Homepage Archive - October 2020 (page 4)

Wednesday 28

Housewives and Television

Contrary to the scenario presented in this light-hearted mockery of housewives attempting to assemble some electronics kits, there were actually many women during the height of the radio and television age who were quite adept at handling soldering irons and test equipment. In fact, the case could be made that, given the 1947 appearance of this "Housewives and Television" piece in Radio-Craft magazine, women of the post-wartime industrial period were probably the most experienced and adept assemblers of electronics equipment. After all, it was Rosie the Riveter who built airplanes, ships, and tanks while Sally the Solderer built the bulk of the tens of thousands of radios, radars, sonars, medical and test instruments, vacuum tubes, amplifiers, and other electronics while the brothers...

Please Visit in Appreciation Reactel for Their Long-Time Support

Reactel has become one of the industry leaders in the design and manufacture of RF and microwave filters, diplexers, and sub-assemblies. They offer the generally known tubular, LC, cavity, and waveguide designs, as well as state of the art high performance suspended substrate models. Through a continuous process of research and development, they have established a full line of filters of filters of all types - lowpass, highpass, bandpass, bandstop, diplexer, and more. Established in 1979. Please contact Reactel today to see how they might help your project.

Zeptoseconds: New Record in Short Time Measurement

"In 1999, the Egyptian chemist Ahmed Zewail received the Nobel Prize for measuring the speed at which molecules change their shape. He founded femtochemistry using ultrashort laser flashes: the formation and breakup of chemical bonds occurs in the realm of femtoseconds. Now, atomic physicists at Goethe University in Professor Reinhard Dörner's team have for the first time studied a process that is shorter than femtoseconds by magnitudes. They measured how long it takes for a photon to cross a hydrogen molecule: about 247 zeptoseconds for the average bond length of the molecule. This is the shortest timespan..."

Theory and Construction of Attenuators, Line Filters and Matching Transformers

It seems most of the articles we see on the subject of attenuator pads are based on signal reduction in terms of decibels for units of power. Although it is a simple matter to convert power decibels to voltage decibels, it would be more convenient if you are working with voltage to have formulas and tables of values based on voltage ratios. This article does just that. As a reminder, the decibel representation of a ratio is always 10 * log10 (x). If you have a voltage ratio of V1/V2 = 0.5, then 10 * log10 (0.5) = -3.01 dB. If you have a power ratio of P1/P2 = 0.5, then 10 * log10 (0.5) = -3.01 dB. Does that mean that -3.01 dB of voltage attenuation is the same as 3.01 dB of power attenuation? Confusingly, no. Let's say for the sake of simplicity that you have 1 V across a 1 Ω resistor...

Nokomis Looking for an RF/Electrical Mixed Signal Engineer

Nokomis Inc., is a high technology research and development company located just south of Pittsburgh, PA. Nokomis does cutting-edge technology work for the Department of Defense (DoD) and other Government Agencies. We rank in the top 3 for entities under 300 employees in the state of Pennsylvania for the number of R&D contracts we typically win yearly. The candidate should be comfortable executing on and potentially leading multiple projects. This position requires a multi-disciplined Senior Electrical Engineer, capable of solving complex technical problems and providing innovative solutions in the areas of Electrical Engineering and the part, board and system level to develop the most sensitive Radio Frequency (RF) systems on the planet. Though candidates with specialized experience in digital design, analog design mixed signal design or RF design will be considered as each of these disciplines is required. The ideal candidate will have an understanding of and experience with digital, analog, mixed signal and RF systems...

Many Thanks to Exodus Advanced Communications for Their Support

Exodus Advanced Communications is a multinational RF communication equipment and engineering service company serving both commercial and government entities and their affiliates worldwide. Power amplifiers ranging from 10 kHz to 51 GHz with various output power levels and noise figure ranges, we fully support custom designs and manufacturing requirements for both small and large volume levels. decades of combined experience in the RF field for numerous applications including military jamming, communications, radar, EMI/EMC and various commercial projects with all designing and manufacturing of our HPA, MPA, and LNA products in-house.

