Homepage Archive - August 2018 (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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Friday 10

Antenna Test Lab: 2D & 3D Antenna Pattern Testing

Antenna Test Lab Co logoAntenna Test Lab Co Anechoic Chamber - RF CafeSince 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 Antenna Test Lab Co 2D & 2D Patterns - RF Cafesimulated 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! Be sure to check out the whitepapers on antenna testing topics.

Quasi-Peak Detector Measurements

Quasi-Peak Detector Measurements (Cris Schulze) - RF CafeRF Cafe visitor Cris Schulze saw the Design News article I linked to titled, "EMI Emissions Testing: Peak, Quasi-Peak, and Average Measurements," and has given permission to reprint his brief response to it (originally posted on LinkedIn). The included notebook image includes an excerpt from Wikipedia's quasi-peak detector page, and he illustrates a block diagram of the test chain with de Forest's audion circuit that provides the fast rise-time and slow fall-time that characterizes it. A table of actual test data compares quasi-peak measurements to average measurements ...

Hughes Aerospace Division Employment Advertisement

Hughes Aerospace Division Employment, December 13, 1965 Electronics Magazine - RF CafeHughes Aerospace Division (now part of Boeing Satellite Development Center) built the Syncom satellites for NASA in the early 1960s, at the dawn of the space communications era. Syncom is short for Synchronous communications, so named because it was the first operational satellite placed in a geosynchronous orbit. It was a big deal because its stationary positioning meant that not only was it constantly in view of earth-based communications stations, but earth-based antennas did not need to have expensive, sophisticated tracking systems to access the satellite. Once the Gold Rush had panned out (pun intended) in California, the booming aerospace industry was one of the largest attractions for the state. Hughes' advertisement in this 1965 issue of Electronics magazine targets circuit designers who were thinking of "high" in terms of getting a satellite high into outer space in geosynchronous ...

Many Thanks to MECA Electronics for Their Long-Time Support!

MECA ElectronicsMECA Electronics V-Line componentsSince 1961, MECA Electronics manufactures an extensive line of RF & microwave components for in-building, satellite, radar, radio, telemetry, mobile radio, aviation & ATC. Attenuators, directional & hybrid couplers, isolators & circulators, power dividers & combiners, loads, DC blocks, bias-Ts and adapters & cables. MECA has long been the 'backbone' of high performance wired and air-interfaced networks. Please visit MECA today to learn how they can help with your projects ...

RF Stencils for Visio v3.1 Available! - Your Support Keeps Me off Welfare ;-)

RF Microwave Wireless Analog Block Diagrams Stencils Shapes for Visio - v3 - RF Cafe

With more than 780 custom-built symbols, this has got to be the most comprehensive set of Visio Stencils available for RF, analog, and digital system and schematic drawings! Every object has been built from scratch to fit proportionally on the provided A- and B-size drawing page templates (you can use your own page if preferred). Components are provided for equipment racks (EIA and ETSI) and test equipment, system block diagrams and conceptual drawings, and for schematics ...

U.S. Targets Electron-Ion Collider to Stay Top in Nuclear Physics

U.S. Targets Electron-Ion Collider to Stay Top in Nuclear Physics - RF Cafe"The US should begin planning a next generation electron-ion collider (EIC) to study the structure of protons and neutrons in unprecedented detail. That is according to a 15-strong committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Its 115-page report, commissioned by the US Department of Energy (DOE), says that an EIC with high energy and luminosity as well as highly-polarized electron and ion beams 'would be unique to greatly further our understanding of visible matter.' The science that can be addressed by an EIC is compelling, fundamental ..."

Thursday 9

JITX Uses AI to Automate Complex Circuit Board Design

JITX Uses AI to Automate Complex Circuit Board Design - RF Cafe"AI has the potential to take much of the dull complexity out of designing custom circuit boards. While anyone can learn how to design a circuit board, it takes a skilled engineer to design a circuit board that is both well optimized and unlikely to melt, explode, or cause whatever it's controlling to melt or explode. Skilled engineers tend to be busy and expensive and on the ornery side, especially if you ask them to do things that don't take full advantage of how brilliant they are. JITX is a startup founded by a team of electrical and mechanical engineers from UC Berkeley that's building AI with the goal of designing optimized circuit boards in hours instead of weeks ..."

