Homepage Archive - September 2017 (page 1)

These archive pages are provided in order to make it easier for you to find items that you remember seeing on the RF Cafe homepage. Of course probably the easiest way to find anything on the website is to use the "Search RF Cafe" box at the top of every page. About RF Cafe.

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Sunday 10

Engineering Crossword Puzzle w/Weekly Headlines - September 10

RF Cafe Engineering Crossword Puzzle w/Weekly Headlines September 10, 2017For the sake of avid cruciverbalists amongst us, each week I create a new crossword puzzle that has a theme related to engineering, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and other technical words. At least 12 clues in this puzzle with an asterisk (*) are pulled from this past week's (9/4 - 9/8) "Tech Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage (see the Headline Archives page for help). Enjoy! ...

Note in from Res-Net & Nova Microwave re Hurricane Irma

     Res-Net Microwave Nova Microwave Hurricane Irma - RF Cafe

Darryl Mayo, president & CEO of Res-New Microwave and Nova Microwave, offers the following:

"Even though Hurricane Irma is heading straight for us and our Clearwater, Florida facility, Res-Net Microwave and Nova Microwave will still be displaying at the EDI CON show in Boston next week. We will be at booth #610 on Tuesday September 12th and Wednesday the 13th. We hope that everyone who is in the storm's path stays safe. You will be in our thoughts and prayers."

Friday 8

Solar Flares Spark Radio Blackouts, Auroral Displays Possible

Solar Flares Spark Radio Blackouts, Auroral Displays Possible - RF Cafe"NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has issued a strong (G3) geomagnetic storm watch for September 7 through 9. The SWPC said the watch for September 7 remains in effect due to the arrival of a coronal mass ejection (CME) and the effects of a CME on September 4. 'Additionally, a G3 watch is now in effect for the 8 and 9 September UTC days in anticipation of the arrival of another CME associated with the X9.3 flare (R3 — strong radio blackout) on 6 September ..."

A Message from Windfreak Technologies re Hurricane Irma

Windfreak Technologies Hurricane Irma Message - RF Cafe

I contacted David and Vicky, at Windfreak Technologies, this morning to check on their status. The company is based a few miles north of Tampa, Florida. They offered the following statement to customers and to well-wishers:

"The team at Windfreak Technologies has safely evacuated New Port Richey in Florida and driven to Tennessee for Hurricane Irma. They extend their best wishes to anyone else in the path of Irma. They have also evacuated their product inventory and can still ship product with minimal extra delay."

Antennas for CB'ers and Hams

Antennas for CB'ers and Hams, September 1973 Popular Electronics - RF Cafe"Does a choice transmitting antenna always constitute the best receiving antenna?" That question alone, by author Carl Eller, piques my interest and gives confidence that this article is the type I have long said is lacking in the amateur antenna system design realm. Most treatises, it seems, address only the transmit half of the operation. Just as with the old aviation adage that with enough power you can make a brick fly, in the non-professional world the attitude is often that a really crappy base antenna / transmission line / power amplifier mismatch is fine as long a tuner is capable of brining the VSWR into an acceptable range ...

Equifax Execs Sold Stock Before Informing Public

Equifax Database Breach Check Your Name - RF CafeYou have probably heard about the massive data breach at Equifax. I figured it might be a good idea to use their service to determine whether it affected me. I stopped short, however, when Equifax required 6 out of 9 characters of my SSAN along with my last name. Bad plan Equifax; that means another hacker only needs to guess at most 1000 combinations to get a name-number match - a hacker's dream. Per MarketWatch: "After Equifax Inc. discovered a massive data breach that may have endangered the personal information of up to two-thirds of Americans, but before the company divulged the information, three executives sold their Equifax stock, according to Securities ..."

