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4 of the November 2018 homepage archives. Friday 30
 1970 just doesn't seem all that long ago, but holy
moly that is going on half a century! This quiz appeared in Popular Electronics
to test the hobbyist's knowledge of the
whereabouts of some of the major components and products companies. Many of the businesses
have gone defunct, been bought and absorbed by other companies, or if they do still exist,
are in new locations. It will take a real old-timer to score well on this quiz without
resorting to lucky guesses. Still, there are a couple stalwart manufacturers today that
even a newcomer can get right. Most of the Popular Electronics quizzes were
created by Robert P. Balin, but this one was dreamed up by Thomas Haskett...
 Over the past years, commercial micro and
mini UAVs, known as 'drones', have become an almost common sight. With the
technology becoming ever more affordable, a greater number of people uses these
UAVs for different purposes – especially in amateur photography, drones have
come to deliver spectacular results. Yet, with the emergence of this trend,
potential dangers have surfaced as well. Government facilities, airports, power
plants – these are just a few examples of critical infrastructure that relies
heavily on secured airspace. In the past, UAVs have repeatedly penetrated no-fly
zones without authorization. Furthermore, drones are becoming more and more
capable of transporting potentially harmful payload...
 2001: A Space Odyssey, released in 1968
and based at least in part on Arthur C. Clarke's 1948 novel The Sentinel, was
more than just a science fiction movie. It was a reflection on the public's
and even some of the scientific community's trepidation over the potential power of run-amok
computers to be used for or even themselves commit evil (e.g, HAL 9000). Fear of
the unknown is nothing new. Noted
mathematicians and computer scientists quoted in this 1950 article from The Saturday
Evening Post worry about robots (aka computers) "going insane" or being
used by the likes of Hitler and Stalin to dominate the world with totalitarian
rule. Others, however, have a more optimistic outlook: "The men who build the
robots do not share these terrors. Far from destroying jobs, they testify, they
will create new ones by the hundreds of thousands...
 Alliance Test sells
used / refurbished test equipment,
we offer short- and long-term rentals. They also offer repair, maintenance and calibration.
Prices discounted up to 80% off list price. Agilent/HP, Tektronix, Anritsu, Fluke, R&S
and other major brands. A global organization with ability to source hard to find equipment
through our network of suppliers. Please visit Allied Test Equipment today to see how
they can help your project...
 Thanks to RF Cafe visitor WB for letting me know
that the equation for calculating the S21 parameter from
ABCD parameters was mislabeled
as S12. The fraction was correct, but the subscript was wrong. I
apologize for the error, and it has been corrected. The page it is on also
contains an extensive list of conversions back and forth between s-, h-, T-, Y-,
Z-, and ABCD parameters...
 ERZIA
serves critical aerospace and defense missions by designing and manufacturing
RF, microwave, and mm-wave amplifiers,
integrated assemblies operating from low frequencies up to 100 GHz, and by
providing high reliable satellite communications. The company was founded in
2002 to become a worldwide reference of advanced engineering, performance,
reliability and ruggedness. Their catalogue of standard amplifier modules
comprises more than 100 different models, having also a high capacity of
customization for amplifiers and integrated assemblies. Some of products have
space heritage and are used in aerospace, commercial, military and scientific
systems, having a wide range of final applications...
 "According to Euroconsult's latest report,
China Space Industry 2018,
the China space value chain had an estimated size of more than $16B in 2017,
with the downstream market accounting for just over 85%. Satellite Navigation,
one of the key satellite applications in China, was the main revenue generator
in 2017, ahead of Satellite Communications and Earth Observation. This premier
edition of the report provides a deep-dive analysis of the current Chinese space
ecosystem and future expected evolutions, from upstream to downstream, and
covers each of the key satellite applications in China: Satellite Manufacturing,
Launch, Satellite Communications..."
Thursday 29
 University of Southampton, England, professor
James Holbrook suggests in this 1968 Radio-Electronics magazine article an "easy-to-follow
substitute for the left- and right-hand rules," but I'm not so sure that the good professor's
"Electron
Orbit Method" is any better or easier to remember. Admittedly, it is hard to remember
whether the use a left-hand rule or a right-hand rule for the various physical laws -
motor rotation direction, current induction, torque, vector cross products, etc. Those
involving current flow are made even more confounding because you need to know whether
the creator of the rule refers to conventional current flow (positive-to-negative) of
electron current flow (negative-to-positive). Note in Figure 110 from the Electricity
volume of Basic Navy Training Courses how the generator rule is described as a
left-hand rule with conventional current flow...
