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This is Page 2 of the June 2016 homepage archives (click here for Page
1,
2).
 "The latest version of the watt balance at
the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has made its first
measurement of Planck's constant (h) with an uncertainty of 34 parts per billion,
demonstrating that the institute's device – dubbed NIST-4 – is accurate enough to
be used to redefine the kilogram. The data from this latest measurement values the
h at 6.62606983 x 10e-34 J·s, with an uncertainty of ±22 in the last
two digits. For almost 130 years, the international definition of the kilogram
has been based on a lump of platinum-iridium metal housed at the
International Bureau of
Weights and Measures (BIPM) in Paris
..."
Triad RF Systems has introduced the
TTRM1078D,
a Bi-Directional SSPA for Dual MIMO Applications The TTRM1078D is a 2.2- 2.5 GHz
SSPA for UAS radio links utilizing MIMO technology. It is capable of high 20 W
output per channel for QPSK operation and 4 W / channel for higher data rate
applications such as 64QAM OFDM. This class AB LDMOS module is designed for both
military and commercial applications. It is capable of supporting any signal type
and modulation
 "Qualcomm Inc has filed 17 fresh complaints
in China against
Meizu Technology, stepping up its battle
with the Chinese smartphone maker after the two were unable to reach a licensing
accord in the U.S. tech giant's biggest market. The patent infringement complaints
by Qualcomm, submitted to intellectual property courts in Beijing and Shanghai on
Thursday, mark the second time in a week it has taken legal action against Meizu,
one of China's top 10 handset suppliers
..."
 "Paul Shattuck is director and chief engineer
for
Directed Energy Systems at Lockheed Martin
Space Systems Co. He's been with Lockheed since 1974, with a focus area of the development
of beam control technologies for High Power Laser Directed Energy Systems. He spent
most of the 1980s developing and testing beam control technologies for the Strategic
Defense Initiative, culminating in a simulated ground demonstration of a pace-based
laser engagement of enemy ballistic missiles for President Reagan in November 1987.
For 15 years he held various leadership roles on the Airborne Laser (ABL)
..."
 Here is a story - probably not too far from
being true - about a Ham operator (emphasis on 'operator') who parlayed a short
spat of poor health into an opportunity to get in a little
rag-chewing time. The whole scenario turned out so well that he
pondered afterward whether he could indulge in a bit of malingering for a repeat
opportunity. So did some of the contacts he told about it while laid up
...
 RF Cafe visitor Kevin A. sent me a link
to this book offered by the ARRL with a collection of comics contributed by the
great Philip
Gildersleeve ('Gil'). I recently posted a couple QST articles featuring
his artistry. If you enjoy the unique look and humor of vintage cartoons, then you
will probably enjoy this book. It only costs $15.95 directly from the
ARRL.
 "Each year on July 1 - the anniversary of
Canada's Confederation - Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) sponsors the
Canada Day Contest. Amateurs everywhere are welcome to join Canada's
birthday party on the air. The event gets under way at 0000 UTC on Friday, July
1, and concludes at 2359 UTC. Available bands include 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6,
and 2 meters, CW and phone. There are nine possible entry categories. You may work
any station once on each mode
..."
 "The Navy is looking to hunt bigger game
with its laser weapons by increasing their power fivefold. National Defense reports
that the service is preparing to test a 150-kilowatt laser, which would be considerably
more powerful than the 30-kilowatt weapon i deployed on the USS Ponce in the Persian
Gulf in 2014. The 30-kiliwatt system aboard the Ponce, known as LaWS (laser-mounted
weapon system), has been shown to take out small drones
..."
 Take a break from the Hump Day doldrums and
enjoy a few vintage
Ham-themed comics. Artist Phil Glidersleeve (aka 'Gil'), W1CJD,
crated hundreds - if not thousands - of such comics for QST and other technical
magazines during his multi-decade career. Most of these particular
 comics
accompanied monthly columns and have a theme related to something within the text.
However, I don't want to bore you with reading since it is not necessary to enjoy
the humor
...
