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Tuesday 10
 "DARPA's Video Synthetic Aperture Radar (ViSAR) program
recently completed flight tests, successfully demonstrating a new sensor that can
capture real-time video through clouds. The ViSAR program, which began in 2013,
has been developing an Extremely High Frequency (EHF) targeting sensor to operate
through clouds as effectively as current electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) sensors
operate in clear weather. The program's goal is to develop a cloud-penetrating EHF
sensor "
 "I
would like to die on Mars... just not on impact." -
Elon Musk,
SpaceX CEO, during 2013 South by Southwest (SXSW) interview. Begins at 44:15 in
video
It's an exciting time for
RF/Microwave
design and test hardware to meet customer's requirements for 5G, IoT, Satellite
Communications, etc. Mini-Circuits is pushing beyond 40 GHz and also focusing
on 5G Applications at sub-6 GHz, 28 GHz and 39 GHz. Also working
on custom designs. We recently announced in Mini-Circuits Components Now Available
in Modular Drop-In Format from X-Microwave, that over 400 Mini-Circuits are available
using X-Microwave blocks
 Evidently in 1973 there were only about 400 different
battery types to choose from when deciding what to buy for your automobile, electronic
device, uninterruptible power supply, flashlight, etc. I don't know what the number
of types is today, but the number must be in the thousands. Nominal voltage, case
size and shape, energy capacity (amp-hour rating), current delivery capacity ("C"
rating), environmental accommodation, connection type (contact, solder, screw-on,
or push-on terminals), chemistry, number of recharge cycles (for secondary batteries),
and a host of other choices are available nowadays ...
Skyworks
Solutions, an innovator of high performance analog semiconductors connecting
people, places and things, today announced that ZTE is incorporating various products
from its portfolio to power several of their all-in-one platforms for the connected
car. Skyworks' innovative solutions help transform cars into rolling Wi-Fi
hotspots, enabling vehicle tracking, diagnostics, safety and security features.
To support the numerous wireless protocols and frequency bands required by advanced
wireless networks
 "As microchips become ever smaller and therefore
faster, the shrinking size of their
copper interconnects leads to increased electrical resistivity
at the nanoscale. Finding a solution to this impending technical bottleneck is a
major problem for the semiconductor industry. One promising possibility involves
reducing the resistivity size effect by altering the crystalline orientation of
interconnect materials. A pair of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
conducted electron transport "
Monday 9
 Axiom Test Equipment, a provider of efficient
and cost effective solutions customers' test equipment needs, offer the following
special deals on their inventory. Axiom offers our customers several practical,
efficient and cost effective solutions for their business or projects' test equipment
needs. Whether you need to
rent &
buy test equipment, repair test equipment, sell or trade equipment, we are committed
to providing superior customer service and high quality electronic test equipment
 Adolph Mangieri, who authored articles in
electronic magazines in the 1970s and 1980s, provided a good introduction to junction
field effect transistors (JFETs) in this 1973 piece in Popular Electronics.
As mentioned, JFETs were a relative newcomer at the time to the commercial electronics
world because of high fabrication costs. Obtaining consistent pinchoff voltages
and gains was largely responsible for the costs. Semiconductor processing and some
circuit application examples are included. One of the first big commercial applications
of the JFET was probably transistorized multimeters in order to obtain
 Empower's Model
SKU 2126 was mounted in the test fixture undergoing 40g shock
testing while operating uninterrupted at full rated output power. The amplifier
system was tested for
MIL-STD-810E Method 514.4 vibration 40 g Peak while operational
for 270 minutes in each axis. The unit also passed Shock – MIL-STD 810F Method 516.5
