|
Sunday the 21st
 This
RF Engineering themed crossword puzzle for November 21st contains only clues
and words are directly to RF, microwave, and mm-wave 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. Enjoy!
 Alliance Test Equipment sells
used / refurbished
test equipment and offers short- and long-term rentals. They also offer repair,
maintenance and calibration. Prices discounted up to 80% off list price. Agilent/HP,
Tektronix, Anritsu, Fluke, R&S and other major brands. A global organization
with ability to source hard to find equipment through our network of suppliers.
Alliance Test will purchase your excess test equipment in large or small lots. Blog
posts offer advice on application and use of a wide range of test equipment. Please
visit Allied Test Equipment today to see how they can help your project.
Friday the 19th
 If you have never received a
major electrical shock, you might be tempted to be a little lax when working
around high voltage. However, once you get your first taste of the jolt, you will
probably never forget it and will be very mindful of safety in the future. I got
my share of 120 V and 240 V shocks during my days as an electrician. Minor
shocks feel like a vibrating twinge of pain that just scare the crap out of you,
while more severe instances feel like getting jabbed in the finger(s) with a pick
- at least that has been my experience. I got hit by 408 V once while working
on a 3-phase air compressor for an auto body shop - that was during high school
while in the electrical vocational program. While working on radar in the USAF,
I saw a guy get bitten by 10 kV from a CRT display circuit - it left a burn
hole in the tip of his finger...
 Centric RF is a company offering from stock
various RF and
Microwave coaxial components, including attenuators, adapters, cable assemblies,
terminations, power dividers, and more. We believe in offering high performance
parts from stock at a reasonable cost. Frequency ranges of 0-110 GHz at power
levels from 0.5-500 watts are available off the shelf. Order today, ship today!
Centric RF is currently looking for vendors to partner with them. Please visit Centric
RF today.
 "Russia tested an
anti-satellite weapon on November 15, destroying one of its own old and defunct
satellites, Kosmos 1408. Launched in 1982, Kosmos 1408 was some 300 miles above
Earth. Its destruction generated a debris field in Earth orbit that prompted the
seven International Space Station crew members, including one Russian cosmonaut,
to take cover in their crew capsules for several hours, in case they had to abandon
the station. Occupants of the Chinese space station are reported to have taken similar
action. The incident also has generated criticism from many corners and a grave
discussion on the possible impact of any future such tests, by Russia or anyone
else. The danger of damage to the ISS or an orbiting satellite aside, tracking a
debris field that could include thousands of pieces..."
 Even in today's world with computing devices
everywhere sporting simulators and component calculating programs, there are still
times when having a good old fashioned
nomograph or chart handy can be very useful while in sitting at a bench selecting
component values for tweaking or troubleshooting a design. The advantage of such
visual aids is that they provide a big picture of what's happening as frequencies,
lengths, widths, core materials, etc. change - being able to see both the trees
and the forest, so to speak. When you are working in bands where the component physical
size is a significant portion of the wavelength, things get more complicated and
a combination of trial and error and calculations / simulations are needed. At the
IC design level, of course, you have no choice but to rely solely on your computer,
but if you regularly conduct part of your circuit design at a lab bench, I recommend
gathering a collection of these kinds...
 With more than 1000
custom-built symbols, this has got to be the most comprehensive set of
Visio Symbols available 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...
 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.
Thursday the 18th
 A death notice for
Mr. Oscar Hammarlund, founder of Hammarlund Manufacturing Company, appeared
in the "Within the Industry" monthly column in the October 1945 issue of Radio
News magazine. Hammarlund was a major provider of radio communications equipment
for amateur radio operators and or the U.S. (and other countries) military during
World War II. Hammarlund and many other companies ran advertisements in American
Radio Relay League's (ARRL) QST magazine at the time (see "WWII Era Electronics
Advertisements in QST Magazine"). Side note: At the end of the war the
government made good with the people who scarified for the cause (War Assets Administration
Advertisement). In other news, the newly formed Radio Parts and Electronic Equipment
Shows announced the election of officers...
 "In as little as five years, analysts at
Yole Developpement (Yole) predict the already mighty
RF GaN device
market will mushroom from some $900 million to $2.4 billion. Three decades of
investment from defense organizations around the world has placed this high power
density, high efficiency material firmly on the compound semiconductor map, with
GaN devices routinely used in military radar and electronics warfare. As defense
agencies look to commercial applications to pay back their billion dollar investment..."
