 Sunday the 21st
 This
Microwave Engineering Theme Crossword Puzzle for February 21st contains
only words and clues related to engineering, mathematics, chemistry, physics,
and other technical words. 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., Hedy Lamarr or the Bikini Atoll). The technically inclined cruciverbalists
amongst us will appreciate the effort. Enjoy!
Friday the 20th
 The
evolution of communications has been well documented both after the fact
and necessarily before the fact based on the vision and determination of individuals
and corporations. From grunts, hand and facial signals, and crude sketchings
on cave walls to spoken and written languages. From couriers on foot and horseback,
smoke signals, and light signals to wired telegraph and telephone. From wireless
telegraph and telephone to television and the Internet, advancement has been
continual both in large steps between the aforementioned fundamental communications
venues to incremental advancements in technologies - analog to digital, vacuum
tubes to semiconductors, simplex to multiplex, ever increasing access to regions
of the electromagnetic spectrum from DC to light. This 1945 advertisement
by RCA expounding the benefits of its recently implemented transcontinental
microwave relay system was life changing at the time, but two decades later
those tower networks would be supplemented and nearly replaced by satellite
relay...
 You probably are aware that major
retail corporations like Sears and Montgomery Ward contracted with established
appliance manufacturers to create their own brands for sale in their mail
order catalogs and brick-and-mortar stores. Sears had their Kenmore line of
kitchen (also Cold Spot) and laundry products, Craftsman line of tools, and
Silvertone line of radios. Wards had the Signature line of appliances, Powr
Kraft tools, and Airline radios. Both companies are basically defunct at this
point. I was always a big Sears customer, and was sad to see them get scuttled
by moron management. Montgomery Ward products all seemed second rate compared
to Sears. Montgomery Ward, founded in 1872 closed its last stores in 2001,
but unknown to most people is that they still have an Internet presence as
wards.com. Sears Roebuck & Co., founded in 1892, still has a few stores
open and is online at sears.com (and craftsman.com). Anyhoo, I ran across
this 1924
Montgomery Ward Radio catalog that is chock full...
 "Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology
(Tokyo Tech) and NTT Corporation (NTT) have developed a novel CMOS-based transceiver
for wireless communications at the
300 GHz band, enabling future beyond-5G applications. Their design
addresses the challenges of operating CMOS technology at its practical limit
and represents the first wideband CMOS phased-array system to operate at such
elevated frequencies. Communication at higher frequencies is goal in electronics
as researchers attempt to achieve greater data rates that and to take advantage
of underused portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Many applications beyond
5G, as well as the IEEE802.15.3d standard for wireless communications, call
for transmitters and receivers capable of operating close to or above 300
GHz. Current CMOS technology is not entirely suitable for such elevated frequencies..."
 Lotus Communication Systems, a manufacturer
of connectorized, cascadable RF and microwave components, has introduced the
BUDC2G14G, which is a
software defined block up/down converter. It has an RF frequency range
of 2 GHz to 14 GHz and an IF frequency range of 500 MHz to 6 GHz.
An integrated low phase noise LO supports LO frequencies from 1 GHz to
12 GHz. The BUDC2G14G has 8 dB of conversion loss at 5.8 GHz
with low LO-RF leakage <30 dBm. It can be powered either by USB-C
or +5~6 V at the terminal terminal with only 235 mA of current draw.
Dimensions are 2.8125" (2-7/8") x 1.3125" (1-5/16") x 0.48". The converter
has broad applications and can be used to extend spectrum analyzer measurement
range to 14 GHz...
 "Use it up, wear it out, make it do,
or do without" was more than just a clever slogan during World War II.
It was a way of life that extended to both civilian and military realms. While
civilians were being both encouraged and compelled to make the most of what
was available, military operations were scavenging, borrowing, begging, confiscating,
manufacturing, and cannibalizing. According to this 1945 article in Radio-Craft
magazine, France was an important center for not just
resurrecting battle-damaged Handi-Talkies and other types of radios, but
for taking salvageable components out of unrepairable units. The bit about
grinding special crystals for the French underground radios is especially
interesting...
