See Page 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 | of the August 2023 homepage archives.
 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 created for Visio™. 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!
 Windfreak Technologies designs, manufactures,
tests and sells high value USB powered and controlled radio frequency products
such as RF signal generators, RF synthesizers, RF power detectors, mixers, up /
downconverters. Since the conception of WFT, we have introduced products that have
been purchased by a wide range of customers, from hobbyists to education facilities
to government agencies. Worldwide customers include Europe, Australia, and Asia.
Please contact Windfreak today to learn how they might help you with your current
project.
Thursday the 31st
 Here are four
electronics-themed comics that appeared in the June 1961 issue of Radio-Electronics
magazine. The page 38 comic is also fitting for posting on my hobby website, AirplanesAndRockets.com,
so it'll be put there soon. Comics showing television repairmen getting shocked
by the high voltages while working inside the chassis was deemed great humor back
when CRT (cathode ray tube) displays were used. Color TVs could easily have 20 kV
or more on the tube. In the era of vacuum tubes, 300 volt cathode connections were
the norm. In-home TV service calls often were the most stressful experiences of
service shop employees, especially when the homeowner tried to tell the technician
his business based on wild guesses, poorly researched data, or advice from friends.
The page 101 comic is typical of such scenarios. The page 103 comic, on the other
hand, is the kind of in-home service call servicemen looked forward to...
  While reading through an article on the
Design News website entitled "How Will 5G Advanced Change RF Design?," I saw
a photo near the top of Qorvo's director of RF applications engineering, Jeff Gengler
(left). Continuing down the page, the next picture I saw was that of Eric Westberg,
director of product management at NXP Semiconductors. It caused me to scroll back
up the page to be sure I wasn't seeing another photo of the same guy. The backgrounds
in the two images were different, so it could have been Mr. Gengler in another
setting, which might cause him to look a little different. Read the
article
to see what I mean. I took the liberty of superimposing Mr. Westberg's image
on the same background as Mr. Gengler so you can see the two side-by-side.
Maybe if you aspire to the position of head honcho in the design engineering department
for a major RF semiconductor company, this could be a valuable lesson on ... something
;-)
 QRM and QRN (manmade and natural interference,
respectively) has been a problem to be dealt with since the beginning of radio communications.
Amplitude modulation (AM) was and is still the most vulnerable because there are
so many sources of electrical and electromagnetism generation - both intentional
and unintentional. Filters can take care of out-of-band noise, but inband noise
needs to be dealt with differently. Some inband interference can be reduced in effectiveness
with circuits using specific time constants that address specific noise types. One
of the most successful methods for mitigating generic noise is to limit the opportunity
for noise signals to enter the system by employing directional antennas. Focusing
(literally) reception in the direction of the preferred signal can cause other sources
to be rejected. Reflecting surfaces like parabolic dishes and phased element antennas
are the two basic choices. In some cases, as is the subject of this article, noise
is picked up on the ground and
lead-in wires of the antenna system. Constructing a balanced system will cause
such interference to cancel before it ever reaches the receiver input...
 Werbel Microwave model
C-1806-10 from is a 10 dB directional power coupler 6 to 18 GHz in
a small sized enclosure with versatile mounting options. The C-1806-10 covers a
frequency range of 6 to 18 GHz and offers exceptional performance. It features
excellent coupling flatness (±0.3 dB typical), good directivity (16 dB
typical at 12 GHz), and excellent return loss (31 dB typical at 12 GHz).
With the ability to pass DC current from input to output, it supports various applications
such as cellular infrastructure, military systems, and lab use. This versatile coupler
provides reliable and accurate power sampling while minimizing reflections and amplitude
ripple...
 Erie Technological Products, located in
my adopted hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania, was a re-branding of Erie Resistor Company
as the concern had begun manufacturing a wide variety of discrete electronic devices
- resistors, capacitors, feed-through filters, silicon rectifiers. The Erie Resistor
complex on 12th Street in Erie occupies a huge amount of real estate on both sides
of the road. The overhead foot bridge can be seen in this photo. The buildings have
long been vacated and stand with many others as reminders of the thriving manufacturing
center that Erie once was. We still have a good bit of manufacturing here, but nothing
like back in the hey days of the last century.
