Image response, harmonic of the IF, direct
IF response, harmonics of the oscillator, combination of the IF, heterodyne oscillator
radiation, cross modulation within the receiver, cross modulation external to the
receiver, same channel beat, adjacent channel beat and
monkey chatter are all sources of radio interference addressed
in this article that appeared in a 1946 edition of Radio News. I don't
know about you, but I've never heard of the term "monkey chatter." According to
the troubleshooting table it is, "Unintelligible modulation superimposed upon desired
station, having the character of 'inverted speech.'" Recommendations on how...
NI (formerly AWR Corporation) has
released two new antenna design application examples using
NI AWR Design Environment™
software titled ‘Design and Simulation of a 2.4 GHz/5.6 GHz WLAN Antenna on PCB
Technology' and ‘Design and Simulation of an ISM Band Antenna on PCB Technology.'
Both application notes were co-authored with Dr. Volker Muehlhaus of Muehlhaus Consulting &
Software GmbH NI-AWR-Antenna-Design-PCB-3-31-2015.htm"...
Pasternack, a leading manufacturer and supplier
of RF, microwave and millimeter wave products, releases their brand new lines of
USB controlled microwave and millimeter wave components which
includes amplifiers, attenuators and PIN diode switches. The new components from
Pasternack are controlled and powered by a convenient USB 2.0 port with driverless
installation, meaning no external power supply is required. The attenuators and
PIN diode switches require an easy-to-use downloadable software program which interfaces
with any Windows computer. The company is releasing two models each of the amplifiers
Pasternack-USB-Microwave-mm-Wave-Components-3-30-2015.htm"...
"The history of science teaches only too plainly
the lesson that no single method is absolutely to be relied upon, that sources of
error lurk where they are least expected, and that they may escape the notice of
the most experienced and conscientious worker." -
Sir John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh
You can go into Walmart or Radio Shack (though
not for much longer) and pick up a pretty decent handheld
metal detector for under $100 these days, but in the 1950s even
a rudimentary metal detector was a rather large and heavy contraption. So unwieldy
were they that most had a belt clip and shoulder straps to help support and manipulate
them. That was the situation facing teen electronics aficionados
Carl and Jerry as they pondered how to leverage their combined
technical prowess to facilitate a thorough combing of the nearby Lake Michigan beach
area for treasures of coins, watches, jewelry, cigarette lighters, and other metallic
objects given up as lost by weekend seekers...
McWatts was an electronics-themed comic that
appeared in Popular Electronics magazineback in the 1950s. Artist Carl Kohler's main character
is a stereotypical Joe Sixpack (actually a Joe McWatts) electronics hobbyist who
dreams up unique ways to deal with situations. This edition shows McWatts in a scenario
where, presciently enough, he experiences having his radio controlled airplane treated
to what modern day "drone" pilots are experiencing on a more and more frequent basis
- being shot down. In this case the hostile fire came from some kids with slingshots.
Fast-forward to 2015 and we are now seeing reports of people using shotguns and
rifles to down the privacy-invading craft being piloted by unqualified pranksters.
Back in the McWatts era, getting 'shot down' was much more likely...
Have you seen the new
USB 3.1 "SuperSpeed" cables
yet? Finally, both ends of the cable can be identical ("Type-C") so you don't need
to have a special adapter to connect between dissimilar types. Another bonus is
that there is no 'up' and 'down' orientation because the pinouts are symmetrical.
In an apparent violation of the law of averages there seems to be a much greater
than 50% probability of attempting to plug existing USB connectors in upside down
on the first attempt - for either end. To make matters worse, I have mistakenly
plugged the squarish end of the peripheral device end into the telephone jack...
The first third of the year is gone now. If one of your New Year's resolutions
was to explore alternative
career options
and you have not even started yet, you had better get going. Sorting through all
the friendly advice online, around the office, and at the bowling alley can be rough,
so I have taken the liberty of finding a few for you. One article admonishes you
not to be a Sisyphus. A sissy-what? If you're not up on Greek mythology, this
will educate ...