 LadyBug Technologies' new
LB5944A True-RMS RF Power Sensor offers coverage from 1 MHz to 44 GHz
with optional capability to 50 GHz. The multi-path RMS responding sensor
features an 86 dB dynamic range and a 2.4 mm male connector. The
sensor's calibration is first tier NIST traceable and the sensor is manufactured
in the U.S. A full featured software power meter application is included.
ATE users can take advantage of either USBTMC or USB HID, both of which are
provided by the sensor at enumeration. These along with the Optional SPI &
I2C interfaces make the sensor the most flexible self-contained traceable
power measurement device available...
 Innovative Power Products (IPP) has
over 30 years of experience designing & manufacturing RF & microwave
passive components. Their high power, broadband
couplers, combiners, resistors,
baluns, terminations and attenuators are fabricated using the latest materials
and design tools available, resulting in unrivaled product performance. Applications
in military, medical, industrial and commercial markets are serviced around
the world. Please take a couple minutes to visit their website and see how
IPP can help you today.
Thursday the 18th
 If there is or ever has been a solid
state device that required as much painstaking, precise, manual assembly required
as some of the magnificent vacuum tubes developed over the years, I don't
know of it. This 500 kilowatt "super-power
beam triode" featured in a 1950 issue of Radio & Television News magazine
is a good example. Think of the electrical, mechanical, chemical, and manufacturing
engineering that went into designing, building, and testing such devices.
Half a megawatt from a single tube is quite an accomplishment. It required
a 900 watt control grid signal for modulation. The article refers to
an electron-optical system, and I'm not sure what it meant unless it is the
array of 48 sharply focused electron beams...
 "Niobium metal is used in the implantation
of a variety of superconducting quantum devices. However, the technology is
typically limited to use in conventional Josephson junctions based on Nb-AlOx-Nb
produced entirely by sputtering. In addition, the devices are most commonly
in a vertical stack covered by niobium metal, making it physically limited
to access the embedded films that could comprise insulators, semiconductor,
or hybrids with ions. There is a need for improvement in the design as well
as integration of functional materials for use in devices such as qubits as
well as ion embedded devices for
quantum memory. Also, implementation of large-scale computers requires
nanofabrication technologies. Sending qubits states and implementing quantum
networks requires an optical interface. This research presents nanofabrication
processes..."
 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. 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!
![Flying Radiomen [and Radiowomen] of the Ferrying Division, June 1944 QST - RF Cafe](images/flying-radiomen-ferrying-division-june-1944-qst-hp.gif) "Necessity
is the mother of invention" is an oft-heard phrase that never rang truer
than during World War II. Both the Axis and the Allied powers had extremely
brilliant and capable people working to defeat each other, driving advances
in technology and methods at a break-neck pace for nearly a decade (remember
WWII began before the U.S. entered the fray in 1941). Aircraft and radio were
powerful new weapons for all sides at that point since both were still in
their fledgling modes in WWI. Efficient and effective execution of aircraft
ferrying, troop movement, and supply delivery was absolutely dependent on
radio equipment and operators that could adapt to new strategic situations
and endure all sorts of weather and geographic stresses. While the Army Signal
Corps had a good cadre of radio operators available, few were experienced
with operating in their gear while airborne...
 Sam Benzacar of Anatech Electronics,
an RF and microwave filter company, has published his January newsletter that
features his short op−ed entitled "What
5G Phase 2 Has in Store." He points out that as the Internet and cellphone
service overlap, there is less and less of a distinction between the two.
"When you pore through the information about Release 16, it becomes obvious
that the domains of 'cellular' and IoT will blend to become a single diverse
communications environment comprehensive enough to serve consumer, industrial,
automotive, agricultural, scientific, and other applications. Today, short-range
communication standards such as Bluetooth, ZigBee, and Thread are used at
the edge of the network but Release 16 will allow cellular to either complement
or even replace them eventually." Sam also presents some relevant industry
news items as well...