 With more than 1000
custom-built stencils, this has got to be the most comprehensive set of
Visio Stencils available for RF, analog, and digital system and schematic
drawings! Every stencil symbol has been built to fit proportionally on the included
A-, B-, and C-size drawing page templates (or use your own page if preferred). Components
are provided for system block diagrams, conceptual drawings, schematics, test equipment,
racks (EIA 19", ETSI 21"), and more. Test equipment and racks are built at a 1:1
scale so that measurements can be made directly using Visio built-in dimensioning
objects. Page templates are provided with a preset scale (changeable) for a good
presentation that can incorporate all provided symbols...
 Anritsu has been a global provider of innovative
communications test and measurement solutions for more than 120 years. Anritsu manufactures
a full line of innovative components and accessories for
RF and Microwave Test and Measurement
Equipment including attenuators & terminations; coaxial cables, connectors &
adapters; o-scopes; power meters & sensors; signal generators; antenna, signal,
spectrum, & vector network analyzers (VNAs); calibration kits; Bluetooth &
WLAN testers; PIM testers; amplifiers; power dividers; antennas. "We've Got You
Covered."
Wednesday the 30th
 Capacitors have been used as transducers
in one form or another since their electrical characteristics were first discovered.
An
electrical transducer is a device that converts some form of energy into an
electrical signal. This transformation allows for the measurement, detection, or
communication of various physical phenomena. There are various types of electrical
transducers, each designed to convert specific types of physical quantities into
electrical signals. Some common types of electrical transducers include: pressure,
temperature, strain, light sensors, accelerometers, microphones, ultrasonic, magnetic,
gas, and position and displacement. Back in the 1980s I worked as an electronics
technician (pre-BSEE degree from UVM) for a company in Vergennes, Vermont, called
Simmonds Precision Products. Their products were fuel measurement systems primarily
for commercial and military aircraft. The sensors / transducers were capacitive
in nature, consisting of coaxial tubes which stood vertically in the fuel tanks
and used the fuel as a dielectric to vary the capacitance according to its ratio
relative to air between the tubes. The transducers were positioned at strategic
locations within the tank to provide an accurate measure of fuel regardless of the
attitude and acceleration of the aircraft...
 Where else on the Internet other than RF
Cafe can you go for a daily helping of electronics-related material that ranges
from the very beginnings of our chosen vocation through to the latest leading edge
developments? That Q is rhetorical of course - and self-serving to boot ;-) This
handy-dandy trick for enhancing the signal on your
AM radio appeared in a 1969 issue of Electronics World magazine. I
remember doing this magnet "tuning" technique on my small, el cheapo pocket transistor
radio that I carried with me when wiring houses and buildings while working as an
electrician many moons ago after high school. It often made the difference between
being able to listen to my preferred AM station in Annapolis, MD - WNAV - and having
to settle for Public Radio concerts. The "NAV" part of WNAV probably derives from
"naval" both due to the U.S. Naval Academy being there and the fact that the entire
Annapolis area is very water-centric, being located on the Chesapeake Bay and multiple
surrounding tributaries. I do not miss the long, hot, extremely humid summers of
boyhood. BTW, since I still listen to AM radio part of the day, I grabbed a magnet
and ran it along the area where the internal AM ferrite rod antenna is located in
my 1970s vintage Magnavox Model 789 AM / FM / Shortwave radio and sure enough, I
was able to locate a peak in reception...
 ConductRF's LSA series of
Low Loss, Performance Flexible RF Cable Assemblies, provide microwave system
designers with a versatile solution for most applications. Here we offer customers
a solution for 0.086" dia. cable that facilitates greater flexibility and handling
or, 0.141" dia. that exploits the same great performance but with almost half the
loss. Connector options include SMA, Type-N, TNC & SMP that provide excellent
VSWR between DC and 18 GHz, also solutions for MCX & SMB are available
in a wide array of configurations. These assemblies are built using our own double
shielded, FEP jacketed cable, that was developed specifically for performance solutions.
With shielding effectiveness exceeding 90 dB through 18 GHz, these cables
minimize the threat of cross-talk effect...
