"Sally,
the Service Maid" was a relatively short-lived feature in Radio Craft magazine. It began in early
1944 to bring deserved attention to the women who were left to run their husband's or brother's or son's electronics
service shops while they were overseas securing the blessings of liberty for mankind. The sagas involved our heroine,
Sally, confidently and impressively attacking malfunctioning electronic equipment in the stead of her father Gus
Mason, who had volunteered his services as an instructor of electronics for the military. Unlike in past episodes
where she tackled complex radio circuits for dashing military emissaries bringing equipment to her shop, this
…
By
1945 everyone of importance in the electronics industry was blowing the figurative horn of
television.
The country would transform from "a chicken in every pot" to "a TV in every living room"
(OK, I just made that up). The NTSC had set the standards for transmission, but hardware implementation
was by no means agreed upon. If my memory is correct, there were still some manufacturers clinging to the mechanical
spinning disc with a projection screen rather than using electronic circuits and a CRT. Entire industries - not
only electronics - were bursting at the seams in anticipation of the war ending and being allowed
…
Empower
is pleased to be releasing additional, industry leading
power amplifier models that compliment the
frequency coverage and power level "footprint" of our next generation, high power PA product family.
Model 2170, covering
1 to 3 GHz and delivering 1 kW of broadband output power in a 5U, air cooled chassis is our latest market release.
Offering unrivaled size / power advantages and building on a design architecture that has been a catalyst for
technology upgrades from customers with diverse requirements from multiple markets, Model 2170 provides excellent
performance for …
While
photographing the General
Electric 7-4305c clock radio that I posted last week, it occurred to me that I had never posted anything on
my Reader's Digest 800-XR
stereo system. It is another of my had-since-a-teenager electronic items that still works as well as the day
I bought mine in fall of 1975. Self-respecting audiophiles would never admit to having ever owned such a low-end
system, but at least at the time it was the best I could afford. The price escapes me, but it was somewhere in
the $100 neighborhood. A turntable came with it, but that is long gone now. Since I much prefer listening to over-the-air
broadcasts rather than on the Internet, both the AM and FM tuners get a daily workout. A whopping 10 watts per
channel stressed the limits of what my parents would tolerate, and
…
111
years ago this week (December 17, 1903),
Orville and Wilbur Wright
made their historic first flight whereby a human and aircraft took off and flew under its own power. The
Wright Flyer, piloted by Orville,
took off from rails on a dune at Kill Devil Hills, NC, and
remained
airborne for 120 feet before landing on the beach below. The location was chosen for the orographic lift generated
by the ocean winds blowing up the sandy slopes. This week's crossword commemorates the event by incorporating
many relevant terms and clues. Enjoy!
RF
Wizard creator Gordon Hockey wrote to let me know about his new software for RF amplifier design. "RF
Wizard has been created for RF designers, educators, and students to greatly simplify the normally complex
tasks associated with RF and microwave amplifier design for specific gain and bandwidth. It also simplifies the
design of matching interconnection networks between RF subsystems such as antennas, transmission lines, amplifiers,
mixers, etc." Only $39.99!
New
directional coupler
from Werbel Microwave covers
2-18 GHz continuously at 10 ±1.00 dB. Made in the USA from domestic materials. Return loss is specified at
-14 dB or better, directivity specified at 15 dB min (up to 12.4 GHz, -12 dB
above 12.4 GHz). Ready for immediate production. Order now!