-
GE Icon Jack Welch Warns
Which Common Pitfalls Will
Keep You from Getting
Ahead
-
Want People to Accept Your
LinkedIn Requests?
-
I Switched to a Standing Desk,
So Now You Should, Too,
(satire and comic relief) <more>
If
you are relatively new to
radio control (R/C) operation, whether for the latest "drone"
craze (technically multi-rotor aircraft), model cars, model boats, helicopters,
or airplanes - or even robots, then you might be interested in discovering a little
about the systems which pioneers in the sport had to work with. In the mid 1950s
when this article appeared in Popular Electronics magazine, multi-rotors
and helicopters were not even in the list of model types. As with radios and television
sets, before the convenience and performance increase brought about by the advent
of solid state components, R/C modelers struggled with vacuum tube equipment, too.
If you are old enough to remember needing to re-tune your radio or TV occasionally
due to...
By now, most people involved in science and
engineering have seen the iconic photos of cosmic rays and other subatomic particles
leaving a signature of their presence as streaks in a
cloud chamber. Invented by Scottish physicist Charles Wilson,
the cloud chamber is a sealed volume containing super-saturated water vapor that
can be ionized by energetic particles passing through it. The result is a tell-tale
whitish line that can be straight arced, or even a spiral, depending on the nature
of the particle. First developed in the early part of the 20th century, many particles
predicted by researchers were detected and identified. Many unexpected particles
were also encountered that gave physicists reasons to sharpen their pencils and
develop new theories to explain. Similar research and discoveries...
I don't know about you, but I really miss
the hard-wired
POTS (Plain Ordinary Telephone System) days of remote communications.
Unless the conversation was with an overseas telco system, there was never a noticeable
delay where both parties were constantly either '"stepping" on each other's words
or having to consciously wait before speaking to make sure the other guy has finished.
Whether it be cellphone-to-cellphone or cellphone-to-VoIP, nearly every conversation
is annoying. Sometimes when one party is on the POTS line with either a cell or
Internet connection it can go well, but if you want a hassle-free conversation (assuming
the person you're talking to is not a PiTA), you...
Who among us has not ordered electronic components
or hardware from Newark Electronics? Now known officially as "Newark element 14"
(silicon?), and before that Newark Electronics, the company began life as
Newark
Electric Company, as shown in this 1946 advertisement that appeared in Radio-News
magazine. In the days before Digi-Key and the Internet, Newark and Allied were the
standards for me when ordering stuff in the lab. Weekly long distance phone calls
(remember when they were called that?) to Newark were the routine. Unless a
project was really hot, standard U.S. Post Office delivery was used since at the
time UPS and FedEx were deemed by the bean counters...
The new generation of
NRA RX 19” Remote
Analyzers from Narda Safety Test Solutions automatically detect and take into
account the calibration data of Narda's own brand of antennas and RF cables, so
monitoring and safety measurements in electromagnetic fields can now also be made
without the need for conversion calculations. Narda Safety Test Solutions has added
the “Antenna Control” option to the RX version of the NRA Remote Analyzer. This
allows direct use of all Narda antennas and cables. The antenna factors and calibration
data are detected and automatically taken into account by the NRA RX devices, so
that the measurement results are"...
See poll archives.
Clutch head screws were one of the original
'security' or 'tamper-proof' type fasteners. United Screw and Bolt Corporation undoubtedly
hoped their patented design would become the new standard in screw heads and drivers.
Clutch head screws are still available today, but many do not include the round
shape in the middle of the 'bowtie' shape. Fortunately for Mr. Henry Phillips, his
eponymous screw head design, first introduced a decade earlier than when this advertisement
appeared in Radio News, won out in the battle to replace the straight slot
screw type. Any kind of screw head that captures the driver to prevent it from slipping
off the head...
