See Page 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 | 5 of the February 2021 homepage
archives. Sunday the 21st
 This
Microwave Engineering Theme Crossword Puzzle for February 21st
contains only words and clues related to engineering, mathematics, chemistry, physics,
and other technical words. As always, this crossword contains no names of politicians,
mountain ranges, exotic foods or plants, movie stars, or anything of the sort unless
it/he/she is related to this puzzle's technology theme (e.g., Hedy Lamarr or the
Bikini Atoll). The technically inclined cruciverbalists amongst us will appreciate
the effort. Enjoy!
Friday the 20th
 The
evolution of communications has been well documented both after
the fact and necessarily before the fact based on the vision and determination of
individuals and corporations. From grunts, hand and facial signals, and crude sketchings
on cave walls to spoken and written languages. From couriers on foot and horseback,
smoke signals, and light signals to wired telegraph and telephone. From wireless
telegraph and telephone to television and the Internet, advancement has been continual
both in large steps between the aforementioned fundamental communications venues
to incremental advancements in technologies - analog to digital, vacuum tubes to
semiconductors, simplex to multiplex, ever increasing access to regions of the electromagnetic
spectrum from DC to light. This 1945 advertisement by RCA expounding the benefits
of its recently implemented transcontinental microwave relay system was life changing
at the time, but two decades later those tower networks would be supplemented and
nearly replaced by satellite relay...
 You probably are aware that major retail
corporations like Sears and Montgomery Ward contracted with established appliance
manufacturers to create their own brands for sale in their mail order catalogs and
brick-and-mortar stores. Sears had their Kenmore line of kitchen (also Cold Spot)
and laundry products, Craftsman line of tools, and Silvertone line of radios. Wards
had the Signature line of appliances, Powr Kraft tools, and Airline radios. Both
companies are basically defunct at this point. I was always a big Sears customer,
and was sad to see them get scuttled by moron management. Montgomery Ward products
all seemed second rate compared to Sears. Montgomery Ward, founded in 1872 closed
its last stores in 2001, but unknown to most people is that they still have an Internet
presence as wards.com. Sears Roebuck & Co., founded in 1892, still has a few
stores open and is online at sears.com (and craftsman.com). Anyhoo, I ran across
this 1924
Montgomery Ward Radio catalog that is chock full...
 "Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology
(Tokyo Tech) and NTT Corporation (NTT) have developed a novel CMOS-based transceiver
for wireless communications at the
300 GHz band, enabling future beyond-5G applications. Their
design addresses the challenges of operating CMOS technology at its practical limit
and represents the first wideband CMOS phased-array system to operate at such elevated
frequencies. Communication at higher frequencies is goal in electronics as researchers
attempt to achieve greater data rates that and to take advantage of underused portions
of the electromagnetic spectrum. Many applications beyond 5G, as well as the IEEE802.15.3d
standard for wireless communications, call for transmitters and receivers capable
of operating close to or above 300 GHz. Current CMOS technology is not entirely
suitable for such elevated frequencies..."
 Lotus Communication Systems, a manufacturer
of connectorized, cascadable RF and microwave components, has introduced the BUDC2G14G,
which is a
software defined block up/down converter. It has an RF frequency
range of 2 GHz to 14 GHz and an IF frequency range of 500 MHz to 6 GHz.
An integrated low phase noise LO supports LO frequencies from 1 GHz to 12 GHz.
The BUDC2G14G has 8 dB of conversion loss at 5.8 GHz with low LO-RF leakage <30 dBm.
It can be powered either by USB-C or +5~6 V at the terminal terminal with only
235 mA of current draw. Dimensions are 2.8125" (2-7/8") x 1.3125" (1-5/16")
x 0.48". The converter has broad applications and can be used to extend spectrum
analyzer measurement range to 14 GHz...
 "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or
do without" was more than just a clever slogan during World War II. It was
a way of life that extended to both civilian and military realms. While civilians
were being both encouraged and compelled to make the most of what was available,
military operations were scavenging, borrowing, begging, confiscating, manufacturing,
and cannibalizing. According to this 1945 article in Radio-Craft magazine,
France was an important center for not just
resurrecting battle-damaged Handi-Talkies and other types of radios,
but for taking salvageable components out of unrepairable units. The bit about grinding
special crystals for the French underground radios is especially interesting...