3 Axes, Quantity 18 pulses per direction 11 mSec Sawtooth Pulse / 40g Peak.
Keep in mind this is not a custom design. This is our COTS model with a dust filter
added
 From May 9th through the 11th in the year
of our Lord 1958, the very first "Jamboree on the Air" (JOTA) was held by the Boy Scouts of America
(BSA). The American Radio Relay League (ARRL), in conjunction with the BSA, is promoting
this year's 60th anniversary event occurring from October 20-22. As you might imagine,
quite a lot has changed over 59 years in terms of equipment, but the basics in terms
of encouraging and assisting the next generation of licensed Hams remains as always
the primary goal of organizers. The Boy Scouts, of course, join in for the fun and
learning experience. Jamboree on the Air events, held in October
 "Researchers have taken a first step toward
controlling electrons' behavior inside matter - and thus the first step down a long
and complicated road that could eventually lead to the ability to create new states
of matter at will. This drawing illustrates the path of packets of
light waves (blue dashed line, moving right to left), as they
hit an atom (white sphere with green nucleus) and an electron is knocked free (purple
dashed line "
Sunday 8
 For the sake of avid cruciverbalists amongst
us, each week I create a new
engineering and technology themed crossword puzzle, mathematics,
chemistry, physics, and other technical words. At least 10 clues in this puzzle
with an asterisk (*) are pulled from this past week's (10/2 - 10/6)
"Tech Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage (see the Headline Archives
page for help). Enjoy!
Friday 6
 KR Electronics part number
3012-455
is a 160 MHz bandpass filter designed for Positive Train Control (PTC) applications.
Encapsulated for enhanced shock and vibration resistance, 50 Ω source and load,
N(F) to N(M) connectors. The filters are encapsulated/ruggedized for enhanced shock
and vibration resistance. Thousands are currently installed and operating successfully
in the field with major rail companies. Other frequencies and bandwidths are available
 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. Whitepaper topics include
careers, manufacturing, and engineering, while magazine titles include Microwave
Engineering Europe, Electronic Design, and Microwave Product Digest
 Here is a good end of week task for you. In
this challenge by Popular Electronics'
quizmaster Robert Balin, you have to match each electronic circuit
on the left with its mechanical analog on the right. Mechanical equivalent "H" can
be a bit tricky depending on whether you consider the material that gets through
the sieve or what gets trapped in it, or for that matter whether you consider wavelength
or frequency. Personally, I think he has the analogy backwards
 "The University of Sherbrooke and École de
Technologie Supérieure in Canada have developed a gallium arsenide (GaAs)
Schottky diode fabrication technique aimed at low-cost sub-millimeter
wave performance. The researchers used photolithography rather than the more expensive
electron-beam patterning that is often used. Also, the number of metallization steps
was reduced from five to two, reducing lithography alignment complexities from eight
steps to five "
 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!
 "The first
quantum-safe video conference was held between President Chunli
Bai of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and President Anton Zeilinger
of the Austria Academy of Sciences in Vienna, as the first real-world demonstration
of intercontinental quantum communication on September 29th. Private and secure
communications are fundamental "
Thursday 5
 "Following an opaque and arcane ruling from
a European Parliament committee there is concern that the continent is losing its
way on telecoms. The
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy voted on a broad range
of issues surrounding the involvement of the Eurocracy in the telecoms business.
Among the conclusions of the vote were a move to reduce the cost of long distance
calls within Europe, which seems to be an ideological "
 Nickel cadmium (NiCd or NiCad) and nickel
metal hydride (NiMH) batteries are classified as
secondary cells because they are rechargeable. Primary cells like
carbon and standard alkaline are not rechargeable. Those were the most common types
of batteries- at least for consumer products - up through the late 1980s. The now-common
lithium ion (Li-Ion or LiIon) and lithium polymer (Li-Po or LiPo) are also secondary
types. Devices designed to use either lithium chemistry are meant to work at integer
multiples of the nominal 3.7 V cells potential. In the mid 1980s, when NiMH was
gaining popularity as a high energy density rechargeable battery, a lot
 "First the good news. School students have
a positive view of
science and engineering. About 70% say they learn interesting
things in school and that scientists make a difference in the world. 71% of the
students about to take part in our event 'I'm an Engineer, Get me out of here' think
that Engineers have an interesting job. Sorted. What's the problem? The problem
is that according to ASPIRES project "
introduces their complete line of broadcast filter products. Competitive
pricing, exceptional quality, short lead times. Contact our experienced staff to
discuss your requirements. Download their full
MFC catalog.