 "A new approach to gas exploration has discovered
a huge
helium gas field, which could address the increasingly critical
shortage of this vital yet rare element. Helium doesn't just make your voice squeaky
- it is critical to many things we take for granted, including MRI scanners in medicine,
welding, industrial leak detection and nuclear energy. However, known reserves are
quickly running out. Until now helium has never been found intentionally - being
accidentally discovered in small quantities
..."
 There is no such thing as too many good articles
about the
decibel. Newcomers and mathaphobes are the most likely to find
the concept to have an "aroma of mystery," per author James McLaughlin. Tell the
latter that the decibel is based on logarithms and he/she will likely need to take
a pill and lie down. However, once explained that dBs permit the relatively simple
process of addition and subtraction rather than multiplication and division, respectively,
some initial fear is assuaged. In delving into some of the history of the usage
of the decibel, McLaughlin mentions the "R" system of describing signal strength,
as opposed to the modern "S" units - an interesting bit of trivia. Keeping in mind
...
 "Following earlier reports that the claims
for discovery of these elements have been fulfilled, the discoverers have been invited
to propose names and the following are now disclosed for public review:
Nihonium and symbol Nh, for the element
113, Moscovium and symbol Mc, for the element 115, Tennessine and symbol Ts, for
the element 117, and Oganesson and symbol Og, for the element 118. The guidelines
for the naming the elements were recently revised and shared with the discoverers
..."
 Coilcraft has been around as long as I can
recall since beginning my electronics career in the 1970s. In fact,
Coilcraft
was founded in 1945 near Chicago to make custom coils for television sets. They
began manufacturing a line of standard products in the 1970s - no doubt with supporting
my budding career in mind ;-) Inductors and magnetics are their primary focus.
Coilcraft has been an industry leader in surface mount components, and was one of
the first to provide packaging that could be used by pick-and-place automatic PCB
assembly. Recognizing the value of introducing the company brand and products early
in the lives of people who will spend the next many decades specifying
...
 "Evidence of humanity's lost 'sixth sense'
may have been found. Joe Kirschvink, a researcher from the California Institute
of Technology, claims to have confirmation that humans can subconsciously detect
Earth's magnetic field. Using a Faraday
cage and EEG monitor, Kirschvink observed reproducible changes in human alpha brain
waves when adjustments were made to the magnetic field around them
..."
 "The
world's smallest lens has been created
using 3D printing, and it's just twice the width of a human hair. Its makers claim
the lens could lead to cameras the size of a grain of salt, revolutionising surgery,
surveillance, robotics and drone technology. Researchers in Germany created a triplet
lens device by combining three of the lenses into a 'pinhead' device. It is capable
of razor sharp images and can attach to the end of an optical fibre, and is thin
enough to fit in the hollow of a
..."
 "Often in science it takes a long time to
understand exactly how confused you are." -
Corey
S. Powell, writing in "A
Cosmos, Darkly," April 2016 Discover magazine. A maxim in all fields of science
is that all theories, no matter how firmly established - or in modern political
parlance "settled" - needs to be continually tested through empirical experimentation.
Einstein's relativity theory an example of an area that is vehemently challenged,
and continues to hod up. Other fields like cosmological evolution, is routinely
found to be previously misunderstood, thus Mr. Powell's statement.
 "James Bryant, an applications manager with
Analog Devices for more than 30 years, answers a question about
component failure. Q: Why do unstressed components sometimes fail
for no obvious reason? A: Sometimes they die of old age, sometimes the stress is
there, but, as you say, it is not obvious. 'Old age' in a component is cumulative
degradation due to physical or chemical changes. It is well-known that electrolytic
capacitors and some types of film capacitor eventually die as a result of chemical
reactions in their dielectric caused by
..."
 As the opening sentence indicates,
National Company ran a very long series of advertisements in QST
magazine that were in a format more reminiscent of a short essay than a company
promotion. This installment for the December 1952 edition was number 224. Subjects
ran the gamut from technical innovations from the company's research and development
laboratory to social and political issues relevant to electronics technicians, hobbyists,
students, and engineers. Being that it was a presidential election year in the U.S.,
National Company felt compelled to remind readers of their patriotic duty to vote.
Although this was the December issue, it would reach readers' mailboxes prior to
the
...
 Mr.