Tuesday 27

Electronics-Themed Comics, 1953 Radio-Electronics

It's about time for a little joviality so here are the three technology-themed comics which appeared in the November 1953 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine. They cover a wide range of situations experienced by electronics types back in the day, including the fickleness of customers, an exaggeration of an explorer's unexpected discovery deep in a jungle, and the frustrated indignation of a parts supplier by the selective memory of a serviceman in need of replacement components. Enjoy!

Withwave Intros Vertical Launch 1.0 mm Connector (DC to 110 GHz)

"Withwave-1d0-mm-Vertical-Launch-Connector-DC-110-GHz-10-27-2020.htm" target="_top"> Withwave announces the introduction of "Withwave-1d0-mm-Vertical-Launch-Connector-DC-110-GHz-10-27-2020.htm" target="_top"> Vertical Launch Connectors which are specially designed for solderless vertical PCB launch on test & measurement board. These connectors have excellent electrical transition performance up to 26.5 GHz, 50 GHz, 67 GHz & 110 GHz respectively as well as reduce installation time by eliminating soldering. Excellent vertical transition (VSWR <1.3, 1.85 & 1.0 mm type: VSWR <1.6 ). ANSYS HFSS models available (version 17.0 or newer) for 3D EM (electromagnetic) simulation...

Reducing Risk & Improving Quality of Military Radar Receivers

"An industry-leading military radar receiver manufacturer needed to deliver radar receivers that met tough new customer specifications. To ensure a quality product, the manufacturer reviewed many aspects of its test strategy, focused on ensuring its radar receivers could meet the new specifications. Radar receiver sensitivity is critical for electronic warfare (EW) applications. A radar receiver that is outside specifications will fail to decipher signals properly from long distances. This is not an option in military applications. Risk of false passes. The aerospace and defense manufacturer needed to improve receiver sensitivity and the accuracy of its power level measurements in order to meet its design specifications and cost goals..."

Many Thanks to Nova Microwave for Continuing Support!

Nova Microwave is a leader in technically differentiated electronic and radio frequency Ferrite Circulators and Isolators that connect, protect and control critical commercial and military wireless telecommunications systems. Our staff is dedicated to research and development of standard and custom design quality Ferrite Circulators and Isolators from 380 MHz to 26.5 GHz. Available in single or multi-junction topographies, the Nova Microwave product line of is specifically designed for use in varied environmental and temperature extremes. 

Quiz #40: Introduction to Antenna Analysis Using EM Simulation

This quiz is based on the information presented in Introduction to Antenna Analysis Using EM Simulation, by Hiroaki Kogure, Yoshie Kogure, and James C. Rautio, published by Artech House. It is written for novice engineers and engineering students. This easy-to-comprehend resource offers readers thorough introductory-level treatment of antenna analysis using electromagnetic (EM) simulators. This richly-illustrated book shows how to use EM software to analyze and tune wireless antennas to meet specific requirements. Readers learn important wireless antenna design terminology and gain a detailed understanding of how antennas work. Moreover, the book offers guidance in troubleshooting problems with wireless antenna designs...

BNC Webinar: Low vs. High-Resolution Detectors

"Berkeley-Nucleonics-Webinar-Low-High-Resolution-Detectors-10-23-2020.htm" target="_top"> Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation (BNC - like the connector) is excited to announce that our upcoming live webinar, "Low vs. High-Resolution Detectors," is less than one week away! Demystify high-resolution Scintillation with Berkeley Nucleonics and special guest Paul Schotanus from Scionix as we dive into the current landscape of high-resolution detectors in the 662 KeV Gamma range: CeBr3, LaBr3, SrI2, CLYC, and GAGG. To accommodate for time differences, we will be hosting two sessions with the same topics and agenda. Please register for the time slot that works best for you. U.S. Event - Wednesday, October 28th, 2020 @ 10:00 AM PST...