 Before the ground-breaking, paradigm-changing,
outside-the-box 8-track tape came the
4-track tape, itself a marvel of modern technology. This brief announcement
regarding its imminent introduction to the music storage and playback world appeared
in the July of 1958 of Radio-Electronics, barely a month before my introduction
into this old world. Many people did -and still do - scoff at the mention of an
8-track tape deck and assorted tapes. I actually preferred them over the snobbishly
preferred cassette tape because unlike cassettes where you had to run serially through
each song to reach the next, or through several if noncontiguous on the tape, the
8-track featured parallel recordings so that switching from one song to the next
was instantaneous. Some 8-trackers, yielding to the pressure of cassette elitists...
 Thanks to website visitor for the heads-up
on this important news! "Those who reported drinking a 'moderate' amount of coffee
and/or tea daily were
less likely to be diagnosed with stroke and dementia, according to new research.
New research out this week suggests that a tea or coffee habit in your later years
could help your brain stay in tip-top shape. The study found that healthy older
adults in the UK who regularly drank coffee and/or tea were less likely to develop
stroke and dementia over an 11-year period than those who drank neither. Though
these findings can't confirm a cause-and-effect link, they are the latest to indicate
that these brewed drinks have some health benefits. Dementia is a progressive and
currently incurable loss of cognitive function..."
 WV Communications,
a world class RF/Microwave Solutions Company, is immediately seeking an enthusiastic
and capable
Software Developer. Our product line consists of innovative, high technology,
quality electronic hardware, software, and sub-systems for both Military and Commercial
applications that is installed and operational Worldwide. The successful candidate
will have skills including minimum 2 years' experience working with C++ and Qt in
a cross-platform Linux/Windows Environment; Standard Library/STL, programming OpenGL,
programming networks, and programming and debugging multi-threaded applications;
working with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the ability to build and distribute RPMs
and maintain repositories emphasized; automated build systems such as Jenkins, and
source code control systems such as Git is requested. Red Mine knowledge is a bonus...
 For the last few years I have been scanning
and posting Radio Service Data Sheets like this one featuring the
Belmont 4-Tube Model 408 (Series A) Battery "Farm" Superhet radio in graphical
format, rather than run OCR on them to separate the textual content. It appeared
in the October 1938 issue of Radio-Craft magazine. There are still many people who
restore and service these vintage radios, and often it can be difficult or impossible
to find schematics and/or tuning information. No example of this radio could be
found on the WWW. I keep a running list of all data sheets at the bottom of the
page to facilitate a search...
 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!
 RF Superstore launched in 2017, marking
the return of Murray Pasternack, founder of Pasternack Enterprises, to the RF and
microwave Industry. Pasternack fundamentally changed the way RF components were
sold. Partner Jason Wright manages day-to-day operations, while working closely
with Mr. Pasternack to develop RF Superstore into a world class RF and
microwave
component supplier. RF coaxial connectors & adapters, coaxial cable &
cable assemblies, surge protectors, attenuators. Items added daily. Free shipping
on orders over $25. We're leading the way again!
Wednesday the 17th
 Aside from the photos of
cool radar antennas, "Made by General Electric of Syracuse, N.Y.," caught my
attention because I actually spent a couple years there in the mid 1990s as an engineer
working with a design team for a weather radar for the FAA. It was a kludge of left-over
components and assemblies from other cancelled programs. The phased array antenna
came from a Navy shipboard program, and the components for the RF, analog, and digital
portions were cobbled together mostly from parts that were in the company stock
room inventory. Very little money was budgeted for new parts or personnel. I handled
all the RF and analog design and the equipment rack power supplies, plus RF plumbing
out of the building and into the phased array antenna (2 other engineers handled
the antenna assembly). One of the coolest parts of the design was the waveguide...
 OK,
this is weird - "Physicists will find it shocking, but there are plenty of people
around the world who genuinely believe the Earth is flat. Rachel Brazil explores
why such views are increasingly taking hold and how the physics community should
best respond. In 2017 the US rapper B.o.B (real name Bobby Ray Simmons, Jr.) started
a crowd-funding campaign to launch a satellite. The rapper, a vocal proponent of
'flat-Earth theory,'
wanted to seek evidence that our planet is a disc, not a globe. His aim was to raise
$200,000 (later upped to $1M) on the GoFundMe website, with the aim of sending one
or more craft into space to help him 'find the curve' - the term that 'flat-Earthers'
use to describe the edge of our supposed disc-shaped planet. The rapper's quest
may seem like a joke or publicity stunt. Indeed, there's currently no evidence..."
 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.
