|
See Page 1 |
2 |
3 of the March 2017
homepage archives.
Friday 10
 John Frye, as it turns out, was way ahead
of his time. Many of the somewhat zany electronics devices his fictitious teenage
experimenters cum hobbyists cum scientists cum Ham radio operators cum amateur sleuths
Carl and Jerry came up with have turned out to products available
and popular in today's consumer marketplace. This episode can be regarded as an
early developmental version of a wearable calorie burner facilitation device. Jerry's
"Blubber Burner" sports an un-politically-correct name and uses
 "Radio amateurs around the world will celebrate
Saint Patrick's Day on the air through the St. Patrick Award.
'We hope to turn the bands green,' the event's sponsors said. The St. Patrick Award
activity will get under way at 1200 UTC on March 16 and continue until 1200 UTC
on March 18. Radio amateurs or SWLs are invited to take part. Awards will be in
four categories: SPD Station Award (for registered stations); Fixed Station Award;
Mobile Station Award, and Short Wave Listener Award. Register to be an official
participating "
 As mentioned in the past, I put a fair amount
of effort into making
RF Cafe as user friendly and resourceful as possible while
also providing a valuable venue for RF product and services companies to advertise.
Reading articles on search engine optimization, effective user interface and user
experience, webpage organization, navigation, page load speed and content organization
are popular topics that the 'experts' have decided are most important to success.
My ultimate philosophy has been to make RF Cafe the kind of website I enjoy
visiting. A piece
Advanced Test Equipment Rentals (ATEC) - a leading provider of electronic test
and measurement equipment rentals with products that stretch across industries from
aerospace to electric, automotive and more – just upgraded its ESD equipment offerings.
The
ESD NX30 Electrostatic Discharge Simulator by EM Test is now available
to rent from ATEC, and makes an impactful addition to ATEC's continuously growing
fleet of EMC test equipment. As a leader
 Digi-Key extended their online contest. As
a PartSim or PCBWeb user, they'd would like your feedback in discovering what is
valuable and what needs improvement. The survey will take less than 2 minutes. Even
if you've already registered, you're still eligible to win the new prizes. Grand
Prize winner will receive a
Digi-Key Insta-Lab Oscilloscope, Function Generator, Bench Power
Supply and much
FCC to Consider How to Facilitate
Mobile Broadband Deployment
 "As the new chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai,
settles into his role at the agency that regulates the telecom industry, he appears
to be keen on finding ways to make sure that wireless technology will continue to
advance. Specifically, the agency announced that it will consider cellular service
reform during its next opening meeting, scheduled for March 23. 'The Commission
will consider a Second Report and Order and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
that would facilitate mobile
broadband deployment, including LTE, promote greater spectrum
efficiency, and reduce regulatory burdens "
Thursday 9
 "Consistent with its message that agreed-upon,
industry-wide standards are the way to go with 5G, AT&T is among a slew of operators
and vendors pledging to support a unified,
global 5G standard achieved through 5G testing, trials and cooperation.
During the Global 5G Test Summit here Wednesday, AT&T, China Mobile, NTT DOCOMO,
Vodafone, Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Keysight, MediaTek, Nokia, Qualcomm, Rohde &
Schwarz, ZTE and Datang jointly declared a statement promoting unified, global 5G
standards "
 This is pretty cool. If I owned a good receiver,
I would definitely give it a try. In 1970 when this Popular Electronics
article was written, a lot of Hams were still using tube receivers so the recommendation
to let the equipment warm up for several hours prior to making the fine frequency
adjustments was good advice. Unless I missed it, the author does not explicitly
state that the
frequency change measured over time is due to gravity acting on
the mass of the crystal reference, but I suspect that is his intention since part
of the experiment involves disconnecting
 Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded by Improbable
Research group. "The 2016 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded on Thursday night, September
22, 2016 at the 26th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard's Sanders
Theatre." The 26th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will introduce ten new Ig
Nobel Prize winners - Each has done something that makes people laugh then think.