 LadyBug Technologies' new
LB5944A True-RMS RF Power Sensor offers coverage from 1 MHz
to 44 GHz with optional capability to 50 GHz. The multi-path RMS responding
sensor features an 86 dB dynamic range and a 2.4 mm male connector. The
sensor's calibration is first tier NIST traceable and the sensor is manufactured
in the U.S. A full featured software power meter application is included. ATE users
can take advantage of either USBTMC or USB HID, both of which are provided by the
sensor at enumeration. These along with the Optional SPI & I2C interfaces make
the sensor the most flexible self-contained traceable power measurement device available...
 Innovative Power Products (IPP) has over
30 years of experience designing & manufacturing RF & microwave passive
components. Their high power, broadband couplers, combiners, resistors, baluns, terminations
and attenuators are fabricated using the latest materials and design tools available,
resulting in unrivaled product performance. Applications in military, medical, industrial
and commercial markets are serviced around the world. Please take a couple minutes
to visit their website and see how IPP can help you today.
Thursday the 18th
 If there is or ever has been a solid state
device that required as much painstaking, precise, manual assembly required as some
of the magnificent vacuum tubes developed over the years, I don't know of it. This
500 kilowatt "super-power beam triode" featured in a 1950 issue of Radio &
Television News magazine is a good example. Think of the electrical, mechanical,
chemical, and manufacturing engineering that went into designing, building, and
testing such devices. Half a megawatt from a single tube is quite an accomplishment.
It required a 900 watt control grid signal for modulation. The article refers
to an electron-optical system, and I'm not sure what it meant unless it is the array
of 48 sharply focused electron beams...
 "Niobium metal is used in the implantation
of a variety of superconducting quantum devices. However, the technology is typically
limited to use in conventional Josephson junctions based on Nb-AlOx-Nb produced
entirely by sputtering. In addition, the devices are most commonly in a vertical
stack covered by niobium metal, making it physically limited to access the embedded
films that could comprise insulators, semiconductor, or hybrids with ions. There
is a need for improvement in the design as well as integration of functional materials
for use in devices such as qubits as well as ion embedded devices for
quantum memory. Also, implementation of large-scale computers
requires nanofabrication technologies. Sending qubits states and implementing quantum
networks requires an optical interface. This research presents nanofabrication processes..."
 It was a lot of work, but I finally finished
a version of the "RF & Electronics Schematic & Block Diagram Symbols" that
works well with Microsoft Office™ programs Word™, Excel™, and Power Point™.
This is an equivalent of the extensive set of amplifier, mixer, filter, switch,
connector, waveguide, digital, analog, antenna, and other commonly used symbols
for system block diagrams and schematics. Each of the 1,000 or so symbols was exported
individually from Visio in the EMF file format, then imported into Word on a Drawing
Canvas. The EMF format allows an image to be scaled up or down without becoming
pixelated, so all the shapes can be resized in a document and still look good. The
imported symbols can also be UnGrouped into their original constituent parts for
editing. Check them out!
![Flying Radiomen [and Radiowomen] of the Ferrying Division, June 1944 QST - RF Cafe](images/flying-radiomen-ferrying-division-june-1944-qst-hp.gif) "Necessity is the mother of invention" is an oft-heard phrase that
never rang truer than during World War II. Both the Axis and the Allied powers
had extremely brilliant and capable people working to defeat each other, driving
advances in technology and methods at a break-neck pace for nearly a decade (remember
WWII began before the U.S. entered the fray in 1941). Aircraft and radio were powerful
new weapons for all sides at that point since both were still in their fledgling
modes in WWI. Efficient and effective execution of aircraft ferrying, troop movement,
and supply delivery was absolutely dependent on radio equipment and operators that
could adapt to new strategic situations and endure all sorts of weather and geographic
stresses. While the Army Signal Corps had a good cadre of radio operators available,
few were experienced with operating in their gear while airborne...
 Sam Benzacar of Anatech Electronics, an RF
and microwave filter company, has published his January newsletter that features
his short op-ed entitled "What 5G Phase 2 Has in Store." He points out that as the Internet
and cellphone service overlap, there is less and less of a distinction between the
two. "When you pore through the information about Release 16, it becomes obvious
that the domains of 'cellular' and IoT will blend to become a single diverse communications
environment comprehensive enough to serve consumer, industrial, automotive, agricultural,
scientific, and other applications. Today, short-range communication standards such
as Bluetooth, ZigBee, and Thread are used at the edge of the network but Release
16 will allow cellular to either complement or even replace them eventually." Sam
also presents some relevant industry news items as well...
