Monday 30
This rare
HP 5212A
Electronic Counter was found in a second-hand shop sitting in with a bunch of random
electronic gear. The "HP" on the front panel piqued my attention, so I carried it to
the sales desk and asked the nice lady to plug it in, figuring if the front panel lit
up and none of the smoke that makes electronics work leaked out, I'd buy it. It did,
it didn't, and I did, respectively. The outside condition is pretty good, with most of
the scratches being on the top and bottom. Some oxidation is present on the bare aluminum
chassis components, but a little ...
"U.S. military researchers are asking for industry's
help in developing a constellation of small, secure, and affordable military satellites
that not only are able to operate in
low-Earth orbit (LEO), but also that capitalize on modern commercial
satellite technologies. Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) in Arlington, Va., issued a broad agency announcement on Thursday for the Blackjack
program to develop SWaP-optimized military communications and surveillance satellites
designed to operate in LEO ..."
The July 1966 issue of Popular Electronics
began a series of
anecdotal instances of stupid and/or funny remarks made by people about electronics.
Some are supposedly by those who are in the trade and should know better. I have to take
issue with and question the veracity of one instance in this first sequel, which claims
a technician coming out of military service are apt to make statements such as fuses
being bad because they are "shorted." It must have been submitted by an anti-military
hippie of the era, because there's no way anything other than a vanishingly small minority
of techs who have spent two to four years or more years servicing real electronic equipment
would say ...
Withwave's
End Launch
Connectors are specially designed for well-used high frequency substrates to minimize
electromagnetic effects including impedance discontinuities from coaxial to GCPWG (Grounded
Coplanar Waveguide) and Top Ground Microstrip structure. The types of connectors are
2.92 mm, 2.4 mm and 1.85 mm. We solve your performance and cost problems ...
"The internal structure of the thorium-229m nuclear
state has been studied in detail for the first time by physicists in Germany. Thorium-229m
is a metastable (or isomer) excited state of thorium-229 that decays via the emission
of an ultraviolet (UV) photon. This photon has much lower energy than most nuclear emissions
and could form the basis of a 'nuclear clock' that would be much more precise than existing atomic
clocks. Atomic clocks work by keeping a laser in resonance with electronic transitions
between energy levels in atoms or ions - with the 'ticks' ..."
Sunday 29
Each week, for the sake of all avid cruciverbalists
amongst us, I create a new
technology-themed crossword puzzle using only words from my custom-created lexicon
related to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy, etc. You
will never find among the words names of politicians, mountain ranges, exotic foods or
plants, movie stars, or anything of the sort. You might, however, see someone or something
in the exclusion list who or that is directly related to this puzzle's theme, such as
Hedy Lamar or the Bikini Atoll ...
Friday 27
Triad RF Systems has released the TTRM1200, a wideband GaN BDA that
operates from 30 MHz to 2700 MHz and produces over 8 W of TX power. Measuring
only 3.25 x 2.42 x 0.54 inches, this feature rich BDA is also one of the most efficient.
While producing 8W of RF power, it only consumes 24 W of DC power. It also produces
over 2 W of linear 16 QAM power with <9% EVM. In order to operate on various
existing platforms, the unit features a wide DC input range of +11 to +28 VDC. Switching
between Tx ...
When you think about wireless (radio) saving the
day for reporting trouble at sea, most of us (including, until now, me) think of the
RMS Titanic incident that occurred on 14 April, 1912. Her telegraph operator, Jack Phillips,
managed to get off an SOS (actually "CQD" in the day) message that was picked up by the
ship Carpathia. In fact, this story of the SS Republic recounts events on January 23,
1909 when the good ship collided with Italy's Florida. Radio operator Jack Binns managed
to get off a CQD message using backup batteries once he discovered the ship's power had
gone down. Jack Phillips had the ...
Make your voice heard in the largest industry-wide
salary survey of its kind Last year, in our third annual engineering
salary survey, we asked UK engineers from across industry to tell us how they felt about
their jobs and how much they get paid. With almost 3000 engineers from across 11 sectors
of UK industry taking part, the survey provided an illuminating picture of life in engineering,
from levels of job satisfaction and how pay and benefits in some sectors differ to others,
to the number of women ...
Saelig Company announces the availability of the
Berkeley Nucleonics 765 Fast Rise Time Pulse Generator - the first analog edge converter
with the ability to provide 5 V pulses with less than 70 ps rising and falling
edges. Available in 2 or 4 channel versions, the Model 765 offers a repetition rate of
up to 240 MHz with a period jitter specification of under 25ps. The unit is conveniently
and easily controlled via a 7" 1024x600 capacitive touch LCD that runs Windows 10. The
Model 765's innovative hardware architecture can generate advanced pulse sequences such
as double ...