 Rohde & Schwarz has successfully delivered
communications equipment for
mobile air traffic control (ATC) towers to a customer in the United Arab Emirates
(UAE). Having already supplied an UAE customer with radios in the past, Rohde &
Schwarz has been chosen again, as the company provided the best solution for the
customer. Each mobile ATC tower consists of a cabin equipped with consoles, all
installed on a lifting system fixed on a trailer that is fitted to be transportable
by a C17 transport aircraft. Each cabin has been designed to accommodate three controller
working positions, equipped with R&S Series4200 software defined radios, CERTIUM
VCS voice communications system, CERTIUM Management and CERTIUM Gateways...
 These values for
density of
some common building materials were collected from sites across the Internet
and are generally in agreement with multiple sites. Most are from ASAE (American
Society of Engineers and Architects) tables. However, if you have values that you
believe are more accurate, use them for your calculations, and please send me an
e-mail to let me know what your values are. Note that original units were lb/ft3,
so actual number of significant places in kg/m3 column are the same as the original
unit; i.e., aluminum density is really only known to three significant places even
though four are presented...
 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...
 Aegis Power Systems is a leading supplier
of AC-DC and
DC-DC power supplies for custom and special applications. Aegis has been designing
and building highly reliable custom power supplies since 1995. They offer a complete
line of switch mode power supplies and power converters for a variety of markets
including defense, industrial, aircraft, VME, and telecom. Supports military, aircraft,
EV, telecom, and embedded computing applications. Design and manufacture of custom
power supply solutions to meet each customer's exacting specifications. Please visit
Aegis Power Systems today.
Tuesday the 16th
 Part VI of C.W. Palmer's series on
Microwaves discusses "equipment used for measuring frequency, and crystals for receiver
frequency conversion." He spends a lot of time describing high frequency wavemeters
- how they work and how they're used for measurements. I always thought there was
something cool about the
resonant cavity type wavemeters and am impressed that someone came up with the
idea. When I first saw one I thought the cylinder rotated automatically to indicate
the resonant frequency, but in fact your need to manually rotate the wavemeter's
cylinder while monitoring a power meter. It's cool anyway, though. Note that in
1949 when these articles appeared in Radio−Electronics magazine, the word we nowadays
write as "coaxial" was then hyphenated as "co−axial..."
 "By merging two or more sources of light,
interferometers create interference patterns that can provide remarkably detailed
information about everything they illuminate, from a tiny flaw on a mirror, to the
dispersion of pollutants in the atmosphere, to gravitational patterns in far reaches
of the Universe. 'If you want to measure something with very high precision, you
almost always use an optical interferometer, because light makes for a very precise
ruler,' says Jaime Cardenas, assistant professor of optics at the University of
Rochester. Now, the Cardenas Lab has created a way to make these
optical
workhorses even more useful and sensitive..."
 "According to a report published by Technavio,
the
RF semiconductor market size is set to grow by USD 961.22 million from 2020
to 2025. Factors such as increasing demand for RF devices for smartphones will offer
immense growth opportunities. To leverage the current opportunities, market vendors
must strengthen their foothold in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their
positions in the slow-growing segments. The RF semiconductor market is fragmented,
and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Some
of the major vendors of the RF semiconductor market include Broadcom, Cree, Fujitsu,
GCT Semiconductor, Infineon Technologies..."
WV Communications,
Inc., a world class RF/Microwave Solutions Company, is immediately seeking an enthusiastic
and capable
RF Microwave Technician. Our product line consists of innovative, high technology,
quality electronic hardware, software, and sub-systems for both Military and Commercial
applications that is installed and operational Worldwide. Let WV Communications
be your mentor if you seek career growth in the rich and fascinating field of RF
and Microwave Communications Equipment Manufacturing! We offer a competitive salary,
comprehensive benefits, a challenging work environment and a supportive family atmosphere.
Our employees share a common thread: they enjoy coming to work…we like it here;
we like the intensity, the energy, the passion of doing a job well and serving our
customers; of developing products that do extraordinary things in extraordinary
ways. We also make time for enjoying life...
 "Fair
Trade" was a policy established in the post-WWII era in response to what consumer
retail groups considered business-ruining cost cutting by dealers who offered to
sell products at or barely above cost in order to steal profit from other stores.
So−scheming stores planned to make up for the low profit margin with high sales
volumes. Doing so drove a lot of the local competition out of business, leaving
the crafty dirty dealers to later raise prices. Stores that had manufacturer-sanctioned
service shops often got screwed because they were obligated to repair items like
TVs and radios that were bought from another dealer who did not do service work.
Profit margins on repair work - at least from honest shops - were typically very
low, so the owners depended on new product sales to help raise the bottom line...