Thanks to PCBONLINE for Continued Support!

PCBONLINE supplies complex rigid and flex-rigid printed circuit boards (PCBs)，and one-stop production with maximum flexibility ranging from prototype sample to mass production. Rigid-flex, HDI, multilayer, IC-loadboard, LCP 5G optical module, ceramic, MCPCB. Materials include Rogers, Taconic, Arlon, Isola, Bergquist, Kapton, Panasonic, and more. After more than 15 years of continuous efforts, PCBONLINE constantly updates our equipment, improves our technology, and serves you with the highest quality. Cost and delivery quotations online without the need for multiple phone call and/or e-mails.

Monday 26

Tube Testers for Speedy Checking

It's a pretty good bet that most RF Cafe visitors are not overly interested in vacuum tube testers. Today they are collectors' items with some actually still being used for maintaining vintage electronics gear; however, in the days before semiconductor components they were the life blood of service men. Because tubes (aka "valves" in other parts of the world) are by nature one of the most vulnerable parts of any product in which they are used, often the first step in troubleshooting a radio, television, record player, etc., was to test suspected tubes for sub par performance. As mentioned often in Mac's Radio Service Shop stories, customers balked at service centers charging for their expertise but didn't mind as much paying for replaced components. That meant mark-ups on vacuum tubes comprised...

Transmission Lines

Is there such as thing as too many articles on transmission lines? I think not, at least for most visitors to RF Cafe. Since the fundamentals of transmission lines have not changed in the last century, it really doesn't matter when an article was written. This one covers the basics of impedance and wavelength, and then delves briefly into the subjects of antenna feeder transmission lines and using transmission lines as impedance transformers. As with most topics these days, there are many software programs available that will calculate parameters for you, but successful setup and operation requires a solid understanding of what is happening with your electronic gear, antennas, and the transmission lines that provide the interfaces...

CMT Intros 43-5 GHz, 2-Port Vector Network Analyzer

"Copper-Mountain-Technologies-S5243-2-Port-Vector-Network-Analyzer-10-22-2020.htm" target="_top"> Copper Mountain Technologies, a leading developer of innovative RF test and measurement solutions for engineers all over the world, has introduced a new "Copper-Mountain-Technologies-S5243-2-Port-Vector-Network-Analyzer-10-22-2020.htm" target="_top"> 2-port 43.5 GHz vector network analyzer (VNA). Model S5243 is CMT's highest frequency Compact VNA. It features excellent dynamic range and fast measurement speed in a compact package with the maximum standard software feature set. S5243 VNA includes an RF measurement module and S2 Windows or Linux operating system on a PC, laptop, tablet, or x86 board computer connecting to the measurement hardware via USB interface. S2 software can be installed on multiple computers, making it easy to share the use of the analyzer...

Many Thanks to Qorvo / Custom MMIC for Their Continued Support

Qorvo / Custom MMIC is a fabless RF and microwave MMIC designer entrusted by government and defense industry OEMs. Custom and off-the-shelf products include switches, phase shifters, attenuators, mixers and multipliers, and low noise, low phase noise, and distributed amplifiers. From next-generation long range military radar systems, to advanced aerospace and space-qualified satellite communications, microwave signal chains are being pushed to new limits - and no one understands this more than Custom MMIC. Please contact Qorvo / Custom MMIC today to see how they use their modern engineering, testing and packaging facility to help your project. 

Sunday 25

Radio Engineering Themed Crossword Puzzle for October 5th

October 25th's custom Radio Engineering Technology themed crossword puzzle contains only only words from my custom-created lexicon related to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy, etc. (1,000s of them). You will never find among the words names of politicians, mountain ranges, exotic foods or plants, movie stars, or anything of the sort. You might, however, find someone or something in the otherwise excluded list directly related to this puzzle's technology theme, such as Hedy Lamarr or the Bikini Atoll, respectively. The technically inclined cruciverbalists amongst us will appreciate the effort...