Engineering Career News & Tips
for December 12, 2014
This
week's collection of career-related articles starts
out with on that cites reasons why overly - and overtly - nice people might not be the most trustworthy amongst
your employees / co-workers. It will probably come as no surprise to anyone that "New research suggests habitually
pleasant people may not be as deserving of your trust as their more curmudgeonly counterparts." Then again, research
papers tend to have the nasty habit of producing results sought after by their authors, particularly if a 'shock
factor' can be generated. You'll also be treated to some …
-
Why the Nicest People Make
Bad Employees
-
Tell-Tale Signs
Your Boss
Doesn't Like
You
-
How to Answer 'Tell Me About
Yourself' in an Interview <more>
This
quiz is based on the information presented in
Space-Time Adaptive Processing
for Radar, by J. R. Guerci. Note: Some of these books are available as prizes in the monthly
RF Cafe Giveaway "Space-time adaptive processing
(STAP) is an exciting technology for advanced radar systems that allows for significant
performance enhancements over conventional approaches. Based on a time-tested course taught in industry, government
and academia, this second edition reviews basic STAP concepts and methods, placing emphasis on implementation
in real-world systems. It addresses the needs of radar engineers who are
…
Here
I go again saying how Germany missed an opportunity - twice - to be the world's technical superpower by starting
wars that numerically proved it could never win. Scientists and engineers of Deutschland designed and implemented
what would be the first wirelessly guided missile for correcting the flight path of the
V-2 rocket
(the 'V' stood for Vergeltungswaffe, or vengeance weapon). This article from a 1945
edition of Radio News describes how a radio 'cone' was formed by a ground-based transmitter array that caused
an airborne guidance system to keep the rocket on course during the boost phase of its flight. Embarrassingly,
I don't recall …
RF
Cafe visitor Adam V. wrote to let me know about OnRecycle's
services for disposing of your electronic gadgets in an environmentally - and possibly profitable - manner. OnRecycle
is located in the United Kingdom, and is basically a clearing house for finding the best price offered for your
used device, be it a smartphone, dumbphone, tablet, PC, e-reader, GPS unit, camera, or whatever. In the same manner
that a service like Priceline shops around for the best airline rates, OnRecycle searches its database of buyers
to find the one that offers the best price. Per their website, "OnRecycle is a recycling comparison site
…
The
probability-based
quantum
mechanical model of atoms has been in existence since around 1932 when Robert Mulliken coined the term 'electron
orbital.' It superseded the Bohr model that modeled the atom as a proton / neutron nucleus that was surrounded
by electrons orbiting like planets around a star. For many decades thereafter, text books - particularly those
used in beginner level courses - continued to present the Bohr model and only gave passing reference, if at all,
to the quantum model. The Bohr model was and still is easier for most people to envision, although as time goes
on the percentage of people who even recognize a planetary model is probably rapidly decreasing
…
You
know by now if you have visited RF Cafe a few times that I like to collect and restore
vintage electronics
and mechanical items that can be put to use - as opposed to just accumulating stuff and never using it for anything
(although, admittedly, I do a bit of that as well). Since I don't do it for the collector's
value, most items, if they are not already in good condition, get reworked until they look as new as possible
- and work. Some 'experts' would admonish me to leave the items with their original paint, varnish, metal and
wood parts, etc., and never do anything that would destroy its authenticity. If I ever happen to acquire a Rembrandt
or a Stradivarius, I'll be sure
…
The
ARRL Handbook is widely used by radio amateurs as a reliable and highly-respected guide to station design,
construction, modification, and repair. Introduced in 1926 as the Radio Amateur s Handbook, each edition has remained
true to this publishing legacy: a concise source of reference and information for applied radio electronics and
experimentation. Chapter by chapter, you will discover the theory, practical information and construction details
to expand your knowledge and skill as an
Amateur Radio operator and experimenter.
Wouldn't
it be nice if you could get a free subscription to your
favorite cycling, fishing, or camping magazine merely by demonstrating that you have a vested interest in the
subject that advertisers can exploit? Don't be looking for a year's worth of Sports Illustrated,
Field & Stream, or Handyman to arrive in your mailbox anytime soon (unless
some kind soul gives you a subscription), but you can, if you are qualified, received complimentary subscriptions
to many of the big-time engineering magazines. Here are
just a few of what is available …
Innogia
Technologies announces the availability of APIs which allow for its
ATmate software to quickly and seamlessly integrate with
Marvin Test Solutions' ATEasy test executive software. As a result, ATEasy users can now benefit from ATmate's
data mining, analysis, charting and reporting capabilities, creating a complete solution from test execution to
data storage, analysis and reporting. "We are very excited to provide these APIs to the ATEasy user base and believe
that this integration will help engineers accelerate their design cycles. Now with
New RF/Microwave Articles
This
latest set of articles includes a combination of two topics that have always interested me: Möbius strips and
metamaterials. Mssrs. Rhode and Poddar are the authors of the paper (see below).