 The September 1932 issue of Radio Craft
magazine contained an article titled, "Radio a la Cortlandt Street!," the original
"Radio
Row" located at the corner of Cortlandt and Washington Streets in Manhattan
(the intersection does not appear to exist anymore). It was a mecca of new and used
electronics components and assemblies. After World War II there was a huge
supply of surplus parts and equipment made available to the public as a means to
clear out inventory and also as a "thank you" to the citizens who voluntarily donated
critically needed panel meters, tuning capacitors, connectors, and other items to
the War Department. That really helped the market boom. Post-war electronics magazines
were chock full of ads by dealers selling surplus electronic and mechanical supplies.
Most big cities of the era had a Radio Row, including Akihabara in Tokyo. This 1966
Popular Electronics magazine article tells its story...
RF Cascade Workbook 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 (click here for screen capture). 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 through the main features...
 Since 1996, ISOTEC has designed, developed
and manufactured an extensive line of RF/microwave connectors, between-series adapters, RF components
and filters for wireless service providers including non-magnetic connectors for
quantum computing and MRI equipments etc. ISOTEC's product line includes low-PIM
RF connectors components such as power dividers and directional couplers. Off-the-shelf
and customized products up to 40 GHz and our low-PIM products can meet -160 dBc
with 2 tones and 20 W test. Quick prototyping, advanced in-house testing and
high-performance. Designs that are cost effective practical and repeatable.
Tuesday the 29th
 NASA's Surveyor series of lunar landers
were launched between 1966 and 1968, following the preceding controlled-crash-landing
Ranger probes. Being the May 1961 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine,
the news item showing an artist's concept drawing of the proposed Surveyor is impressively
close to the final product, shown in the photo to the left, taken by Apollo 12
astronauts after setting down very close to it. In other news, severe smog in the
Los Angeles area was found to highly attenuate experimental communications in the
36 GHz realm, although it had little effect below that. Looking at the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) charts of measured atmospheric attenuation levels,
no pronounced peak under normal wet or dry conditions occurs at 36 GHz...
 The
European Microwave Week (EuMW) 2023 will take place in Berlin, Germany from
September 19th to 21st, 2023. Spanning three days, the European Microwave Exhibition
is your ticket to mingling with the industry leaders driving the future of the microwave
industry. This event is free to attend and will provide access to over 300 international
exhibitors and take the opportunity of face-to-face interaction with those developing
the future of RF/microwave. The EuMW 2023 will be the hotspot for networking on
a global scale, breaking boundaries, and sharing insights that transcend time zones.
But it's not just about the talk - it's about experiencing innovation firsthand.
This event will be a showcase of cutting-edge product innovations that are set to
redefine the microwave landscape. Hands-on demos will whisk you away into a world
of tech marvels...
 Lightweight
lithium ion polymer
(Li-Poly) batteries have made a huge impact on the performance, and subsequently
the acceptance of electric systems as a replacement for the traditional nitromethane
(nitro) and gasoline power systems in model airplanes and helicopters. Their energy
density (Wh/kg is the most common unit of measure), combined with the relatively
new and extremely powerful brushless motors, electric power systems are rivaling
the internal combustion systems in terms of both energy and duration. Development
of both the brushless motors and the advanced battery technologies has been, both
officially and unofficially, a joint venture between government and civilian research
and development efforts. If you keep up with the news headlines for NASA, defense
contractors, green energy researchers, and similar organizations, you have witnessed
the plethora of new vehicles that have been built tested, and in may cased deployed
in the field. These range from micro air vehicles that carry surveillance equipment
for the military, to hybrid and fully electric passenger vehicles, vastly improved...
 TotalTemp Technologies, a worldwide leading
provider of research laboratory and production temperature chambers and thermal
platform equipment, introduces their model
Synergy Nano Multi-Channel Process Controller and Data Logger for precision
temperature testing. The Nano equips temperature chambers and thermal platforms
with capable and reliable controlling functionality. The very flexible and customizable
Nano supports the ability to optimize equipment and processes. All are feature rich
while still being easy to use. Features include long duration logging, configurable
inputs and outputs, alarms, hot and cold regulation, displays, auto resume, remote
programmability options plus easy to build and reproduce local test profiles. The
Synergy Nano has a universal 120-230 volts AC power input. Similar platforms and
chambers are typically not universal voltage...