Jordan O., of Ohio U.'s
Russ College
of Engineering and Technology, contacted me about their newest infographic
titled
Beyond the Kite & the Key - Amazing Electrical
Experiments That Furthered Engineering Innovations. Says Jordan, "While we
may not know what the next revolutionary engineering achievement is, the future
of engineering truly depends on accomplishments laid out in it's past. Without Franklin
and his kite or Bell and the wire, our modern knowledge of electrical engineering
would cease to exist." "The graphic incorporates landmark experiments that sparked
electrical engineering progress. It represents a timeline of..."
XMA Corporation, an industry leader in microwave
and RF component technology, announced further developments of their
CRYOGENIC
product family of XMA-Corporation-Announces-Cryogenic-Products-3-23-2015.htm" >attenuators,
adapters, and terminations, expanding performance parameters into the 4 Kelvin (-273.15°C)
temperature range. Technical advancements with thin film design and fabrication
at XMA, allows performance levels to reach new milestones with Millimeter and Microwave
RF products. XMA Corporation, powered by Omni Spectra®, now offers a complete line
of CRYOGENIC RF, coaxial passive components that range...
Part of my reason for suspending private
advertising on RF Cafe was to free up time to update a lot of the website content.
All of the existing data is still valid of course, but I have been wanting to add
to it for a long time. Since I also am fiddling around with writing an app for cellphones,
this effort will serve a dual purpose in providing fresh fodder for the app as well.
Please take a look at the newly updated
Inductor &
Inductance Formulas page.
Depending on which news story you believe,
both AM and FM (and TV for that matter) over-the-air broadcasting is dying out at
an increasingly rapid rate. Between recordable podcasts, wired Internet connections,
and the growing ubiquity of Wi-Fi connectivity, a large majority of people in the
civilized world are getting their broadcasts via the Web. If you 'follow the money'
in broadcast advertising, the lion's share of dollars have shifted to online venues,
simultaneously draining revenue from local stations. When this story was written
in 1946, OTA radio was king for real-time and free reception of information - particularly
in a mobile environment. A dilemma arose in the form of RF spectrum allocation in
border regions...
NI (formerly AWR Corp) will be showcasing
NI AWR Design Environment™
software in its Booth #315 at the Electronic Design Innovation Conference 2015 being
held April 14-16 in Beijing, China. Additionally, NI AWR Design Environment
software will be showcased in four 20-minute talks as well as one 40-minute workshop
during the week. These NI AWR software presentations and demonstrations include:
NI AWR Design Environment V11 – What's New, Microwave Office for MMIC, RF PCB...
Ed Troy, owner of
Aerospace Consulting,
LLC, was kind enough to offer a few of his articles for posting on RF Cafe.
This fourth paper discusses the benefits of modeling and simulating an amplifier
circuit as part of an effort to troubleshoot an oscillating amplifier design. It
comes to us in a timely manner after my recent Notable Tech Quote highlighting the
often uttered "Amplifiers are oscillators that don't and oscillators are amplifiers
that do" aphorism. The amazing accuracy of modern high-end simulators makes such
exercises useful for many types of troubleshooting efforts..
Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 3.0:
How to Stand Out from the Crowd and Tap Into the Hidden Job Market using Social
Media and 999 other Tactics, by Jay Conrad Levinson. That's a long title. "New
chapters integrate using social media and social networking tools like Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn, and ZoomInfo in your job search, along with case studies from
successful guerrilla job hunters that detail what works in today's hyper competitive
job market with commentary from America's top recruiters." According to the current
unofficial RF Cafe Poll (on the homepage), 1/3 of visitors are at least considering
looking for a new job. This book gets the highest rating from readers for usefulness
- even higher than the well-known
What Color Is Your Parachute? 2015.
In case you care - my
Enterprise-E finally had its maiden flight today, and all went
very well. The electric power system seems very appropriately fitted and provides
way more than enough thrust. There is a lot of control surface throw available so
the first flight was a bit shaky for the first few times around the circle, but
the craft settled down after I got accustomed to it. Three flights were put in and
I brought her home unscathed - that's success in anyone's book! A short video is
posted on the web page...