Winners travel to the ceremony, at their own expense, from around the world to receive
their "
 "The
tower industry looks healthy heading into the second quarter,
according to analysts, but the cloud of potential consolidation among wireless carriers
continues to loom over the segment. Companies such as Crown Castle and American
Tower have long been the foundation of the U.S. wireless industry, but Cowen and
Company said in January that they've become 'everyone's punching bag' as operators
increasingly look to small cells, distributed antenna systems "
NuWaves Engineering announced the development of their latest miniaturized C-band
(BDA) to their line of NuPower Xtender™ bidirectional amplifier products. The
NuPower Xtender™
06D05A BDA module, part number NW-BA-06D05A, follows the recent releases of
both the C-band low noise amplifier (HILNA™ CX) and the C-band power amplifier (NuPower™
06D05A). This BDA offers the performance of a traditional
 "The Raspberry Pi foundation has launched
the
Raspberry Pi Zero W, a wireless-enabled version of the 65 x 30mm
Zero launched in 2015. Costing $10, it gets the same Cypress CYW43438 wireless chip
as Raspberry Pi 3 Model B to provide 802.11n wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.
It also picks up a camera interface that was not on the original Zero. 'We imagine
you'll find all sorts of uses for Zero W,' said Foundation co-founder Eben Upton.
'It makes a better general-purpose computer because you're less "
Wednesday 8
 "Startup company Irresistible Materials Ltd.
(Birmingham, England) is set to claim a breakthrough in the development of resist
material for extreme ultra violet (EUV) lithography at the
SPIE Advanced Lithography conference in San Jose, California.
Irresistible Materials (IM), a 2010 spin-off from the University of Birmingham,
has developed a couple of photo-resist products for use with EUV lithography based
on a novel type of resist chemistry known as a multi-trigger resist system. The
resist is molecular rather than polymeric "
 1963 was five years since America's first
communications satellite, Echo, was placed in orbit. Echo was
a passive, spherical reflector that merely provided a good reflective surface for
bouncing radio signals off of. By 1963, the space race was well underway and active
communications satellites were being launched at a rapid pace. Spotting and tracking
satellites has long been a popular pastime with two types of hobbyists: amateur
astronomers using telescopes and binoculars, and amateur radio operators using antennas
and receivers
 ConductRF is continually innovating and developing
new and improved solutions for RF Interconnect needs. See the latest
TESTeCON RF
Test Cables for labs. ConductRF makes production and test coax cable assemblies
as well as standard & precision RF connectors. Over 1,000 solutions for low
PIM in-building to choose from in the iBwave component library. They also provide
custom coax solutions for applications where some standard just won't do. Please
visit ConductRF
today to see how they can help your project!
 A lot of famous people have been or are currently
amateur radio operators. A 1958 edition of Popular Electronics published a story
title "VIP's Are Hams Too!," which included Arthur Godfrey (9K4LIB), Herbert Hoover,
Jr. (W6ZH), and Arthur Collins (W0CXX). I wrote an article on radio host Jean Shepherd
(K2ORS), of "A Christmas Story" fame. Senator Barry Goldwater (K7UGA), of Arizona,
was also an active Ham, as evidenced here in this June 1967 edition of the ARRL's
QST magazine.
