These archive pages are provided in order to make it easier for you to find items
that you remember seeing on the RF Cafe homepage. Of course probably the easiest
way to find anything on the website is to use the "Search
RF Cafe" box at the top of every page.
About RF Cafe.
The Bedol Water Clock
This
water-powered clock appeared
on the EDN website. Rather than get the story second-hand, I went
to the Bedol website. According to the manufacturer: The handsome
Bedol Water Clock works 100% on natural power. No batteries,
no chemicals, no electricity – no pollution. You don’t even need
to wind it up! Just fill the tank with natural tap water and you’re
set for 12 to 14 weeks of accurate timekeeping before refreshing.
(You won’t even lose time while changing water, thanks to the built-in
memory chip!) With its bold modern styling, space-age accuracy,
and surprisingly low price, the Bedol Eco-Friendly Water Powered
Clock is ideal for home or office – or as a unique gift item. Not
bad for $25, and no batteries required. There is a video that explains
the process.
Webinar: Synthesis and Tuning
of Modern
Microwave Filters
Synthesis
and Tuning of Modern Microwave Filters, by CST, Thursday, November
8, 11 am ET. The first part of this webinar focuses on filter synthesis.
Starting with the classic coupling matrix approach in which the
matrix coefficients determine the filter topology, we will focus
on the conversion of this matrix into a 3D model in CST MICROWAVE
STUDIO® (CST MWS). We will demonstrate the new link between CST
MWS and the filter synthesis tool Nuhertz as well as a specialized
built-in macro for automatic band-pass filter synthesis and construction.
Windfreak Technologies Intros
SigGen / Power
Detector
The
Windfreak SynthNV
is a 137 MHz to 4.4 GHz software tunable RF signal generator
controlled and powered by a Windows PC via its USB port. It
includes an on board 70 dB RF power detector which can be used
with the sweep function as a scalar RF Network Analyzer. RF
power is settable in ½ dB steps up to +17 dBm with
over 60 dB of amplitude adjust-ability. There is no need to
stay tethered to the computer. The
SynthNV
has nonvolatile on board memory so it can be programmed to fire
up by itself on any frequency, power or modulation setting. This
makes for a highly mobile, low power and light weight solution for
your RF signal generation needs. The
SynthNV
has unique amplitude, sweep and pulse modulation capability that
has made it very popular with military and police EW applications.
But it is equally at home used as a high quality local oscillator
driving a mixer in a microwave communication system or test signal
generation in your ATE setup.
Please Visit everything RF in
Appreciation
for Their Support
everything
RF is a search engine for RF & Microwave Components.
everything RF lists complete catalogs from various RF & Microwave
component manufacturers and enables engineers to search through
them by specification. There are over 60,000 Components listed
from more than 150 Manufacturers. Download datasheets, Request
Quotes or Contact the Suppliers for more information via everything
RF.
Many Thanks for Long-Time
Support from NP
Technologies
NP
Technologies designs and manufactures solid state broadband linear
RF power amplifiers for commercial, military, medical and industrial
applications. RF amplifiers range 10 kHz to 3 GHz in frequency
and power levels exceeding 1 kW. Standard products can be quickly
modified to your specific requirements.
Hittite's New 1-20 GHz SDLVA
Features
250V ESD Rating
Hittite
Microwave has introduced a new Successive Detection Log Video Amplifier
(SDLVA) that operates over the full 1 to 20 GHz frequency range
and carries a class 1A ESD rating (250V HBM). Specified as an improved
ESD performance replacement for the
HMC-C052 SDLVA, the
HMC-C088 features miniature connectorized module packaging,
which makes it ideal for designers with space and power-constrained
applications including EW and ELINT receivers, DF radar, ECM, and
IFM systems.
An Avocation Becomes
a Vocation
Did
you know that the Hallicrafters line of radios is named after founder
Bill Halligan (W9WZE)?