Steve Geary sent me a note of thanks for posting the
Radio Service Data Sheet for the
Zenith model 430 and 440 radio sets - a validation of my effort
to make these available. He is a prolific collector and restorer of vintage tube
radio - both tabletop and floor (console) models. If you are interested in radio
and electronics communications history, you will want to spend a few minutes perusing
all the great photos and information he has posted. Steve's collection represents
35 years of yard and estate sales, and making deals with antique dealers. He got
his start in electronics repair and servicing as a technician in a hometown Ohio
shop, where he worked until it closed its doors at the end of the last century
...
 "Dr. Karine Chesnel has always been fascinated
with understanding how things work, particularly the secrets of magnetism. 'There
are still a lot of unknown mysteries in magnetism,' Chesnel said. 'Scientists are
still trying to understand the nature of magnetism, the origin of magnetism and
what's causing it.' Chesnel is one of those scientists. Her specific area of study
includes magnetic behaviors occurring on a microscopic scale, also known as
nanomagnetism. To study nanomagnetism, Chesnel uses synchrotron
radiation facilities
..."
 Prior to the advent of thyristors and semiconductor
lamp and motor control circuits, a relatively simple and safe - although heavy and
bulky - method for controlling AC voltage was with the use of
saturable core transformer arrangements. By using a DC winding
to control the saturation level of the transformer core material, the inductance,
and therefore inductive reactance, of secondary windings can be controlled. Doing
so has the same
 effect as using a
Variac that uses mechanical control of the coupling and transformer voltage input/out
ratio. The method shown here has a potentiometer for adjusting the DC current level,
but, as the author
...
The Modelithics AVX
Component Library is a comprehensive collection of simulation models that offer
many advanced features capable of significantly increasing accuracy during the design
phase. Many AVX components are available as Modelithics Microwave Global Models™,
including capacitors, inductors, resistors, diplexers, couplers and attenuators.
Each model represents an AVX component series (or individual
part in some cases), and offers scalable or selectable ...
 "The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
has denied two petitions from James E. Whedbee, an amateur radio operator from Missouri.
In a June 2016 letter, Scot Stone, Deputy Chief of the Mobility Division explained
that the Commission concluded that Whedbee's petitions did not present enough evidence
to merit a rule change. In November 2015, Whedbee requested that the FCC amend Part
97 of its rules to permit amateur radio operators to conduct low-power experiments
on amateur frequencies without having to obtain an experimental license
..."
 This week's
RF Cafe Crossword Puzzle is another custom creation
(they all are, actually) which contains only words
and clues pertaining specifically to engineering, science, mechanics, physics, mathematics,
chemistry, and other technical fields of study. If you want to exploit your knowledge
of numbnut movie starts, world leaders, and remote villages in BFE, then try the
New York Times. Cruciverbalist engineers, technicians, students
...
 This could be a headline for today, tomorrow,
or from 83 years ago. It was the latter, following the magnitude 6.4
earthquake that hit the Long Beach, California region. Per Wikipedia,
"An estimated $40M worth of property damage resulted, and between 115 and 120 people
died. Many of these fatalities occurred as people ran out of buildings and were
hit by falling debris." That paled, though, in comparison to the magnitude 7.8 San
Francisco earthquake in 1906, where massive destruction occurred and upwards of
3,000 people died. As usual, radio amateurs were some of the first emergency responders
...
 "By the end of 2016, more than half of all
new automotive
77 GHz radar systems worldwide will be equipped with chips from
Munich-based Infineon Technologies, meaning that about one in 15 new cars will use
a driver assistance system using its 77 GHz radar chips, says the firm. Infineon's
market leadership in the rapidly growing market for radar chips for driver assistance
systems was recently confirmed by market research firm IHS Technology. While Infineon
has sold a total of 20 million radar chips in the past few years
..."
 As one who recently installed an outdoor antenna
with a signal booster on it, I definitely considered whether my exercise and investment
would be worthwhile because all the preamplification in the world wouldn't help
if the
signal-to-noise ratio was lousy to begin with. This statement
from Mac McGregor sums it up well, "One thing you have to remember is that the booster
has to have something to boost. Unless the antenna can deliver some sort of signal
to it, it has nothing to work on. The results are about the same as when a small
boy reaches the bottom of his soda. He keeps on trying, but about all his straw
delivers is noise
..."
