 Friday 10
Thursday 9
 Radio & Television News editor
Oliver Reed wrote in this 1955 issue about the "flattening" of electronics - including
both individual components and overall assembled products. He described a large
screen, wall-mountable television system with built-in flat stereo electrostatic
speakers. "The so-called 'picture
on the wall' television screen has also received widespread publicity although
such a screen is not yet commercially available. In this system, a flat screen is
connected to the TV receiver by means of a cable, and the picture is formed on the
screen electronically." That is a lot like a large flat LCD or LED monitor being
fed by an HDMI cable from a computer. Mr. Reed also writes of a magnetic tape
video playback system akin to what eventually became the VHS / VCR. Evidently the
concept of an optical-based storage medium like the DVD and Blu-ray disk was too
far out of the realm of possibility...
 Anatech Electronics has a handy app note
describing how to
select and specify coaxial cables and assemblies. "Coaxial cables
are too often taken for granted and RF and microwave systems. As a result, they
are often treated like a spool of bell wire, twisted, band, crimped, stepped on,
and subject to assorted other abuses. However, the more you know about coaxial cable
the more likely you are to treat it with respect, as its integrity, lifetime, and
overall performance are at stake. To get a better understanding of coaxial cables
in general, Anatech Electronics has prepared a series of guides that provide information
about RF and microwave coaxial cables ranging from the basics contained in this
application note to more detailed information about characteristics, applications,
specific cable types, and other topics..."
 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...
 Lemos International Technologies is
both a designer and manufacturer of wireless products and a distributor of products
from other world-class manufacturers. A modular approach to wireless connectivity
helps eliminate much of the technical design and testing and also simplifies or
eliminates the need for expensive conformance testing and certification. Ready-to-use
Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi, licensed and unlicensed band products are available. Custom
design services can help you achieve success with your project's unique needs.
 "Do you think that F.C.C. would be engaged
in the present terrific expense and effort of getting our fingerprints and citizenship
histories if there were intention of shutting us down shortly?" That statement was
printed by the QST magazine editor in the issue that preceded the December
7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor by thirteen months. A few things about it are troubling.
First, the
FCC
was collecting fingerprints of licensed amateur radio operators. Second, the
FCC was assimilating information about licensed amateur radio operators' citizenship
histories. Third, a combination of short-sightedness and apparent naiveté concerning
the FCC's willingness to shut down amateur radio operations once America had been
inevitably drawn into World War II...
 Withwave's High Speed & High-density
Multicoax Cable Assemblies (WMX Series) provides a wide range of multiple coax
connectors and flexible cable assemblies with a choice of 20, 40, 50, 67 GHz
configurations based on precision array design and superior high frequency cabling
solutions. WMX Series cables are excellent signal integrity solutions for bench-top
testing and automated test equipment to meet increasing demands of semiconductor
test equipment and optical testing industries. These products consist of high performance
flexible assemblies which can be bundled in housings (8 and 16 channels) and the
interface to board is compression type which provides lower total cost of testing
by avoiding costly soldering components...
 KR Electronics designs and manufactures
high quality filters for both the commercial and military markets. KR Electronics'
line of filters includes lowpass,
highpass, bandpass, bandstop and individually synthesized filters for special applications
- both commercial and military. State of the art computer synthesis, analysis and
test methods are used to meet the most challenging specifications. All common connector
types and package form factors are available. Please visit their website today to
see how they might be of assistance. Products are designed and manufactured in the
USA.
Wednesday 8
 From about the middle of the 1950s through
the 1990s,
stereo systems were a pretty big deal amongst music listeners. A lot of the
interest was driven by rapid improvements in technology in sound recording and reproduction
equipment. An economical boom in the post Korean War years combined with a process
developed by Emory Cook to cut dual channels of stereophonic sound onto vinyl records
enabled a fad fueled by teenagers of building the best home sound systems possible
with available funds. Audiophiliac adults, of course, were also prime motivators
of the technology since they had deeper pockets and could afford higher-end equipment
and larger collections of records. Magnetic tape was also a bit part of the craze,
but the big money was in vinyl. If you peruse the vintage electronics magazines
like this Radio & TV News, Popular Electronics, Electronics World, et al, you
will notice the pages were filled with technical articles on and advertisements
for stereo music reproduction gear...