Hallicrafters, founded in 1932, was a major manufacturer of
amateur radio gear. During the years of WWII they ruggedized some
of their products to survive the harsh environments of battle. Hallicrafters
was sold to Northrop Corporation in 1966, at which time the product
line essentially ceased. Their gear is still very collectible by
aficionados of vintage Ham equipment. This story from the February
1943 QST provided an inside look at the production floor
at Hallicrafters. Having cut my figurative electronics teeth on
radar and radio equipment built with tubes and point-to-point wiring
while in the USAF, and then later as an assembly/test technician
at Westinghouse Electric building sonar equipment for the Navy which
included wiring chassis and building large complex cable harnesses,
I can personally relate to the photos accompanying the article...
Aruba Networks Needs
a Senior RF Engineer
Aruba Networks is seeking a Senior RF Engineer who wants to be a
part of a fast-paced and challenging environment. The focus of this
position will be designing Aruba next generation Access Points by
a combination of Sunnyvale based R&D and technical leadership
and oversight of our Asia based JDM partners.
PMI Intros Narrowband
1542.5 MHz Bandpass
Filter
PMI
Model
8C1542D5-35-CD-SFF is a band pass filter centered at 1542.5 MHz
with a nominal bandwidth is 35 MHz. This model offers a low
insertion loss of 1.0 dB maximum and maintains a passband VSWR
of 1.5:1 maximum. This filter offers a 8 pole response and is packaged
in an aluminum housing measuring 6.6" x 1.2" x 1.3".
Thanks to Anatech Electronics
for Continued
Support
Anatech
Electronics designs and manufactures the industry's widest range
of RF and microwave filters at frequencies up to 40 GHz, as
well as power dividers, directional couplers, and many other product
types. They specialize in standard and custom designs for commercial
wireless, public safety, satcom, and defense applications, and we
can meet stringent military environmental specifications.
RF Engineer Needed for
Optimization &
Design
PierCon
Solutions is a leading provider of wireless communications engineering
services currently looking for Contract RF Engineers for our Northern
New Jersey site. Must have OSS and 3-5 years UMTS optimization experience.
Ericsson equipment experience a plus. Must be a self-starter, ambitious,
able to work alone and committed to getting the job done. BSEE required.
Hittite's Mixer Spurious
Product Calculator
App
Hittite's
online Javascript app for finding
mixer spurious products has been around for many years, but
in case you have forgotten about it or have never seen it, now is
a good time to bookmark the page. It uses a format pioneered by
Collins Radio back in the middle of the last century that plots
the
RF/LO and IF/LO harmonics as straight lines, and then draws
a rectangle within them that represents the limits of the output
frequency band. Any spurious product lines that pass through the
rectangle are inband at the output, and hence cannot be filtered
out after the fact. I dubbed the chart a "
Spur
Web" in my DOS-based RF Workbench program back around 1990.
It was, I believe, the first time that chart format had ever been
implemented in software with a graphical user interface.
Toy Story 3
I
have been a big space adventure and cartoon fan my whole life, so
naturally Buzz Lightyear is my favorite character in the
Toy Story series by Pixar. "Infinity
and beyond," is his trademark line. The name "Buzz" is in honor
of Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Tim Allen does the voice
of Buzz. Anyway, Melanie and I watched Toy Story 3 the other night
and really enjoyed it. My favorite crack-up laughing line in the
movie was from Buzz, where he says, "That
wasn't me, was it?" after regaining consciousness in the trash
chute.
Hittite's New October 2012
Selection Guide
Released
New
for this publication is a Signal Conditioners Product Line featuring
a 32 Gbps dual channel advanced linear equalizer. The
Selection Guide is organized by RF & Microwave, Analog &
Mixed Signal, Clocks & Timing and LO Frequency Generation IC
sections along with Modules and Instrumentation. The New & Expanded
Product Line section includes new Amplifiers, Clocks & Timing,
Mixers, Optical Modulator Drivers, Signal Conditioners and RFIC &
Transceivers.
