Today in Science History -
 Always a good way to end a busy week, here is a collection of electronics-themed comics that appeared in a 1967 issue of Popular Electronics magazine. A few of the artists you will recognize if you are a regular reader. Some drawing styles are immediately identifiable, such as those by Dave Harbaugh (of "Hobnobbing with Harbaugh" fame). Others, at least to me, are not quite so familiar. Frank Tabor, George White, Stan Fine, and JAS (I'm sure I know those initials, but can't place them) are amongst the others. I have to admit to not really knowing what the gag is in the comic with the guy in his pajamas. The party guy is cutting a wire to his ear buds ...
 Axiom Test Equipment, an electronic test equipment rental and sales company, has published a blog that explains semiconductor measurements, specifically, current-versus-voltage (I-V) characteristics and how semiconductors will respond under different I-V conditions. Semiconductor I-V testing is typically performed as a series of swept measurements, with values of I and V changing for each measurement as a means of detecting any trends in device performance under changing operating conditions. Read about which specifications are key to consider when choosing an I-V tester for your project's needs. Go over a few examples of I-V testers, a mainframe, and curve tracers which provide the test energy levels ...
 Here is a different type of quiz from Popular Electronics' master quiz-maker, Robert P. Balin. Rather than the typical format where you need to match a word or another picture with a picture, this one requires you to consider each description and decide whether it best describes an inductive, capacitive, or reactive circuit. I confess to messing up on question 20, because I couldn't remember whether a lagging power factor referred to voltage lagging current or current lagging voltage. Hint: It refers to current lagging voltage. Another hint: Remember the ELI the ICE man mnemonic ...
 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 Superstore is proud to announce its new line of coaxial RF Connector Short Circuits which has been added to our stock, with immediate availability. Connector types include BNC, N, SMA / 2.5 mm, and TNC, both male and female. When used in conjunction with our line of RF terminations, and through-type RF connector adapters, they are useful for equipment calibration. RF Superstore launched in 2017, marking the return of Murray Pasternack, founder of Pasternack Enterprises, to the RF and microwave Industry. Pasternack fundamentally changed the way RF components were sold. Partner Jason Wright manages day-to-day operations, while working closely with Mr. Pasternack to develop ...
 "Once firmly rooted in its analog origins, critical communications is now steadily evolving to provide enhanced situational awareness. The latest public safety and military communications (MilCom) radios are more versatile and reliable, supporting ad-hoc networks to improve or enable connectivity. With higher-data-rate capabilities, critical communications solutions can send and receive high-resolution images, videos, and other types of data-intensive content. At the same time, they provide higher-quality voice communications while maintaining security. To ensure communications and interoperability, they still can support analog communications as a failsafe ..."
 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.
 Benjamin Franklin is credited with many inventions; scientific experiments and discoveries; writings on science, government, and fiction; skills as an orator and diplomat; printer of books and newspapers; business endeavors; and for being the nation's first Postmaster General. Although we all are familiar with his forays into things electrical in nature like flying kites in lightning storms, this article from a 1968 issue of Popular Electronics introduces us to what might have been the earliest "wireless" communications demonstration. The scheme involved the equivalent of the old lab gag of charging up a large-valued electrolytic capacitor and then tossing it to someone, resulting in a surprising shock. As with many of you, I have been both the victim and purveyor of said mischief ...
 Anatech Electronics, an RF and microwave filter company, has introduced a new line of suspended stripline and waveguide type RF filters. Sam Benzacar wrote as part of Anatech's August newsletter about the continued debate over whether exposure to cellphones causes cancer, diminished vision, etc. His short op−ed entitled "Radiation Hazard Battles Continue Unabated" is likely a response to the FCC's recent declaration that RF energy at 5G mm-wave frequencies does not pose an increased health hazard over existing technologies. Millimeter-wave energy is non-ionizing and does not penetrate the skin deeply enough to be an issue at operational power levels. Also included are ...
 With the new R&S NGM200, Rohde & Schwarz extends their range of specialized power supplies. The models of the R&S NGM200 series offer new features, which make them ideal for developing battery-powered equipment operating at up to 20 V and drawing currents up to 6 A. Available as single-channel and two-channel models: the R&S NGM200 power supplies. Being part of the same power supply family, both the R&S NGL200 and the new R&S NGM200 series offer the same superb performance and specifications to supply extremely stable outputs with a minimum of residual ripple and noise. Devices that switch from a few µA in sleep mode to several A in active mode benefit from the exceptionally fast load recovery time ...
 This is part of a series published by Radio News and the Short-Wave magazine in the early 1930s. As with most topics pertaining to electronics, the theory is still relevant and applicable to many modern circuits and systems. Piezoelectric principles are introduced for determining the frequency of oscillators. I have to admit to not having heard of the 'pyroelectric' effect. A pyroelectric crystal when heated or cooled develops charges on the extremities of its hemihedral (another new word for me, meaning "exhibiting only half the faces required for complete symmetry") axes. Types other than the familiar quartz include tourmaline, boracite, topaz, Rochelle salts, and even sugar. Read on to learn more ...
