 "What happens on Earth doesn't stay on Earth.
Using observations from NASA's ICON mission, scientists presented the first direct
measurements of Earth's long-theorized dynamo on the edge of space: a
wind-driven electrical generator that spans the globe 60-plus miles above our
heads. The dynamo churns in the ionosphere, the electrically charged boundary between
Earth and space. It's powered by tidal winds in the upper atmosphere that are faster
than most hurricanes and rise from the lower atmosphere, creating an electrical
environment that can affect satellites and technology on Earth. The new work, published
today in Nature Geoscience, improves our understanding of the ionosphere, which
helps scientists better predict space weather and protect our technology from its
effects..."
 The
QSO Today Virtual Ham
Expo will return on the weekend of March 12th, 2022.
This is a call for Speakers
and Presentations. "The key to the 'Expo's' reach and influence
is the wide variety and scope of presentations and speakers that come to the Expo.
From the thousands of messages received since starting the Expo, in August 2020,
your presentations make a difference in the lives of the amateurs that attend and
view them, and they open the minds of amateurs to the possibilities that our amazing
hobby offers to everyone young and old. Unlike other conventions, meetings, and
Hamfests, the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo has the ability to offer more opportunities
for amateurs to make presentations that will be seen and shared by thousands of
hams that come to the Expo...
 Triplett is a well-know name amongst electronics
technicians and engineers who have been in the business for any length of time.
Triplett meter movements (aka panel meters) were considered to be top-of-the-line
product in the days before digital meters and displays. They were used in industrial
instrumentation, in military equipment, and in amateur radio gear. Triplett is still
in business today but it appears they no longer sell just meter movements, although
there is a large supply (new and used) available on eBay and Ham radio websites
and swap meets. This advertisement for Triplett Thin-Line Instruments appeared in
the September 1942 edition of Radio Retailing Today magazine...
 It was a lot of work, but I finally finished
a version of the "RF & Electronics Schematic & Block Diagram Symbols" that
works well with Microsoft Office™ programs Word™, Excel™, and Power Point™.
This is an equivalent of the extensive set of amplifier, mixer, filter, switch,
connector, waveguide, digital, analog, antenna, and other commonly used symbols
for system block diagrams and schematics created for Visio™. Each of the 1,000 or
so symbols was exported individually from Visio in the EMF file format, then imported
into Word on a Drawing Canvas. The EMF format allows an image to be scaled up or
down without becoming pixelated, so all the shapes can be resized in a document
and still look good. The imported symbols can also be UnGrouped into their original
constituent parts for editing. Check them out!
Axiom Test Equipment allows you to
rent or
buy test equipment,
repair
test equipment, or sell or trade test equipment. They are committed to providing
superior customer service and high quality electronic test equipment. Axiom offers
customers several practical, efficient, and cost effective solutions for their projects'
TE needs and is committed to providing superior customer service and high quality
electronic test equipment. For anyone seeking a way to offload surplus or obsolete
equipment, they offer a trade-in program or they will buy the equipment from you.
Some vintage items are available fully calibrated. Please check out Axiom Test Equipment
today!
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