- Sorting through Balun
Confusion, D. Jorgesen
- Optimizing
a Coaxial
Connector
to Microstrip
Transition
(p.22), NI AWR
-
Möbius Strips and
Metamaterial
Symmetry,
U.L. Rohde, & A.K. Poddar
-
Recent Market Driven Filter
Advances, D. Howett,
M. Busse, D. Rawlinson,
J. Burkett,
T. Dolan,
R. Hershtig, D. King
-
GaN-on-Diamond Wafers:
A
Tutorial, B. Bolliger,
F. Faili,
F. Ejeckam, D. Francis,
F. Lowe, and D. Twitchen
"...it
is once and for all clear from the very appearances the earth is in the middle of the world and all weights move
towards it." - Ptolemy,
The Immobility of the Earth in the Centre of the World. Of course today we know that line of reasoning
to be ridiculous since obviously the center of the world is Washington, D.C., or London, or Buenos Aires, or Canberra,
or Beijing, or Seoul, or Brussels, or Riyadh, or Moscow, or … - just ask any politician.
Imagine
if you wanted to transmit from your car with a 400 kHz radio and had to trail a 600-foot-long
¼-wave
wire antenna behind to do it. Of course nobody ever did that, but it was common practice with airplanes in
the days before VHF and UHF communications became the norm. It wasn't because nobody knew that it would be more
advantageous to operate at higher frequencies in order to reduce antenna size requirements, it was that electronic
equipment capable of withstanding the rigorous environment of airborne conditions was not ready for prime time,
as the saying goes. Come to think of it, the term 'prime time' had probably not even been coined yet when this
article was written in 1946 because it derives from the
…
Narda
Safety Test Solutions has announced a new generation of RF analyzers:
NRA RX. These 19” rack mount
devices analyze RF signals up to 6 GHz in the frequency and time domains, and exhibit receiver characteristics
at the same time, thanks to a new high frequency receiver section. They are therefore ideal for radio monitoring
applications. The new RX version of the
NRA Remote Analyzer has been equipped with an RF module that has been specially developed for low phase noise
and low
Non-standard
fonts are highly discouraged in web pages because having them render properly requires that the user either have
the fonts installed locally or fonts must be on the web server to be downloaded and used. The former relies on
change, the latter on the willingness of the user to wait for the fonts to download and install just to see what
is usually an unnecessary embellishment. These two fonts, on the other hand, might justify the trouble. The nice
thing about carrelec.tff and elecsym1.tff is that they present often used
electronics symbols in a scalable format.
Building an actual schematic …
Hugo
Gernsback, ever the prolific author on futuristic technology of the wireless nature, proposes here a new form
of sea-faring weapon that would project an practically unstoppable assault on enemy ships: a high speed,
remote controlled torpedo.
After being launched from the safety of a location far out of range of enemy fire, a human controller in an airborne
platform would, using navigation advice provided by spotter aircraft, steer the explosive craft over potentially
long distances to direct hits on battleships, destroyers, landing craft, patrol boats, etc. Fortunately for all
involved, the war would only
…
63
years ago today marked the United States' entrance into World War II.
Axis and
Allied powers delineated foes and friends, respectively.
This week's engineering crossword has as its
theme Axis and Allied powers - all of whom are global trading partners nowadays. The 'Allied' powers term is clear
enough, but where does the 'Axis' powers term originate?
Merriam-Webster answers that in its
9th - and last, therefore least used - definition: "a point or continuum on which something centers <an
axis of social power>."
Pasternack Introduces Expanded
Lines of In-Stock RF Amplifiers
Pasternack
Enterprises has significantly expanded their portfolio of
connectorized RF
amplifiers including high power, high-rel, broadband, limiting, low noise, log amplifiers, and gain blocks.
Pasternack's broad lines of
coaxial amplifiers are
employed across the entire spectrum of commercial and military applications including use in radar, electronic
warfare, satcom, wireless communications, test lab
'7'
seems to be the magic number of this week's collection of career-related articles and news tidbits. I don't know
whether it is by coincidence that so many titles include the same number or whether a memo goes out to career
advice gurus suggesting a common theme (aka 'talking points,'
as it were). There are
some good unnumbered pieces as well.
-
7 Things You Can Learn from
a Company's Website
-
7 Signs of a Toxic Culture
at Work
-
7 Easy Steps for Ruining Your
Career
-
7 Tips for Job Seekers That
Hiring Managers Secretly
Want You to Know <more>
Nothing
is the subject of a lot of research by mathematicians. If you, like me, have read books on the origin of number
systems (A
History of Pi, et al), you know that no original counting systems had a symbol representing nothingness.