RFMD Appoints Alan Hallberg
as Chief Marketing
Officer
RF Micro Devices today announced
the appointment of Alan Hallberg as the Company’s corporate vice
president and chief marketing officer (CMO). In the role of CMO,
Mr. Hallberg will oversee RFMD’s global marketing activities and
will be based in RFMD’s growing Silicon Valley, CA, location. He
will report to RFMD’s president and CEO Bob Bruggeworth.
Wireless Engineering Theme
Crossword for
11/4/2012
For
the sake of avid cruciverbalists, each week I create a new
crossword puzzle that has a theme related to engineering, mathematics,
chemistry, physics, and other technical words. You will never be
asked the name of a movie star unless he/she was involved in a technical
endeavor (e.g., Hedy Lamar).
Antenna Matching
Within an Enclosure
LS
Research has a short tutorial on antenna matching within an enclosure.
The author, RF design engineer John Lienau, is a graduate of Marquette
University in Milwaukee, WI, with a Masters degree in electrical
engineering. His graduate research focused on electromagnetic theory
and antenna design. Part I covers
Theory & Principle, and Part II covers
Techniques & Guidelines.
Congrats to the October
Book Drawing Winner
!!!
Kevin
A., of Roanoke, VA, is the October 2012
Book Drawing
winner. Kevin selected
Monopulse Principles
and Techniques,
by
Samuel M. Sherman and David K. Barton.
Graciously provided by
Artech
House
Featured Book: Handbook μW
Component
Measurements
Handbook
of Microwave Component Measurements: with Advanced VNA Techniques,
by Joel P. Dunsmore. This book provides state-of-the-art coverage
for making measurements on RF and microwave components, both active
and passive. A perfect reference for R&D and Test Engineers,
with topics ranging from the best practices for basic measurements,
to an in-depth analysis of errors, correction methods, and uncertainty
analysis, this book provides everything you need to understand microwave
measurements. Primary focus is on active and passive measurements
using a Vector Network Analyzer.
Tilting TIROS II
Television
Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS)
was the first platform for space-based weather observation, both
in visible and infrared wavelengths. All modern satellites have
attitude and orbit correcting capabilities via gas jets, but there
is only a limited supply of gas available so the lifetime of a satellite
is limited as well. Scientists who monitored the performance of
TIROS I noticed that the Earth's magnetic field affected the
satellite's attitude as it orbited. They reasoned that attitude
control coils could be installed and energized on TIROS II
using electrical power from its solar panels rather than the onboard
fuel supply. This article from a 1961 edition of Popular Electronics
describes the effort.
Pasternack Appoints New
Distributor for
Spain
Pasternack
announces that it has appointed Altaix Electronica, S.A. (Altaix)
as Pasternack’s exclusive RF distributor for Spain and Portugal.
Altaix joins a growing list of international RF distributors who
are partnering with Pasternack to expand their product offering
and customer service worldwide. Altaix’s customers now have access
to an inventory of more than 35,000 RF and microwave components
and assemblies, all available for same-day shipment from the U.S.
Z-Comm Intros New 4000 MHz
Synthesizer for
Satellite
Z-Communications
announces a new RoHS compliant Fixed Frequency Synthesizer model
SFS4000C-LF for Satellite Communications and Test Equipment.
The SFS4000C-LF is a single frequency synthesizer that is phase
locked at 4000 MHz while using a 10 MHz reference. This
coaxial resonator PLL features remarkable phase noise of -102 dBc/Hz
@ 10 kHz offset and typical sideband spurs of -65 dBc.
Sherlock Ohms:
I Fixed My Corvette for $0.00
Sherlock
Ohms is a regular feature of Design News that presents submissions
from readers about troubleshooting challenges and how they were
solved. This one is titled "
I
Fixed My Broken Corvette for $0.00." Yes, it is relevant to
EEs because it involves electrical contacts.