 Just when you thought sea-based wind farms couldn't
ugly-up the open waters any worse than they already do - enter
floating wind turbines on bright yellow floats. Imagine a horizon
filled with hundreds of these atrocities! "Developed by Portuguese firm Principle Power,
the WindFloat technology was installed by Bourbon Subsea, with Dutch company Vryhof providing
mooring solutions. Its semi-submersible platform allows a mooring system to be pre-installed
at sea while the turbine itself is readied at a nearby port. 'The WindFloat technology
is designed to be fully assembled at the quayside,' said Christian Cermelli,
principal naval architect at Principal Power. 'Then you go offshore, where you
have pre-installed a mooring system, so the lines are waiting for you..."
 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.
Note: I earn a few pennies (literally) when you download one of these or the
many other pubs available, so please help yourself...
 Here is the very first episode of the "Carl &
Jerry" series that ran for many years in Popular Electronics magazine. In
the manner of The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, et al, Carl and Jerry are two teenage boys
who, in their pursuit of their electronics hobby, manage to get themselves involved in
crime scene investigations, in odd situations with friends and adults, and even while
horsing around in their basement laboratory. Every episode is an entertaining combination
of mystery, teamwork, drama, and technical discussion. Amateur radio was a key feature
of many of their adventures. John T. Frye authored every adventure as he developed his
sleuthing buddies over time to go from a frumpy Jerry Bishop with a "well-padded frame"
and a Farside-esque bespectacled Carl Anderson to a couple more stealthy,
professional looking investigators who sometimes employed MacGyver-like tactics
during their antics...
 Copper Mountain Technologies and Compass Technology
Group are pleased to announce their new
Epsilometer solution for measuring the dielectric properties of materials. This solution
measures dielectric substrate materials at frequencies from 3 MHz up to 6 GHz
and can accommodate sheet specimens 0.3 to 3 mm thick. Dr. John Schultz of Compass
Technology commented, "Unlike previous dielectric analysis technologies, this new method
uses computational electromagnetic modeling to invert the dielectric permittivity and
loss. This represents a significant advance over conventional methods, which use analytical
approximations and are limited to frequencies below 1 GHz." With the launch of Epsilometer,
Copper Mountain Technologies delivers another solution that combines its
metrology-grade...
 Triad RF Systems designs and manufactures
RF power amplifiers and systems. Triad
RF Systems comprises three partners (hence 'Triad') with
over 40 years of accumulated knowledge of what is required to design, manufacture, market,
sell and service RF/Microwave amplifiers and amplifier systems. PA, LNA, bi-directional,
and frequency translating amplifiers are available, in formats including tower mount,
benchtop, rack mount, and chassis mount. "We view Triad more as a technology partner
than a vendor for our line-of-sight communications product line." Please check to see
how they can help your project...
 "T-Mobile US has for some time pinned its nationwide
5G ambitions to its massive stash of
600 MHz spectrum.
As the carrier works to repack that spectrum, Chief Technology Officer Neville
Ray took to Twitter this week to tout the success of a recent low-band 5G
transmission. According to Ray, 'The team just took another major step towards
nationwide 5G by broadcasting the world's first low band 600 MHz 5G signal on
the live network, reaching hundreds of square miles. Proving again that low band
is crucial for a nationwide 5G solution.' The test took place in Spokane,
Washington, and used Nokia equipment. According to a T-Mo spokesman, 'The
purpose of this test was to establish a successful 5G signal..."
Wednesday 28
 It is hard to imagine anyone who has not heard
of the
Dolby noise reduction process, even if he/she has no idea what it is. Dr. Ray
Dolby developed his process in 1965, although it was not patented until 1969 - the year
this article appeared in Radio-Electronics magazine. At the time, "Dolbyized"
audio systems were not available in the consumer marketplace because the price
was prohibitively high - $1,495* for a basic A301 system. Only about 25
units per month were being produced, primarily for recording studios and
reproduction factories. Dolby's magic that can reduce noise by 15 dB works on
the companding (portmanteau of compression and expansion) principle, thereby
eliminating or greatly suppressing the discernable "hiss." Dolby B is still the
most common version in use after nearly half a century...
 Lou Frenzel has a nice article titled, "How Phased Array Antennas Work," in the September / October issue
of Nuts & Volts magazines. He covers a lot of ground in providing
an introduction to phased arrays and their control. Self-driving cars and other systems
requiring relatively short distance situational awareness are using packaged ASIC phased
arrays like those from Anokiwave.
Small cell
wireless access nodes are using phased arrays to optimize service between
devices and larger cells by concentrating gain toward active users. It's a good
read...
 My Uncle Brian was a
radioman
in the U.S. Navy during the end of the Korean War era. A great story teller, he
used to talk about his Navy experiences and later times as a United Parcel
Service (UPS) tandem semi trailer when he and others from my Buffalo side of the
family would come to visit during summers when I was a kid. He spent most of his
enlistment on a gravy assignment at the U.S. embassy in Australia, relaying
messages between self-important bureaucrats at the Pentagon and self-important
bureaucrats at the U.S. embassy in Down Under. His favorite saying about his
time in the service is, "I joined the Navy to see the world, and all I saw was
the sea." I laugh every time I hear it...