 This might be one of the earliest printed
instances of Harold A. Wheeler's simplified formulas for the
three basic inductor forms. Wheeler is credited with having devised the first
automatic volume control (AVC) using diode envelope detection. We all use them on
a regular basis, but for most the origin was never known or has long since been
forgotten (I fall into the latter category). I did some research on Wheeler's inductance
formulas a few months ago while working on what is now titled "RF Cafe Espresso
Engineering Workbook™," so it was sort of déjà vu when this blurb appeared in a
1932 edition of Radio-Craft magazine...
 Banner Ads are rotated in all locations
on the page! RF Cafe typically receives 8,000-15,000 visits each
weekday. RF Cafe
is a favorite of engineers, technicians, hobbyists, and students all over the world.
With more than 17,000 pages in the Google search index, RF Cafe returns in
favorable positions on many types of key searches, both for text and images.
Your 728x90-px and 160x600-px Banner Ads are displayed on average 225,000 times
per year! New content is added on a daily basis, which keeps the major search
engines interested enough to spider it multiple times each day. Items added on the
homepage often can be found in a Google search within a few hours of being posted. If you need your company news to
be seen, RF Cafe is the place to be...
 SF Circuits' specialty is in the complex,
advanced technology of PCB fabrication and assembly, producing high quality multi-layered
PCBs from elaborate layouts. With them, you receive unparalleled technical expertise
at competitive prices as well as the most progressive solutions available. Their
customers request PCB production that is outside the capabilities of normal circuit
board providers. Please take a moment to visit San Francisco Circuits today. "Printed
Circuit Fabrication & Assembly with No Limit on Technology or Quantity."
Monday the 28th
 "The
smallest radar to fly in space has been delivered to ESA for integration aboard
the miniature Juventas CubeSat, part of ESA's Hera mission for planetary defense.
The radar will perform the first radar imaging of an asteroid, peering deep beneath
the surface of Dimorphos - the Great Pyramid-sized body whose orbit was shifted
last year by the impact of NASA's DART spacecraft. 'This delivery marks a definite
milestone,' comments Alain Herique of Institut de Planetologie et d'Astrophysique
de Grenoble (IPAG) at the University Grenoble Alpes in France, the instrument's
principal investigator. 'We have been working hard in recent weeks to finalize the
radar for its handover. But this is far from the end of our involvement. IPAG and
our project partners will be following the process of integration, especially in
terms of connection with the rest of the CubeSat, to optimize the performance of
the finished instrument, and to calibrate its performance to ensure we interpret
our science data..."
 Louis J. was kind enough to provide
his Mathcad file (please let me know if you have an old Windows version for
sale) for conversion back and forth between ABCD-, h-, s-, T-, y, and Z-parameters.
Says he: "Attached is the
Mathcad worksheet
containing all of Frickey's work, both what you published and what the original
paper included that you did not publish. It does not contain the "close the loop"
testing I performed, but all the equations are identical to the ones in my test
sheet. The equations are all configured for symbolic manipulation. To use with live
data, copy the equation(s) of interest to another worksheet, change the <ctrl>=
to a <colon>= and define the variables. This is something any Mathcad user
should know how to do. Tip: If one were interested, they could copy the content
of any equation object in Mathcad (not the equation object itself) and paste it
into a generic text editor. The result is an equation using Mathcad functions in
RPN format. (Lots of parens so each operation has one or two variables. Each operation
consists of the operator followed by the one or two variables. Mathcad functions
are preceded by an '@' symbol..."
/2023/Antenna-Radome-Design-Sr-Principal-Engineer-RTX-6-1-2023.htm">
 RTX / Raytheon is seeking an
/2023/Antenna-Radome-Design-Sr-Principal-Engineer-RTX-6-1-2023.htm">
Antenna and Radome Senior Principal Design Engineer at their Tucson, AZ, location.
This position is eligible for a minimum of
$40,00 Sign-On Bonus.
The candidate will be responsible for leading and shaping antenna, radome, and antenna
measurement system technology within the Company. The selected candidate will also
be expected to lead diverse teams, provide technical oversight, delegate tasks,
and work with the Engineering organization to establish technology roadmaps, enable
modernization, and contribute to general innovation. In addition, the candidate
will work with government personnel and programs, and define and refine requirements
to validate hardware compliance. Responsible for development of antenna or radome
hardware and requirements, working with interdisciplinary engineering teams including
thermal, structural, mechanical, systems, etc., working with antenna manufacturing
suppliers, analyzing simulation or test data to verify performance to requirements...