Notable Quote
"[I]
chose @ - 'probably saving it from going the same way of the 'cent'
sign on computer keyboards'" --
Ray Tomlinson, BBN Technologies engineer who instituted the
"@" sign used in e-mail addresses, September 2012 Smithsonian magazine
AWR Introduces Analyst™
AWR
Corporation, the innovation leader in high-frequency EDA software,
announces the commercial release and immediate availability of
Analyst. Analyst is a full featured, 3D electromagnetic
(EM) industry standard finite element method (FEM) simulator that
is completely integrated into AWR’s Microwave Office circuit simulation
environment, effectively making 3D FEM EM analysis as straightforward
as a mouse click.
Pasternack Appoints New
Distributor for
Brazil
Pasternack
announces that it has appointed
Vermont Representacoes
e Comercio Ltda. (Vermont Rep) as Pasternack’s exclusive distributor
for Brazil. Vermont Rep joins a growing list of international distributors
who are partnering with Pasternack to expand their product offering
and customer service worldwide. Pasternack maintains inventory of
more than 35,000 RF and microwave components and assemblies, all
available for same-day shipment from the United States.
Automatic Antenna Switching
In
this article the author describes the
automatic antenna switching system which was developed for controlling
the forty-odd receiving antennas at the FCC's Grand Island (Nebraska)
Monitoring Station. With this system it required only a matter of
seconds for the operator to select any desired antenna by simply
pushing a couple of buttons on the control panel. A similar system
could easily be designed for a lesser number of antennas either
for a test range or an amateur radio operation.
IEEE-USA Promotional Video
A
new promotional video titled, "IEEE-USA:
Putting the I in IEEE-USA," has just been released by the IEEE.
It is a 4-minute-long pitch for the services and benefits provided
by IEEE for its
members. From political lobbying to salary surveys, book deals,
and student activities, they do offer a lot for the nominal annual
fee. Melanie and I buy our life insurance through them because even
with the dues cost, it is still cheaper than anywhere else we've
looked.
Youth@HamRadio.Fun
ARRL's Youth Column
The
ARRL's outreach to youngsters is aided by a monthly column written
by Youth Editor Sterling Coffey, N0SSC. This one is titled, "October
is for the Kids -- School Club Roundup, JOTA, Contests and Giveaways."
Sterling is a junior majoring in electrical engineering at the Missouri
University of Science and Technology.
PMI Intros 1370 MHz
Bandpass Filters
PMI
Model
BPF1370-50-CD-TNCMF-LK is a bandpass filter with an Fc of 1370 MHz
and 1 dB BW of 50 MHz. Ultimate stopband rejection of
60 dBc, input signal level of 6 watts, 10% duty factor. Loss
of less than 2 dB in a package measuring 2.25" x 1.0" x 0.75".
PMI
Model
BPF1370-50-CD-TNCMF-BL is a bandpass filter with an Fc of 1370 MHz
and 1 dB BW of 50 MHz. Ultimate stopband rejection of
60 dBc, input signal level of 6 watts, 10% duty factor. Loss
of less than 2 dB in a package measuring 5.08" x 1.5" x 0.79".
Hurricane Sandy
Google Crisis Map
As
I write this, Hurricane Sandy is just hours away from making landfall
in New Jersey. In case you are not familiar with the
Google Crisis
Maps, they are interactive maps with clickable points for web
cams, first-hand reports of conditions, emergency shelter locations,
and many other resources. If you live in Hurricane Sandy's path
or want to monitor the situation because someone you know lives
there, this is probably the single best comprehensive resource for
you.
Science Theme
Crossword for 10/28/2012
For
the sake of avid cruciverbalists, each week I create a new
crossword
puzzle that has a theme related to engineering, mathematics,
chemistry, physics, and other technical words. You will never be
asked the name of a movie star unless he/she was involved in a technical
endeavor (e.g., Hedy Lamar).
PMI Intros 1370 MHz
Band Reject Filters
PMI
Model BRF1370-50-CD-TNCFF-BL and
BRF1370-50-CD-TNCFF-LK are a band reject filters with center
frequency of 1370 MHz and a notch bandwidth of 60 MHz
with a notch depth is 50 dB. Two
form
factors with TNC connectors available.