Extending RF's Boundaries via Direct Data
Sampling in Ka-Band
 Nicolas Chantier has an interesting article
on the Electronic Design website entitled, "Extending RF's Boundaries via Direct Data Sampling in the Ka-band,"
which discusses advances made in direct-access data conversion of microwave signals
within the Ka-band. He begins, "It's widely recognized that software-defined microwave
(SDM) air interfaces have huge potential. Through this technology, it will be possible
to revolutionize many different aspects of the communications arena by making major
transformations to the infrastructure that it relies on. More specifically, it's
certain to be of great benefit in the space sector. That's because it will be possible
to finally alleviate the highly frustrating cycle-time mismatch in the rates of
progress in ground- and space-based hardware development. Rather than having to
utilize hardwired, overly hardware-centric solutions, which can quickly become outdated..."
Lotus Communication Systems began in 2009,
setting up CNC machine shop and RF/microwave assembling and testing lab in Middlesex
Country, Massachusetts. Lotus is committed to highest quality and innovative products.
Each RF/microwave module meets
exceedingly high standards of quality, performance and excellent value, and are
100% MADE IN USA. Lotus' RF/microwave products cover frequency band up to 67 GHz.
Lotus also offers an COTS shield enclosures for RF/microwave prototyping and production.
All products are custom designed. We will find a solution and save your time and
cost. Lotus has multiple 4 axis CNC machines and LPKF circuit plotters.
Wednesday the 17th
 Trigger Alert: Don't look at this advertisement
from a 1954 issue of Radio & Television News magazine if you are easily
offended by what used to be an effective marketing technique, but is now considered
too exploitative for use. The "Cancel Culture" mindset of today's easily offended
(often agenda-driven) citizenry would likely work to have Walter Ashe driven out
of business for such an ad. If you
dare to peek at the advertisement - and I'm not recommending that
you should if it might jeopardize your place in society, be sure to note the fire
hydrant...
 "It's been a good decade or so for the makers
of plastic lenses. In recent years, smartphone manufactures have been adding
camera modules, going from one to two to five or more. And each
of those camera modules contains several plastic lenses. Over the years, these lenses
have changed little, though image processing software has improved a lot, merging
images from multiple camera modules into one high quality picture and enabling selective
focus and other features. The glory days of the plastic camera lens, however, may
be drawing to a close. At least that's the hope of Metalenz, a Boston-area startup
that officially took its wraps off today. The company aims to replace plastic lenses
with waveguides..."
 Werbel Microwave is a manufacturer of RF
directional and bidirectional couplers (6 dB to 30 dB) and RF power dividers
/ combiners (2- to 16-way) with select models operating up to 18 GHz and 100 W
of CW power (3 kW peak). All are RoHS and REACH compliant and are designed and manufactured
in our Whippany, NJ, location. Custom products and private label service available.
Please take a couple minutes to visit their website and see how Werbel Microwave
can help you today.
 Do you know these men, or any of the many
others that appear in the articles I post from vintage magazines? They might be
your father or grandfather, brother or uncle. Once in a great while I will receive
an e-mail from somebody telling me he or she recognized a person whose photo was
posted with the article. I always try to include the names and, if available, cities
of people in picture captions in hopes that the search engines will pick them up.
Tracing family roots is a big hobby today and being able to find such an obscure
source for a relative's past is a thrill to many such Internet sleuths. My hobby
website, AirplanesAndRockets.com, has received many contacts both from people who
see themselves in old articles and who recognize fathers or brothers. In one case
a guy wrote to me saying that the fellow who wrote a monthly column on model rocketry
was the father of the woman he married. Another time a guy wrote saying he was the
photographer who took the edition's cover photo at a contest. Recently, a lady contacted
me to say her father, who was an NCO in the USAF...
 This article about a "nano diamond battery" appeared in the February 2021 issue of NASA's
Battery Technology publication. It describes a radioisotope-powered battery with
a 28,000 year lifetime contained within a surface-mount type of IC package. It works
by encapsulating the radioactive material in a synthetic diamond cavity which exploits
an "inelastic scattering" phenomenon to convert decomposing ions into electric power.