 Bell Telephone Laboratories was largely
responsible for designing and building a communications system that was the envy
of the world. Innovation on the part of Bell engineers, manufacturing staff that
produced the equipment, and technicians who serviced the systems deserve the credit
as do management types who made funds and opportunity available to the aforementioned.
As the number of telephone service subscribers grew and reliability became even
more vital to business, law enforcement, and national defense, new methods had to
be devised. In the late 1950s, Bell introduced the concept of wireless microwave
links at 11 GHz (X band), which at the time X band was primarily used (at 10 GHz)
by precision approach aircraft radar. This advertisement in a 1959 issue of
Electronics World magazine promoted Bell's achievement...
Banner Ads are rotated in all locations
on the page! RF Cafe typically receives 8,000-15,000 visits each
weekday. RF Cafe
is a favorite of engineers, technicians, hobbyists, and students all over the world.
With more than 17,000 pages in the Google search index, RF Cafe returns in
favorable positions on many types of key searches, both for text and images.
Your 728x90-px and 160x600-px Banner Ads are displayed on average 225,000 times
per year! New content is added on a daily basis, which keeps the major search
engines interested enough to spider it multiple times each day. Items added on the
homepage often can be found in a Google search within a few hours of being posted. If you need your company news to
be seen, RF Cafe is the place to be...
 Alliance Test Equipment sells
used / refurbished
test equipment and offers 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.
Alliance Test will purchase your excess test equipment in large or small lots. Blog
posts offer advice on application and use of a wide range of test equipment. Please
visit Allied Test Equipment today to see how they can help your project.
Sunday the 27th
 This custom RF Cafe
electronics-themed crossword puzzle for August 27th contains words and clues
which pertain exclusively to the subjects of electronics, science, physics, mechanics,
engineering, power distribution, astronomy, chemistry, etc. If you do see names
of people or places, they are intimately related to the aforementioned areas of
study. As always, you will find no references to numbnut movie stars or fashion
designers. Need more crossword RF Cafe puzzles? A list at the bottom of the page
links to hundreds of them dating back to the year 2000. Enjoy...
 This assortment of custom-designed themes
by RF Cafe includes T-Shirts, Mouse Pads, Clocks, Tote Bags, Coffee Mugs and Steins,
Purses, Sweatshirts, and Baseball Caps. Choose from amazingly clever "We Are the World's
Matchmakers" Smith chart design or the "Engineer's Troubleshooting Flow Chart."
My "Matchmaker's" design has been ripped off by other people and used on their products,
so please be sure to purchase only official RF Cafe gear. My markup is only a paltry
50¢ per item - Cafe Press gets the rest of your purchase price. These would make
excellent gifts for husbands, wives, kids, significant others, and for handing out
at company events or as rewards for excellent service. It's a great way to help
support RF Cafe. Thanks...
 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 26.5 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.
Friday the 25th
 When I saw this article on "Repairing
Ferrite Rods," it caught my interest because I remember breaking one in a transistor
radio not from dropping it, which might have been excusable, but from screwing around
with it. It probably wasn't too far removed in time from when the article appeared
in Radio-Electronics magazine, although I was not reading such publications
at the time (I was 11 years old). I don't recall exactly how I snapped it, but it
broke under the windings and I was sure I had ruined it. Fortunately, it still worked
just fine, even without making any attempt to glue it back together. A ready stock
of Duco Cement was always on-hand from my model airplane and rocket building hobby,
but given that the break was under the windings and not readily accessible, there
was good chance more damage would be done trying to squeeze glue into it. I don't
recall whether the pointer position on the dial was still lined up with where the
radio station used to be, but all that mattered was escaping what could have been
a disaster for me. In those days, money for a new radio was not just laying around...
 TotalTemp Technologies has more than 40
years of combined experience providing thermal platforms.
Thermal Platforms
are available to provide temperatures between -100°C and +200°C for cryogenic cooling,
recirculating & circulating coolers, temperature chambers and temperature controllers,
thermal range safety controllers, space simulation chambers, hybrid benchtop chambers,
custom systems and platforms. Manual and automated configurations for laboratory
and production environments. Please contact TotalTemp Technologies today to learn
how they can help your project.