Leeds "The Home of Radio"
Ad from 1931
Leeds,
which dubbed itself "The Home of RADIO," has been in New York since
at least 1923, but this advertisement appeared in the December 1931
edition of QST. Leeds is still in operation today in Brooklyn under
the name of
Leeds Radio. Looking at the ad is a step back ninety years into
the past, but the nostalgic waxing does not have to end there. If
you want a trip back to the beginning days of the World Wide Web,
go to the current Leeds Radio website. It's format-less text presentation
with basic hyperlinks is circa 1992 when bulletin boards ruled the
day and the Mosaic browser was just giving web surfers their first
taste of a GUI. The only images I found on the Leeds website were
a few scans of old advertisements like the one shown below (which
is not on their site).
De Forest Radio Company
Advertisement c.1931
Lee
de Forest, inventor of the Audion vacuum tube, created a business
called
De Forest Radio Company (although
I hear he didn't build that). This advertisement for his
company's electron tubes appeared in the December 1931 edition of
the ARRL's QST magazine. If you research Lee de Forest, you will
find his name spelled incorrectly in many different forms: de Forest,
De Forest, de Forest, de Forest, to give a few. When in doubt, go
straight to the source, which in this case is the signature that
de Forest placed on his patent applications - he used "de Forest."
Note that the official company name, according to the advertisement
address at the bottom, is "De Forest Radio Company," (space used)
yet the text of the copy uses the form "de Forest" (no space), and
the marking on the base of the tube says, "de Forest." Sometimes
marketing firms screw up, so I went searching for...
Cobham Antenna Systems
Intros Multi-Beam
Base Station
Antenna for Ultra Fast MIMO
A
new
Multi-beam Hub Base Station antenna, model number MBA6-3.5DS45/2045,
has been developed by Cobham Antenna Systems, Microwave Antennas
(formerly European Antennas) to
enable MIMO radio system operators to meet their goal of 1Gbps/km2
anywhere within a cell. Designed for high speed MIMO 4G
(and beyond) urban access for
backhaul, this was originally a European Union funded project that
has become a finished and available Multi-beam antenna with additional
Military and Security applications.
Featured Book: Transmission
Line Transformers
Transmission
Line Transformers, by Jerry Sevick. Recommended by RF Cafe visitor
Alexander T., this 4th edition of a classic text on transmission
line transformers for high frequencies includes new chapters on
transmission line transformer efficiency, power combiners and mixer
transformers, and equal-delay transformers. Techniques of Guanella
and Ruthroff as well as hundreds of real transformers constructed
and measured to establish the practical levels of bandwidth and
loss performance.
RFMD Wins DARPA Contract
for GaN RF Amp
Enhancement
RF
Micro Devices announced it has been awarded a $2.1 million contract
from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to enhance
the thermal efficiency of gallium nitride (GaN) circuits used in
high power radar and other military systems. The award is in association
with the Near Junction Thermal Transport (NJTT) effort of DARPA's
Thermal Management Technologies (TMT) program. The goal of the DARPA
NJTT initiative is to achieve a 3x or greater improvement in power
handling from GaN power amplifiers through improved thermal management
of the near junction region.
First-Ever Captured Edison
Audio Recording
Unveiled
What
is believed to be the oldest playable recording of an American voice
has been revealed at the
Museum of Innovation and Science in Schenectady, New York. Digital
mastering of the extremely rare, extremely fragile tinfoil medium
has produced an audible 23-second cornet solo of an unidentified
song, followed by a man's voice reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb"
and "Old Mother Hubbard." The man laughs at two spots during the
recording, including at the end, when he recites the wrong words
in the second nursery rhyme. "Look at me; I don't know the song,"
he says. The singer/speaker is identified as St. Louis newspaper
writer Thomas Mason. Recordings like this, which was made during
an
Edison phonograph demonstration in 1878, are so rare because
typically they would wear through after just a couple playbacks,
whereupon the demonstrator would tear the foil into pieces and hand
it out as souvenirs. Optical techniques were used to read the recorded
indentations rather than risking making physical contact. The algorithm
attempted to mimic the physics of the original stylus in the same
manner as done for a 1860 paper recording by Edouard-Leon Scott
de Martinville, a French printer credited with inventing the earliest
known sound recording device.