In a continuing effort to provide archival
material for researchers and for anyone seeking information on a particular radio
restoration project, these Radio Service Data Sheets for the
Crosley "Chief" Model 132-1 and
Zenith Model 430/440 radios from a 1933 edition of Radio-Craft
are being posted. An Internet search will show that there are many people engaging
in such activities. Restoring my
Crosley Model 03BC console radio would have been more difficult
if not for others who have done similar work to assist the "community." I generally
despise the phrase "giving back" because it is usually uttered by people that really
owe nothing to anyone, but somehow feel...
Here is a nice article on various types of
power measurement instruments and their uses. It appeared in a
1963 issue of Electronics World magazine. The calorie wattmeter,
calorimeter wattmeter, photometric wattmeter, thermo-ammeter, RF voltmeter,
reflectometer, in-line meters, and slotted line are covered at a high level,
without delving into the gory theoretical details. Suggestions for selecting the
proper instrument for measurement and operation are touched upon. Although the
article was written in 1963, many of these instruments - or close descendants of
them - are still in use today.
Guerrilla RF, a leading provider of high performance
MMICs, today announces that the USPTO has issued Patent No. 8,970,296. The company's
first issued patent, expiring in 2033, prevents amplifiers from turning on in the
presence of large RF input signals – leading to exceptional isolation and minimal
impact to their on-state performance.
Guerrilla Armor™ also fits in the same form factor as the company's
existing, best-in-class noise figure LNAs, requiring no additional components and
resulting in substantial cost and size savings. “Guerrilla Armor™ solves a unique
issue found in high speed wireless data Guerrilla-RF-Awarded-Patent-High-Isolation-Amp-Circuit-3-23-2015.htm"...
"Don't engage [these] people, and don't humor
the idiots. Stupidity can't be regulated, no matter how good the rules are. Just
turn the big knob. Every rig has one." -
Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, former FCC Special Council for Enforcement,
speaking about changes in FCC violation enforcement policy changes. Printed in February
2015 QST magazine. Watch entire speech at
FARC meeting
on video.
Anatech Electronics, a manufacturer of RF and microwave filters,
has published its anatech-march-2015-newsletter.htm" >March 2015 newsletter.
As always, it includes both company news and some tidbits about relevant industry
happenings. This month, Sam Benzacar discusses the increasingly important issue
of passive intermodulation (PIM) distortion products that originate in metal-to-metal
contacts where dissimilar compositions are involved. New modulation schemes place
PIM requirements into the -165 dBc realm, which is a difficult goal. Connector
interfaces to cables and components are major sources of PIM interference. Being
a major manufacturer of connectorized filters anatech-march-2015-newsletter.htm"...
Since stopping all
private
advertising at the end of 2014, I have been contacted by many companies wanting
to be represented on RF Cafe, but do not wish to use 3rd-party advertising. Many
are not comfortable with the perceived complexity and/or potentially high cost of
that venue. My primary motivation for stopping private advertising was a combination
of the time taken to manage all the advertising clients (up to 80) and the hassle
of chasing down payments. I much prefer spending my effort adding valuable content
to the website. Doing so redounds positively both to RF Cafe and to its advertisers.
In order to be accommodating, if you are interested in presenting your products
and/or services to RF Cafe visitors in a very positive manner, please take a look...
Many people have provided resources on the Internet that made my life easier,
and I have been amazed at being able to find photos and descriptions of very esoteric
subjects for which I figured there was no chance of finding anything. In appreciation,
there are times I post stuff that probably almost nobody will ever need, but maybe
there is one guy (or gal) out there who will breathe a sigh of relief when finally
finding the needed data. This list of
radio trade names and model numbers appeared in a 1933 edition
of Radio-Craft magazine. Page scans are provided at the top, and since
search engines do not yet OCR images to be able to index their textual content,
I have also included my OCR results at the bottom..