Measuring Tiny Quasiparticle
a Major Step for Semiconductor Technology
 "A team of researchers led by Sufei Shi,
an assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, has uncovered new information about the mass of individual components
that make up a promising
quasiparticle, known as an exciton, that could play a critical role in future
applications for quantum computing, improved memory storage, and more efficient
energy conversion. Published today in Nature Communications, the team's work brings
researchers one step closer to advancing the development of semiconductor devices
by deepening their understanding of an atomically thin class of materials known
as transitional metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), which have been eyed for their electronic
and optical properties..."
 Axiom Test Equipment, an electronic test
equipment rental and sales company has published a new blog post that examines
electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicle (HEVs) power systems to
understand what should be tested and how to perform those measurements in order
to achieve peak vehicle operation. Manufacturers of EVs and HEVs are making it simpler
and more convenient to maintain adequate electric charge levels to keep their vehicles
running for longer distances on electric power, enticing more drivers to try these
environmentally friendly vehicles. Of course, testing the electrical motors, systems,
and their components is an important part of ensuring that every EV and HEV has
the longest running times and operating lifetimes possible, and that involves understanding
what needs to be tested and how...
 Res-Net Microwave has a complete line of precision
RF & microwave components
including attenuators, terminations, resistors, and diode detectors for commercial,
military, and space applications. Products range from the small flange type to large
2,000 watt connectorized power attenuators and/or terminations at frequencies up
to 26.5 GHz. In-house photo etch and laser trim capability. The company is
a leader in development and production of the films required for these type of RF/microwave
components. Please check out Res-Net Microwave's website to see how they can help
with your current project.
 Here is a quick course on how to
point antennas for over-the-horizon (DX) reception, and, if you also happen
to have a license to transmit, for broadcasting. It covers how to determine the
shortest straight-line path by stretching a string around a globe (remember those
spherical maps that used to be a mainstay of every household and schoolroom?) and
using a protractor (a what?) to get the angle. Radio signals unless refracted or
reflected take a great circle route from point A to point B. Long distance airline
flights take the same routes, which explains why flights from London to Los Angeles
fly over Greenland enroute. Author Edward Noll uses a simple 1/2-wave dipole antenna
radiation pattern as an example of how directivity is affected by frequency (relative
to the fundamental)...
 ConductRF's DC to 18 GHz TSA90 with
Type-N and SMA options as well as our TSX90 with extended frequency 27 GHz
SMA solutions, are built with a special
dielectric material that eliminates the "Teflon Knee" in phase change over temperature,
which is a common cause for performance variance in RF cables used in different
environments. These cables are over 30% smaller than traditional lab test cables,
so offer users increased flexibility and density particularly where multiple cables
are used together such as semiconductor testing. With connector options up to 27 GHz,
these cables can offer users solutions for both RF test and also internal system
cables. The triple shielding feature also ensure greater effectiveness for EMI...
 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. Take a couple minutes to visit their website and see how
IPP can help you today.
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 Empower RF Systems'
Model 2225 is a long duty cycle pulsed amplifier operating from 5.2 to
5.9 GHz and represents our new technologically advanced liquid cooled and
scalable architecture. This breakthrough solid state GaN design replaces tube
technology to bring new capabilities to EW, Radar, Directed Energy and Satcom
applications where tens and hundreds of kilowatts of CW and Pulse power are
required. This new modern architecture offers scalability for affordable upgrade
paths to future power needs by adding hardware to an existing system. Additional
racks can be combined and for racks not fully populated, 2U amplifier drawers
can be added without the need for tuning. The amplifier system layout consists
of a system controller in a 3U and up to 16 hot swappable 2U amplifier drawers
with each amplifier drawer containing an integrated power supply in its 2U
chassis...
Comics with an Electronics Theme February 1967 Popular Electronics
Electronics-Themed Comics June 1951 Radio-Electronics
 RF Cafe typically receives 8,000-15,000
website visits each weekday and about half that on weekends.
RF Cafe is a favorite of engineers, technicians, hobbyists, and students all
over the world. With more than 13,000 pages in the Google search index,
RF Cafe returns in favorable
positions on many types of key searches, both for text and images. New content
is added on a daily basis, which keeps the major search engines interested enough
to spider it multiple times each day. Items added on the homepage often can be found
in a Google search within a few hours of being posted. I also re-broadcast homepage
items on LinkedIn. If you need your company news to be seen, RF Cafe is the
place to be. Advertising begins at $40/month.