Senator Goldwater also appeared in the May 1967 issue of QST
 Innovative Power Products introduces their
newest Model
IPP-7150. The IPP-7150 is 3dB, 90 degree surface mount hybrid
coupler which operates from 2.0 – 6.0 GHz. at 150 watts CW and has improved
Amplitude Balance of less than +/- 0.4 dB across the full band. The IPP-7150
will combine two signals up to 150 watts CW of total output power and is in a Surface
Mount (SMD) package which is 1.250 x 0.200 x 0.208 inches. Insertion
 "According to data from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS), jobs for engineers are expanding, and so are salaries. The BLS
figures are similar to results from the Design News study presented in the article,
Engineering Career & Salary Survey – Are You Getting Paid
Enough? . The average salary in our survey was $98,000, which is quite a bit higher
than the average engineering salary of $85,000. The difference is likely because
the Design News respondents included a preponderance of electrical and "
 "A hot air balloon launched by
Project Loon to one day bring the internet to remote villages
in the Amazon has landed in the rainforest. The large balloon fell from the skies
to the jungle floor following recent flight tests, to the surprise of the local
community. The huge inflatable descended from 11 miles high, above a remote town
in Brazil. X, an innovation lab under Google's parent company Alphabet and the group
behind Project Loon, has apologised for 'surprising' locals in the Autazes area,
in the north-central Brazilian state of Amazon "
Tuesday 7
This week at Satellite 2017,
Teledyne
Microwave Solutions (TMS) is featuring a wide range of innovative Satcom offerings
reflecting the company's ongoing integration of Satcom expertise across many business
units. Each of the business units of TMS have long had Satcom capabilities and engineering
expertise, including Teledyne Cougar, Teledyne MEC, Teledyne Defence & Space,
Teledyne Paradise Datacom, Teledyne Labtech, and the former Teledyne Microwave and
Teledyne KW Microwave. As a result of the operational consolidation
Since 1961, MECA (Microwave Electronic Components for
America) has manufactured an extensive line of RF & microwave components
for in-building, satellite, radar, radio, telemetry, mobile radio, aviation &
ATC. Attenuators, directional & hybrid couplers, isolators & circulators,
power dividers & combiners, loads, DC blocks, bias Ts and adapters & cables.
MECA has long been the 'backbone' of high performance wired and air-interfaced networks
such as. Please visit MECA today to learn how they can help with your projects
 Even in this era of incredibly complex electronics,
nearly every communications circuit, whether analog, digital, or a mix thereof has
a
crystal oscillator somewhere at its heart. Technology has advanced
significantly in the design and manufacture of crystals, but fundamentally the key
parameters of center frequency, phase noise, stability over temperature and time
(aging), susceptibility to microphonics effects and magnetic fields, etc., are the
same. This article is a good primer on crystals that explains how they work and
how they are used
 "At the University of California's San Francisco
campus, 79 IT employees lost their jobs this week, some of them after explaining
to their replacements at Indian
outsourcing firm HCL how to do their jobs. The union representing
the employees, University Professional and Technical Employees CWA Local 9119, says
it's the first time a public university has offshored American IT jobs. In a statement
sent yesterday, UPTE-CWA says the layoffs could "
 Anatech Electronics offers the industry's
largest portfolio of high-performance standard and customized
RF
and microwave filters and filter-related products for military, commercial,
aerospace and defense, and industrial applications up to 40 GHz. Anatech has
introduced 3 new filter designs: a 1059 MHz cavity bandpass filter with N type
connectors, a surface mount 1.25 MHz crystal bandpass filter, and a surface
mount 4,450 MHz ceramic bandpass filter. Custom designs are available on request
 It sure
would be nice to have batteries that don't pose a bigger risk of burning down your
house, car, or cellphone than glow fuel. "A team of engineers led by 94-year-old
John Goodenough [what a great name!], professor in
the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and co-inventor
of the
lithium-ion battery, has developed the first all-solid-state battery
cells that could lead to safer, faster-charging, longer-lasting rechargeable batteries
for handheld mobile devices, electric cars and stationary energy storage "
