Thursday 19
"SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket climbed into orbit
from California's Central Coast on Saturday, resuming service after an explosive
setback last year and delivering much-needed reinforcements to
Iridium's satellite constellation providing communications by
land, sea and sky. The comeback mission kicks off a busy launch manifest with more
than 20 SpaceX rocket flights expected this year as the company prepares to start
launching astronauts, vital national security payloads and a slate of valuable telecommunications
satellites for global broadcasters and network clients. The 229-foot-tall "
"The volume of discarded electronics in East
and Southeast Asia jumped almost two-thirds between 2010 and 2015, and
e-waste generation is growing fast in both total volume and per
capita measures, new UN research shows. Driven by rising incomes and high demand
for new gadgets and appliances, the average increase in e-waste across all 12 countries
and areas analyzed—Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines,
Singapore "
It has been said that most people's historical
perspective begins at the year they are born. Hence, they might believe whenever
something 'new' happens, it is the first time. This past U.S. election and the ensuing
talk over the
electoral system is a good example. Dig this editorial from a
1950 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Concern over the results of the
very close 3-way race in the 1948 U.S. presidential election between Truman, Dewey,
and Thurmond had pundits pontificating and bloviating about the merits of the electoral
system
"Stage 4 of the reverse portion of the FCC's
incentive auction ended Friday, with TV broadcasters setting a clearing cost of
just more than $10 billion for up to 84 MHz of airwaves, falling dramatically short
of the $40.3 billion set in Stage 3 and marking a tiny fraction of the $86 billion
set in Stage 1. On the plus side, the auction may not slog on much longer. 'Broadcasters
were really suicidal,' Tim Farrar of TMF Associates tweeted Friday "
"Amazon is preparing to test
experimental wireless communications technology, including mobile
devices and fixed-base stations, in rural Washington and Seattle, the company disclosed
in government filings this week. The filings do not specify what the tests would
be for, but they hint at a new type of technology or wireless service, noting that
the project would involve prototypes designed to support "innovative communications
capabilities "
Wednesday 18
Title: Analog Beamforming - What Is It and How Does It Impact Phased-Array
Radar and 5G? Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 Time:
2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time Duration: 1 hour. "As 5G communication
systems are rolled out and phased-array radar spreads its reach to non-military
applications, our industry has taken a keen interest in beamforming. This technical
webcast will dive into everything you want to know about beamforming systems - typical
uses, digital versus analog, nulling "
"In a proof-of-concept study, researchers
drew magnetic squares in a nonmagnetic material with an electrified pen and then
'read' this magnetic doodle with X-rays. In the experiment, the scientists moved
the electric tip along the surface and applied a positive voltage. The electric
field aligns the spins of the electrons in the nonmagnetic material, and the ordering
creates magnetic properties. If the voltage is "
"U.S. military researchers are asking for
industry's help in developing compact,
fiber laser diode modules suitable for pumping high power fiber
laser weapons on a variety of manned and unmanned combat aircraft and tactical land
vehicles. Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
in Arlington, Va., have released a solicitation for the Efficient Ultra-Compact
Laser Integrated Devices (EUCLID) project. High-energy laser (HEL)
..."
"Inventor of the television. For over 80
years, Loewe has invented television, we have kept our 'Made in Germany' promise.
Development, production and service departments are still based in Kronach." So
reads the history page on the Loewe website regarding its involvement since 1923.
This article, which appeared in a 1935 issue of Short Wave Craft, begins
by lamenting America's lag in the development of
commercial television; to wit, "practical public television is
fast asleep in this country." The German system
"At least one-third of tech workers are significantly
underpaid. That's the conclusion of a study by Paysa, a startup that markets tools
designed to help software engineers and other technology professionals analyze and
compare salaries and benefits. Paysa looked at 5 million resumes of technology professionals
and concluded that nearly 2 million of them are
currently underpaid by 10% or more. For an average software engineer
making $112,000, the company indicated, that translates into $11,200 a year of missing
income. It's probably a good time "
"Oxfam's report, An Economy for the
99 Percent, shows that the gap between rich and poor is far greater than had
previously been estimated and details how big business and the super-rich are fueling
the inequality crisis by dodging taxes, driving down wages and using their power
to influence politics. The report also calls for a fundamental change in the way
we manage our economies so that they work for all people, and not just a fortunate
few " 3/4 of them are communications / computer moguls: Zuckerberg, Bezos, Gates,
Helu, Ellison, Bloomberg.
A Fully-Updated, No-Nonsense Guide to Electronics.
Advance your electronics knowledge and gain the skills necessary to develop and
construct your own functioning gadgets. Written by a pair of experienced engineers
and dedicated hobbyists,
Practical Electronics for Inventors, 4th Edition, lays out the
essentials and provides step-by-step instructions, schematics, and illustrations.