RFMW announces design and sales support for MiniRF's
low cost, 2-way splitter, model
MRFSP0014. Covering the CATV bandwidth of 5 to 1002 MHz, the MRFSP0014
is designed for applications that require small, low cost and highly reliable surface
mount components. Typical insertion loss is 0.5 dB with isolation of 30 dB. Amplitude
balance measures 0.2 dB with phase balance of 1 degree. The MRFSP0014 can handle
a maximum input power of 33dBm and comes in a 0.15 x 0.15 x 0.115", surface mount
RFMW-MiniRF-Splitters-Support-Broadband-CATV-3-19-2015.htm"...
Every time I see one of these article on
"modern"
medial electronics it makes me think of the Star Trek IV
movie titled, "The Voyage Home," wherein Dr. McCoy (aka "Bones") intervenes as a
20th century brain surgeon is about to operate on Chekov - "My God man, drilling
holes in his head is not the answer!" The 1948-vintage electrocardiograph featured
in this piece looks like it was built from parts salvaged from World War II
field gear. Having a doctor attach wires to you is scary enough, but back when the
probes were powered by instruments using circuits with 200-300 volts of plate
bias in them would add an extra level of anxiety. BTW, have you ever wondered how
"star dates"...
This week's
crossword puzzle sports an electronics theme. All RF Cafe crossword puzzles
are custom made by me, Kirt Blattenberger, and have only words and clues related
to RF, microwave, and mm-wave engineering, optics, mathematics, chemistry,
physics, and other technical 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, Hedy Lamarr, or the Tunguska event in Siberia). The
technically inclined cruciverbalists amongst us will appreciate the effort.
Enjoy!
The Star Radio Company, in Washington, D.C.,
was lauded in its day for pioneering the use of
humor in its print advertising. This 1933 issue of Radio-Craft magazine presents
a few examples of their handiwork - some of which would probably never be approved
for publication in today's hypersensitive environment. I searched for more info
on the company, but all I could find was a Library of Congress photo of a display
of automatic washers and ironers - considered as high tech in the day as any vacuum
tube radio. My grandmother had one of those wringer washing machines back in the
1960s. The wringer mechanisms were real safety hazards, hence the old quip about
there not having been so much excitement around the house since granny got her <3-letter
word> caught in the wringer. Anyway, enjoy the cartoon ads as you're waiting
for the first weekend in spring...
The vernal equinox is in the air, as they
say, and hope springs eternal. Poets use Springtime metaphorically to elicit the
idea of ushering in new life, new ideas, new commitments. To wit: "No [vernal equinox]
nor summer [solstice] beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal [equinox]
face" - John Donne, ... "O, wind, if winter [solstice] comes, can [vernal equinox]
be far behind?" - Percy Bysshe Shelley, ... The concept can easily be extended
to finding a new career situation, either because you are tired of the same old
rote routine, tired of being misused, feel underused, want to
...
-
The Mr. Spock Test: Are
You Making Illogical Career
Choices?
-
Should You Take a Transition
Job?
-
Take the Sting out of Short-
Term Jobs on Your Résumé
-
An Easy Way to Make Sure
You Never Stagnate in Your
Career <
more >
Robert P. Balin created many electronics-related
quizzes for
Popular Electronics. I have posted many of them here on RF
Cafe, and will post more in the future. Most of the Popular Electronics
quizzes were pretty easy for anyone who has been in the electronics realm for a
few years. This quiz, by contrast, is a real head scratcher. I was only able to
get two out of 10 answers correct. It would take someone who is a physics historian
to even come close to acing it - or I'm really just lacking in knowledge...
X-COM Systems, a subsidiary of Bird Technologies,
today introduced the
IQC5000B RF record and playback system designed for applications
such as electronic warfare, interference analysis, surveillance, and spectrum monitoring
and management. In the industry's smallest form factor, the IQC5000B has the widest
instantaneous bandwidth, 4 Tbytes of removable, high-speed solid-state data storage,
and other features tailored for the most demanding applications. The IQC5000B builds
on the success of its “A” predecessor, with higher performance and X-COM-IQC500B-RF-Record-Playback-System-BW-Benchmark-3-19-2015.htm"...
