 Friday 6
Thursday 5
Wednesday 4
 This news bit from a 1951 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine
reports on the FCC's declaration of illegality the practice by some FM
broadcasting stations of providing a means for
blanking out commercials and
station identification to entities willing to pay for the special receivers
and pay for a subscription. Nobody I have ever known looks forward to enduring
commercials on television or radio (or Internet these days). The only way most
of us could listen to music without interruption was to by a record, tape, or
CD. VHS tapes and DVDs provide some relief from commercials, although even
though you pay for them there are typically promotions for other movies at the
beginning. Commercials on radio and television (and now the Internet) have
consumed a larger part of each hour of programming with each passing year. The
DVD collections we have of 1960s and 1970s Prime Time TV shows average run times
of about 54-55 minutes...
 "The Space Development Agency wants to put
an initial batch of satellites capable of
tracking hypersonic weapons on orbit in fiscal 2022, according to a draft request
for proposals the agency released May 11. The draft comes as SDA prepares to launch
its first tranche of about 20 satellites in FY22, the first step toward its goal
of hundreds of interconnected satellites operating in low Earth orbit. The agency
is taking a spiral development approach, launching additional satellites with increasingly
advanced capabilities in two-year tranches. The second tranche, to be launched in
FY24, will place 150 satellites on orbit. According to the draft RFP, the agency
wants a contractor to design and build eight Wide Field of View, or WFoV, satellites
with infrared sensors capable of demonstrating..."
 Lemos International Technologies, founded
in 1996 when wireless technology developed for military and aerospace was beginning
to be transitioned into the commercial realm. As a technology adoption leader, Lemos
just published a white paper entitled
"Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS)" to promote the plug-and-play nature of transmitter
and receiver modules available at very low cost. Use of many type of these self-contained
modules enables wireless connectivity product development with the need for in-house
RF expertise and/or FCC emissions certification. Per the MURS Wikipedia article
: "In the United States, the Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS) is a licensed by rule
two-way radio service similar to Citizens Band (CB). Established by the U.S. Federal
Communications Commission in the fall of 2000, MURS created a radio service allowing
for licensed by rule (Part 95) operation in a narrow selection of the VHF band,
with a power limit of 2 watts. The FCC formally defines MURS as "a private, two-way,
short-distance voice or data...
 We
read a lot about the early
radar system that was in operation at Pearl Harbor in December 1941 when the
surprise attack by Japanese naval airplanes decimated the fleet with a 3-hour-long
raid beginning at around 8:00 on that sleepy Sunday morning. According to "The Untold
Pearl Harbor Radar Story," by C.P. West, the SCR-270B (Signal Corps radio #270,
rev B) radar system had a range of 250 miles at an altitude of 50,000 feet. Westinghouse
built the system in 1940 following a development contract issued by the Army Signal
Corps in 1936. Historical documents report of the three systems on the island, two
had been shut down and that with the remaining system, operators Joseph Lockard
and George Elliot detected a formation of aircraft about 137 miles out to sea. They
were told it was a squadron of B-17s and to not worry about it...
 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 through the main features...
 ConductRF is
continually innovating and developing new and improved solutions for RF Interconnect
needs. See the latest TESTeCON
RF Test Cables for labs. ConductRF makes production and test coax cable assemblies
for amplitude and phased matched VNA applications as well as standard & precision
RF connectors. Over 1,000 solutions for low PIM in-building to choose from in the
iBwave component library. They also provide custom coax solutions for applications
where some standard just won't do. A partnership with Newark assures fast, reliable
access. Please visit ConductRF
today to see how they can help your project!
Tuesday 3
 This is another example of a multi-part article
of which I happen to have discovered only one of installments - Part 9. As is often
the case, each article is pretty much stand-alone and does not require that you
have already seen the previous sections. In 1951, computers were still mostly analog;
digital circuits were just beginning to get serious research thanks to the recent
advent of solid state devices. Boolean algebra, truth tables, and combinational
logic were just beginning to be taught in engineering courses.
