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Sunday 31
 At least 10 clues in this
crossword puzzle with an asterisk (*) are pulled from this past
week's (12/25 - 12/29) "Tech Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage (see
the Headline Archives page for help). For the sake of all the avid cruciverbalists amongst
us, each week I create a new technology-themed crossword puzzle using only words related
to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy ...
Friday 29
 Given that this is the afternoon of the last workday
of 2017, this is a good time to kick back and enjoy a couple more
electronics-themed comics from vintage Popular Electronics magazines. RF
Cafe officially does not recommend that anyone try using the temporary solution for a
too-short antenna cable shown in the one comic ...
 "Congressional approval today of legislation to
reform America's outdated corporate tax system is a welcome and long-overdue win for
the U.S. semiconductor industry and a major step toward sustaining U.S. leadership in
semiconductor research, design, and manufacturing. The bill includes several important
provisions that SIA has long supported to improve the global competitiveness of U.S.
semiconductor companies ..."
 Lithium niobate is used today as the substrate
for surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters, oscillators, optical waveguides, and many other
applications. It, along with barium niobate, was used experimentally by RCA for storing
holographic optical images that can be read out later using a laser. This 1972 issue
of Popular Electronics included a brief news item referencing the work being
done. I could not locate any information that indicates any significant commercialization
of the process. Patent US3799642 was awarded ..."
 RWW
consists of five related conferences that focus on the intersection between wireless
communication theory, systems, circuits, and device technologies. This creates a unique
forum for engineers to discuss various technologies for state-of-art wireless systems
and their end-use applications. RWW2018 will be held at the Hyatt Regency Orange County in Garden
Grove, California, 14 - 17 January 2018. The venue is located in the sun-splashed southern ...
 "Electronics enthusiasts like being able to make
things themselves. In IEEE Spectrum's Hands On column, we've detailed how readers can
make their own solder reflow ovens, conductive ink, and synthetic aperture radars. But
making DIY integrated circuits seemed impossibly out of reach. After all, building a
modern fab is astronomically expensive: For example, in 2017 Intel announced it was investing
$7B to complete a facility for making chips with 7-nanometer-scale features. But Sam
Zeloof was not deterred. This 17-year-old high school student has started making chips
in his ..."
Thursday 28
 Expanding the popular and proprietary Linx WRT
line, the
dual-band WiFi WRT antenna supports legacy 2.4 GHz WiFi and
newer 5.8 GHz band applications, in a single, compact antenna. The dual-band WiFi
WRT antenna has a low profile and tamper resistant design that is perfect for challenging
applications such wireless vending, security, traffic, and power equipment. Installing
through a small hole in the enclosure the dual-band WiFi WRT antenna has an integrated
closed-cell PSA seal, protecting critical equipment from harsh, external elements. The
dipole ...
 "In 2013, venture capitalist Chris Olsen, a former
partner at Sequoia Capital, left
Silicon Valley to move to Ohio, where he'd just started Drive Capital.
Even his movers thought he was nuts for leaving California for Ohio. 'They were like,
'Oh, sorry, man,' ' he says. Just a year or two earlier, Olsen would have agreed with
them. When I was at Sequoia, he says, 'We passed on a company that was in Petaluma because
that was too far from Silicon Valley.' Then, in 2011, one of his fellow Sequoia ..."
 The April 1969 issue of Electronics World
magazine featured a collection of ten articles dealing with
filter design and application, authored by experts in the field. This one discusses
which filter types - lumped element (inductors and capacitors), distributed element (stripline,
microstrip, etc.), waveguide, cavity - are best fitted for use based on the intended
application. Power handling, rejection requirements, inband insertion loss, physical
size, cost, stability over time, temperature, vibration, and moisture as common considerations.
Sometimes the decision comes down to designer preference, manufacturing complexity, desire ...
 Aethercomm
designs and manufactures RF and Microwave amplifier modules, subsystems and systems.
The majority of our work is custom. The reliability and effectiveness of thousands of
Aethercomm products has been tested and proven in combat, helping to protect and save
the lives of our warfighters. Aethercomm is looking to fill a
Senior Firmware Design Engineer position. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
include the following: Develop firmware & digital circuit for power amplifiers and
other electronics which could include FPGAs, CPLDs ...