 "U.S. military researchers have chosen a third
company to develop small unpowered and unmanned aircraft to air-drop small packages
for forward-deployed forces. After delivery, the
unmanned aircraft melt without any detectable trace to keep them
out of enemy hands. Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) in Arlington, Va., added MORSECORP Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., to the Inbound,
Controlled, Air-Releasable, Unrecoverable Systems (ICARUS)
..."
offers a wide selection of 2-way through 16-way
power divider / combiners,
designed to cover 100 MHz to 20 GHz with average power handling of 30 watts
for narrow, octave, dual and multi-octave band applications. Standard Connector
type: SMA female, other connectors available upon request. VidaRF is a North Carolina
based company that is focused on being a solutions provider by building to customer
specs and offering zero days lead time for custom parts through their stock
 "The Pythagoras theorem has changed. Better
yet, our understanding of it has changed from two dimensions to three dimensions.
For the past 2500 years, the Pythagoras theorem, arguably the most well-known theorem
in the world, has greatly helped mankind to evolve. Its useful right angles are
everywhere, whether it is a building, a table, a graph with axes, or the atomic
structure of a crystal. What does it look like in 3D? Until now, this
..."
 Wendy Pearson, writing for IMS ExpertServices,
offers this article summarizing an
expert witness' use of presentation technology in the courtroom
- 3D printers, computer simulations, animated graphics, etc. It is hard to believe
that in the year 2016 there are still judges that restrict use of high tech methods
in the courtroom, but evidently it is so. Anyone old enough to remember when design
reviews, seminar speeches, and other presentations to customers and peers consisted
of overhead projectors, hard copy handouts, and occasionally a physical sample to
pass around to the audience was stand operating procedure, can testify to the vast
improvement realized by
...
 Even though the concept could easily be demonstrated
to be viable mathematically,
single sideband operation was early on widely regarded as an unrealizable
laboratory curiosity, especially with a suppressed carrier. More circuitry is of
course needed to accomplish single sideband communications both on the transmit
and receive sides, but other than stricter stabilities and precision for frequency
sources, single sideband operation is easily obtainable. There still remains a debate
over whether voice quality is as good versus
...
 "A 10-year-long megaproject will go beyond
quantum computing and cryptography to
advance other emerging technologies This dilution refrigerator can cool quantum
dots to less than 5 millikelvins for experiments in quantum computing. European
quantum physicists have done some amazing things over the past few decades: sent
single photons to Earth orbit and back
..."
 "There is no new thing under the sun." "Everything
old is new again." Many such idioms exist regarding how often things tend to run
in cycles; it's just that often times people who think they are witnessing a new
phenomenon are not aware of the previous occurrences. I have written of examples
where 'old timers' lament the attitudes of a fledgling work force when writings
show the previous generation of 'old timers' who worked with the current 'old timers'
in their youth expressed the same type concern. An article titled "OMG!
We've Been Here B4," appeared in the March 2016 issue of Smithsonian magazine
...
 "Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman
Tom Wheeler this week talked up the role of the U.S. in the development of the fifth
generation of mobile technology and proposed new rules designed to free up more
spectrum
for 5G. FCC commissioners will vote on the proposal on 14 July, Wheeler said
in a speech delivered to the National Press Club on Monday, and reproduced on the
U.S. regulator's Website. '5G is a national priority,' Wheeler said, having waxed
lyrical about the possible applications
..."
LBA Technology Debuts New AM Tower Isocoupler Hardware
LBA Technology
(LBA), a unit of LBA Group, Inc. announced the next generation of economical
hardware for collocating low power broadcast facilities on AM towers. The LBA research
and development team has improved upon the long trusted CAMI™ and CAMIMAX™ with
the release of the new CAMI500™, CAMI1800™, and CAMI5000™. While the three new models
replace the CAMI™ and CAMIMAX™, LBA will still support the legacy models which are
in use around the world. This new line of AM isolation solutions creates more options
and opportunities for AM broadcasters to use or offer
 Paul Huntsinger wrote a nice introductory
article on
amplitude modulation (AM) in a 1931 edition of QST magazine.