Defense Engineering Corporation in looking for
a full time RF technician with at least 5 years experience, specifically in the
area of testing in an anechoic chamber environment. Responsibilities will include
maintaining, implementing and operating an indoor range anechoic chamber test facility
measuring antennas, radomes, and multiple RF systems. Experience collecting and
reducing data in a compact range anechoic chamber environment including antenna
patterns and radar cross section measurements is preferred. The job location is
in Dayton, Ohio at Wright Patterson Air Force Base...
Automotive ignition noise issues are rarely
experienced these days since not many people even listen to broadcast radio anymore,
and those that do tend to prefer FM stations. Portable music devices rule the world
both in and out of the car, with Bluetooth or phono jack connections to the dashboard
stereo making it easy to bring your own entertainment and use just the amplifier
portion of the box. Back before such conveniences existed,
magneto, point, and condenser ignition systems wreaked havoc with
radio reception. AM was particularly vulnerable because the noise was introduced
inband and could not be readily filtered out. FM helped matters, but even then it
was not uncommon to detect a background crackle in the audio that changed in frequency
with the engine rotation speed; noise on the...
Part of my reason for suspending private
advertising on RF Cafe was to free up time to update a lot of the website content.
All of the existing data is still valid of course, but I have been wanting to add
to it for a long time. Since I also am fiddling around with writing an app for cellphones,
this effort will serve a dual purpose in providing fresh fodder for the app as well.
Please take a look at the newly updated
Capacitor &
Capacitance Formulas page.
According to Radio-Craft magazine founder and editor
Hugo Gernsback, during the Roaring Twenties era in the U.S. -
and around much of the world for that matter - interest in the burgeoning field
of radio communications led to as many as half a million new entrants into the field
each year. As the novelty of the still-mystical wireless craft wore off and/or enthusiasts
discovered the technical aspects were too challenging, the numbers ebbed to a quarter
of the peak. The Stock Market crash in the Fall of 1929 didn't help matters, either.
By 1933, Gernsback was writing, "The radio beginner these days is in a paradise...
Ed Troy, owner of
Aerospace Consulting,
LLC, was kind enough to offer a few of his articles for posting on RF Cafe.
Ed has more than 30 years in the electronics communications design field. This third
paper demonstrates why using a highly capable software simulator for system design
work is essential because of its ability to predict and facilitate mitigation of
system-generated problems prior to building and testing the prototype. Case in point
are spurious spectral components generated by the local oscillator and SSB to PM
conversion created in a frequency doubler circuit...
RFMW announces design and sales support for the
Rosenberger
02K243-40ME3, 2.92mm female, clamp-on, RFMW-Rosenberger-40-GHz-Edge-Connector-3-17-2015.htm" >PCB
edge launch connector. Perfect for prototyping or production design where frequencies
up to 40GHz are required, this Rosenberger connector is compatible with SMA and
3.5mm connectors. The 02K243-40ME3 body is brass with gold over nickel plating and
the center contact is beryllium copper, gold over nickel plated. The 02K243-40ME3
dielectric is PEEK and PTFE. RFMW and Rosenberger will recommend an optimized PCB
layout for customers RFMW-Rosenberger-40-GHz-Edge-Connector-3-17-2015.htm"...
Microwave Radar and Radiometric Remote Sensing,
by Fawwaz Ulaby and David Long. Artech House publishing graciously supplied a copy
of this amazing book to RF Cafe for review. Not only is it utterly packed with explanations,
drawings, and graphs, but also an extensive collection of publically-available (i.e.,
you don't need to buy the book for access) online interactive calculators, graphs, and other RF-related resources.
The authors and many contributing provide much more than just data specifically
related to
Microwave Radar and Radiometric Remote Sensing. This 2¼"
thick tome has just north of 1,000 pages.
Some of the earliest examples of
communications via light waves include signaling systems used
my mariners to send and receive simple coded messages in ship-to-shore and ship-to-ship
modes. Doing so involved candles or bonfires, depending on how far the signals needed
to be sent. Costal lighthouses have served an optical communications function for
centuries. Even Paul Revere relied on optical communications from the Old North
Church in Boston during his "Midnight Ride" to warn colonists of the impending British
invasion - "One [lamp] if by land, and two [lamps] if by sea." In the 1930s, Elman
B. Myers designed and exhibited the first widely publicized light wave communication
system that modulated a powerful...