 "Richard Clarke knows a few things about clear and present dangers. He had already served under six presidents and been appointed the U.S.'s first counterterrorism czar when he joined the George W. Bush White House, but when he tried to alert important decision-makers before September 11 about the threat of a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, those warnings were largely ignored. These days, Clarke is still trying to get Americans to think hard about the next big attacks - and the ones that are quietly happening as you read this sentence. Clarke's new book, The Fifth Domain, written with cyber expert and fellow White House veteran Robert Knake ..."
 ERZIA serves critical aerospace and defense missions by designing and manufacturing RF, microwave, and mm-wave amplifiers, integrated assemblies operating from low frequencies up to 100 GHz, and by providing high reliable satellite communications. The company was founded in 2002 to become a worldwide reference of advanced engineering, performance, reliability and ruggedness. Their catalogue of standard amplifier modules comprises more than 100 different models, having also a high capacity of customization for amplifiers and integrated assemblies. Some of products have space heritage and are used in aerospace, commercial, military and scientific systems, having a wide range of final applications.
 By the time most of us who even remember cathode ray tubes (CRTs) were first introduced to them, the technology and manufacturing processes had been pretty much perfected - especially for the standard 525-line resolution type. The NTSC published a standard for B&W television in 1941 and then for color in 1953. This "Picture Tubes" article in a 1955 issue of Popular Electronics provides a look inside a CRT manufacturing plant at General Electric. If you want one of the best explanations I have ever seen on how a TV picture scan is implemented, check out this video. If you don't understand raster scanning after watching it, you never will. You might be surprised to learn that there were not actually 525 lines of picture information, but that only about 480 to 487 lines of picture were included - the rest were ...
 It's kind of hard to believe that by 1955, the military was still very dependent on wired radio communications for field use. This system, heralded as a technological breakthrough for its ability to operate over a distance of 200 miles between units (with the aid of repeater cells), weighed in at 178 pounds and "occupies only five and a half cubic feet of space." A big part of the weight was probably due to the lead-acid batteries that powered it, although there was likely an ability to hook it up to a generator. A modulated carrier is credited with being able to stuff 12 channels into a single twisted pair of wires. No mention is made of whether any sort of encryption (scrambling) of the signals was used. No mention was made of the model number. If anyone out there can identify it, please let me know ...
 Ms. Cassie Stevens sent me an e-mail alerting me to the Engineering Degree Guidance website. Per Cassie, "It is an online resource for anyone who is looking for unbiased and professionally reviewed content and recommendations for Engineering degree programs. Our team was created so we can provide answers and all types of assistance needed to help improve the quality of information to those looking for guidance on these degree options. Our content is reviewed by top tier professors in the education and journalism spaces. Please check out our highly regarded editorial team; they are listed on the homepage of our website." Engineering Degree Guidance has been added to my list or related resources on the Job Information Resources page.
 This quiz is based on the information presented in Handbook of Dielectric and Thermal Properties of Materials at Microwave Frequencies, by Theodore Anderson. This book is a wealth of information of dielectric characteristics of biological tissues in plants, animals, as well as for ceramics, soils and minerals. Particular attention is paid to properties in the ISM frequency bands. Extensive sources for similar studies are provided. All RF Cafe quizzes would make perfect fodder in employment interviews for technicians or engineers - particularly those who are fresh out of school or are relatively new to the work world. Come to think of it, they would make equally excellent study material for the same persons who are going to be interviewed for a job.
 "Amid the fanfare around the announced Mott insulating and superconducting states observed in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) in the spring of 2018, the real excitement was around the questions the results left unanswered - what were these states and what might they explain about other systems? By measuring the capacitance of magic-angle TBG Pablo Jarillo-Herrero (who led the research behind the observations announced in 2018) and Ray Ashoori, alongside colleagues at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the U.S. and the National Institute of Materials Science (NIMS) in Japan ..."
 Providing full solution service is our motto, not just selling goods. RF & Connector Technology has persistently pursued a management policy stressing quality assurance system and technological advancement. From your very first contact, you will be supported by competent RF specialists; all of them have several years of field experience in this industry allowing them to suggest a fundamental solution and troubleshooting approach. Coaxial RF connectors, cable assemblies, antennas, terminations, attenuators, couplers, dividers, and more. Practically, we put priority on process inspection at each step of workflow as well as during final inspection in order to actualize "Zero Defects."
 I find it interesting that "Project Tinkertoy," so dubbed by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS - now the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST), does not contain a trademark to acknowledge the ownership of the Tinkertoy™ name. This 1955 Popular Electronics story doesn't mention it, either. Tinkertoy has been around since 1914 and every boy I knew in my neighborhood had at least one set - usually received as a Christmas gift. I had a couple of them, as well as an Erector Set or two. That said, I believe that a more appropriate name for the endeavor would have been "Project Lego™" because of the way component blocks snap and stack together (with the help of a little solder) ...
 Rohde & Schwarz is offering a free wall poster entitled, "Be Ahead in Connecting Everything LTE-M." This is offered as part of their August "Wireless Testing Update" newsletter that covers the R&S®CMW270 Wireless Connectivity Tester and a new whitepaper entitled, "White Paper Power Saving Methods for LTE-M and NB-IoT Devices." "LTE-M and NB-IoT are LTE based internet of things (IoT) technologies. Both require long battery lifetime to ensure IoT services and minimize maintenance costs in the future. This white paper describes the possible power-saving methods for LTE-M and NB-IoT devices and gives a guideline of their applicability ..."
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