 "As expected, members of the 3GPP ratified the
Non-Standalone (NSA)
5G New Radio (NR) specification for what will form the basis of commercial
5G products, capping off months of meetings and work to get consensus. The industry agreed
earlier this year to accelerate the timeline so that at least part of the 5G standards
work would be complete by the end of this year rather than having it all come due next
summer. While some folks were skeptical about getting all the work done by now, many
industry leaders were confident it would get done ..."
Wednesday 27
 Lloyd
Hill joins the prestigious list of former and current USAF radar techs Lloyd went
through tech school at Keesler AFB, MS - as did we all - in 1980. Since retiring as a
Technical Sergeant, Lloyd has been working for the National Weather Service (NWS). He
is identified in this historical document as one of the founding members of the NWS's
first Weather Forecast
Office in Huntsville, Alabama.
 As of this day (December 27), we are approaching
the December 30 date whereon in the year 1953 the first commercially available color
television set - the Admiral C1617A - went on sale. Mac McGregor and his repair shop
technician, Barney, had been
servicing color TVs since at least February 1955 as printed in a Radio &
Television News story titled, "Barney Takes on Color." This particular edition laments
the increasing cost of servicing color television sets as they get increasingly complex.
Mac and Barney agree that one of the reasons for service cost is having to work with
the newfangled printed circuit boards. Those early PCBs ...
 Since 2001,
Antenna Test Lab Co has evaluated countless antennas and RF transmitter
products. With a fully anechoic
 chamber, antennas can be quickly developed and RF products
refined and deployed. Mounting surfaces like drywall, glass, wood, and even curved metal
 simulated
automobile available. The price for a standard resolution
2D or 3D field pattern plot is only $450
- for a passive or radiating antenna. That is an incredible deal!
 5G and LTE are major topics in the daily news headlines,
magazine articles, books, and seminars. I could have easily included twice as many articles
in the following list with "5G" in the title. Items move onto and off of all homepages
quickly, so even if you visit Microwave & RF, Microwave Journal,
Microwave Product Digest, High Frequency Electronics, et al, regularly,
you might have missed something in the list below.
-
Coexistence of LTE and Radar Systems, by D. McCarthy & S. Heuel -Making the
Jump to Wide Bandgap
Power,
by M. Slovick -
5G:
Is it Ready for Take Off?, by J. Kimery <more ...>
 "The amount of
electronic waste produced worldwide - the refrigerators, televisions,
computers, smartphones, and other devices thrown out or recycled - increased to 49.3M
tons over the last year, up from 46.1M tons in 2014, according to a new report from the
United Nations. But only around a fifth of that digital debris was collected and the
precious metals inside recovered through formal recycling programs, even though that
percentage increased from 15.5% in 2014. The rest falls ..."
Tuesday 26
 Update:
Epic snowstorm hits Erie! More than 60" just since Christmas Eve!
We had 21" of snow here in Erie, PA, on Christmas day! That's a record breaker even
for us. We just got back from visiting the kids in North Carolina and had nearly 30"
total to clear in the driveway (not including drifts). It was kind of spooky watching
on the webcam while the snow pile up. Thank goodness for snow blowers. I normally shovel
by hand. but not this time. Going away in the winter in Erie is not smart.
 Filters has always been one of my favorite topics.
I gained a real appreciation for and understanding of them when drudging through the
mathematics behind the curves in college courses. BTW, for anyone out there thinking
about taking up engineering as a career; i.e., getting an engineering degree, it is vitally
important that you fully comprehend the concept of Laplace and Fourier transforms because
when you get to the point that you need to employ them in your primary classes. Having
to struggle with the basic math while learning to apply it to circuits, mechanics, etc.,
will almost surely cause you to fail. Anyway, this ...
 Triad has released the
TTRM1190, a wideband GaN BDA that operates from 30 MHz to 2700 MHz
and produces over 8 W of TX power. One of the smallest BDAs in the industry measuring
only 3.25 x 2.12 x 0.53 inches, this feature rich BDA is also one of the most efficient.
While producing 8 W of RF power, it only consumes 24 W of DC power. It also
produces over 2 W of linear 16 QAM 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 and RX at less than 1 μsec can be performed manually ...