At the time, frequency modulation (FM) was still a laboratory curiosity, and many
'experts' believed that FM would not provide any advantage over AM broadcasting.
You might be tempted to think that sources of electrical noise that would interfere
with AM were less at the time, thus negating the need for noise-immune FM, but the
fact is by 1931 there was a lot of static caused by brushed motors, lousy automobile
ignition systems, and arcing transmission lines, along with natural sources like
lightning. Figures 6, 7, and 8 were missing in the original article, but fortunately
I was able
...
China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System to Have
35-Satellites by 2020
 "China's homegrown navigation system, the
BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS),
will cover the whole globe with a constellation of 35 satellites by 2020, said a
government report on Thursday. By 2018, the system is expected to provide basic
services to the nations along the Belt and Road, as well as neighboring countries,
said a white paper on the BDS issued by the State Council Information Office. China
aims to build
..."
 Most of the earliest automobile radios had
the electronics mounted in a metal box separate from the dashboard tuning dial.
The bulk and weight prevented colocation. This 1937- vintage
Ford-Philco F-1442 radio one for which I was able to locate a
couple examples for sale on eBay. One claims to be fully functional and the other
is in pretty rough shape. If your era car or truck came without a radio and you
would like to finally upgrade, this is your opportunity ;-) Here are the 3 other
Radio Service Data Sheets from the August 1937 Radio-Craft:
General Electric FA-60 and FA-61,
Howard Model B-5 (715), and
Remler Model 46 "Scottie."
DARPA MMIC-Scale EM Components for Military
RF & Microwave
 "U.S. military researchers are trying to
do for magnetic components what they've done for MMICs - develop them on semiconductor
substrates to reduce their size and enable new functionality for military RF and
microwave systems. Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) issued a broad agency announcement on Thursday (DARPA-BAA-16-36) for the Magnetic
Miniaturized and Monolithically Integrated Components (M3IC) project
..."
 Whenever you see an article with "The Truth
About..." in the title, the expectation is the author is going to reveal some aspect
about the subject that has been kept from public knowledge by nefarious schemers,
or a common misconception is going to be cleared up for the unwitting majority.
This article comes closest to the later category, although it is not really clear
to me after reading it what the newly revealed 'truth' is - maybe just that the
effort required for using a
vertical antenna at fairly long wavelengths is worth it because
of low radiation angles that facilitate local area and relatively nearby communications.
A lot of really good information is presented regarding vertical antenna field patterns,
antenna installation, and feedline
...
EM Research White Paper: Ruggedization
 EM Research just released a white paper titled,
Survival Skills: Ruggedization - How to Ensure Performance Under the
Toughest Conditions in 5 Steps. "It contains Extreme heat, extreme cold,
the pervasive moisture of being at sea, the constant vibration of revving engines
– these are all factors that can destroy complex communications components. Unless,
of course, they've been ruggedized to endure the toughest conditions
...
EDI CON USA 2016, a conference
that brings together engineers working on high-frequency analog and high-speed digital
designs, taking place September 20-22 in Boston, Mass. at the Hynes Convention Center,
is pleased to announce a full line up of short courses available to conference attendees.
The short courses will take place in the afternoon on the third day of the conference,
Thursday September 22, 2016. They are included in the conference pass type for attendees
and no additional registration is required. Intuitive Microwave Filter Design With
EM Simulation presented
Space Command Readies for War with 'Space Enterprise
Vision'
 "Air Force Space Command has created
a blueprint for fighting and winning wars in space, known by the innocuous title
of the
Space Enterprise Vision. The existence
of the plan is not classified but many of its working elements are. The SEV
is 'an all-encompassing look at all the things we need to do to create more resilience
in our space forces, enhance them, and respond to threats,' Air Force Space Command
spokesman Col. John Dorrian says. It includes current weapon systems and those
planned for the near
..."
Notable Tech Quote: Kevin Mitnick
 "You can go to conferences. Go to the memory
stick bowls and swap out the free ones with weaponized sticks." -
Kevin Mitnick, famous FBI "Most Wanted" hacker at the 2016
Atlantic Design and Manufacturing show
in New York City
...
