Homepage Archive - April 2018 (page 3)

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See Page 1 | 2 | 3 of the April 2018 homepage archives.

Monday 30

Found: Very Rare HP 5212A Electronic Counter

HP 5212A Electronic Counter (Kirt's Cogitation #301) - RF CafeThis 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 ...

DARPA Asks Industry to Develop Small, Secure LEO Military Satellites

DARPA Asks Industry to Develop Small, Secure LEO Military Satellites - RF Cafe"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 ..."

Implausible Remarks (Sequel 1)

Implausible Remarks (Sequel 1), September 1966 Popular Electronics - RF CafeThe 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 Intros End Launch Connectors

Withwave Intros End Launch Connectors - RF CafeWithwave'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 ...

Nuclear Clock Could Be one Tick Closer

Nuclear Clock Could Be one Tick Closer - RF Cafe"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

RF Cafe Engineering & Science Crossword Puzzle for April 29

RF Cafe Engineering & Science Crossword Puzzle April 29, 2018Each 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 Intros 30 to 2700 MHz, 8 W Bidirectional Amplifier

Triad RF Systems Intros 30 to 2700 MHz, 8 W Bidirectional Amplifier - RF CafeTriad 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 ...

In the Days of Spark - A Rescue at Sea

In the Days of Spark - A Rescue at Sea, November 1966 Popular Electronics - RF CafeWhen 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 ...

Take Part in The Engineer's 2018 Salary Survey

Take Part in The Engineer’s 2018 Salary Survey - RF CafeMake 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 Intros Berkeley Nucleonics 765 Ultra-Fast Rise Time Pulse Generator

Saelig Intros Berkeley Nucleonics 765 Ultra-Fast Rise Time Pulse Generator - RF CafeSaelig 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 Emerges as Neutron Science Powerhouse

Europe Emerges as Neutron Science Powerhouse - RF Cafe"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

Amateur Mathematician Partially Solves 60-Year-Old Problem

Amateur Mathematician Partially Solves 60-Year-Old Problem - RF Cafe"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 April 2018 News & Product Highlights

Mini-Circuits April 2018 News & Product Highlights - RF CafeMini-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 ...

Di-Di-Di-Di-Di-Di-Di-Di-Dit: Friend Wife is Inveigled into a New Language

Di-Di-Di-Di-Di-Di-Di-Di-Dit, November 1966 Popular Electronics - RF CafeIs 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 ...

Neilson: 93% of Americans Tune in to AM or FM Radio Weekly

Neilson: 93% of Americans Tune in to AM or FM Radio Weekly - RF Cafe"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 ..."

AntSyn and Expanded Antenna Design Playlists Now on AWR.TV

AntSyn and Expanded Antenna Design Playlists Now on AWR.TV YouTube Channel - RF CafeA 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 ...

Paint Transforms Walls into Sensors, Interactive Surfaces

Paint Transforms Walls into Sensors, Interactive Surfaces - RF Cafe"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

Many Thanks to San Francisco Circuits for Continued Support!

San Francisco CircuitsSF 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 San Francisco Circuits PCBs - RF Cafeexpertise 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 ...

Electronics Math Quiz

Electronics Math Quiz, November 1965 Popular Electronics - RF Cafe1965 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

RF and Microwave Microelectronics Packaging II - RF CafeRF 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 to Host

Nuhertz Technologies to Host - RF CafeNuhertz 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 ...

Forbes Features Pro-FM Chip Article

Forbes Features Pro-FM Chip Article - RF Cafe"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

Wholesale and Pricing Strategy in Mobile Markets

Wholesale and Pricing Strategy in Mobile Markets - RF Cafe"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 Intros New Multi-Mode 200 W, 1900-6000 MHz SSPA

Empower RF Systems Intros New Multi-Mode 200W, 1900 - 6000 MHz SSPA - RF CafeEmpower 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 ...

Parlor Game, Popular Electronics

Parlor Game, Popular Electronics - RF CafeWhen 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 White Paper: Fundamentals of RF Design

IEEE COMSOC White Paper: Fundamentals of RF Design - RF CafeIEEE 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 ...

Pentagon's Newfound Cash to Focus on Tech for Tomorrow's Conflicts

Pentagon's Newfound Cash to Focus on Tech for Tomorrow's Conflicts - RF Cafe"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

Spin-3/2 Superconductor a First

Spin-3/2 Superconductor a First - RF Cafe"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 ..."

TV Trouble Quiz

TV Trouble Quiz, July 1966 Popular Electronics - RF CafeVery 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 ...

Webinar: RF/Microwave Power and Noise Measurement

Webinar: RF/Microwave Power and Noise Measurement - RF CafeBoonton / 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 ...

Nokia and KDDI Demonstrate 4G Can Be Used for Connected Car

Nokia and KDDI Demonstrate 4G Can Be Used for Connected Car - RF Cafe"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

RF Cafe Engineering & Science Crossword Puzzle April 22

RF Cafe Engineering & Science Crossword Puzzle April 22, 2018Each 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 ...