 "Holographic beamforming (HBF), a communications technique that is
claimed to be superior to MIMO and digital beamforming, is being brought to market by
Pivotal Commware Inc., a company that has secured $17M in a Series A round of investment.
Pivotal Commware was founded in 2016 as a spin off from Intellectual Ventures Management
LLC (Bellevue, Washington) and is an exclusive licensee of IV's metamaterials technology
for use in terrestrial communications markets such ..."
Monday 25
 A linear series-pass voltage regulator is about
as simple a circuit as you can devise that will provide a reasonable degree of consistency.
With as little as a Zener diode, a transistor, and a biasing resistor. The small parts
count does not allow for temperature compensation, variable output voltage adjustment,
overcurrent protection, etc., but for most instances it gets the job done. The disadvantage
of a
linear series-pass voltage regulator is that the larger the difference between the
input and output voltage, the greater the inefficiency. That is because the total power
dissipated by the circuit is the product ...
 After seeing this on a news website, I decided
to risk embarrassing myself by taking the Australian Secret Intelligence Service's (ASIS)
online preliminary
spy qualification test. To gain entrance to the interviewer's office, you must first
complete a number sequence on the elevator buttons. That was piece of cake; after all,
I am an engineer don't you know! Things got really interesting from there. I
soon began harkening back to the observation skills exhibited by Jason Borne and other über
spies of filmdom. Surely nobody is that aware and able to remember many details
of his surroundings. Evidently, real-life spies can. Click the thumbnail image above
to see how I did ...
 "Researchers from North Carolina State University
have found that the transfer of triplet excitons from nanomaterials to molecules also
creates a feedback mechanism that returns some energy to the nanocrystal, causing it
to photoluminesce on long time scales. The mechanism can be adjusted
to control the amount of energy transfer, which could be useful in optoelectronic applications.
Felix N. Castellano had previously shown that semiconductor nanocrystals ..."
Sunday 24
 Along with the standard fare of all tech-related
words and clues, a holiday message to the RF Cafe faithful ;-) is integrated into this
week's crossword puzzle. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Friday 22
 Saelig Company has announced the
TekBox TBST120/60/60/2
Shielded Tent which provides an economical RF/EMI-attenuated environment for a variety
of bench-top "EMI quiet" applications. The TBST-120/60/60/2 is a compact shielded tent,
designed to suppress interference from ambient noise during EMC pre-compliance measurements.
With outer dimension of 4' x 2' x 2' it can accommodate pre-compliance test equipment
such as LISNs or TEM ...
 This 1935 article found in Short Wave Craft
magazine quotes the
DJC radio station engineer as saying that they transmitted with only 5 kW into
the farm of directional antenna arrays, and that it was sufficient to provide what was
evidently very high quality reception to many remote regions of the world. Adolph
Hitler had become "Führer und Reichskanzler" the year before, with plans already in the
works to dominate the world. Troops invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, officially beginning
WWII. DJC's global reach was used extensively for propaganda during the war ...
 "Each year, the 'residents' of McMurdo Station,
Antarctica, celebrate Christmas by singing and sharing
Christmas Carols via HF - using a non-Amateur Radio frequency just
above 40 meters - for those at remote Antarctic field camps. They'll be doing it again
in 2017, on Saturday, December 23, at 2300 UTC. 'Multiple stations are involved, each
with different equipment,' explained Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, an assistant research
professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology who has been part of the chorus in the
past. 'McMurdo Station and ..."
Aethercomm
designs and manufactures RF and Microwave amplifier modules, subsystems and systems.
The majority of our work is custom. The reliability and effectiveness of thousands of
Aethercomm products has been tested and proven in combat, helping to protect and save
the lives of our warfighters. Aethercomm is looking to fill a RF Test
Engineer position. Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following:
Monitor creation and maintain quality control of test documentation, test reports and
documentation organization ...
 "A
quantum material that mimics a shark's ability to detect the minute
electric fields of small prey has been shown to perform well in ocean-like conditions,
with potential applications from defense to marine biology. The material maintains its
functional stability and does not corrode after being immersed in saltwater, a prerequisite
for ocean sensing. Surprisingly, it also functions well in the cold, ambient temperatures
typical of seawater, said Shriram Ramanathan ..."
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