If this had been the April issue rather than February, I might suspect a spoof.
NDB, Inc., is the company
developing the technology claiming, "NDB is a high-power diamond-based alpha, beta,
and neutron voltaic battery that can provide device life-long and green energy for
numerous applications and overcome limitations of the existing energy creation/distribution
solutions." The NDB has not yet been built - it is a concept (see NDB interview). Access to fissionable material in production
quantities can be a problem due to nuclear proliferation issues, but NDB claims
a "lock-in system," prevents usage other than power generation. The technology is
scalable, and might be the answer to my desire for personal nuclear supplies to
power everything - if it ever gets past the theoretical stage...
 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.
Tuesday the 16th
 "Mac's Radio Service Shop" episodes nearly
always reflected the season in which they appeared in Radio & Television
News magazine, and were also very often concerned with pressing issues of the
day. This November 1954 issue's story opens by setting the scene with a gray, windy
late autumn day, and then launches into a discussion between Barney and Mac about
the situation where discount merchandise outlets were pawning off service responsibility
for large volumes of sales on anybody but themselves. Being both a sales and service
concern himself, Mac was torn between welcoming the additional business provided
by the discount houses and the bad name they were giving reputable sales people.
Whenever a specific product or business is mentioned in the article, I put some
effort into finding examples on the WWW to provide extra context to the story. In
this case Mac mentions an article having appeared in a Life magazine "a
few months ago." Knowing the contemporaneous nature...
 Signal Hound, a developer of optimized solutions
for RF signal test and measurement, announces a new Noise Figure analysis mode in
its exclusive
Spike™ spectrum analyzer software. Noise Figure analysis is one
of the most useful metrics for RF test engineers, characterizing the noise contributions
of an electrical system, as well as the individual electrical components within
the system. "As always, we are proud to offer this new feature as part of our free
software package that comes with all Signal Hound spectrum analyzers," said Cory
Allen, Marketing Director at Signal Hound. "This new ability to perform noise figure
measurements within Spike increases the value of our test and measurement equipment,
adding yet another essential feature for professionals working in the industry."
The new Noise Figure analysis mode is available in Spike, today...
 "A research team in Korea and Japan has reported
field-effect transistors (FETs) with a
cut-off frequency of 738 GHz, claiming this as 'the highest
fT of any FET with any material system.' The result from Kyoungpook National University
(KNU), University of Ulsan and Quantum Semiconductor International in South Korea
and NTT Device Technology Laboratories in Japan was presented online at the International
Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) at the end of 2020. The team credits a composite
indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) quantum well (QW) channel structure with enabling
the record frequency high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT). The 738GHz figure
compares with a previous InGaAs HEMT with 710GHz cut-off. However, the latter device
also featured a maximum oscillation..."
 I have often stated that some of the most
enthusiastic and capable engineers and technicians I have had the honor working
with were Hams. As evidenced by this ad in the February 1941 edition of QST
magazine, heads of corporations hold the same view. None other than the president
of Zenith Radio Corporation, Mr. E.J. MacDonald, Jr., thought enough of the talent
residing within the amateur radio community to appeal directly to them with this
full-page ad titled, "Amateurs - Your Thoughts May Be Worth Money." What makes this
advertisement even more interesting is that it specifically wanted Hams with ideas
about the newfangled thing called Frequency Modulation...
 A
new application note entitled, "Interference Hunting," was posted on the Tektronix website. It
begins: "Over the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in the population
of wireless transmitters found in the world, with the inevitable result being a
dramatic increase in radiofrequency noise pollution. Every significant electronic
device leaks radiation at some level and the number of cellular phones in circulation
now outnumbers people. The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) is only going
to make things worse. Much worse in fact as billions of wireless-enabled devices
populate everything from shop floors to living rooms. At the same time, wireless
technology has become critical to our daily lives. Drive down any residential neighborhood
or business center with even a basic RF sniffer and you'll see Wi-Fi transmitters
in literally every location, all powered up and enabling a steady flow of vital
communications. Smartphones - often with Bluetooth radios in action - keep the wheels
of commerce turning and keep us connected to family and friends. Maintaining these
wireless links..."