RF Cascade Workbook 2018

RF Cascade Workbook 2018 is the next phase in the evolution of RF Cafe's long-running series, RF Cascade Workbook. Chances are you have never used a spreadsheet quite like this. It is a full-featured RF system cascade parameter and frequency planner that includes filters and mixers for a mere $45. Built in MS Excel, using RF Cascade Workbook 2018 is a cinch and the format is entirely customizable. It is significantly easier and faster than using a multi-thousand dollar simulator when a high level system analysis is all that is needed. An intro video takes you

Friday 23

Oscilloscope Patterns and Amplifier Diagnosis

An ability to interpret the display on an oscilloscope is absolutely essential to efficiently diagnose a circuit when troubleshooting. In the days of an electronics repair shop in every town when televisions, radios, phonographs, tape recorders, and other consumer gizmos were actually meant to be repaired rather than thrown away and replaced, technicians needed to be able to compare a measured signal to the one represented in the factory service manual, or what was known from experience to be the expected signal. Especially with TV where complex analog broadcast signals were decoded and routed to circuits for stereo audio, red, green and blue color channels, scan synchronizations, and other functions, phase shifts and signal distortion caused by any number of component failures or parameter changes could be very difficult to troubleshoot. If you have read some of the "Mac's Radio Service Shop" episodes...

Anode Allows for Safe Battery Recharge in Minutes

"Researchers at UC San Diego may have found a solution that enables lithium-ion batteries to be safely recharged within minutes for thousands of cycles. Quick battery recharge is something scientists are constantly working on as people get more and more dependent on their electronic devices. Now researchers at UC San Diego may have found a solution in a new anode material that enables lithium-ion batteries to be safely recharged within minutes for thousands of cycles. The material is a disordered rock salt, which is comprised of earth-abundant lithium, vanadium, and oxygen atoms..."

A Radioman's Nightmare

Just in time for Halloween: "A Radioman's Nightmare" - another sampling of electronics poetry, circa 1945... BTW, for those unfamiliar with "Mairzy Doats," the song is a comical slurring of words that make new, nonsensical words in the process. 'Mairzy Doats', for instance, is a slurring of 'Mares Eat Oats,' 'And Liddle Lamzy Divey' is really 'And Little Lambs Eat Ivy." "Mairzy Doats" was written in 1943...

AWR Software V15 Playlist on AWR.TV YouTube Channel

"AWR-Software-V15-Playlist-AWR-TV-YouTube-Channel-10-22-2020.htm" target="_top"> A "AWR-Software-V15-Playlist-AWR-TV-YouTube-Channel-10-22-2020.htm" target="_top"> new AWR.TV video playlist features seven videos that enable users to take a deep dive into the key features in the V15 release of Cadence® AWR Design Environment® software. The V15 videos highlight: New and improved antenna measurements for peak power, including direction, total power, and amount of power radiated in peak direction. Driving circuitry in calculations can also be included. New electromagnetic (EM) features in the AWR® AXIEM® and Analyst™ simulators. AXIEM software offers improved meshing with fewer high-aspect ratio facets (HARFs), a true DC solver for biasing that is 40X faster and sub nanometer meshing for metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors...

Many Thanks to Nova Microwave for Continuing Support!

Nova Microwave is a leader in technically differentiated electronic and radio frequency Ferrite Circulators and Isolators that connect, protect and control critical commercial and military wireless telecommunications systems. Our staff is dedicated to research and development of standard and custom design quality Ferrite Circulators and Isolators from 380 MHz to 26.5 GHz. Available in single or multi-junction topographies, the Nova Microwave product line of is specifically designed for use in varied environmental and temperature extremes. 