Monday 6
Skyworks Solutions has introduced
SkyOne® Ultra 3.0, a highly integrated front-end solution for
premium mobile device and smartphone manufacturers worldwide utilizing Skyworks'
powerful SkyBlue™ enabling technology for industry-leading efficiency. SkyOne® Ultra
3.0 is a fully optimized front-end system that incorporates all of the high performance
RF and analog functionality including power amplification, duplex filtering and
antenna switching into a single
 "Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) convert mechanical energy
harvested from the environment to electricity for powering small devices such as
sensors or for recharging consumer electronics. Now, researchers have harnessed
these devices to improve the charging of molecules in a way that dramatically boosts
the sensitivity of a widely-used chemical analysis technique. Triboelectric nanogenerators
(TENG) convert mechanical energy harvested from the environment to electricity "
 "Ijad Madisch, a founder of
ResearchGate, a social network, says it has signed up 12 million
scientists, or roughly 60 percent of all such potential users worldwide. Calvin
Coffey, a professor of surgery at the University of Limerick in Ireland, has a world
of gadgetry, scientific equipment and medical tests at his disposal. Recently, he
added another tool: social media. During a months-long project to prove that the
mesentery - folded tissue that connects the intestines to the wall of the "
 Comics in modern magazines are a rather rare
phenomenon for some reason, but they were fairly regular features up until a couple
decades ago. This set of
electronics-themed comics is from the December 1949 edition of
Radio & Television News. The first one would probably not make sense
to someone not familiar with the extents to which some radio operators go to deploy
antennas. During field day events and other mobile scenarios, Hams have been using
kites and balloons to create 1/4-, 1/2-, or even full-wave vertical antennas with
wires run
has introduced the new
MFG-2000 Series Multi-channel Function Generators from GW Instek
that includes the MFG-21XX entry-level models and the MFG-22XX advanced models with
up to five functional channels. Channels 1 and 2 provide high-performance arbitrary
function generators up to 60 MHz; Channel 3 - the RF signal generator channel,
with output up to 320 MHz, is a full function signal source; identical to CH1/CH2,
it can output sine, square, ramp, pulse, noise
 "When it comes to engineers, we aren't known
for our communication skills. This may seem standard with the
introverted engineering stereotype, but communication is perhaps
the most necessary skill an engineer can have - and we need more engineers that
can communicate. I am of course not talking about engineers ability to speak a language
or form basic words. Rather, too many times there have been incredibly smart engineers
that simply can't communicate what is happening "
Sunday 5
 For the sake of avid cruciverbalists amongst
us, each week I create a new
crossword puzzle that has a theme related to engineering, mathematics,
chemistry, physics, and other technical words. Clues in this puzzle with an asterisk
(*) are pulled from this past week's
(2/27 - 3/3) "High Tech News" column on the RF Cafe homepage (see the Headline Archives
page for help)
Friday 3
Since 2003, Bittele Electronics has consistently provided low-volume, electronic
contract manufacturing (ECM) and turnkey PCB assembly services. It specializes in
board level turnkey PCB assembly for design engineers needing low volume or prototype
multi-layer printed circuit boards.
Free Passive Components: Bittele Electronics is taking one further
step in its commitment of offering the best service to clients of its PCB assembly
business. Bittele is now offering common passive components to its clients FREE
of Charge
 A few days ago I posted a headline about
a judge requiring the California Dept. of Public Health to release a "Cell Phones
and Health" report. Today it appeared on a Google Drive - all 2 pages of it.
Basically, it amounts to a simple fact sheet warning people that some studies have
suggested a link between cell phone radiation and some forms of cancer, and offers
tips on how to minimize exposure and reduce risk. This appears to be much ado about
nothing, or the paper that was released is not the document sought, but is being
passed off as it. How's that for a conspiracy theory?
 Most of us Baby Boomers remember a time when
cell towers did not present a ubiquitous (and, frankly, ugly)
presence across the landscape.