 Carleton Phillips was not minimizing his
predecessors when he wrote this 1966 Popular Electronics magazine article
marveling at the
accomplishments made in "Gay Nineties" (1890's) in spite of their relatively
crude resources. Seven decades had passed since then. A similar article could be
written today, five decades hence, about today's knowledge and technology compared
to that of the mid 1960's. For instance, DNA had not yet been sequenced, 3D printing
did not exist, Al Gore had not invented the Internet, MRI machines were not
available, there were no cellphones, PC's were only a dream, booster rockets could
not land self-powered for re-use, TV's used CRT displays, vacuum tubes still dominated
consumer electronics, automobile air bags weren't saving lives and limbs, Lasik
surgery wasn't even in an experimental stage, supersonic flight was (and sadly is
again) the sole domain of the military airplanes, satellite-based global navigation
was non-existent, and the list goes on. Someday, an AI machine will write yet another
a similar article about the crudeness of technology in 2023.
 "Researchers in Japan have invented a novel
method to
measure the permittivity of insulators 100 times more accurately than before.
This technology is expected to contribute to the efficient development of sensitive
radio receivers for radio telescopes as well as to the development of devices for
the next generation communication networks, 'Beyond 5G/6G.' Permittivity is a value
that indicates how electrons inside an insulator react when a voltage is applied
to the insulator. It is an important parameter for understanding the behavior of
radio waves as they travel through insulators. In the development of telecommunications
equipment, it is necessary to accurately determine the permittivity of materials
used for circuit boards and building columns and walls. For radio astronomy, researchers
also need to know the permittivity of components used in radio receivers. By devising
a calculation method for electromagnetic wave propagation, the research team developed
an analytical algorithm that derives the permittivity directly rather than by approximation.
The team, consisting of researchers and engineers from the National Astronomical
Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)..."
 I recently was made aware that all four
"h- from T-Parameters"
conversion equations had errors. Also, Z22-from-T had a sign error. They have all
been corrected (marked with †). Thanks to Louis J. for bringing this to my
attention, and for graciously providing the new equations! He generated a Mathcad
worksheet for converting back and forth between all parameter sets. Says Louis,
"[There] is a bug in Frickey's document and you are unlikely to be able to do anything
about it. The h-Parameters from T-Parameters equation set fail to close the loop.
All four equations have an error that is in the same direction and of roughly the
same magnitude as measured in percentage. I suspect a problem with the denominator
value. I verified this assumption by adding in an offset (complex) into the denominator
and found all values fell into place. Without this offset, these simply refused
to 'close the loop' or match the results from other tools. I am far from a mathematician,
so I tend to rely on Mathcad to do my algebra, trig and calculus. I started with
the working T from h parameter equation set. It handled this matrix equation system
fairly easily..."
This assortment of custom-designed themes
by RF Cafe includes T-Shirts, Mouse Pads, Clocks, Tote Bags, Coffee Mugs and Steins,
Purses, Sweatshirts, and Baseball Caps. Choose from amazingly clever "We Are the World's
Matchmakers" Smith chart design or the "Engineer's Troubleshooting Flow Chart."
My "Matchmaker's" design has been ripped off by other people and used on their products,
so please be sure to purchase only official RF Cafe gear. My markup is only a paltry
50¢ per item - Cafe Press gets the rest of your purchase price. These would make
excellent gifts for husbands, wives, kids, significant others, and for handing out
at company events or as rewards for excellent service. It's a great way to help
support RF Cafe. Thanks...
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.
Thursday the 24th
 Ha, when I first saw this "Radio
Libertad - A Real Mystery Station" in a 1969 issue of Electronics Illustrated
magazine, I though it said, "libtard." Not being a Spanish speaker, it did not strike
me as the Spanish word for "liberty." Libertad is also the name of a coin minted
- both in silver and in gold - by Mexico. There is also currently a Radio-Libertad
(RL), which is a group of exiled Cubans in south Florida that broadcasts messages
(31 m, 9955 kHz) to their families and brethren still captive on the Communist-controlled
island. It is similar to Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and Voice of America
(VOA). Radio Libertad's mission back then was the same as it is today, the difference
being we know from where the transmissions originate. Rumor had it the CIA was behind
the original RL. This particular story references Radio Swan, which was a pirate
radio station run by the CIA, similar to its operations in Swan Islands and the
airborne Blue Eagle incident. This video shows a Lockheed Constellation as being
the aircraft from which it was broadcast, but the declassified CIA document claims...