What Ground?

What Ground?, August 1967 Popular Electronics - RF CafeEstablishing a good ground connection is more important than ever with all the vulnerable electronics devices connected to house wiring for the Internet of Things (IoT). The old saying of "Ground is ground the world around" is only true if you actually have a good path to that ground potential. This article discusses methods for determining whether or not you have a low resistance ground interface, and how to establish one if needed. However, that is only the below-grade part of the equation [ground rod(s) and possibly conduction-enhancing chemicals]. Installing a low resistance and equally important low inductance path above grade to the below grade component(s) is essential for maximum protection. Lightning is a transient phenomenon, so the di/dt part of the v(t) = L * di/dt equation governing voltage across an inductor ...

RF Superstore: Supplier of RF & Microwave Components

RF Superstore coaxial cable, connectors, adapters - RF CafeRF Superstore - RF CafeRF 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 RF Superstore into a world class RF and microwave component supplier. RF coaxial connectors & adapters, coaxial cable & cable assemblies, surge protectors, attenuators. Items added daily. Free shipping on orders over $99. We're leading the way again!

Electronics in an Industrial Plant

Electronics in an Industrial Plant, April 1960 Electronics World - RF CafeFactory automation has long been a point of contention between labor groups interested in retaining manual labor jobs and management groups interested in increasing production output rates and lowering operational costs. That beer bottle inspection job once performed by Laverne & Shirley at the Shotz Brewing Company is today handled by computer-controlled, networked robots. Ever-advancing technology has significantly enhanced the ability to monitor and control processes that help reduce scrap, remove workers from dangerous environments, and create higher quality goods. YouTube is full of videos showing factory automation for all sorts of tasks from forming springs to machining intricate surfaces to performing final inspection measurements on electronic, mechanical, and pharmaceutical products. In the last decade the Internet of Things (IoT) philosophy ...

USB Power Sensors for Statistical Pulse Measurements (p.22)

USB Power Sensors for Statistical Pulse Measurements - RF CafeOrwill Hawkins, of LadyBug Technologies, has a useful article in High Frequency Electronics (HFE) magazine titled, "USB Power Sensors for Statistical Pulse Measurements." It say in part, "Statistical pulse measurement capability is just one of the many features these new sensors can deliver to the engineer at a modest cost. This article will discuss the benefits and explain the methodology used to make statistical pulse measurements in two state pulse waveforms. Its purpose is to explain to the user the methodology in making the measurements so that the user can make better measurements with confidence." A chart of term definitions is given, some of which will make you think you are sitting in a dentist's chair (you'll see what I mean) ...

All-Optical Computing Gets Another Arrow in Its Quiver

All-Optical Computing Gets Another Arrow in Its Quiver - RF Cafe"Nanowire networks produce all-optical logic gates. All-optical computing promises to replace sluggish electrons with photons zipping along at light speed in digital logic. But despite years of effort and some progress in related areas such as plasmonics, such computing has remained largely just a promise. All-optical computing still needs some tools to make it into a reality. One key component of this toolbox will likely be all-optical logic gates, and researchers at Aalto University in Finland announced they have been able to fabricate such gates from nanowires ..."

Wednesday 8

Electronic Crosswords, April 1960 Electronics World

Electronic Crosswords, April 1960 Electronics World - RF CafeJohn Gill published many electronics-themed crossword puzzles in Electronics World magazine in the 1950s and 1960s. Unlike the weekly RF Cafe engineering crossword puzzles, some of the words used herein are not directly related to science, engineering, mathematics, etc. You will find the level of difficulty much less than that of a Sunday edition New York Times crossword, but there are some challenging clues, particularly given the era that it was created. Bon chance ...