Don't believe me? What is the Roman numeral for zero? Most religions forbade the concept because it was an affront
to a Creator. Crazy? Galileo was "vehemently suspect of heresy" and required to "abjure, curse and detest" his
belief that the Earth was not the center of the universe. Mathematical archeologist
Amir Aczel thinks
he has located the earliest example of the number '0'
in a temple (of all places) in Cambodia. Does this finally prove that 'nothing'
is sacred?
'Grand Nicaragua Canal' to Supplement Panama Canal
Did
you know work is about to begin on a
new canal system linking the Atlantic with the Pacific? Aside from being a bottleneck, the Panama Canal is
too small to permit passage of some of China's largest supertankers which are as long as the Empire State Building
is tall and hold 18,000 shipping containers. Aside from running through the country's main inland drinking water
reservoir, destroying untold acres of 'rain forest,' and being in a hurricane region, its a great idea. Fortunately,
'developing countries' like
Nicaragua (and China,
if you can believe that) get to ignore all kinds of environmental regulations that strangle the rest of
us
(see map).
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
…
Keysight
Technologies today announced the latest release of
Electromagnetic Professional (EMPro) software,
its 3-D electromagnetic simulation software. EMPro 2015.01 offers a number of new capabilities to reduce simulation
time and increase design efficiency. The most notable enhancement in EMPro 2015.01 is a speed improvement to its
Finite Element Method (FEM) simulator that reduces by half, on average, the time
it takes for simulations that exceed two
It
would be more than a decade after the publishing of this article before the first direct-to-home
satellite
television broadcasts would be a reality, so it shows how long plans were being made for such systems. Rural
landscapes are still peppered with the large vestigial C-band (~4 GHz) satellite
dishes, many with faded eyeballs and other clever (and ugly) artwork on them. Before
coaxial cable was strung beyond suburbs, country dwellers who either could not pull in over-the-air broadcasts
from downtown locations or just wanted more viewing options paid dearly for satellite service. Equipment and installation
costs on early systems could run into the $30k realm. Today's satellite TV systems use much smaller antennas operating
in the Ku …
NuWaves
Engineering introduced today the next generation of its NuPower™ small, lightweight and high-efficiency
RF PA family of products with the
NuPower 13G05A.
The NuPower 13G05A provides saturated RF power of at least 35 Watts from 800 to 2000 MHz with greater than 40%
module efficiency across the frequency band. With a nominal input drive level of 0 dBm, the NuPower 13G05A offers
an impressive 45 dB of RF gain. Further, the PA's aluminum chassis features improved
I
was going to wait until a couple days before Christmas before posting this poem that appeared in the December
1958 (my 1st Christmas) edition of Radio Electronics magazine, but doing
it now will give you time to integrate it into a report or presentation if desired. It is a take-off of the famous
children's story
'Twas
the Night Before Christmas, by Clement Clarke Moore, originally titled A Visit from St. Nicholas.
The Day Before Christmas, by Jack Darr, might contain some terms not familiar to a more contemporary crowd. For
instance, how many even know what "Gunsmoke" is, other than a forbidden word in
…
Did you know that Amazon has a program whereby you can sell your book on their website and get up to
80% back? If your book is eligible, Amazon even pays the shipping cost for you to send it to them. Here are the
details on the
Amazon Book Trade-In program.
Melanie
and I drove 300 miles from Erie to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, back in June of 2013 to pick up this circa 1941,
Crosley 03CB floor
console model radio. As can be seen in the 'before' photos, it was in pretty rough condition. The wooden console
was dinged and the walnut veneer was separated and missing in places. A severe overheating condition must have
occurred the last time it was plugged in because the plastic front panel knobs were partially melted and distorted.
Both concentric tuning, band switching, volume, and on/off switch shafts were rusted together. It was definitely
a diamond in the rough. After a year and a half of wood, metal, and electronics work, it is now what I believe
is one of the fine examples of a restored Crosley 03CB radios in existence
…
Z-Communications
announces a new RoHS compliant VCO model
CLV1625B-LF. The CLV1625B-LF
operates at 1445 to 1820 MHz with a tuning voltage range of 2 to 25 Vdc. This high performance VCO features a
spectrally clean signal of -105 dBc/Hz @ 10 kHz offset and a typical tuning sensitivity of 23 MHz/V. The CLV1625B-LF
is well suited for test equipment and satellite communication applications that require low phase noise performance.