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), first used in 1945 at
the end of World War II, was the world's first general purpose digital computer,
and its active elements were vacuum tubes - about 20,000 of them. As you might expect,
there was a lot of excitement in the electronics, scientific, and finance world
about digital computers that would be inexpensive enough that individual corporations...
 Radio-Craft magazine solicited inputs
from its readers for a series of 'WittiQuiz'
questions and answers related to radio and electronics, with a stipulation being
that there had to be some aspect of humor included. That meant that some of the
multiple choice answer options needed to be inane. For most of the questions, the
process of elimination is pretty easy, but a couple could cause some head scratching
- especially if you are not really sure of the answer. This group starts at number
28, so obviously preceding issues had questions 1 through 27. At some point I will
probably acquire them and post other WittiQuizzes.
 Triad RF Systems designs and manufactures
RF power amplifiers and systems.
Triad RF Systems comprises three partners (hence 'Triad')
with over 40 years of accumulated knowledge of what is required to design, manufacture,
market, sell and service RF/Microwave amplifiers and amplifier systems. PA, LNA,
bi-directional, and frequency translating amplifiers are available, in formats including
tower mount, benchtop, rack mount, and chassis mount. "We view Triad more as a technology
partner than a vendor for our line-of-sight communications product line." Please
check to see how they can help your project.
 For more than a decade, I have been posting
these
Radio Service Data Sheets for radios and various other audio and visual electronics
sets that appeared in vintage electronics magazines. This one for the Atwater Kent
Model 649 all-wave, 9 metal tube, superheterodyne console radio set was published
in the November 1935 issue of Radio Craft. "All-Wave" radios were popular
at the time because they provided access to shortwave bands so listeners could tune
in foreign broadband stations - often with the rudimentary built-in antenna. Short
Wave Listening was actually a worldwide sport that had its own cadre of enthusiastic
participants, including a dedicated magazine entitled Short Wave Listener.
Although not as popular today, there are still a few adherents remaining today.
 "Does
flaky Internet connectivity have you scrounging for solutions? The COVID-19 pandemic
increased our demand for Internet service due to working from home, online learning
for kids, and video conferencing with colleagues and family members. For many people
stuck at home, Internet connectivity issues became more troublesome in recent months.
To make matters worse,
Internet providers may be unwilling to send repair techs into your home to fix
your problems. Construction materials and interior design decisions can have an
adverse effect on how far your WiFi signal travels inside. They can slow down the
connection speed, especially when everyone is home using a slew of computing devices.
Put this do-it-yourself primer to work fixing what ails your home network..."
 Copper Mountain Technologies develops innovative
and robust RF test and measurement solutions for engineers all over the world. Copper
Mountain's extensive line of unique form factor
Vector Network Analyzers
include an RF measurement module and a software application which runs on any Windows
PC, laptop or tablet, connecting to the measurement hardware via USB interface.
The result is a lower cost, faster, more effective test process that fits into the
modern workspace in lab, production, field and secure testing environments.
Monday 2
 Today has been a busy day, so a couple
electronics-themed comics from issues of vintage Radio & Television
News magazines help to relieve the stress a bit. I could never figure out why
these comics were buried deep inside most issues at the ends of article continuations.
These two were on pages 88 and 93. The top one is meant to demonstrate just how
obsessed the public was with the relatively new television phenomenon - just look
at what they chose to ignore on the display TV in order to get a peek at the inside
workings of a television set. The other comic, while clever in its intent, would
never pass editorial muster in today's world because of the great hazard it represents.
Enjoy.