Extending RF's Boundaries via Direct
Data Sampling in Ka-Band
 Nicolas Chantier has an interesting
article on the Electronic Design website entitled, "Extending
RF's Boundaries via Direct Data Sampling in the Ka-band," which discusses
advances made in direct-access data conversion of microwave signals within
the Ka-band. He begins, "It's widely recognized that software-defined microwave
(SDM) air interfaces have huge potential. Through this technology, it will
be possible to revolutionize many different aspects of the communications
arena by making major transformations to the infrastructure that it relies
on. More specifically, it's certain to be of great benefit in the space sector.
That's because it will be possible to finally alleviate the highly frustrating
cycle-time mismatch in the rates of progress in ground- and space-based hardware
development. Rather than having to utilize hardwired, overly hardware-centric
solutions, which can quickly become outdated..."
 Lotus Communication Systems began
in 2009, setting up CNC machine shop and RF/microwave assembling and testing
lab in Middlesex Country, Massachusetts. Lotus is committed to highest quality
and innovative products. Each RF/microwave
module meets exceedingly high standards of quality, performance and excellent
value, and are 100% MADE IN USA. Lotus' RF/microwave products cover frequency
band up to 67 GHz. Lotus also offers an COTS shield enclosures for RF/microwave
prototyping and production. All products are custom designed. We will find
a solution and save your time and cost. Lotus has multiple 4 axis CNC machines
and LPKF circuit plotters.
Wednesday the 17th
 Trigger Alert: Don't look at this advertisement
from a 1954 issue of Radio & Television News magazine if you
are easily offended by what used to be an effective marketing technique, but
is now considered too exploitative for use. The "Cancel Culture" mindset of
today's easily offended (often agenda-driven) citizenry would likely work
to have Walter Ashe driven out of business for such an ad. If you
dare to peek at the advertisement - and I'm not recommending that you
should if it might jeopardize your place in society, be sure to note the fire
hydrant...
 "It's been a good decade or so for
the makers of plastic lenses. In recent years, smartphone manufactures have
been adding
camera modules, going from one to two to five or more. And each of those
camera modules contains several plastic lenses. Over the years, these lenses
have changed little, though image processing software has improved a lot,
merging images from multiple camera modules into one high quality picture
and enabling selective focus and other features. The glory days of the plastic
camera lens, however, may be drawing to a close. At least that's the hope
of Metalenz, a Boston-area startup that officially took its wraps off today.
The company aims to replace plastic lenses with waveguides..."
 Werbel Microwave is a manufacturer
of RF directional and bidirectional couplers (6 dB to 30 dB) and
RF power dividers / combiners (2- to 16-way) with select models operating
up to 18 GHz and 100 W of CW power (3 kW peak). All are RoHS and
REACH compliant and are designed and manufactured in our Whippany, NJ, location.
Custom products and private label service available. Please take a couple
minutes to visit their website and see how Werbel Microwave can help you today.
 Do you know these men, or any of the
many others that appear in the articles I post from vintage magazines? They
might be your father or grandfather, brother or uncle. Once in a great while
I will receive an e-mail from somebody telling me he or she recognized a person
whose photo was posted with the article. I always try to include the names
and, if available, cities of people in picture captions in hopes that the
search engines will pick them up. Tracing family roots is a big hobby today
and being able to find such an obscure source for a relative's past is a thrill
to many such Internet sleuths. My hobby website, AirplanesAndRockets.com,
has received many contacts both from people who see themselves in old articles
and who recognize fathers or brothers. In one case a guy wrote to me saying
that the fellow who wrote a monthly column on model rocketry was the father
of the woman he married. Another time a guy wrote saying he was the photographer
who took the edition's cover photo at a contest. Recently, a lady contacted
me to say her father, who was an NCO in the USAF...
 This article about a "nano
diamond battery" appeared in the February 2021 issue of NASA's Battery
Technology publication. It describes a radioisotope-powered battery with a
28,000 year lifetime contained within a surface-mount type of IC package.