 "By combining optical trapping and frequency
combs - two widely used but unrelated developments in advanced physics - researchers
devised a way to
measure micro-dimensions in opaque materials. It's not unusual for a technical
Nobel Prize to be awarded in recognition for an advancement that's already had practical
applications, usually in well-defined scenarios, such as blue LEDs (2014) or optical
fibers for communications (2009). Now, physicists at Delft University of Technology
(Netherlands) have gone further, building a new technology on a microchip by combining
two Nobel Prize-winning techniques - apparently the first time this has occurred.
Their microchip could measure distances in materials at high precision, including
for underwater or medical imaging. Because the technology uses sound vibrations
instead of light, it's useful for high-precision position measurements in opaque
materials. These mechanical frequency combs are poised to bring the applications
and utility of optical frequency combs into the mechanical domain..."
 A well-laid-out and routed chassis, control
panel, equipment rack, or circuit breaker panel has always invoked the same sort
of appreciation and awe in me that a Rembrandt painting invokes in an art cognoscente
or a Beethoven concert invokes in a music aficionado. Many moons ago when I worked
as an electrician, I prided myself in obsessively neat and orderly runs of conduit
and Romex™ cable (with no twists), squarely mounted receptacle and switch boxes,
and rigid compliance with NEC requirements. Once I entered into the RF and microwave
realm, an entirely new kind of eye candy appeared in the form of
semi-rigid coaxial cable and waveguide runs. Knowing the technical (electrical)
requirements and limitations based on power, wavelength, and VSWR concerns served
to enhance the appreciation. Electrical wiring has its own unique requirements for
bend radii, enclosure fill, and voltage levels, due to heating, mechanical stress,
and voltage induction issues. RF transmission media adds to that signal reflections
due to contamination and cross-section perturbations, dissimilar junction spurious
mixing products, microphonics, common mode currents...
 Model D-2066 from Werbel Microwave is a
2-way power splitter covering 500 MHz to 6 GHz in a small sized enclosure
with versatile mounting options. Four through-holes allow for traditional top-down
chassis mounting. Threaded holes on the input and output sides allow for rack panel
mounting. The compact size aluminum enclosure weighs only 3 oz. (85 g)
making it suitable for array-panel and mobile vehicle applications. Insertion loss
is low at only 0.9 dB at 6 GHz. Return loss and isolation are high performance.
The device is RoHS compliant. This part has versatile mounting options. Standard
thru holes mount the part from the broad surface, while threaded holes allow for
bulkhead rack-mountable mounting...
 Here is an editorial excerpt from a 1965
issue of Electronics magazine that could be from a contemporary news publication:
"If U. S. manufacturers continue to
abandon their engineering and production for Japanese products, they are headed
for oblivion because they cannot compete with the purely merchandising organizations
such as Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Montgomery Ward which buy Japanese products
too." Of course you could easily substitute South Korea, China, Taiwan, or any other
now-prominent technology company in place of Japan. American economic "experts"
assured us in the 1990s that we no longer needed to manufacture anything; rather,
we would become a service and retail economy. That worked out real well, eh? What
we really became was dependent on the rest of the world for our goods, and were
forced to surrender intellectual property (IP), erstwhile closely guarded national
defense secrets (handing over ICBM guidance systems, high precision CNC machinery,
semiconductor processing equipment, etc.) for the privilege of establishing...
RF Cascade Workbook 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 (click here for screen capture). 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 through the main features...
 Temwell is a manufacturer of 5G wireless communications filters
for aerospace, satellite communication, AIoT, 5G networking, IoV, drone, mining
transmission, IoT, medical, military, laboratory, transportation, energy, broadcasting
(CATV), and etc. An RF helical bandpass specialist since 1994, we have posted >5,000
completed spec sheets online for all kinds of RF filters including helical, cavity,
LC, and SMD. Standard highpass, lowpass, bandpass, and bandstop, as well as duplexer/diplexer,
multiplexer. Also RF combiners, splitters, power dividers, attenuators, circulators,
couplers, PA, LNA, and obsolete coil & inductor solutions.