Discover how to select the right components, design
Tuesday 17
This guy is a modern-day RF superstar in both
the professional and Ham radio worlds. "Ulrich L. Rohde, N1UL, of Synergy Microwave Corp was invited to
deliver the sixth Sir J.C. Bose Memorial Lecture at the IEEE Hyderabad Section on
December 2 during a joint session of the IEEE MTT, AP, and EMC Societies in Hyderabad,
India. Rohde's talk was 'Next Generation Networks: Software Defined Radio - Emerging
Trends.' While working under a US Department of Defense contract at RCA in 1982,
Rohde's department developed the first SDR, which "
"To provide better sea-surface
electronic warfare (EW) capability, Lockheed Martin is adding
enhanced sensors to MH-60 Sea Hawk helicopters. The company is developing an EW
pod for both MH-60 R/S Sea Hawk versions to help provide anti-ship missile defense
as part of Lockheed's Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP), said
Joe Ottaviano, EW director at Lockheed. Called the Advanced Offboard Electronic
Warfare (AOEW) system, the airborne sensor and links will "
"In what it calls an
'extremely urgent complaint' to the FCC, ARRL has targeted the
interference potential of a series of audio/video transmitters used on unmanned
aircraft and marketed as Amateur Radio equipment. In a January 10 letter to the
FCC Spectrum Enforcement Division, ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, said
the transmitters use frequencies intended for navigational aids, air traffic control
radar, air route surveillance radars, and global
It seems the title, "Mac's Radio Service
Shop" for John Frye's tech tales might have been dropped after Radio & Television
News magazine changed its name to Electronics World in May of 1959.
The characters' names and roles were all the same, but the title was missing - probably
to not bias the new theme of the magazine. This episode discusses some of the strange
ways in which a faulty
bypass capacitor can manifest itself. A big part of effective
troubleshooting is the experience of 'having seem that before.' Interestingly, by
1963 vacuum
"The real threat to global critical infrastructure
is not enemy states or organisations but squirrels, according to one security expert.
Cris Thomas has been tracking power cuts caused by animals since 2013. Squirrels,
birds, rats and snakes have been responsible for more than 1,700 power cuts affecting
nearly 5 million people, he told a security conference. He explained that by tracking
these issues, he was seeking to dispel the hype around cyber-attacks. His
Cyber Squirrel
1 project was set up to counteract "
"ITURHProp, a new point-to-point propagation prediction tool based
on an ITU engine and developed by Gwyn Williams, G4FKH, is now available via the
RSGB website. The new web-based prediction tool is said to be more accurate than
previous engines. ITURHProp calculates the path characteristics between two points
on the globe to determine projected path maximum usable frequency (MUF) and SNR.
Development on the project is ongoing "
Monday 16
The Latest Products and News from . Triad RF has developed a high power system
that extends the distance a typical Mobile Network MMIO (MN-MIMO) operates over.
Utilizing Triad's high power bi-directional amplifiers (BDAs), the Transmit RF output
power of the four (4) channel MIMO radio is increased by 25 dB. The receive link
is increased by 10 dB to overcome any losses in system connections. The unit can
operate over specific frequency bands
National Company, an early manufacturer of
electronics components for radio products, ran a series of unique advertisements
in the ARRL's QST magazine. Rather than using precious cash for directly
promoting specific products or product lines, company president John Millen occupied
full pages with text explaining why it makes the things it does and how they can
be used to solve problems or enhance performance. This article/ad on TMS condensers
(aka variable capacitors) was number 61 in the series, which means if they printed
one every
"Researchers have brought
electrides into the nanoregime by synthesizing the first 2D electride
material. Electrides are ionic compounds, which are made of negative and positive
ions. But in electrides, the negative 'ions' are simply electrons, with no nucleus.
The electrons are very close to each other and very loosely bound, causing them
to act as an electron gas. This electron gas gives electrides certain electrical
properties, such as a high electrical mobility and rapid electrical "
Advanced Test Equipment Rentals (ATEC), a global leader in electronic equipment
rentals with products from over 300 manufacturers, has announced that it now carries
the newly released
Teseq
NSG 3150. The new NSG 3150 15kV Combination Wave Surge Generator enables users
to conduct immunity tests in compliance with IEC/EN-61000-4-5. Built to excel in
outdoor applications, the Teseq NSG 3150 can be used to test lightning, communication
This
Antenna Basics white paper by Rohde Schwarz is an excellent primer
on antenna on topics like Fresnel zone, polarization, Hertz's antenna model, wave
propagation, Maxwell's equations, radiation density field pattern, beamwidth, directivity,
and antenna factor. Simple explanations and illustrations facilitate comprehension.
A review of various antenna types concludes this white paper. The download is free
"Electronic warfare (EW) experts at BAE Systems will provide RF
countermeasures systems to help U.S. special-operations C-130J turboprop aircraft
evade and jam enemy radar systems. Officials of the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management
Center at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., announced a $67.7 million order Tuesday to
the BAE Systems Electronic Systems segment in Nashua, N.H., to provide radio frequency
(RF) countermeasures systems for special operations "
This week's crossword puzzle has an RF System
Analysis theme. Most of the longer words are terms you will find in cascade calculators
such as RF Cascade Workbook. Avid cruciverbalists amongst us appreciate
that each week I create a new crossword puzzle that has a theme related to engineering,
mathematics, chemistry, physics, and other technical words. You will never be asked
the name of a movie star unless he/she was involved in
Friday 13
Who knew the 'left leg shake' was a well-known
symptom of Glossophobia? "As a an engineer, there is a good chance that you are
an introvert. There is nothing wrong with being soft spoken unless part of your
job includes
public speaking. You are great at communicating complex ideas,
but just not to large groups of people. You get speech anxiety. In the privacy of
your dim lit office, your fingers dance across the keyboard and you have no problem
expressing yourself. You love what you do, but when the time comes to give "