Asian Circuits: PCB Assembly Services for Any Quantity

Asian Circuits PCB Manufacturing - RF Cafe

With expertise in PCB assembly, Asian Circuits has grown to become a one-stop electronic contract manufacturer for complete PCB assembly services. Corporate headquarters in Sacramento, CA, and manufacturing facilities in Shenzhen, China, provides the most affordable prices for the procurement of high-quality electronic components from local suppliers, and the manufacturing of Printed Circuit Boards through highly efficient production processes. All its processes and operations are in accordance with ISO9001 standards and in compliance with the IPC-A-600 and IPC-A-610 Acceptability of Printed Boards Standards. A highly skilled workforce in PCB manufacturing and circuit card assembly has assured our continued growth and overall success ...

Making Impedance Measurements in SPICE

Making Impedance Measurements in SPICE - RF CafeJohn Dunn has a useful article on EDN titled "Making Impedance Measurements in SPICE." The collection of test instruments in the Multisim SPICE John Dunn of EDN - RF Cafeversion that I've been using does not include an impedance measurement tool. However, one can make such a tool using the Bode analyzer, an AC current source, and a current probe. Three impedance measurement examples are seen in the following sketch. This works by using the IN port of the Bode analyzer to monitor the input current to the test subject while the OUT port monitors the resultant voltage. The analyzer delivers a display of the ratio of OUT divided by IN which is the test subject's impedance ..."

"Tunnel Diodes" - Experimental Semiconductors

"Tunnel Diodes" - Experimental Semiconductors, October 1959 Electronics World - RF CafeTunnel diodes came onto the commercial, military, and aerospace scene in the late 1950s. Exploiting the phenomenon of quantum-mechanical tunneling, the device exhibits a negative resistance region which makes it suitable for amplifier and oscillator applications. It also permits operation into the tens of gigahertz realm, which was new ground at the time. X-band and above was the exclusive realm of laboratory-based experiments using klystrons and exotic chemical oscillators (pseudo-maser - microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). Tunnel diodes quickly became a part of miniaturized radar units, battery-powered communications systems, undercover (spy) operations, and many other applications ...

San Diego Test Equipment Symposium Opens October 16th

San Diego Test Equipment Symposium Presented by Advanced Test Equipment Rentals Opens October 16th - RF Cafe

Advanced Test Equipment Rentals (ATEC) today announced this year's San Diego Test Equipment Symposium (SDTES), the annual test and measurement showcase held in California, will take place on Tuesday, October 16th. Following last year's success, SDTES 2018 is expected to have more attendees, exhibitors and presenters than ever. Guests can expect manufacturer product demos, presentations on today's hot industry topics, networking opportunities, and more. The San Diego Test Equipment Symposium is a yearly event in which leading test and measurement equipment manufacturers exhibit their latest technologies. Industry experts in the fields of EMC, communications, electrical, power, and a variety ...

UCF Professor Discovers a 1st-of-its-Kind Material for Quantum Age

UCF Professor Discovers a 1st-of-its-Kind Material for Quantum Age - RF Cafe"A UCF physicist has discovered a new material that has the potential to become a building block in the new era of quantum materials, those that are composed of microscopically condensed matter and expected to change our development of technology. Researchers are entering the Quantum Age, and instead of using silicon to advance technology they are finding new quantum materials, conductors that have the ability to use and store energy at the subatomic level. Assistant Professor Madhab Neupane has spent his career learning about the quantum realm ..."

Tuesday 7

How to Spot and Eliminate Mobile Radio Noise

How to Spot and Eliminate Mobile Radio Noise, June 1966 Popular Electronics - RF CafeElectrical noise problems in automotive environments is almost never a problem now that most forms of communications therein are fundamentally immune to ignition and even computer interference. We relics who still listen to AM radio still sometimes suffer noise from lightning static, extreme arcing from electric service connections, and, yes, even from ignition sources. In fact, occasionally while listening to AM radio in my 2011 Jeep Patriot I will detect a whine that is proportional to engine speed. It is not annoying enough to warrant going to the trouble of chasing down and mitigating the source; I can live with it. This 1966 Popular Electronics article presents a very thorough treatise on ignition noise causes and cures. The techniques are still applicable to modern vehicles ...