It works by encapsulating the radioactive material in a synthetic diamond
cavity which exploits an "inelastic scattering" phenomenon to convert decomposing
ions into electric power. If this had been the April issue rather than February,
I might suspect a spoof. NDB, Inc.,
is the company developing the technology claiming, "NDB is a high-power diamond-based
alpha, beta, and neutron voltaic battery that can provide device life-long
and green energy for numerous applications and overcome limitations of the
existing energy creation/distribution solutions." The NDB has not yet been
built - it is a concept (see
NDB interview). Access to fissionable material in production quantities
can be a problem due to nuclear proliferation issues, but NDB claims a "lock-in
system," prevents usage other than power generation. The technology is scalable,
and might be the answer to my desire for personal nuclear supplies to power
everything - if it ever gets past the theoretical stage...
 Since 2003, Bittele Electronics has
consistently provided low-volume, electronic contract manufacturing (ECM)
and turnkey PCB assembly services. It specializes in board level turnkey
PCB assembly for
design engineers needing low volume or prototype multi-layer printed circuit
boards. Free Passive Components: Bittele Electronics
is taking one further step in its commitment of offering the best service
to clients of its PCB assembly business. Bittele is now offering common passive
components to its clients FREE of Charge.
Tuesday the 16th
 "Mac's Radio Service Shop" episodes
nearly always reflected the season in which they appeared in Radio &
Television News magazine, and were also very often concerned with pressing
issues of the day. This November 1954 issue's story opens by setting the scene
with a gray, windy late autumn day, and then launches into a discussion between
Barney and Mac about the situation where discount merchandise outlets were
pawning off service responsibility for large volumes of sales on anybody but
themselves. Being both a sales and service concern himself, Mac was torn between
welcoming the additional business provided by the discount houses and the
bad name they were giving reputable sales people. Whenever a specific product
or business is mentioned in the article, I put some effort into finding examples
on the WWW to provide extra context to the story. In this case Mac mentions
an article having appeared in a Life magazine "a few months ago."
Knowing the contemporaneous nature...
 Signal Hound, a developer of optimized
solutions for RF signal test and measurement, announces a new Noise Figure
analysis mode in its exclusive
Spike™ spectrum analyzer software. Noise Figure analysis is one of the
most useful metrics for RF test engineers, characterizing the noise contributions
of an electrical system, as well as the individual electrical components within
the system. "As always, we are proud to offer this new feature as part of
our free software package that comes with all Signal Hound spectrum analyzers,"
said Cory Allen, Marketing Director at Signal Hound. "This new ability to
perform noise figure measurements within Spike increases the value of our
test and measurement equipment, adding yet another essential feature for professionals
working in the industry." The new Noise Figure analysis mode is available
in Spike, today...
 "A research team in Korea and Japan
has reported field-effect transistors (FETs) with a
cut-off frequency of 738 GHz, claiming this as 'the highest fT of
any FET with any material system.' The result from Kyoungpook National University
(KNU), University of Ulsan and Quantum Semiconductor International in South
Korea and NTT Device Technology Laboratories in Japan was presented online
at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) at the end of 2020. The
team credits a composite indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) quantum well (QW)
channel structure with enabling the record frequency high-electron-mobility
transistor (HEMT). The 738GHz figure compares with a previous InGaAs HEMT
with 710GHz cut-off. However, the latter device also featured a maximum oscillation..."
 I have often stated that some of the
most enthusiastic and capable engineers and technicians I have had the honor
working with were Hams. As evidenced by this ad in the February 1941 edition
of QST magazine, heads of corporations hold the same view. None other
than the president of Zenith Radio Corporation, Mr. E.J. MacDonald, Jr., thought
enough of the talent residing within the amateur radio community to appeal
directly to them with this full-page ad titled, "Amateurs
- Your Thoughts May Be Worth Money." What makes this advertisement even
more interesting is that it specifically wanted Hams with ideas about the
newfangled thing called Frequency Modulation...