 Free for downloading is this "Take This Job and Shove
It - 7 Things to Think About When Resigning" book. There is a right way and
a wrong way to leave an organization, and it's in your best interest to get it
right. We have all been there or witnessed it: A job has run its course and it
is time to move on. Emotions run high on your last day of employment and there
is more than likely a need to give hugs, shed tears, or rant the frustrations
that actually led to your departure. While making a scene on your last day may
feel therapeutic, it could also become something that you will seriously regret
later. Here are the 7 best steps to follow when departing your employer...
 Providing full solution service is our
motto, not just selling goods. RF & Connector Technology has persistently
pursued a management policy stressing quality assurance system and technological
advancement. From your very first contact, you will be supported by competent RF
specialists; all of them have several years of field experience in this industry
allowing them to suggest a fundamental solution and troubleshooting approach.
Coaxial RF connectors, cable assemblies, antennas, terminations, attenuators,
couplers, dividers, and more. Practically, we put priority on process inspection
at each step of workflow as well as during final inspection in order to
actualize "Zero Defects..."
 "Insight SiP has launched the ISP1807-LR module,
which it believes to be the first fully compliant
Bluetooth 5.0 Long Range RF module
in a miniature SIP package. This miniature BLE module (measuring only 8 x 8 x 1
mm) is based on the nRF52840 chip from Nordic Semiconductor and represents the
latest in Bluetooth 5 Long Range module technology. It offers a Bluetooth 5
stack including long range, high throughput, advertising extensions and improved
coexistence along with IPv6 connectivity and Mesh capabilities. With these
characteristics, the ISP1807-LR module is well-equipped to form the hub of IoT
solutions..."
Tuesday 27
 It is safe to say that all realms of semiconductor
technology have advanced significantly since the 1970s. Gate widths, wafer purity, doping
compounds, feature dimensions, layer stacking, power handling, operational frequency,
physical and ESD ruggedness, cost, reliability - like I said, all realms - have improved.
Laser diodes were a major development due to lower cost, compactness, spectral purity,
and lower operational voltage, as compared to lasers built from rare earth elements and
noble gases. Of course a solid state laser will never (probably) be able to shoot an
inbound ICBM out of the sky, but the vast majority of laser applications today require
only micro- or pico-power. Optical media read / write devices alone comprise a
huge fraction of the low power laser market. Modern laser diodes are employed
in, among other things, chemical analysis, range measurement, motion / position
sensors, and even play toys for cats and dogs...
 The
2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES)
runs January 8-11, in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES is the world's gathering place for
all those who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. It has served as
the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for 50 years -
the global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the
marketplace. Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), it
attracts the world's business leaders and pioneering thinkers...
 It's hard to imagine a time when
unlicensed radio frequency bands were not the norm, but early in the history of radio,
strict spectrum control was necessary in order to prevent unintentional radiation from
crappy equipment interfering with services. Remember that even in the mid 1940s, many,
if not most, casual users were cobbling together their own transmitters and receivers
from scratch. Transmitter powers were easily high enough to interfere with nearby and
distant receivers, but even improperly shielded receiver oscillator ("exciters") could
cause interference with a neighbor's nightly Lone Ranger broadcast.
Around 1945, the FCC began entertaining the idea of allocating bandwidth for the
use of the newfangled "walkie-talkies" that were developed for field
communications during World War II...
 Skyworks Solutions, an innovator of high performance
analog semiconductors connecting people, places and things, has published a new white
paper titled, "5G New Radio Solutions: Revolutionary Applications Here Sooner Than You
Think." It is available free for downloading. With a cover as nice as this
is, it has to be good ;-) "As demand grows for ubiquitous wireless connectivity
and the promise of new and previously unimagined applications – such as
autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, telemedicine and virtual reality –
so does the anticipation for 5G. 5G will be revolutionary, delivering higher
data throughput, extremely low latency and speeds up to 100 times faster than
4G. As a result, 5G is moving toward commercial reality faster than many
expected..."
 Please
take a few moments to visit the
everythingRF
website to see how they can assist you with your project. everythingRF is a
product discovery platform for RF and microwave products and services. They
currently have 227,460 products from more than 1210 companies across 285
categories in their database and enable engineers to search for them using their
customized parametric search tool. Amplifiers, test equipment, power couplers
and dividers, coaxial connectors, waveguide, antennas, filters, mixers, power
supplies, and everything else. Please visit everythingRF today to see how they
can help you...