 "Capella Space announced May 13 that it signed
a deal to provide
synthetic aperture radar to the U.S. Navy, even though the company has yet to
put a satellite on orbit. Unlike traditional electro-optical satellite imagery,
which can be degraded or denied by adverse lighting conditions or weather, SAR creates
images with radar, meaning it can produce images regardless of the weather or lighting
conditions. Additionally, SAR sensors can provide data on material properties, moisture
content, precise movements, and elevation, meaning that SAR can be used to build
3D recreations of a given geographical area. Capella says its planned SAR satellite
constellation will be able to collect sub-0.5 meter imagery, capable of identifying
various types of aircraft or vehicles at ground level..."
 Whilst reading this Carl Kohler technodrama
entitled "Thin
Air My Foot!," I happened upon this word new to me: 'din,' as in "It was dinned
into me." OK, maybe you already knew that, but surely I should have been aware of
its alternate meaning other than being a loud noise ("the agitated cat made quite
a din."). Fortunately, I am not subject to a household of people who refuse to put
things back in their respective places when through with them, but this tale of
woe tells what might be a familiar scenario to you. To be honest, this could have
been written about me as a boy - before the U.S. Air Force taught me a thing or
two about organization and neatness - since I continually frustrated my father by
leaving his tools (and hardware and lumber and paint) scattered in forgotten places
around the house and yard...
 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!
 Dr. Scott Best, of SiberSci RF
engineering services, sent information about the FREE general purpose
DISLIN scientific
and engineering plotting software library that includes Smith Chart support.
The graphics library was initially created at the Max Planck Institute for Solar
System Research beginning in 1985 by Mr. Helmut Michels. Its continual series
of upgrades is as recent as May 2020. The DISLIN library is available for Unix,
Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, Mac OSX, and MS-DOS systems. It supports a variety of public
domain and commercial compilers for Go, Perl, Python, Java, Ruby, TCL, Julia, FreeBASIC,
Free Pascal, R, C/C++, and Fortran (77, 90, and 95). If you are a software developer,
you probably know that most development platforms are supplied with either no plotting
components or very rudimentary versions of for-purchase products. Many cost hundreds
or even thousands of dollars...
 Triad RF Systems, continues to add to its
THPR series of
ready-to-install amplified radios. Eliminating the need to integrate standalone
components to create a long-range wireless and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance
(ISR) radio links working in S-band, Triad has combined high power RF subsystems
with a Microhard pMDDL2450 core radio that operates from 2402 - 2482 MHz. Triad
model THPR1006 is an efficiently packaged, highly reliable, dual-channel MIMO, turnkey
radio system that includes bi-directional amplifiers (BDAs), RF filtering, and optional
real-time power measurements, link diagnostics, and innovative SoC-based monitoring
and controls. This integrated amplified radio system delivers maximum power output
of 40 W at ~5 Mbps on its max power setting, and 10 W at ~20 Mbps
on its max data rate setting. Unmanned system engineers can expect...
 Please take a few moments to visit the
everythingRF website to see how they can assist you with your
project. everythingRF is a product discovery platform for RF and microwave products
and services. They currently have 267,269 products from more than 1397 companies
across 314 categories in their database and enable engineers to search for them
using their customized parametric search tool. Amplifiers, test equipment, power
couplers and dividers, coaxial connectors, waveguide, antennas, filters, mixers,
power supplies, and everything else. Please visit everythingRF today to see how
they can help you.
|
Who Invented
Radar?
The Saga of the Vacuum Tube - Part 22
 Biographical historians spend endless hours
searching old media for bits of information on their subjects. Finding useful material
on more renowned personalities is not a problem, but filtering out relevant bits
for a particular theme can be daunting. On the other hand, finding useful information
on lesser known people can be frustrating because there is so little information
readily available. Great Britain's World War II era superstar
Winston Churchill undoubtedly falls into the former category. While scanning
through my many vintage electronics and science magazines for interesting fodder
to post on RF Cafe, I'm always on the lookout for cameo appearances like this one
of Prime Minister Churchill talking on a walkie-talkie (aka 'handie−talkie' at the
time) in this 1942 edition of Radio-Craft. It shows him participating in a parachuting
exercise at the U.S. Army's Fort Jackson training base, in South Carolina...