"Europe's
neutron facilities are leading the world in terms of the number and
quality of publications - but their pre-eminence could be threatened in the coming decade
as new facilities in Asia ramp up. That is the conclusion of a new analysis carried out
by researchers at Forschungzentrum Jülich in Germany and published on arXiv. They found
that in the 10-year period from 2005 to 2015, some 42,689 papers were published by researchers
based on experiments carried out at neutron labs worldwide, with Europe ..."
Thursday 62
"Professional biologist and amateur mathematician
Aubrey de Grey has partially solved the
Hadwiger-Nelson problem, which has vexed mathematicians since 1950.
He has published a paper describing the solution on the arXiv preprint server. The Hadwiger-Nelson
problem came about when Edward Nelson and Hugo Hadwiger wondered about the smallest number
of colors necessary to color all of the points on a graph, with no two connected points
using the same color. Over the years, mathematicians have attacked ..."
Mini-Circuits announces the availability of four new devices in its
lineup of
RF and microwave components. Included are an Ultra-wideband coaxial amplifier with
flat gain from 5 to 20 GHz, Flexible test cables with SMA-Male to N-Male connectors
for DC to 18 GHz, a Reflectionless highpass filter for 580 to 3000 MHz with
high stopband rejection, and a Surface-mount dual-directional coupler with 300 W
power handling from 20 to 1000 MHz ...
Is it permissible to say, "Pig Latin,"
these days without being jailed for engaging in hate speech or being accused of cultural
insensitivity? ...not that I really care. Carl Kohler's story from the November 1966
issue of Popular Electronics had me waxing nostalgic over a similar scenario
from my own boyhood. It begins with Mrs. Kohler (aka "Goodwife") suggesting that
she and Mr. Kohler resort to speaking in Pig Latin in order to prevent their
mischievous sons from learning where the Christmas presents were being hidden. My parents
did exactly the same thing to my sisters and me - and that ...
"Radio reaches nearly everyone in America, as
Nielsen's most recent Audio Today report detailed. On a weekly basis, 93% of all adults
tune in to radio, the most of any platform, and radio has 243 million
listeners in a given month. It's clear that radio has broad appeal for consumers both
young and old. So it's no surprise that as we judge the results of the March portable
people meter (PPM) ratings, several formats that have mass appeal saw rises in listener
share during the first quarter of the year. By combining the January, February and March
surveys to create ..."
A new playlist for AntSyn™ automated antenna synthesis
technology has been added to the AWR.TV YouTube channel and a new video titled "Antenna Synthesis Overview and Guided Tour" has been added to both
the AntSyn and Antenna Synthesis playlists. This new video explores AntSyn technology
as a complement to NI AWR Design Environment software and provides a step-by-step description
for using the tool. Available immediately ...
"Walls are what they are - big, dull dividers.
With a few applications of conductive paint and some electronics, however, walls can
become smart infrastructure that sense human touch, and detect things like gestures and
when appliances are used. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Disney Research
found that they could transform dumb walls into
smart walls at relatively low cost - about $20 per square meter -
using simple tools and techniques, such as a paint roller. These new capabilities might
enable users to place or ..."
Wednesday 25
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 ...
1965 was near the beginning of the transition
from vacuum tubes (plasma state) to semiconductors (solid state). If you are not familiar
with tube circuits, when deciding what type of
mathematical operation is being performed by each circuit, mentally replace the tube
with a FET or a BJT. The tube plate becomes the transistor drain or collector, the cathode
is the source or emitter, and the control grid is the gate or base, respectively. Don't
worry about biasing. Circuits A, D, and I should prove to be the easiest. Circuit F is
pretty obvious if you look at the input and output waveforms ...
RF and Microwave Microelectronics Packaging II,
published in 2017 by authors Ken Kuang and Rick Sturdivant. This book presents the latest
developments in packaging for high-frequency electronics. It is a companion volume to
'RF and Microwave Microelectronics Packaging' (2010) and covers the latest developments
in thermal management, electrical/RF/thermal-mechanical designs and simulations, packaging
and processing methods, and other RF and microwave ...
Nuhertz
Technologies will be hosting a Filter
Design Workshop at IMS 2018, Philadelphia, June 12, 2018, beginning at 10 am. It
is titled "Exceptionally Fast, Easy, and Flexible Optimization of the Electromagnetic
(EM) Planar Filter Frequency Response Using Nuhertz FilterSolutions." Guest speakers
include John Dunn of AWR Group, NI, Brian Rautio of Sonnet Software, and Larry Dunleavy
of Modelithics. The focus will be use of the FilterSolutions' NI AWR Design Environment
interface and supporting Microwave Office circuit design software tool rapidly ...
"In
a piece called 'Smartphone FM Radio Capabilities Enhance Public Safety at No Cost,'
Forbes contributor Steve Pociask points out how vital radio is during times of emergency.