Microwave relay towers for television and telephone links could
be spotted sitting atop hilltops and mountain ridges in some areas, and giant television
and radio station towers sat behind broadcast stations, and multi-element antennas
dotted house rooftops everywhere. Our grandparents (Millennials'
great grandparents) remember when even microwave relay towers were missing
 Practical Digital Wireless Signals, by Earl
McCune, answers the question, "Do you need to know what signal type to select for
a wireless application?" Quickly develop a useful expertise in digital modulation
with this practical guide, based on the author's experience of over thirty years
in industrial design. You will understand the physical meaning behind the mathematics
of wireless signals and learn the intricacies and tradeoffs in signal selection
and design. Six modulation families and twelve modulation types are covered
 "The hot topic at
Mobile World
Congress this year is not a new phone - apart from the Nokia 3110, they all
look the same. Nor is it a new technology like virtual reality - compared with last
year, there seem to be fewer VR headsets around. No, the biggest thing in Barcelona
is something invisible that doesn't yet exist, 5G. The hype about the potential
of the next generation of mobile networks has reached new heights, with every major
company exhibiting here eager to explain how it will be at the cutting edge of the
coming 5G "
 The free
whitepapers,
pamphlets, books,
magazines,
and chapter examples listed here are a small sample of a lot of new items that are
offered for FREE through
TradePub.
The publishers make them available to qualifying people as a promotional campaign
for their full line of offerings. Topics include
careers,
manufacturing,
engineering,
management,
meetings and travel. Note: I earn a few pennies
(literally) when you download one of these or the
many other pubs available, so please help yourself.
 "If you're getting sick of your touchscreen
phone, there's good news - BlackBerry's latest device has revived the physical keyboard.
TCL Communication has unveiled the
BlackBerry KEYone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this
week. The device features a QWERTY keyboard alongside a touchscreen display, in
the hopes of making the phone easier to use than standard touch-controlled phones.
The phone has an aluminium frame and soft textured back, making it durable "
Thursday 2
 Empower RF announces the market release of
the New Scalable
Pulsed L Band Amplifier with an expandable system hardware architecture
designed to save you money - "you buy only the power you need today" and add power
amplifier blocks later when your test or application requires more output power.
Adding 3U power amplifier blocks is accomplished easily and simply with no phase
matching required. In addition to scalability, this amplifier offers an inherently
rugged design and is based on patented
 RF Cafe visitor and frequent e-mailer Joe
Birsa (N3TTE) sent a note saying that the Spring 2017 issue of Classic Trains
magazine contains an article titled "Radio and the People's Railway," by Greg Gormick. I do not have
a copy on-hand, so I went to Wikipedia for some information on the Canadian National
Railways Radio Department, where it says in part: "The Canadian National Railways
Radio Department was the first national radio network in North America. It was developed,
owned and operated by the Canadian National Railway between 1923 "
 It is hard to believe in 1936, a time when
cars were huge and dashboards had almost nothing behind them except some heater
ducts, that access to something as simple as a radio speaker would be difficult.
Evidently it could be, according to the first-place winner of "Short-Cut" in
Radio-Craft magazine. There was not then the rat's nest of wires, air bags,
and control cables found in modern autos. Voluminous trunks back in the day, and
engine compartments that you could almost stand in while changing spark
ConductRF is continually innovating and developing
new and improved solutions for RF Interconnect needs. See the latest
TESTeCON RF Test Cables for
labs. ConductRF makes production and test coaxial cable assemblies as well as standard &
precision RF connectors. Over 1,000 solutions for low PIM in-building to choose
from in the iBwave component library. They also provide custom coax solutions for
applications where some standard just won't do. ConductRF has been added to RF Cafe's
Coaxial Cable
Assemblies and the
RF Connectors & Adapters vendor pages.
Midland Space Radar to Protect
from Space Junk
 "Violent collisions with orbiting debris
could await future travellers into space, if the growing problem of 'space junk'
isn't solved. But one Californian firm believes it might have a solution to keeping
tabs on some of the millions of objects believed to have amassed around the Earth.