 Dr. Lee DeForest might have had something
like National Public Radio (est. 1970) in mind when he penned this article in 1933.
In it, the famous vacuum tube amplifier inventor lamented and criticized the commercialization
of broadcasts because of all the paid product announcements (aka commercials) that
had been steadily increasing over the years. He also was critical of the "hit-or-miss,
higgeldy-piggeldy mélange program basis" of programing; i.e., the same station playing
a mix of jazz, opera, swing, syndicated story-telling, etc. The good doctor did
not elaborate on where funding for such dedicated, uncorrupted broadcasts would
originate if not from paying advertisers, and I do not recall ever reading about
a DeForest Radio Network paid for by his vast fortune. I don't like commercials
any more than the next person, but a company deserves time to pitch its products
and/or services if it helps deliver a source of entertainment to you that...
 Bell Labs, having been responsible for creating
the first positive amplification point contact transistor just before Christmas
1947, continued to lead the way in semiconductor research and new product announcements
for many decades. This little tidbit was tucked away at the bottom of page 120 in
the May 1954 issue of Radio & Television News magazine. It reported on "the
purest substances in the world" being created there in the form of 99.99999999%
(aka 10N)
pure germanium crystals, which are used as seed for growing boules for device
production. That's one rogue impurity atom in ten billion germanium atoms. Modern
monocrystalline silicon boules are typically 7N or better...
 RF Cafe typically receives 8,000-15,000
website visits each weekday and about half that on weekends.
RF Cafe is a favorite of engineers, technicians, hobbyists, and students all
over the world. With more than 13,000 pages in the Google search index,
RF Cafe returns in favorable
positions on many types of key searches, both for text and images. 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. I also re-broadcast homepage
items on LinkedIn. If you need your company news to be seen, RF Cafe is the
place to be. Advertising begins at $40/month.
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 through the main features...
 With more than 1000
custom-built symbols, this has got to be the most comprehensive set of
Visio Symbols available for RF, analog, and digital system and schematic drawings!
Every object has been built to fit proportionally on the provided A-, B- and C-size
drawing page templates (or can use your own). Symbols are provided for equipment
racks and test equipment, system block diagrams, conceptual drawings, and schematics.
Unlike previous versions, these are NOT Stencils, but instead are all contained
on tabbed pages within a single Visio document. That puts everything in front of
you in its full glory. Just copy and paste what you need on your drawing. The file
format is XML so everything plays nicely with Visio 2013 and later...
 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...
 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...
|
 "Space
is getting crowded. Aging satellites and
space debris
crowd low-Earth orbit, and launching new satellites adds to the collision risk.
The most effective way to solve the space junk problem, according to a new study,
is not to capture debris or deorbit old satellites: it's an international agreement
to charge operators 'orbital-use fees' for every satellite put into orbit. Orbital
use fees would also increase the long-run value of the space industry, said economist
Matthew Burgess, a CIRES Fellow and co-author of the new paper. By reducing future
satellite and debris collision risk, an annual fee rising to about $235,000 per
satellite would quadruple the value of the satellite industry by 2040, he and his
colleagues concluded in a paper published today..."
 "Hypersonic
munitions present an intimidating set of environmental challenges, raising the
bar to an entirely new level of difficulty. Contrary to popular opinion, there is
nothing new about hypersonic flight. Nazi Germany's V-2 rocket achieved speeds of
Mach 5, but was not called hypersonic, a term not coined until 1946 by Hsue-shen
Tsien, an aerodynamicist at the California Institute of Technology. In 1949, the
two-stage Bumper rocket achieved a speed of Mach 6.7 before burning up on atmospheric
reentry. Yuri Gargarin became the first human to travel at hypersonic speed during
his historic orbital flight in 1961. The following month, Alan Shepard joined that
unique club when his suborbital flight exceeded Mach 5 on reentry..."
 Not sure how I missed this, but on July 21th,
|