Thursday 22

A New Memory Device

Radio-Electronics magazine ran a regular industry news column titled "The Radio Month." The headline item in the December 1949 issue was the emergence of a new type of digital memory device using nearly microscopic magnetic toroidal coils with a matrix of even tinier wires threaded through them in order to write and read 1's and 0's. RCA created this 10,000-bit magnetic core memory assembly in order to overcome the size and speed limitations of alternate methods available in the day - primarily mercury-based delay lines. UNIVAC II, commissioned in 1958, was the first major digital electronic computer to use this magnetic core memory, but given that transistor development was still in its infancy, vacuum tubes were used to address...

Post Your Engineer & Technician Job Openings on RF Cafe for Free

RF Cafe's raison d'être is and always has been to provide useful, quality content for engineers, technicians, engineering managers, students, and hobbyists. Part of that mission is offering to post applicable job openings. HR department employees and/or managers of hiring companies are welcome to submit opportunities for posting at no charge (of course a gratuity will be graciously accepted). 3rd party recruiters and temp agencies are not included so as to assure a high quality of listings. Please read through the easy procedure to benefit from RF Cafe's high quality visitors...

U.S. Space Development Agency Awarded Contracts for 1st Gen Tracking Layer

"SDA announced October 5 two contract awards for the first generation of the Tracking Layer. These awards represent the next major and highly visible steps toward developing the National Defense Space Architecture's inaugural tranche (called Tranche 0). Once fully operational, the SDA Tracking Layer will consist of a proliferated heterogeneous constellation of Wide Field of View (WFOV) space vehicles (SVs) that provide persistent global coverage and custody capability combined with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) Medium Field of View (MFOV) SVs that provide precision global access capability. This set of contract awards will initiate the development of the first eight low-cost proliferated WFOV SVs..."

After Class: Working with Phase-Shift Oscillators

There is an old adage that goes thusly: "If you want to build an oscillator, design an amplifier. If you want to build an amplifier, design an oscillator." Its basis is the difficulty that can be experienced in obtaining the right combination of feedback phase and amplitude. Of course experience, use of simulators, and careful circuit construction minimize the opportunity for validating that saying. The basic requirement for an oscillator is feedback from the output to the input that is in-phase and great enough in amplitude to maintain, via the amplifier's gain factor, a constant output level. Tuned L-C (inductor-capacitor) tank circuits are often used as simple frequency-determining elements because of their combined resonance characteristics. Phase shift oscillators are a type of oscillator that can be built without inductors...

Teledyne e2v HiRel and Silicon Labs Partner on Isolation

"Teledyne-e2v-HiRel-Silicon-Labs-High-Reliability-Isolation-10-21-2020.htm" target="_top"> Silicon Labs, a leading provider of silicon, software and solutions, today announced a new high reliability (HiRel) isolation partnership with Teledyne e2v HiRel, a leading provider of high-performance, high-reliability semiconductors to the aerospace and defense market. Under the new agreement, Teledyne will offer a new specialized line of high reliability products based on Silicon Labs' "Teledyne-e2v-HiRel-Silicon-Labs-High-Reliability-Isolation-10-21-2020.htm" target="_top"> isolated gate driver technology optimized for space, aerospace, military and oil and gas markets. Teledyne e2v HiRel will market custom high reliability solutions based on Silicon Labs' Si827x isolated gate driver family that are optimized for space, aerospace, military, oil and gas and other markets requiring advanced technology and high reliability...

Many Thanks to Anatech Electronics for Long-Time Support!

Anatech Electronics (AEI) manufactures and supplies RF and microwave filters for military and commercial communication systems, providing standard LP, HP, BP, BS, notch, diplexer, and custom RF filters, and RF products. Standard RF filter and cable assembly products are published in our website database for ease of procurement. Custom RF filters designs are used when a standard cannot be found, or the requirements dictate a custom approach for your military and commercial communications needs. Sam Benzacar's monthly newsletters address contemporary wireless subjects. Please visit Anatech today to see how they can help your project succeed. 

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