Featured Product Archive
The inventions and products featured on these pages were chosen either for their
uniqueness in the RF engineering realm, or are simply awesome (or ridiculous) enough
to warrant an appearance.
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 Are you like most people and are frustrated
by not being able to graph 3-D Klein bottles and electric fields, or find
complex roots of polynomials on your cell phone? Well, SpaceTime 3.0 has solved
that problem (pun intended). Nerd Nirvana is one step closer to reality. Bessel
equations... Don't leave home without them.1-30-2009
 A
couple years ago, the TechNote Time folks were advertisers on RF Cafe. I suggested
back then that they come up with something for RF engineers and Hams. They now have
a nice line of inexpensive items, from laminated Smith charts to Ham-themed clocks,
decals and ornaments. Tell them Kirt sent you. 1-2-2009
 I
spent nearly six years investigating and reverse engineering end-user products and
ICs for wireless devices. During that time, I found the Wireless Technology Reports
generated by Prismark to be absolutely the highest quality resource for augmenting
my own work. If you need the expertise of someone who is a walking, talking (multilingually
at that) encyclopedia of the wireless market, ask to speak with
Mark Christensen;
his in-house presentation will definitely keep the attention of your staff.
12-5-2008 There really is nothing
cool about this typical DTV converter box. It is of the type that is needed to receive
digital signals on an old analog television. The government has been issuing
$40 coupons for a year. Guess
what a lot are being used for? People use them to buy a box for about $10, then
sell it on eBay and other venues for about $30. It is illegal to just sell the coupons,
so I'm sure that never happens. More easy money at taxpayer expense.
2-6-2009
 Novatel Wireless introduced
its Mi-Fi™ personal wireless router at CES 2009. It will run up to 4 hours with
continuous use, or 24 hours on standby using a built-in battery. The target price
is <$200. It will be interesting to read the headlines about the hacking opportunities
that will be exploited with this little marvel.
1-9-2009
 Are you tired of your projects not working as
designed on the 1st pass (or 2nd, or 3rd, or...)? Your troubles may be over thanks
to a line of products offered by the IDEAL Scientific Equipment Company. Base your
next design on their selection of Hookian springs, magnetic monopoles, frictionless
bearings, inextensible strings, or other time-saving (and butt-saving) devices that
heretofore were only available in college textbooks. Is your work in the nano world?
Get yourself a quantum mechanical tool kit. Hurry, supplies are limited.
12-12-2008
 For less than $100,
Infineon has a phone reference design board available that features built-in functionality
for a low-cost dual-mode GSM/Wi-Fi solution. It could serve as a platform for developing
a data interface for over-the-air control and monitoring applications. Here is the
XMM1013 datasheet with block diagram.
2-13-2009
 You have seen reports of guns that will only fire when the owner
is pulling the trigger. Here is a Swiss army knife that requires the owner's fingerprint
to open. Rather than including accessories that help you survive in the wilderness,
the Presentation Pro, by Victorinox, provides removable 32GB USB flash drive, a
laser pointer, and a Bluetooth-powered remote control... for survival in the office.
1-16-2009
 Tired
of people throwing your business card in a drawer - or worse yet, in the trash?
Here is an innovation by Jump Labs that could have people showing off your card
rather than tossing it. Their EDG (pronounced "edge") cards cost between $17.50
to $29.00 per card - about the price of a box of 100 traditional high quality business
cards. with a 2" color LCD, touch controls and a USB port, the "wow" factor could
easily justify the cost.
12-21-2008
 This Citrus Clock, by Anna
Gram (?) runs on lemon power. An electrolysis of zinc and copper probes inserted
into a lemon creates an oxidation phenomenon that creates the current. The clock
reportedly runs for two weeks on a single lemon.
2/20/2009
 BPL has gotten a lot of bad press, and for good reason. A more localized
form of BPL is power line carrier (PLC), which sends signals through house or office
AC wiring. Is it not without interference issues, but generally co-exists fairly
well with everything else. This line of PLC products from Insteon is an easy way
to automate your home, even if just to control an overhead fan or outside floodlight
w/o needing to wire a switch directly. Work is underway to use AC wiring for local
broadband nets rather than using coax and CAT-5 cables. 1-23-2009
 Out with the old. In with the new. That is the symbolism provided
each New Year's Eve when the brightly lit ball descends the tower at One Times Square.
This year, even the ball is new. It is a 12 foot geodesic sphere, double the size
of previous balls, and weighs 11,875 pounds. Covered in 2,668 Waterford Crystals
and powered by 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDS, the new Ball is capable of creating
a palette of more than 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns producing
a spectacular kaleidoscope effect.
12-26-2008
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