Southwest Antennas Releases New 4.4-5.0 GHz Body Worn Antennas

Southwest Antennas Releases New S-Band 4.4 – 5.0 GHz Body Worn Antennas - RF CafeSouthwest Antennas, an industry leader in MIMO / MANET antenna solutions, is pleased to announce the introduction of two new C-Band RHCP & LHCP body worn patch antennas. These new antennas join their existing line of body worn antenna solutions, including options for L and S band radios. Designed to be light weight and easily worn and hidden in tactical clothing, these body worn antennas are ideal for use in multi-antenna MIMO / MANET radio applications such as handheld ...

DARPA's ICECool Chills 3-D Stacks

DARPA's ICECool Chills 3-D Stacks - RF Cafe"The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Intrachip / Interchip Enhanced Cooling (ICECool) program, which teamed IBM and the Georgia Institute of Technology to solve the liquid cooling problem for 3-D chip stacks, has yielded an approach that uses an insulating dielectric refrigerant instead of water. Researchers who worked on the prototype say the approach will lower the cost of cooling supercomputer CPUs by pumping refrigerants through microfluidic ..."

Thursday 7

Anatech Electronics September Product Update

Anatech Electronics Product Update September 6, 2017 - RF CafeAnatech Electronics, Inc. offers the industry's largest portfolio of high-performance standard and customized RF and microwave filters and filter-related products for military, commercial, aerospace and defense, and industrial applications up to 40 GHz. Anatech has introduced 3 new ceramic RF duplexer filters for your convenience: a surface mount 1880 / 1960 MHz duplexer; a connectorized 770.5 / 715.5 MHz duplexer, and a surface mount 2535 / 2655 MHz duplexer ...

DARPA Looks Beyond Moore's Law

DARPA Looks Beyond Moore's Law - RF Cafe"With the chip scaling framework known as Moore's Law clearly running out of steam, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is attempting to reinvigorate and leverage a vibrant domestic chip sector with a $200 million initiative designed to push the boundaries of chip architectures such as graphics processors. DARPA recently announced that its Electronics Resurgence Initiative seeks to move beyond Moore's Law chip scaling. Among the new fronts to be opened by the defense agency are ..."

Do You Know Your Bipolar Transistors?

Do You Know Your Bipolar Transistors?, September 1973 Popular Electronics - RF CafeMr. Lothar Stern, of Motorola Semi, published a 3-part series on transistor theory in Popular Electronics magazine in 1973. This is part 2. Part 1 introduced the basics of the bipolar transistor, and this follow-on article starts addressing transistor circuit configurations - common emitter, common gate, common collector, Darlington, differential - as well as presenting gain equations and delving a bit into the physical construction of the semiconductor elements ...

PMI September Product Announcement

Planar Monolithic Industries (PMI) September 2017 Product Announcement - RF CafePlanar Monolithic Industries (PMI) recently introduced four new products in their extensive line of RF and microwave components. Included are a 2-18 GHz threshold detector, a 0.5 to 18 GHz high power limiter, a 6.0 to 18.0 GHz 8-bit digital phase shifter, and a 0.1 to 2.0 GHz successive log video amplifier. Contact PMI today for more information ...

FCC Technological Advisory Council Investigating Technical Regulations

FCC Technological Advisory Council Investigating Technical Regulations - RF Cafe"The FCC Technological Advisory Council (TAC) is looking into FCC technical regulations to determine if reforms or changes might be in order. Greg Lapin, N9GL, represents ARRL on the TAC and chairs the ARRL RF Safety Committee. The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) announced the TAC public inquiry (ET Docket 17-215), which seeks comments by October 30 regarding technical regulations and the process for adopting and updating ..."

MWJ Webinar: Mixers and Frequency Conversion

RF/Microwave Training Webinar

Title: Mixers and Frequency Conversion

Date: September 28, 2017

Time: 8am PT / 11am ET

Sponsored by: National Instruments

Presented by: Allen Podell

Outline: Frequency conversion is a critical function in all wireless systems. A key component used to accomplish this is the mixer. Designers need to understand different mixer topologies and specifications in order to meet their system requirements. This webinar provides a brief overview of frequency conversion ...