 RF Cascade Workbook 2018 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. 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...
 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...
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...
 RF Cafe's raison d'être is and always has
been to provide useful, quality content for engineers, technicians, engineering
managers, students, and hobbyists. Part of that mission is offering to post applicable
job openings. HR department employees
and/or managers of hiring companies are welcome to submit opportunities for posting
at no charge. 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...
|
 "The Senate's annual defense policy bill
would authorize an additional $120M toward a space-based sensor layer capable of
tracking hypersonic weapons, despite the fact the Department of Defense did not
seek more funding for the project in its fiscal 2021 budget requests. The
Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor is DoD's answer to the growing
threat posed by hypersonic weapons being developed by China and Russia. Hypersonic
weapons present a significant challenge to the United States' current missile warning
architecture. Not only can these weapons maneuver around ground based sensors, they're
too dim to be picked up and tracked by space-based sensors in higher orbits. HBTSS
theoretically solves this problem via a proliferated constellation of Overhead Persistent
Infrared (OPIR) sensors operating in low earth orbit..."
 "Using radar commonly deployed to track speeders
and fastballs, researchers have developed an automated system that will allow cars
to peer around corners and spot oncoming traffic and pedestrians. The system, easily
integrated into today's vehicles, uses
Doppler radar to bounce radio waves off surfaces such as buildings and parked
automobiles. The radar signal hits the surface at an angle, so its reflection rebounds
off like a cue ball hitting the wall of a pool table. The signal goes on to strike
objects hidden around the corner. Some of the radar signal bounces back to detectors
mounted on the car, allowing the system to see objects around the corner and tell
whether they are moving or stationary..."
 "Since the discovery of graphene, two-dimensional
materials have been the focus of materials research. Among other things, they could
be used to build tiny, high-performance transistors. Researchers at ETH Zurich and
EPF Lausanne have now simulated and evaluated one hundred possible materials for
this purpose and discovered 13 promising candidates. With the increasing miniaturization
of electronic components, researchers are struggling with undesirable side effects:
In the case of
nanometer-scale transistors made of conventional materials such as silicon,
quantum effects occur that impair their functionality. One of these quantum effects,
for example, is additional leakage currents, i.e. currents that flow 'astray' and
not via the conductor provided between the source and drain contacts. It is therefore
believed that Moore's scaling law..."
 "In our information society, the synthesis,
distribution, and processing of radio and microwave signals happen ubiquitously
in wireless networks, telecommunications, and radars. The current tendency is to
use carriers in higher frequency bands, especially with looming bandwidth bottlenecks
due to demands for 5G and the Internet of Things.
Microwave photonics, a combination of microwave engineering and optoelectronics,
might offer a solution. A key building block of microwave photonics is optical frequency
combs, which provide hundreds of equidistant and mutually coherent laser lines.
They are ultra short optical pulses emitted with a stable repetition rate that corresponds
precisely to the frequency spacing of comb lines. The photodetection of the pulses
produces a microwave carrier..."
 "Researchers from ETH Zurich have achieved
what scientists have been attempting to do for some 20 years: in their laboratory
work as part of European Horizon 2020 research projects, they have manufactured
a chip on which fast electronic signals can be converted directly into
ultrafast light signals - with practically no loss of signal quality. This represents
a significant breakthrough in terms of the efficiency of optical communication infrastructures
that use light to transmit data, such as fiber optic networks. In cities like Zurich,
these fiber optic networks are already being used to deliver high-speed internet,
digital telephony, TV, and network-based video or audio services (streaming). Today's
optical networks achieve data transmission rates in the region of gigabits per second..."
 "In the not-too-distant future, flexible
electronics will open the door to new products like foldable phones, tablets that
can be rolled, paper-thin [get it? paper - wood]
displays and wearable sensors that monitor health data. Developing these new flexible
/ bendy products means using materials like new plastics and thin films to replace
the rigid circuit boards and bulky electronic components that currently occupy the
interiors of cell phones and other gadgets. New research by a University of Wisconsin-Madison
engineer leverages a surprising and inexpensive substance -
wood - to make the flexible microwave circuits that can power modern communications.
In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications..."
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