 A new application note entitled, "Interference
Hunting," was posted on the Tektronix website. It begins: "Over the past
decade there has been a dramatic increase in the population of wireless transmitters
found in the world, with the inevitable result being a dramatic increase in
radiofrequency noise pollution. Every significant electronic device leaks
radiation at some level and the number of cellular phones in circulation now
outnumbers people. The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) is only going
to make things worse. Much worse in fact as billions of wireless-enabled devices
populate everything from shop floors to living rooms. At the same time, wireless
technology has become critical to our daily lives. Drive down any residential
neighborhood or business center with even a basic RF sniffer and you'll see
Wi-Fi transmitters in literally every location, all powered up and enabling
a steady flow of vital communications. Smartphones - often with Bluetooth
radios in action - keep the wheels of commerce turning and keep us connected
to family and friends. Maintaining these wireless links..."
 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.
Monday the 15th
 The August 1958 issue of Radio
News marked the merging of All−Wave Radio with Radio News,
both founded by Hugo Gernsback. Radio News began publication in July 1919
(actually titled Radio Amateur News for the first year) and All−Wave
Radio debuted in September 1936. "All−wave" radio referred to a class
of radios popular at the time which could tune in most of the worldwide commercial
broadcast stations, spurring the accompanying "short wave listening" craze.
This instance of the monthly "Within Earshot of the Editor" column received
a lot of attention because it fired a shot across the bow of the ARRL for
not sufficiently lobbying the FCC for the
electromagnetic spectrum access rights currently enjoyed and the serious
threat of loss. Many people subsequently accused Radio News of attempting
to torpedo the ARRL and replace it with another organization of Ham operators...
 From the Austin American-Statesman
newspaper, February 15, 2021, "Nearly
half of Texas' installed wind power generation capacity has been offline
because of frozen wind turbines in West Texas, according to Texas grid operators"
(about 12,000 megawatts - that's12 terawatts). It is making the ice-related
massive power outage even worse. Under normal circumstances a distributed
generation system can be advantageous by eliminating single-point failures,
but ice storms often affect very large areas. I am a proponent of wind turbines
and solar arrays where they make sense, but don't like the BS fed to us about
how they can totally replace conventional power generation sources universally.
My preference would be personal nuclear generators for cars, houses, and businesses.
 RIGOL Technologies is transforming
the Test and Measurement Industry. Our premium line of products includes digital
and mixed signal oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, function / arbitrary waveform
generators, programmable power supplies and loads, digital multimeters, data
acquisition systems, and application software. Our test solutions combine
uncompromised product performance, quality, and advanced product features;
all delivered at extremely attractive price points. This combination provides
our customers with unprecedented value for their investment, reduces their
overall cost of test, and helps speed time to completion of their designs
or projects.
 Are you between 16 and 17½ or
between 26 and 35 and not in uniform? Are you 1-C or mildly 4-F or otherwise
ineligible for military service? Are you interested in a radio operating job
in direct support of the war effort? Then there's a place for you in the
U. S. Maritime Service. If you hold a commercial radio-telegraph second
or higher-grade license, so much the better. But you don't need a ticket to
start with; in fact, you don't need any previous radio training whatsoever.
The Maritime Service will train you. It will make a proficient merchant marine
radio operator out of you at one of the nation's finest operator schools -
with pay! This is an opportunity described several times before in QST. It
is time now for the story to be told again...
 Kristina Collins, David Kazdan, and
Nathaniel Frissell recently published an interesting article in the American
Geophysical Union magazine Eos entitled,
"Ham
Radio Forms a Planet-Sized Space Weather Sensor Network." They begin by
making the point: "For researchers who monitor the effects of solar activity
on Earth's atmosphere, telecommunications, and electrical utilities, amateur
radio signals a golden age of crowdsourced science." As in many other areas
of communications science, Hams play a significant role in formal scientific
research. The Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI), a confederation
of scientists, engineers, and hobbyists (often including members who are both
professional and hobbyist weather investigators) that bands together amateur
radio operators with the research community in the space and atmospheric sciences
convenes annual workshops where discoveries are exchanged...
 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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