 "Laser weapons experts at Lockheed Martin Corp. are helping the
U.S. Air Force develop a compact, ruggedized, high-power laser to defend tactical
aircraft flying at or above the speed of sound from enemy aircraft and missiles.
Officials of the Laser Division of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed
Energy Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., announced a $26.3M contract
Tuesday to Lockheed Martin Aculight "
Wednesday 4
 "As the industry struggles to get small cells
and related infrastructure deployed across the U.S., it was reminded that some barriers
are about more than aesthetics or registration fees. There's a pending action at
the FCC to take another look at
RF emissions, and that can be a great shield for local government
officials, said Steve Traylor, executive director, National Association of Telecommunications
Officers and Advisors, during a panel hosted by Telecommunications Industry Association "
Southwest Antennas, an industry leader in innovative MIMO antenna solutions,
is pleased to introduce two new compact MIMO sector antennas to their existing line-up
of directional antenna solutions. Designed for 2 port (2X2) MIMO and MANET radios,
these
compact sector antennas feature 10 dBi of peak gain and 56 degrees
of horizontal and vertical beamwidth. Measuring only 4.3" in length and height and
2.9" wide, these small antennas
 Electronic ignition, computer-controlled
fuel injection and air intake, alarm systems, radar, rear back-up cameras, GPS,
stereo sound systems, Bluetooth tire pressure monitor, hands-free telephone, automatic
headlight directors, drowsy driver detectors, collision avoidance, anti-lock brakes,
fuel efficiency management, air bag deployment, self-parking and even self-driving
features are now or soon will be standard features in automobiles.
Mac McGregor and Barney hit upon a lot of these items - some explicitly,
some implicitly - in this 1973 installment
 Sixty years ago today, on October 4, 1957,
the Space Race began with Russia's launch of the Sputnik satellite. Ham radio operators
across the globe tracked its flight. Here are some articles I have posted on Sputnik:
-
Sputnik Watch in Erie, PA
-
QSL from Sputnik
-
Electronics News
-
Satellite Electronics
Dennis Lazar has a nice article titled, "First CW from Space: Sputnik Turns 60," in the October 2017
QST.
Planar Monolithic Industries (PMI) recently introduced four new products in their
extensive line of . Included are a 1-18 GHz low noise amplifier; a 1 to 18
GHz, 10-bit digital RF attenuator; a 1 to 12 GHz high speed threshold detector;
and a 2 to 18 GHz SP6T PIN diode RF switch. Contact PMI today for more information
 "The Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland
Air Force Base, N.M., is turning to radio frequency and microwave experts at companies
such as Raytheon and Booz Allen Hamilton to conduct experiments with high power
electromagnetic (HPEM) technology for such applications as disrupting computers,
aircraft, or electric grids. HPEM EW has attracted the attention of the U.S. Air
Force's Directed Energy Directorate's "
Tuesday 3
 "5G NR is ascending rapidly as the
5G technology of choice, but it turns out lots can be done to
get ready as it goes through the formal 3GPP channels. The Qualcomm-led 5G New Radio
initiative is accelerating through the 3GPP wormhole and should start emerging as
a formal specification in two stages in 2018. But how do we test to it in the meantime?