Wednesday 6

Teledyne e2V Space Forum / Paris Tech Day

Teledyne e2V Space Forum / Paris Tech Day - RF CafeSeptember 19, 2017 at the Hotel Mercure Paris Massy Gare TGV. The presentations dedicated to the Teledyne e2v Space Forum will now be made available at our Paris Tech Day following the cancellation of the Space Forum event including: ADX error-correction IP for time-interleaved, high-speed ADCs systems, Improving economics of SatCom Payloads with UWB data converters, Next-gen radar Earth observation enabled by UWB data converters, GaN power solutions ...

Mac's Service Shop: A New TV Antenna

Mac's Service Shop: A New TV Antenna, December 1972 Popular Electronics - RF CafeChannel Master has been making state-of-the-art television antennas since 1949. Back in the day, there were many TV antenna manufacturers because over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts were the only means of receiving programs. The advent of cable, satellite, and Internet television has caused a steady decline of OTA users even though most locations still broadcast from towers. It is a shame because aside from the more on-demand aspect of some of those other venues, Chanel Master notes: "Live Broadcast Television - It's 80% of what you watch. And it's free." The wireless ...

Nice Concept! - GW Instek All-In-One Lab Oscilloscopes

Saelig Introduces All-In-One MDO-2000E Oscilloscope Series with Multiple Built-In Instruments - RF CafeSaelig Company has introduced the GW Instek MDO-2000E Series Oscilloscopes which combine several test instruments in one enclosure. An actual spectrum analyzer is included in the design, not just an FFT calculation to display the frequency domain. The series includes two instrument combinations: MDO-2000EG and MDO-2000EX. MDO-2000EG models have a built-in true spectrum analyzer and a dual channel 25 MHz arbitrary waveform generator, while the MDO-2000EX models feature ...

Webinar: Conquering Radar Signal Generation

Webinar: Conquering Radar Signal Generation - RF CafeAvailable for viewing now. "What are the challenges related to the creation and generation of complex radar signals and what are the tools to help make this task more efficient? Gain these insights and learn how to avoid common traps when creating and generating complex signals with this hour long webinar. You'll learn: • Why radar signals are particularly difficult to create and generate. • Methods that will help reduce the complex ..."

USAF Seeks Common VLF Communications for Nuclear Forces

USAF Seeks Common VLF Communications for Nuclear Forces - RF Cafe"The Air Force is looking for the next generation of Very Low Frequency communications to maintain contact with its ICBMs and bombers. In particular, the Air Force wants to address the problem that different strategic forces use different communications systems. For example, the Air Force has different 'VLF/LF receiver variants for its bombers, wing command posts, strategic mobile command posts and the intercontinental ballistic missile systems.' So the Air Force is searching for receivers, antennas, and waveforms that will create ..."

Tuesday 5

The Future of Electronic Waste

The Future of Electronic Waste - RF Cafe"Electronic waste is the fastest-growing form of waste. Could recycling be a new revenue stream and an environmental boon? Japan is a small, island nation, but its efforts in electronic waste recycling are attracting international attention. Could the United States learn from the Japanese model? With a population of more than 127 million, Japan recycles more than 2 million tons of electronic waste annually. America only recycles about 679,000 tons annually, and that figure ..."

ConductRF D38999 Standard & Custom RF Solutions

ConductRF D38999 Standard & Custom RF Solutions - RF CafeConductRF is offering standard D38999 RF coaxial cable assembly configurations with RF Contacts including; BMA to 20 GHz SMPM to 60 GHz Size #8 to 18 GHz Size #12 Mil-Spec. Size #16 Mil-Spec. Cable choice include Low Loss Flexible and standard RG styles. Custom marking and also ruggedization coverings including Nomex weave available ...