 RF Cafe visitor Dennis C. sent a link
to a public notice document published by the FCC (June 15,
2016) titled, "Office of Engineering and Technology Announces Technological Advisory
Council (TAC) Noise Floor Technical Inquiry," that is an invitation for public
input regarding what, if any, changes are needed in codified radio spectrum regulations
to accommodate the rapidly changing RF noise environment. Comment deadline is August
11, 2016, so that does not leave much time to submit your opinion. The FCC's Technological
Advisory Council (TAC), an advisory group to the FCC operating under the Federal
Advisory Committee Act, is investigating
...
 Since its inception in 1934, the Federal
Communications Commission's (FCC) Enforcement Bureau has taken seriously its charter
to monitor and
protect designated frequency bands against both intentional and
unintentional interference. Except for malicious attacks on legitimate operations,
most instances of interference are the result of utter ignorance or accidental broadcasting
due to inattention to detail (wrong frequency dialed in)
or equipment malfunction. Standard practice is to issue an immediate cease and desist
order to the offending party, and then go forward with prosecution if compliance
does not follow. News stories appear fairly often about pirate broadcasters and
idiots exacting revenge on someone else who allegedly offended said idiot. The $500
fine
...
World's First 1,000-Processor Chip
 "A microchip containing 1,000 independent
programmable processors has been designed by a team at the University of California,
Davis, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The energy-efficient 'KiloCore' chip has a maximum computation
rate of 1.78 trillion instructions per second and contains 621 million transistors.
The KiloCore was presented at the 2016 Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits
in Honolulu
..."
Vintage Test Equipment at Recycled Goods Website
 When looking for a piece of vintage test equipment,
the first place that comes to mind is eBay. However, there are other sources worth
exploring. I recently ran across the
Recycled
Goods website that has many cool items available, ranging from spectrum analyzers
to chart recorders and test probes. They feature not just electronics TE, but also
industrial, optical, scientific, and other specialties. A lot of the pieces are
marked as sold, but you can be put on a watch list for notification when something
becomes available. It's worth a quick look
...
Harmonized Standards for new EU Radio Equipment
Directive
 "On June 12, 2016 the new Radio Equipment
Directive (RED),
2014/53/EU replaced the previous Radio and Telecommunication Terminal
(R&TTE) Directive. This update of Europe's single market rules for radio equipment
was published in May 2014. ETSI has developed Harmonized European Standards to support
the Directive. The Commission will reference the Harmonized Standards in the Official
Journal of the European Union, and equipment that complies with the Harmonized Standards
will be presumed to comply with the requirements
..."
 "By all that is holy in ham radio, I was able
to copy several CQ's de their calls and a few words!"
That sentence in Mrs. Wayland M. Groves' story caused me to do some searching because
I do not recall having seen 'de' used like that. As it turns out, according to AC6V's
Origin of Ham Speak webpage, 'de' is borrowed from the preposition 'de' in the French
language for its connotation of ownership, as in 'un ami de ma mère,' meaning 'my
mother's friend' (my interpretation, subject to correction).
Topics dealing with
women in Ham radio typically deal either with attracting them
to the hobby through participation or appeal
...
 This week's custom crossword puzzle contains
many words and clues specific to
antennas (marked with an asterisk*).
All the other words and clues pertain strictly to the subjects of engineering, science,
physics, astronomy, chemistry, etc. As always, you will find no references to numbnut
movie stars or fashion designers. Enjoy
...
Are Women Exiting Engineering Because
Men Have All the Fun?
 "Where are all the women engineers? That's
a question that engineering educators and recruiters have been asking themselves
for years now. 20% of engineering graduates are women—but only 13% of the engineering
workforce is female. It's not a pipeline issue; engineering schools have been graduating
women for a long time now. It's been easy to blame women leaving the engineering
workforce to balance the demands of family, but is that really it? Many have said
there's a culture problem, but what exactly does that mean? It turns out, according
to a recent study
..."