Did you know RCA (Radio Corporation of America)
used to manufacture and sell oscilloscopes? The
Model 155-C oscilloscope was promoted quite aggressively in the
mid 1940s as a breakthrough instrument, as can be seen in this 1945 Radio
News magazine advertisement. A quick Google search shows that not many
survived, and they are not particularly sought-after by vintage test equipment collectors.
It seems the quality of the metal chassis was not very good, although the electronics
get high marks. You can pick one up on eBay occasionally for fairly cheap. Oscilloscope
Museum has an example of an RCA 155-C oscilloscope (lots of links on the page to
images, manual, etc...
Red Oak Canyon is pleased to announce the launch
of the RF Pro Touch,
a portable touchscreen-driven, calibrated RF generator that makes testing circuits
or prototype electronic products with RF content easier, faster and more convenient.
This innovative new signal generator implements all the attenuator, Red-Oak-Canyon-RF-Pro-Touch-Low-Cost-RF-Signal-Generator-3-13-2015.htm" >RF
sweep and modulation features of other calibrated generators, but is packaged in
a small, 12-oz case making it easier to haul RF sources to out-of-reach locations.
The RF Pro Touch can output frequencies between 35 MHz and 4.4 GHz, and
power levels from 10 dBm to -55 dBm. It's internal rechargeable battery
Red-Oak-Canyon-RF-Pro-Touch-Low-Cost-RF-Signal-Generator-3-13-2015.htm"...
"Amplifiers are oscillators that don't and
oscillators are amplifiers that do." - R.F. Anon. This adage is akin to another
that says, "If you want an oscillator, design an amplifier. If you want an amplifier,
design an oscillator." In case the concept is not familiar with the dilemma, both
refer to frustration pre-computer simulation designers often had (and some still
have) with unintentional constructive feedback causing an amplifier to oscillate
and unintentional destructive feedback preventing an oscillator from oscillating.
Pasternack, a leading manufacturer and supplier
of RF, microwave and millimeter wave products, announces the release of their newest
line of
75 Ohm test cables with operation up to 3 GHz. These rugged cable
assemblies are specially designed to withstand the rigors of test lab use and applications
in Pasternack-Intros75-Ohm-Test-Cables-3-GHz-3-16-2015.htm" >75 ohm communications
systems. Technicians commonly rely on these high frequency test cables in technologies
such as cable TV, MoCA 2.0 and MoCA 1.1 (Media over Coax Alliance) and DOCSIS. Pasternack's
new series of high performance 75 Ohm test cables are available in two configurations
including a type-N male to type-N male or a type-N male to type-F male Pasternack-Intros75-Ohm-Test-Cables-3-GHz-3-16-2015.htm"...
It's been quite a while already since I last
posted links to engineering articles from our favorite microwave and RF magazines.
There are lots of new author names in the list, as well as a few familiar favorites.
-
BER Test Method Uses
Real Data, J. Beaudet
-
Small Cells Challenge
Measurement Capabilities,
P. Dillien
-
How Cops Are Finding "Grow
Ops" with AM Radios,
K. Wyatt
-
A Data-Acquisition System
on a Chip, M. Rowe <more>
Try Googling "cyclodos" and "cyclophone" and see what you come up with. I found that Cyclodos
is now a German company which makes apparel from recycled inner tubes and tents
(among other things), and cyclophone is a weird bicycle-mounted contraption for
blasting sound while peddling down the street. In 1946, the terms cyclodos and cyclophone
referred to modulator and demodulator tubes, respectively, for pulse-time modulation
applications. Fortunately, the science of pulse modulation quickly evolved past
such devices. This article goes into quite a lot of detail on the beginnings of
pulse modulation techniques developed for radar systems during World War II. It
is very informative without going...