How to Avoid Workbench Hazards

How to Avoid Workbench Hazards, September 1973 Popular Electronics - RF CafeCommon sense never goes out of style, especially as it pertains to safety in the presence of electricity. Most people who have worked in the electrical / electronics realm for a while are aware that lethal electrocution can occur with currents as low as 100 mA when it passes through the heart. Lower values cause progressively less profound maladies, but in practice any level of current great enough to be felt is not a good thing. I have written before about having received a few pretty scary shocks when working on high voltage equipment and many lesser jolts throughout my 45± years of exposure. Other than observing my father's being scared sh**less of anything with an ...

Whitepapers Engineering Magazines

Engineering White Papers & Books, September 2017 - RF CafeWhitepapers, pamphlets, books, magazines, and chapter examples listed here are a small sample of a lot of new items that are offered for FREE through TradePub. The publishers make them available to qualifying people as a promotional campaign for their full line of offerings. Whitepaper topics include careers, manufacturing, and engineering, while magazine titles include Microwaves & RF, Military & Aerospace Electronics, and Microwave Product Digest ...

Notable Tech Quote: Jill Tarter

Notable Tech Quote: Jill Tarter - RF Cafe"You wouldn't dip a glass in the ocean, come up with no fish inside and conclude, 'No fish exist.'" - astronomer Jill Tarter regarding where humans are with SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). July / August 2017 Discover magazine.

Please Visit Triad RF Systems to Thank Them for Their Support

Triad RF SystemsTriad 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. "We view Triad more as a technology partner than a vendor for our line-of-sight communications product line." Please check to see how we can help your project ...

Monday 4

Electronics-Themed Comics - 1969 Electronics World

Electronics-Themed Comics, August 1969 Electronics World - RF CafeIt is Labor Day 2017 in the USA, so most people are off work today (which seems antithetical to the "labor" part of the holiday name). For those unfortunate enough to be at work, here is a bit of vintage electronic comic relief from a 1969 Electronics World magazine for your office-bound condition. Actually, during my years of working for someone else, I used to work the holidays (except Christmas) if I could get another day off instead. With very few managers around, those of us at work would enjoy what we termed "IPV," of In-Plant-Vacation. Very little work ...

NI AWR ADF 2017 Registration Opened for China and Taiwan

NI AWR ADF 2017 Agendas Set and Registration Opened for China and Taiwan - RF CafeThe agendas have been set and registration is open for the China and Taiwan leg of the seventh annual AWR Design Forum (ADF 2017). The tour will visit Beijing and Chengdu on September 26 and 29 respectively, followed by a stop in Hsinchu, Taiwan on October 3. Highlights of the China and Taiwan ADF 2017 agendas include: 5G: Multi-user multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO), the active phased array in 5G applications, MIMO and beam-steering ...

IEC 60728-3:2017 Pre-Release for Active WB Equipment for Cable Networks

IEC Publishes IEC 60728-3:2017 Pre-Release Version for Active Wideband Equipment for Cable Networks - RF Cafe"The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has released IEC 60728-3:2017 PRV Pre release version. This includes 'Cable networks for television signals, sound signals and interactive services – Part 3: Active wideband equipment for cable networks.' This pre-release version is now available on the IEC webstore. Description: 'IEC 60728-3:2017 specifies the measuring methods, performance requirements and data publication requirements for active wideband equipment ..."

Sunday 3

RF Cafe Crossword Puzzle w/Weekly Headlines September 3

RF Cafe Engineering Crossword Puzzle w/Weekly Headlines September 3, 2017For the sake of avid cruciverbalists amongst us, each week I create a new crossword puzzle that has a theme related to engineering, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and other technical words. At least 12 clues in this puzzle with an asterisk (*) are pulled from this past week's (8/28 - 9/1) "Tech Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage (see the Headline Archives page for help). Enjoy! ...