'The value of FM radio has been demonstrated again and again.' Pociask cites several
examples, storm after storm, where residents affected by disaster turned to radio. One
of those examples was Hurricane Isaac in 2012. 'Most of New Orleans was without power
for three to five days. Across the city, cell phone service didn't work, power outages
prevented access to TV ..."
Tuesday 24
"In this commissioned report by The MVNOs Series,
we cover a number of topics, such as the changes in the mobile wholesale market,
Wholesale-as-a-Service and the impact on digitalization, network
innovation and the impact of virtualization, what to expect from a future with 5G and
the new opportunities it brings. The mobile market is well-established as one of the
most strategically important sectors of the global economy. The wider mobile ecosystem
is estimated to deliver $3.6T in value added, accounting for 4.5% of global GDP ..."
Empower RF is announcing the production release
of our proven
Model 2215 for EMC, RF Product Test, Communications, and Electronic
Warfare applications. The 2215's inherent rugged design is based off Empower's COTS family
of NEXT GEN patented architecture that virtually eliminates every internal connector
found in the typical RF/Microwave system amplifier. With Power supply options that include
28 V DC, 400 Hz AC, and single phase AC, the unit is equally suited for land
mobile vehicle, airborne, and shipboard deployments ...
When I ran across this article in a 1966 issue
of Popular Electronics, it reminded me of a fairly recent situation that happened
to me at home. People in the 1960's were at the beginning of the consumer electronics
revolution, and anytime you could work some newfangled high tech gadget into an activity
it was a good thing. A lot of the Carl by Jerry stories by John T. Frye, published
in the same era, illustrate the point. My tale has to do with hearing an unidentifiable
woman's voice coming from "somewhere" that seemed to be inside the house. There are
some times when a combination of ...
IEEE COMSOC and Rohde & Schwarz have jointly
published this white paper titled, "Fundamentals of RF Design." This paper, downloadable at no cost,
provides practical knowledge for designing an RF system. It covers design fundamentals
such as transmission medium, wave propagation, free space path loss, and key components.
It also includes an overview of test equipment and ideas to consider through the design,
development and verification process ...
"By now pretty much everyone has heard that the
U.S. DoD is flush with cash. It's probably more money than the military has had in decades.
Yet once we get beyond the initial euphoria, several big questions come up: - How is
the Pentagon going to spend all that money? - How can military leaders transform money
into meaningful readiness? - What might be the disruptive new technologies that theDOD's sudden new wealth should help promote most aggressively? -
Can we trust the U.S. military ..."
Monday 23
"The first known superconductor in which
spin-3/2 quasiparticles form Cooper pairs has been created by physicists
in the US and New Zealand. The unconventional superconductor is an alloy of yttrium,
platinum and bismuth, which is normally a topological semimetal. The research was done
by Johnpierre Paglione and colleagues at the University of Maryland, Iowa State's Ames
Laboratory, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Universities of Otago and
Wisconsin. Conventional superconductivity arises in a material when spin-1/2 electrons
form 'Cooper pairs ..."
Very few people these days would have any clue
as to the causes of the CRT-type
TV picture problems shown here - I certainly don't, even after looking at the answers
(except for #4, which is pretty obvious given the choices offered). What I can claim
is to have likely seen each one of those types of issues with all the cheap TV sets I've
owned (especially #9). My current 26" LCD television (I only own one TV), which is ten
years old this year, is still working fine and never displays any of those funny patterns.
In the days of the Macs TV Service Shop stories, survival in the business ...
Boonton / Noisecom and Microwave Journal
will present the
RF/Microwave Power and Noise Measurement webinar on April 25, 2018
at 11am ET. "This webinar will provide an overview of power and noise measurement at
RF and microwave frequencies. The webinar begins with a review of basic power measurement
theory before describing a range of equipment types and detectors commonly used to measure
RF and microwave power, highlighting the limitations of each type. Noise will then be
reviewed, including basic noise concepts such as noise figure ...
"Autonomous vehicles and the
connected car have been one of the front-runners for 5G investments,
but in demonstrating 4G can be used as low-latency connectivity for vehicles, has Nokia
undermined its 5G mission? This is part of the issue for the telcos when it comes to
investments for 5G; the messaging is very messy. It will be an expensive mission to upgrade
the world to the fifth generation of mobile networks, therefore sound business cases
for ROI are needed, with autonomous vehicles and the connected car near the top of the
list. But if this use case can be delivered over 4G, does this ..."
Sunday 22
Each week, for the sake of all avid cruciverbalists
amongst us, I create a new
technology-themed crossword puzzle using only words from my custom-created lexicon
related to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy, etc. You
will never find among the words names of politicians, mountain ranges, exotic foods or
plants, movie stars, or anything of the sort. You might, however, see someone or something
in the exclusion list who or that is directly related to this puzzle's theme, such as
Hedy ...
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