 "As the FCC digs into its latest spectrum auction,
and as T-Mobile prepares to light up 5G services on its
600 MHz spectrum,
the time is right to take stock of the nation's 600 MHz landscape. The FCC's 600
MHz incentive auction of TV broadcasters' unwanted spectrum was a noteworthy
event. It was the culmination of years of work by officials at the FCC - it
initially arose from Congress' National Broadband Plan in 2010 - and it featured
'beachfront' low-band spectrum ideal for long-distance connections. Further, the
auction itself sported a unique 'reverse' auction that paid TV broadcasters for
their unwanted spectrum licenses, and then made that spectrum available to
wireless carriers and others through a traditional 'forward' auction..."
Monday 26
 When Charles Feldman published this article on
thin-film transistors (TFTs) in a 1964 issue of Electronics magazine, he had
no idea that the devices would eventually play a major role in liquid crystal
displays (LCDs) in everything from wristwatches to large screen television and
computer displays. Materials and fabrication techniques have evolved
considerably since 1964, but the fundamentals remain the same. Other than LCDs
and some solid-state sensors, I am not familiar with any other applications that
are heavy users of TFT technology. This 2016 paper titled, "Review on thin- film
transistor technology, its applications, and possible new applications to
biological cells," gives a little historical perspective and a comparison of
CMOS versus TFT...
 Microwave Journal is presenting a webinar titled,
"5G Massive MIMO: A Paradigm Shift in Base Station Antenna Testing,"
on November 27, 2018, at 11 am ET. It is sponsored by The Microwave Vision Group
(MVG) and is presented by Mathieu Mercier, Technical Director in MVG Asia Pacific.
Abstract: Massive MIMO has been put forward as one
of the most promising potential technologies for 5G networks. Compared to the past technology
where the BTS sectors were fixed, Massive MIMO makes it possible to increase data throughput
and coverage by bringing beamforming (spatial multiplexing) to the base stations and
user devices. Massive MIMO now allows to steer the energy toward an individual user to
create a direct link, improve the S/N ratio and the throughput. Such active antenna arrays,
scannable and steerable, are essential..."
 Bell Telephone Laboratories used to run some pretty
interesting advertisements in magazines back in the 1940s through 1960s that touted the
many communications innovations coming from their scientists and engineers. They built
what was indisputably the worlds best, most reliable telephone network. It, along with
the Interstate Highway System, is credited for a large part of what fueled America's
growth so significantly after World War II. This ad from a 1949 issue of Radio &
Television News magazine tells how repairmen used a specially designed
sensor to trace out faulty phone lines by listening for a test signal sent out
by the central office. What caught my attention about this ad was the uncanny
resemblance the man in the photo has to Melanie's father - especially with the
ball cap and glasses...
 A partnership of three Cornish companies has secured
funding of £148,000 to develop state-of-the-art technology to enable faster and more
accurate communication with satellites.
Flann Microwave, Teddington Systems and Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd will be working
together to create miniaturised components for the next generation of tiny communications
satellites, known as nanosatellites and CubeSats. Bristol-based Thales Alenia
Space will support the project with advice on end-user acceptance aspects and
environmental aspects. The project is expected to create 14 new jobs and is a
further boost to Cornwall's ambitions to develop space sector manufacturing,
servicing and launch capabilities...
 If you are a
Stromberg-Carlson
vintage radio fan - or just a vintage radio fan in general - you will want to surf on
over to Tom Bavis' "AudioPhool"
website where he waxes eloquent on his vintage electronics hobby. The
RadioPhool webpage
includes Crosley, General Electric, Heathkit, Motorola, Zenith, Silverton, and other
familiar names. A very extensive collection of photos, descriptions, and hyperlinks to
data sheets and Sam's Photofacts documentation is posted for the Stromberg-Carlson radios.
Sam's still sells some vintage radio and television Photofacts packages, but a
lot of the models are no longer available. Guys like Tom help make sure service
data is still accessible...
QuinStar Technology designs and manufactures
mm-wave products
for communication, scientific, and test applications along with providing microelectronic
assembly, rapid prototyping, and mass customization. Amplifiers, Oscillators, Switches,
Attenuators, Circulators, Isolators, Filters, Waveguide, Antennas, Phase Shifters, Transceivers,
Mixers, Detectors. QuinStar specializes in cryogenic amplifiers,
circulators, and isolators. Please visit QuinStar today to see how they can help
your project...
 "We are reaching the limits of silicon capabilities
in terms of data storage density and speed of memory devices. One of the potential next-generation
data storage elements is the
magnetic
skyrmion. A team at the Center for Correlated Electron Systems, within the Institute
for Basic Science (IBS, South Korea), in collaboration with the University of Science
and Technology of China, have reported the discovery of small and ferroelectrically tunable
skyrmions. Published in Nature Materials, this work introduces new compelling advantages
that bring skyrmion research a step closer to application. It is envisioned that storing
memory on skyrmions - stable magnetic perturbations of whirling spins..."
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