Thanks Again for Continued
Support by Wenteq
Microwave
Wenteq
Microwave provides a wide range of
RF and
microwave products with quick delivery at very competitive low
prices. Products including coaxial connectors and adapters, circulators,
isolators, low noise amplifiers, power amplifiers, broadband amplifiers,
terminations and more, covering the frequency range of 100 MHz
to 110 Hz. They also provide technical consulting services
and engineering contracts which include antenna design, electromagnetic
structural analysis, and low cost manufacturing of RF/microwave
circuits and systems.
Tales from the Cube:
His Girlfriend's Father
EDN
has a troubleshooting story-telling feature called Tales from
the Cube similar to the Sherlock Ohms feature by Design
News. This one, titled "If Only I Had Been Holding a Screwdriver,"
involves a college kid who attempts to impress his girlfriend's
father by fixing a broken stereo speaker.
PMI Intros Suspended
Substrate 8-18 GHz
BPF
PMI
Model
BP13G-10G-CD-SFF is a suspended substrate bandpass filter that
offers a wide passband of 8 to 18 GHz. This filter offers a
low insertion loss of 1.5 dB typically and a passband VSWR
of 2.0:1 maximum. Stopband rejection of 70 dB typical is provide
from DC-6 GHz and from 20-23 GHz. Offered with field removable
SMA connectors so it can be used in connectorized form or as a drop-in
module. The size is 1.94" x 0.76" x 0.5".
Webinar: 3GPP LTE
Standards Update
3GPP
LTE Standards Update: Release 11, 12 and Beyond, by Agilent,
Thursday, October 25, 1:00 PM ET. The original 3GPP LTE standard
in Release 8 has been stable now for some three years and is the
baseline for the wide-scale deployment of LTE across the world.
However, the standard continues to evolve through Releases 9 and
10 which are now frozen, and ongoing work with Releases 11 and 12.
This webcast will review the status of LTE deployment, review the
main features of each release and discuss some of the newest features
coming up in Release 11 and Release 12.
10 Weirdest Cellphone
Insurance Claims
The
Cellular News website, which I go to every day for headlines,
has a funny story based on claims made for lost or damaged cellphones
as reported by
UK insurance
company
Mobile
Insurance. Here are a couple examples to whet your appetite:
* A farmer in Devon claimed his phone had disappeared inside the
back end of one of his cows when he'd been using the torch on his
iPhone whilst assisting the cow during calving. The phone later
made an appearance, but was damaged.
* A lady in her early 40s
from Nottingham claimed that she'd baked her Nokia 6303i into a
Victoria Sponge she'd been making for her daughter's birthday. It
didn't endure the heat of gas mark 5.
* A man in his 30s claimed
he'd been filming monkeys from the car window in Longleat Safari
Park with his HTC One X when a monkey climbed on the roof and snatched
it.
Boeing's CHAMP
Light Out for Electronics
"Today
we made science fiction science fact." "We hit every target we wanted
to. We prosecuted every one." So says a very happy Keith Coleman,
Boeing's program manager for the
CHAMP project. Counter-electronics High-powered
Microwave Advanced Missile Project
is the culmination of decades of work to develop a non-lethal weapon
that defeats targets without collateral damage, sort of like a neutron
bomb for electronics. From the Boeing website, "On Oct. 16th at
10:32 a.m. MST a Boeing Phantom Works team along with members from
the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Directed Energy Directorate
team, and Raytheon Ktech, suppliers of the High Power Microwave
source, huddled in a conference room at Hill Air Force Base and
watched...