 Withwave manufactures an extensive line of
metrology quality coaxial test cable assemblies, connectors (wave-, end-, vertical-launch,
board edge, panel mount), calibration kits (SOLT), a
fully automated
4-port vector network analyzer (VNA) calibrator, between- and in-series connector
adaptors, attenuators, terminations, DC blocks, torque wrenches, test probes &
probe positioner. Special test fixtures for calibration and multicoax cable assemblies.
Frequency ranges from DC through 110 GHz. Please contact Withwave today to
see how they can help your project succeed.
Monday the 15th
 The August 1958 issue of Radio News
marked the merging of All-Wave Radio with Radio News, both founded
by Hugo Gernsback. Radio News began publication in July 1919 (actually titled
Radio Amateur News for the first year) and All-Wave Radio debuted
in September 1936. "All-wave" radio referred to a class of radios popular at the
time which could tune in most of the worldwide commercial broadcast stations, spurring
the accompanying "short wave listening" craze. This instance of the monthly "Within
Earshot of the Editor" column received a lot of attention because it fired a shot
across the bow of the ARRL for not sufficiently lobbying the FCC for the
electromagnetic spectrum access rights currently enjoyed and the
serious threat of loss. Many people subsequently accused Radio News of
attempting to torpedo the ARRL and replace it with another organization of Ham operators...
 From the Austin American-Statesman
newspaper, February 15, 2021, "Nearly half of Texas' installed wind power generation capacity
has been offline because of frozen wind turbines in West Texas, according to Texas
grid operators" (about 12,000 megawatts - that's12 terawatts). It is making
the ice-related massive power outage even worse. Under normal circumstances a distributed
generation system can be advantageous by eliminating single-point failures, but
ice storms often affect very large areas. I am a proponent of wind turbines and
solar arrays where they make sense, but don't like the BS fed to us about how they
can totally replace conventional power generation sources universally. My preference
would be personal nuclear generators for cars, houses, and businesses.
 RIGOL Technologies is transforming the Test
and Measurement Industry. Our premium line of products includes digital and mixed
signal oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, function / arbitrary waveform generators,
programmable power supplies and loads, digital multimeters, data acquisition systems,
and application software. Our test solutions combine uncompromised product performance,
quality, and advanced product features; all delivered at extremely attractive price
points. This combination provides our customers with unprecedented value for their
investment, reduces their overall cost of test, and helps speed time to completion
of their designs or projects.
 Are you between 16 and 17½ or between
26 and 35 and not in uniform? Are you 1-C or mildly 4-F or otherwise ineligible
for military service? Are you interested in a radio operating job in direct support
of the war effort? Then there's a place for you in the
U. S. Maritime Service. If you hold a commercial radio-telegraph
second or higher-grade license, so much the better. But you don't need a ticket
to start with; in fact, you don't need any previous radio training whatsoever. The
Maritime Service will train you. It will make a proficient merchant marine radio
operator out of you at one of the nation's finest operator schools - with pay! This
is an opportunity described several times before in QST. It is time now for the
story to be told again...
 Kristina Collins, David Kazdan, and Nathaniel
Frissell recently published an interesting article in the American Geophysical Union
magazine Eos entitled, "Ham Radio Forms a Planet-Sized Space Weather Sensor Network."
They begin by making the point: "For researchers who monitor the effects of solar
activity on Earth's atmosphere, telecommunications, and electrical utilities, amateur
radio signals a golden age of crowdsourced science." As in many other areas of communications
science, Hams play a significant role in formal scientific research. The Ham Radio
Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI), a confederation of scientists, engineers,
and hobbyists (often including members who are both professional and hobbyist weather
investigators) that bands together amateur radio operators with the research community
in the space and atmospheric sciences convenes annual workshops where discoveries
are exchanged...
 Axiom Test Equipment allows you to
rent or
buy test equipment,
repair
test equipment, or sell or trade test equipment. They are committed to providing
superior customer service and high quality electronic test equipment. Axiom offers
customers several practical, efficient, and cost effective solutions for their projects'
TE needs and is committed to providing superior customer service and high quality
electronic test equipment. For anyone seeking a way to offload surplus or obsolete
equipment, they offer a trade-in program or they will buy the equipment from you.
Some vintage items are available fully calibrated. Please check out Axiom Test Equipment
today!
These archive pages are provided in order to make it easier for you to find items
that you remember seeing on the RF Cafe homepage. Of course probably the easiest
way to find anything on the website is to use the "Search
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