The recently constructed
Midland Space Radar could help LeoLabs track up to 250,000 objects
in low earth orbit - around 95% of the total, according to the company, which tracks
debris in low Earth orbit (LOE) "
 It has been a long time since I read a
Robert Lucky article: "Almost limitless bandwidth beckons -if
we can tame a wild region of the spectrum. There is an eternal quality to how technology
evolves. As existing areas get overworked, new frontiers open up at the fringes.
Then innovators rush in to occupy the new territory before it, in turn, becomes
overworked. There is an example of such a frontier today in wireless communications.
IEEE's 5G wireless initiative has the goal "
 The DHTS
Store, operated by Dave Hanley (that's the 'DH' part)
out of Montreal, Canada, is devoted to bringing hard-to-find surplus, discontinued
and vintage electronic components to the hobbyist, restorer or experimenter. Transistors,
vacuum tubes, switches, cables, transformers, manuals, power supplies, TV tuners,
and even grab bags of parts. Find small lots and unique parts on our
eBay store. The
DHTS Store has been added to RF Cafe's "Obsolete
Components" vendor page.
 "Within the next fifty years, scientists
at BAE Systems believe that battlefield commanders could deploy a new type of
directed energy laser and lens system, called a Laser Developed
Atmospheric Lens which is capable of enhancing commanders' ability to observe adversaries'
activities over much greater distances than existing sensors. At the same time,
the lens could be used as a form of 'deflector shield' to protect friendly aircraft,
ships, land vehicles and troops from incoming attacks by high power laser weapons
that could also become "
Wednesday 1
 "A Superior Ct judge ordered the state to
release papers discussing the risk of cell phone use. The documents were written
by the state's Environmental Health Investigations department and are believed to
contain cell phone radiation warnings and recommendations for public use.
But the state refused to hand them over when requested by a director at Univ of
CA at Berkeley's School of Public Health. So Joel Moskowitz Phd sued the state below
the CA Public Records Act. Moskowitz, the UC Berkeley School "
 February 13, 1935 was probably the first
case of a major news organization incorrectly reporting a courtroom verdict because
of a radio communications fail - the birth of Fake News! The Associated
Press (AP) thought it was being uniquely creative - and sneaky - during "The Trial of the Century" involving the kidnapping and murder
of Charles Lindberg's young son. A reporter secreted in a miniature shortwave
transmitter, concealed within a leather brief case. A receiver station above the
courtroom stood ready
 everything RF has introduced three RSS (Rich
Site Summary, aka Really Simple Syndication) news feeds that can be subscribed to
for receiving the latest information automatically. The
everything RF News RSS feed contains replicas
of the industry news items and press relapses which appear on the homepage. The
everything RF Products RSS feed highlights components
added to their searchable database. The
everything RF Products and News RSS feed combines
the other two RSS feeds.
 This writer thinks
electrical engineering is the easiest field to get the title of
'engineer' without having a degree - compared to civil, mechanical, and chemical
engineering. True or hogwash? "Engineering is a time-old field that used to require
years of apprenticeship in the industry but now requires years of school just to
become licensed. However, could you become an engineer without an engineering degree?
If we are going to examine this question, we need to set some groundwork for who
exactly we consider an engineer "
 "Qorvo today announced the industry's first
5G RF front end for smartphones, laptops, tablets and other wireless
mobile devices. Qorvo's highly integrated, high performance QM19000 RFFE delivers
high linearity, ultra-low latency, and extremely high throughput to meet or exceed
the developing requirements of upcoming 5G applications. Qorvo is paving a path
to 5G by helping define 5G standards as a delegate to 3GPP and through close collaboration
with the leading wireless infrastructure manufacturers, network "
 "Scientists have discovered the
magnetism of electrons in three layers of graphene. This study
reveals a new kind of magnet and provides insight on how electronic devices using
graphene could be made for fundamental studies as well as various applications.
Metals have a large density of electrons and to be able to see the wave nature of
electrons one has to make metallic wires that are only a few atoms wide. However,
in graphene "
|