Wednesday the 23rd
 I haven't watched much television for the
last thirty years, so I don't know if having someone get electrocuted is still considered
as funny as it used to be. Maybe that went out with the Three Stooges. In the 1960s
and 70s, just about every Prime Time comedy show ran an episode where somebody's
tooth filling was picking up radio broadcasts. I particularly remember the Gilligan's
Island episode called "Hi-Fi
Gilligan" where he became an AM radio receiver when a jolt to the jaw affected
the filling in a molar (those AM signals travelled quite a distance to that "uncharted
desert isle"). These two
electronics-themed comics from 1968 Radio-Electronics magazine hits
on both of those themes...
 EA Elektro-Automatik (EA), a manufacturer
of DC power supplies loads, and turnkey power racks, just posted a new blog
entitled, "Reaping
Energy Savings: The Power of Regenerative Loads." It begins, "Programmable
DC power supplies have long been instrumental in power electronics and battery testing.
These supplies are extensively used for performance testing and product characterizations.
However, a common issue arises when dealing with excess energy generated during
burn-in tests, battery cycling or discharging energy storage systems before shipment.
Traditionally, this surplus energy is dissipated as heat using resistive load banks
or electronic loads. While seemingly simple, this approach brings about thermal
management and noise challenges, making it less straightforward than it appears.
This begs the question: can this surplus power be recycled and put to use within
the facility? In recent years, there has been a growing push for industrial facilities
to become more eco-friendly and operate with greater energy efficiency. Regenerative
electronic loads present an energy-saving solution as they redirect the load power
back to the utility..."
 This "drive-by" schematic and parts list
for the
Belmont Model 6D121 vacuum tube tabletop radio appeared in the February 1948
issue of Radio News magazine. I refer to them as "drive-by" because there
was no description or maintenance verbiage provided. One of the key innovations
that Belmont Radio is remembered for is its development of the "All-Wave" radio,
which allowed listeners to receive broadcasts from around the world. This was a
significant advancement in radio technology, as previous radios were limited to
receiving local broadcasts. Belmont Radio's All-Wave radio was widely popular and
helped to establish the company as a leading manufacturer of radio equipment. Model
6D121 is a tabletop radio in a "modern" plastic case covering the AM band with pushbutton
tuning. The thumbnail at the left is from the RadioMuseum.org website - a great
source for research on vintage vacuum tube radios...
 Innovative Power Products (IPP), with more
than 30 years of experience designing & manufacturing RF & microwave passive
components, introduces model
IPP-5027, a wide-band, a single-ended impedance transformer that operates from
30 to 1000 MHz. This small, surface mount impedance transformer has a 4:1 transformation
ratio, changing the impedance from 50 ohms at J1 to 12.5 ohms at J2. The
IPP-5027 has a 25 watt average power rating with low insertion loss and VSWR
of 1.45:1. The IPP-5027 is a small, SMD transformer that is shipped on tape and
reel for pick and place applications, providing a cost-saving solution. Single-Ended
Transformers are used to connect transmission lines of differing impedances. IPP
offers single-ended impedance transformers for antenna drivers, amateur radio, commercial
and military applications in frequencies ranging from 20-2500 MHz...
 The
stacked halo antenna is a compact configuration for obtaining a nearly omnidirectional
radiation pattern with nearly 8 dB of gain. An ideal half-wave dipole antenna
provides 2.15 dB, so adding 5 to 6 more decibels by merely stacking two halo
antennas (which are essentially curved half-waves) might seem like getting more
than the sum of the parts. That extra gain is obtained by concentrating the vertical
radiation pattern lower to the horizon as compared to a straight half-wave, even
though the horizontal pattern loses a bit of gain contribution from the translation
to a nearly omnidirectional nature. There is nowadays a plethora of information
available on the Internet regarding stacked halo antennas, but in 1965, this
Popular Electronics magazine article was one of only a few readily accessible
sources other than college textbooks and scholarly papers (of course the ARRL
Antenna Handbook was and still is a prime source)...
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 created for Visio™. 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!
 Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation (BNC) is
a leading manufacturer of precision electronic instrumentation for test, measurement,
and nuclear research. Founded in 1963, BNC initially developed custom pulse generators.
We became known for meeting the most stringent requirements for high precision and
stability, and for producing instruments of unsurpassed reliability and performance.
We continue to maintain a leadership position as a developer of custom pulse, signal,
light, and function generators. Our designs incorporate the latest innovations in
software and hardware engineering, surface mount production, and automated testing
procedures.
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
RF Cafe" box at the top of every page.
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