November
2014 Book Drawing winner Dean M., of Buford, Georgia,
decided on
Behavioral Modeling and Linearization of RF Power Amplifiers, by John Wood. Each month I randomly choose one
or two names from my electronic hat (an Excel spreadsheet) to offer a free book selection.
I pay shipping, even on overseas addresses, when the cost is under $25 - which it has always been thus far.
This book was Graciously provided by
Artech House.
There
was a time when we did not take the availability and abundance of everything for granted. Most of us have parents
or grandparents who were around during World War II that can tell stories of
ration stamps for certain food and clothing items, fuel, tires, and other things. I have a few given to me
by my grandfather. Many industries, including electronics manufacturing, were strongly encouraged or required
to dedicate all efforts toward war production.
Crosley Corporation, based in Cincinnati, OH, was no exception. A notice of Crosley abandoning their 1943
line of commercial radios to make
…
ET
Industries specializes in the design, development and manufacture of the state-of-the-art radio and microwave
frequency, narrowband and wideband subsystems and components. The model C-140-10 is a
broadband directional coupler operating
over a frequency range of 1-40 GHz. The frequency sensitivity is 0.9 dB maximum and the directivity
is specified at 10 dB minimum. The insertion loss is 2.5 dB maximum and VSWR
"No
rocket will reach the moon save by a miraculous discovery of an explosive far more energetic than any known. And
even if the requisite fuel were produced, it would still have to be shown that the rocket machine would operate
at four hundred and fifty-nine degrees below zero - the temperature of interplanetary space." Nikola Tesla, from
A Prophet of Science Looks into the Future, November 1928 Popular Science.
Press Releases Posted
at No Charge
Does
your company make products that RF Cafe visitors use, like RF and microwave filters, amplifiers, couplers, mixers,
etc., simulation software, test equipment, or provide design services, educational material, etc? If so and you
are in the habit of publishing Press Releases
(aka Product Update, Product Announcement, etc.), you are welcome to send them to
me for consideration for posting on RF Cafe. With typically 6,000 to 9,000 website visitors each weekday, the
exposure can be pretty good. A quick scan of the current RF Cafe homepage will likely turn up a couple examples
of the abbreviated versions that go on the homepage and link to the main page. I will create a separate page for
your …
Images,
harmonics of the intermediate frequency (IF), harmonics of the local oscillator
(LO), multiple station IF mixing, inductive and capacitive coupling, other types
of RF noise
can find a way into circuits if sufficient shielding and judicious component placement is not implemented. It
is as true today as it was sixty years ago when this article appeared in Radio Craft magazine. An interesting
interference
generator discussed is that of heterodyned signals generated external to the receiver by means of random nonlinear
junctions reacting to multiple high power broadcasting stations in a local area, as was fairly common when AM
stations were the norm. Rusty bolted joints in buildings, towers, even
…
Engineers
designed Kiva Systems' robotic warehouse vehicle fleet and support
infrastructure, but creating the traffic pattern algorithm that optimizes locomotion, navigation, and servicing
(charging, repair, etc.), was almost certainly the work of mathematicians. This is
the ultimate automated storage and retrieval system, although Kiva is loathe to call it that. As you watch the
video, be sure to note the way the robots lift pallets, run through
aisle ways with clearances of only a few inches, affect the stop-and-go and right-of-way procedures to avoid collisions
and flow bottlenecks, and finally deliver products to their intended 'pickers' at the packing stations. I'm guessing
there are also sensors onboard that detect and correct …
Anatech
Electronics has released four new
RF SAW filter designs with center frequencies at 1542, 1542.5, 1642, and 1643 MHz. All can be ordered directly
through their AMCrf web store.
Wharfdale
is a brand well known to stereo hobbyists and professionals for more than half a century.
Wharfdale Wireless Works
was founded by British entrepreneur Gilbert Briggs in 1933, and still sells speakers under the name 'Wharfdale.'
As a pioneer in high fidelity sound reproduction, Mr. Briggs was highly sought as an author by electronics and
audio media. In May 1957, he wrote this article for
Radio & TV News
magazine. Studies of the audio response of the human ear and the physics of the space where speakers and listeners
would be were undertaken as the electronics age progressed in the post-war years and consumers began
…