Well, I asked the experts at Keysight. This isn't a new problem, of course. Designers
and developers have been "
 Here is a prime example of how a primitive
and outmoded form of communication like over-the-air
FM broadcast radio can make its value apparent. "FCC Chairman
Ajit Pai renewed his call for Apple to activate support for FM radio in its iPhones,
citing safety concerns in the wake of a rash of hurricanes. But Apple said some
of its latest iPhone models simply can't receive FM broadcasts. Like almost all
smartphones, iPhone models include a chip that could enable users to access broadcasts "
 The October 1969 issue of Electronics
World contained no fewer than nine separate articles on the relatively new
technology of
printed circuit boards (PCBs). Through the mid 1960s, many, if
not most, electronic assemblies used all point-to-point wiring connections, or a
majority of point-to-point with a minor circuit or two on a PCB. Multilayer PCBs
were being routinely manufactured for defense and aerospace applications, but more
than two or three layers was a rarity in an AM/FM radio, television, or smart appliance
(just kidding about the last one). This "dry process" for PCBs, costing $6k ($41k
in 2017 dollars), was pitched as a low cost method for manufacturing
 This combo version of
Smith Chart for Excel™ includes both versions in a single
workbook. The original version, which I created in 2004, allows you to enter a set
of s-parameters at each frequency, and then a second version allows you to enter
a set of real and imaginary impedances at each frequency for plotting on the Smith
Chart. While there is nothing new about Smith Chart plotting software, what makes
Smith chart for Excel unique is that rather than tying up processor resources plotting
the resistance circles and impedance arcs, I set a Smith Chart graphic as the background
image for the chart
Revised ARRL Frequency Chart Now Available
 An updated
ARRL
frequency chart is now available for printing and downloading. The chart has
been updated to include the new bands at 2,200 and 630 meters. The new chart is
available for printing in the following PDF formats: 8.5" x 11" gray scale, 8.5"
x 11" B&W, 8.5 x 11 color, and 11" x 17" color
 "Researchers from Finland and Taiwan have
discovered how graphene, a single-atom-thin layer of carbon, can be forged into
three-dimensional objects by using laser light. A striking illustration was provided
when the researchers fabricated a pyramid with a height of 60 nm, which is
about 200 times larger than the thickness of a
graphene sheet. The pyramid was so small that it would easily
fit on a single strand of hair. The research was supported by the Academy of Finland
and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of China "
Monday 2
 "Applications now include nanoscale
spintronics sensors that further enhance the areal density of
hard disk drives, through MRAMs that are seriously being considered to replace embedded
flash, static random access memories (SRAM) and at a later stage dynamic random
access memories (DRAM). Spintronics is the concept of using the spin degree of freedom
to control electrical current to expand the capabilities of electronic devices "
Pasternack, a leading provider of RF, microwave and millimeter wave products,
has unveiled a new series of low insertion loss repeatability
electromechanical switches. Test and measurement applications
require signal processing component performance to be highly accurate and repeatable
over long periods and under extreme conditions. In automated test systems where
electromechanical switches are used for signal monitoring and routing applications,
every switch will add repeatability error
 Ever since the advent of Google Earth in 2001,
high resolution photos from orbiting satellites has become routine, expected technology
rather than awe-inspiring technology. In 1970 when this article appeared, however,
satellite imagery was still in its infancy. The TIROS 1 weather
satellite, with a mere 78-day lifespan, had been launched just a decade earlier.
Nations' militaries had the biggest and best platforms, and pictures like those
now routinely seen on Google Earth were highly classified. If you recall, governments
had conniption fits over Google's photos taken of secret installations. Civilians
 According to Google's "About" page, founders
Larry Page and Sergey Brin originally called their search engine "Backrub." Funny
quote: "Soon after, Backrub was renamed Google (phew)."
The name was a play on the mathematical expression for the number 1 followed by
100 zeros and aptly reflected Larry and Sergey's mission "to organize the world's
information and make it universally accessible and useful "
 Empower's tested and field proven rugged
design is common across all our
Next Generation Family of amplifiers and is the result of our
patented architecture and design goal to minimize RF power losses along the internal
signal path, simplify manufacturing and provide for ease of servicing. The consequence
of this elegant electro-mechanical compact structural design is a COTS amplifier
that is inherently durable. Empower's family of solid state power amplifiers is
thermally and structurally designed to meet today's stringent
Sibling Startup Movandi Offers RF
for 5G
 Movandi brings innovative RF front end technology
to emerging high frequency, millimeter wave networks for 5G and beyond. Internationally
recognized siblings, leaders and innovators, Maryam and Reza Rofougaran introduce
innovative approach to RF and antenna design, announce new company,
Movandi, a venture-backed startup
with a mission to revolutionize millimeter wave networks, today announced BeamX
technology, a scalable RF front "
Sunday 1
 For the sake of avid cruciverbalists amongst
us, each week I create a new engineering and technology themed crossword puzzle,
mathematics, chemistry, physics, and other technical words. At least 10 clues in
this puzzle with an asterisk (*) are pulled from this past week's
(9/25 - 9/29) "Tech Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage (see the
Headline Archives page for help). Enjoy!
Friday 29
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