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!
Reactel has become one of the industry leaders in the design and manufacture
of RF and microwave
filters, diplexers, and sub-assemblies. They offer the generally known tubular,
LC, cavity, and waveguide designs, as well as state of the art high performance
suspended substrate models. Through a continuous process of research and development,
they have established a full line of filters of filters of all types - lowpass,
highpass, bandpass, bandstop, diplexer, and more. Established in 1979. Please contact
Reactel today to see how they might help your project.
Monday the 15th
 Wafer / stacked / rotary switches are not
found very often in new equipment thanks to the amount of digitization being used.
However, prior to around the 1980s they were present in just about everything that
had selectable functions. Stereo controls for choosing AM, FM, Phonograph, Auxiliary,
Tape, and other types of inputs used wafer switches. Oscilloscope and other test
equipment switches for time base, trigger source, amplitude scale, frequency band,
and x/y and channel input options used them. Tape recorders, televisions and cameras,
washing machines, and many other household items contained one or more wafer switches.
Military, aviation, nautical, and industrial equipment of all sorts were full of
them. Interconnections typically went between layers / tiers / wafers as part of
very complex switching schemes. Here are fairly simple examples of rotary switch
implemented in a VTVM and a transistor tester. Much more complicated wiring schemes...
 "In a new report now published in Science
Advances, Andrey Jarmola and an international research team in physics and materials
in the U.S. and Germany demonstrated the function of a rotation sensor based on
the Nitrogen-14 (14N) nuclear spins intrinsic to nitrogen-vacancy color centers
in diamond. Nitrogen vacancy color centers are formed by nitrogen impurities that
sit next to a missing carbon in diamond. The sensor used optical polarization and
readout of the nuclei and a radiofrequency double-quantum pulse protocol to monitor
the 14N nuclear spin precession. Rotation sensors or gyroscopes are typically used
for navigation and automotive guidance. Among commercial sensors including mechanical
gyroscopes and microelectromechanical systems, emerging techniques include
nuclear magnetic
resonance (NMR) gyroscopes..."
 Triad RF Systems is pleased to announce the
opening of a new Manufacturing Center, conveniently located opposite the company's
existing Design Center in East Brunswick, New Jersey. This new facility increases
Triad's manufacturing capacity six-fold and creates additional space to expand the
company's innovative design center. Triad's investment in the new manufacturing
center is a direct response to growing global demand for Triad's RF amplifiers,
integrated radio systems and custom RF products for unmanned systems, drones, CubeSat
platforms, custom military applications, and electronic warfare systems. "Our new
MCoE (Manufacturing Center of Excellence) showcases Triad's ability to bring rugged,
small, SWaP optimized, mission-critical and high performance wireless...
 Wall charts / posters featuring high tech
themes are Art du Jour for engineering labs, cubicles, and offices. Many companies
provide custom designs that provide useful information about subjects like RF and
microwave system design, frequency standards, radar fundamentals, wireless network
planning, regulatory topics, etc., while also often taking the opportunity to promote
their products. Unlike the lab wall posters of yore, today's posters are large and
full of vibrant colors. Since it had been a very long while since I last scoured
the Internet for available posters, I decided to begin with Keysight Technologies
(formerly Agilent Technologies, formerly Hewlett-Packard) to see what they have.
Thumbnails of some of the most interesting for RF Cafe visitors are shown below,
and there are hyperlinks provided to the company website where you can either download...
 Electronic Design has been releasing
parts of their
2021 Engineering Survey results. This one pertains to job satisfaction and company
hiring behavior. "I was excited about engineering before I was in high school...
I've had a lot of jobs since then and backed into the editorial side of things because
I had a knack for technical writing... I have three children who are all engineers,
although none went into electric engineering or software like dear old dad or into
mom's engineering field either. I'm happy to say that most engineers and programmers
want to stay in their jobs and would recommend them to others based on the results
of our recent salary survey. The majority of engineers and programmers were satisfied
with their current position, which is a good indication they chose the right profession..."
 A While back I posted a page pointing to
the many laboratory wall charts offered by Keysight Technologies (formerly Agilent,
formerly Hewlett Packard). I mentioned how unlike modern charts that are full of
color, the old ones were usually a single color or black & white. Here is an
example from American Amphenol which appeared in a 1945 issue of Radio News
magazine. Something like this would make a really cool decoration for today. I just
looked on eBay and didn't see an
Amphenol Tube Socket Wall Chart for sale, but that would probably be the bet
place to latch on to one eventually...
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.
|