 Have you ever made a power or noise figure
measurement and had to scratch your head over why the reported value made absolutely
no sense? How about measuring a positive gain value through a passive device? I
have experienced this sort of nonsensical phenomenon on more than one occasion,
and to my recollection every time the cause was stray frequencies - often oscillations
- mixed in with the intended signal. This app note addresses the issue in regard
to impedance matching networks that are wideband enough to support
RF energy that is outside the band being tuned - or even unexpected inband signals
- with a simple method
...
Wireless EM Propagation Software Gets Better with
64-Bit GUI
 "Remcom announced an updated version of
Wireless InSite, its site-specific radio
propagation software for the analysis of wireless communication systems. This update,
Release 2.8.1, includes performance enhancements such as XStream GPU Acceleration
support for NVIDIA Maxwell architecture-based GPUs for the X3D model and a 64-bit
graphical user interface (GUI). This release updates Wireless InSite's X3D model
with support for version 7
..."
 Complete with all the nitty-gritty details
and necessary formulas for designing an
inductive loop coupler for a rotating antenna is this article
by Mr. Robert Mumma. Such a device is useful when you desire a steerable antenna
that prefers not to or cannot accommodate a section of coaxial cable interfacing
the fixed mast to the rotating antenna. It is rare that such a requirement is found,
since installing a set of limit switches to prevent the cable from wrapping itself
around the mast is relatively simple to implement. However, if you want a system
that continually rotates while searching for or broadcasting signals, then something
like this is needed. A radar antenna is a prime example, as would a search and rescue
operation
...
Finland, Home to Nokia and Jobless Engineers,
Struggles to Fill Tech Jobs
 "Finland, whose once-renowned technology
sector shed 15,000 jobs with the demise of Nokia's mobile phone business, is struggling
to fill thousands of vacancies for software developers because it lacks people with
the right skills. At the same time, technology firms say immigration policies hamper
recruiting trained workers from abroad, adding to the factors weighing on growth
prospects for an industry considered key to the stagnant economy's recovery
..."
 The expectation of manufacturers to constantly
come up with new and better models that outperform last years' models and compel
buyers to upgrade is as old as markets themselves. This tongue-in-cheek tale of
developers of the "The Dual-Ratio Knee-Action Triple-Hemispheric Multi-Tube Many-Wave
Looperdyne" could easily be adopted to describe the prototype lab at Apple,
Chevrolet, Panasonic, Microsoft (well, maybe no so much),
Hasbro, Lockheed Martin, or Craftsman. Anyone who has worked in the pressure cooker
environment of a research, development, and production qualification phases
...
Free Webinar: 802.11ax High Efficiency Throughput
in Dense User Environs
NI / AWR and MW Journal are presenting a free webinar today, June 16, titled,
"802.11ax – High Efficiency Wireless Improving
User Throughput in Dense User Environments." "The world has benefited from the
evolution of the IEEE 802.11 wireless networking standard to accommodate more and
more users and their ever-increasing data consumption. At its early inception in
the late 1990s, wireless networks ran at around 11 Mbps using Direct Sequence Spread
Spectrum technology. Later on, the wireless standard multiplied
...
 My first experience with
negative resistance was when an engineer I worked for at Westinghouse
Electric, in Annapolis, Maryland, used a tunnel diode to design a simple oscillator
circuit. The project we were working on required an absolute minimum number of parts,
with everything implemented using bare die on a custom polyimide substrate printed
circuit board. I did the assembly, wire bonding, and encapsulation, and often initial
test. Mr. Rufus Turner does a nice job of briefly covering the history and application
of negative resistance devices; tunnel diodes were not the first
...
WE6-1212 and TI4-1212?
 Long before there was a World Wide Web for
getting the latest weather report and the local time for setting your clocks, there
were phone numbers that were set up with recordings of the sought after information.
As a kid in the 1960s and 1970s, I called the weather forecast number,
WE6-1212 ('WE' for weather), multiple
times daily during the winter in hopes of hearing a forecast for snow, and during
the summer in hopes of favorable conditions for flying model airplanes and launching
Estes rockets. An obsession with time and watches and clocks had me calling the
time phone number,
TI4-1212 ('TI' for time), so often
that my father used to refer to the lady on the recording that
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