IMO: Life Insurance & DACA

IMO: Life Insurance & DACA - RF CafeI am buying life insurance for the first time in 11 years. After being a model citizen for 59 years and maintaining my health - regular exercise, 5'-8", 135 lbs., never smoked nor drank nor took illegal drugs, no major health issues, never received welfare or unemployment - my rates will be inflated because both my father and mother died at age 51 from heavy cigarette smoking related illnesses (heart attack and lung cancer, respectively). I am being forced to pay for the sins of my parents. The same government that permits penalizing me wants illegal children of illegal adults to not pay for the sins of their parents; i.e., DACA. It is evidently OK to punish a legal citizen but not an illegal alien.

Friday 1

Antenova Intros Robusta GNSS Antenna for Metal Surfaces

Antenova Intros Robusta GNSS Antenna for Metal Surfaces for Tracking and Smart Cities - RF CafeAntenova manufacturer of antennas and RF antenna modules for M2M and the Internet of Things, is to launch Robusta part no. SR4G031, a new antenna for metal surfaces - at the GSMA MWC Americas show. The antenna operates in the 1559-1609 MHz bands and is designed for tracking metal objects and smart city applications. Antenova takes antenna design a step forward with its REFLECTOR family, which answer to the challenge of operating on a metal surface or housing, where it is extremely difficult for an antenna ...

Could 3D Printing Disrupt the Electronics Industry?

Could 3D Printing Disrupt the Electronics Industry? - RF CafeWhen I entered electronics manufacturing in 1982, most large companies had in-house PCB fab capability, then everything was outsourced. It's coming back thanks to 3D printing. "Moving PCB production in-house can save over 60% in prototyping time, produce better products, and greatly reduce the supply chain. More companies and universities are integrating 3D printing with their electronic design. The non-traditional process ..."

The Challenge of Slow-Scan TV

The Challenge of Slow-Scan TV, August 1973 Popular Electronics - RF CafeYou would be forgiven if you think a technology as crude as slow-scan television (SSTV) has gone out of vogue with live YouTube videos and webcams, but such is not the case. What has changed is the portion of Amateur Radio spectrum allocated to SSTV and which classes of license holders may use it. Of course the equipment used has been modernized, but vintage systems still work. Originally, only Advanced class ticket holders were allowed access, but nowadays all Hams may operate SSTV, including the entry level Technician class. SSTV was used extensively on space exploration platforms including Apollo; in fact the historic Apollo 11 video feed of astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin hopping around ...

A Giant Scale Fokker Dr.1 Triplane Baron von Richthofen Would Envy

Fokker Dr. 1 Triplane Giant Scale - RF CafeHow many times have I said it? The Germans sure know how to build magnificent machines. Some of the most incredible giant scale model airplanes come from Deutschland. Baron von Richthofen could only dream of his red triplane performing these maneuvers. Not to diminish the video pilots' skills, but modern RC models benefit from computerized radio systems and onboard gyros to help stabilize the aircraft during slow flight when it is the engine's raw power holding the plane in the air.

I have also said many times that it is a shame how Germany now seems to be committing national suicide with its open doors immigration policy.

Skyworks Intros ZigBee / Thread / Bluetooth Front-End Module

Skyworks Announces ZigBee®/Thread/Bluetooth® Front-End Module - RF CafeSkyworks has introduced the SKY66403-11, a new 2.4 GHz fully-integrated RF front-end module (FEM) designed to support ZigBee®, Thread and next-generation Bluetooth® wireless protocols (including Bluetooth Low Energy "BLE"). This high-performance device is designed for ease of use and maximum flexibility for Internet of Things (IoT) applications, particularly within the connected home, wearables and M2M markets. This module is also suitable for coin cell ...

Scientists Can Make Your Computer 1,000x Faster with Graphene

Scientists Can Make Your Computer 1,000x Faster with Graphene - RF Cafe"A collaborative team of researchers has developed a new kind of transistor that could make your computer 1,000 times faster. The transistor uses graphene instead of silicon. Graphene was discovered in 2004 and was soon being used in a wide range of applications, to the point where it has become known as the 'wonder material'. It possesses a unique set of properties, amongst them is the ability to conduct electricity ten times better than copper. Copper is currently the most commonly used conductor in ..."