Smart Wireless Technology to Efficiently Manage RF Spectrum Resources

Smart Wireless Technology to Efficiently Manage RF Spectrum Resources - RF Cafe"EU-funded researchers have developed a smart wireless technology that efficiently manages radio-frequency spectrum resources and avoids transmission bottlenecks. The new system, which also prevents selfish attacks by secondary users, could be used in military and commercial wireless applications. The growing popularity of wireless networks has highlighted the need to increase network capacity and efficiency. Cognitive radio-based networks have attracted increased attention and have been studied in depth to overcome the problem of spectrum scarcity in next-generation wireless communication systems ..."

Reactel: RF & Microwave Filters of All Types

Reactel Filters - RF CafeReactel has become one of the industry leaders in the design and manufacture of RF and microwave filters, diplexers, and sub-assemblies. Through a continuous process of research and development, they have established a full line of filters of all types - lowpass, highpass, bandpass, bandstop, diplexer, and more. They offer the generally known tubular, LC, cavity, and waveguide designs, as well as state of the art high performance suspended substrate models. Established in 1979. Please contact Reactel today to see how they might help your project ...

Anatech Electronics August Product Update

Anatech Electronics Product Update August 7, 2018 - 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 three new filter designs: a 174 MHz surface mount ceramic bandpass filter, a surface mount 35.0 MHz IF SAW filter, and a 113 MHz bandstop / notch filter with N connectors. Custom RF filters designs are used when a standard cannot be found, or the requirements are such that a custom approach is necessary ...

Smith Chart™ for Apple Numbers™

Smith Chart™ for Apple Numbers™ (by Dan S.) - RF CafeThanks to the hard work of Dan S., a longtime friend and former project manager to whom I reported, my Smith Chart™ for Excel™ spreadsheet is now available for Apple products users. Smith Chart™ for Numbers™ will run on iPhones, iPads, and Mac computer in their native OS without needing a Windows emulator. The download is free. Rumor has it that Dan is also working on porting my RF Cafe Calculator Workbook™ to Numbers as well. Stay tuned ...

DOE Develops Tiny Device to Convert Waste Heat into DC Power

DOE Develops Tiny Device to Convert Waste Heat into DC Power - RF Cafe"Researchers have developed a small silicon-based device that can turn waste heat dissipated by electronics into a power source. Converting heat that dissipates from electronic devices into usable power is a Holy Grail of sorts for energy-harvesting designers. After all, it would allow these devices - even electric cars - to be their own sources of power. Now, researchers at the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Sandia National Laboratories appear to be closer to reaching this goal with the development of a tiny silicon-based device that can turn so-called waste heat into DC power ..."

Monday 6

Amish Man Starts "Uber" Ride Service with Horse and Buggy

Amish Man Starts "Uber" Ride Service with Horse and Buggy - RF Cafe"Anyone who has ever taken an Uber ride knows it's convenient and very popular so one man in St. Joseph County has found a way to make ride sharing more scenic. Timothy Hochstedler calls it Amish Uber. He is adding some horsepower to ride sharing. The newest taxi service in Colon has four wheels, four legs and good gas mileage. Inside his horse and buggy, people share a ride and Hochstedler gets to share some stories. Everyone's happy. 'Uber is a cool thing, every single year something new comes in and Uber is hot right now, so we have the Amish Uber. We can deliver people to their front door steps ..."

Electro-Photonics Manufacturing RF & Microwave Products

Electro-PhotonicsElectro-Photonics components - RF CafeElectro-Photonics is a global supplier of RF & microwave components. Their products include SMT hybrid and directional couplers, wire bondable passive components, mounting tabs, filters, transmission lines, and very useful test boards for evaluating components (spiral inductors, single-layer capacitors). The Electro-Photonics team can support your small R&D design requirements with RF & Microwave test fixtures and save you valuable design and characterization time. Please take a moment to visit Electro-Photonics' website and see how your project might benefit ...

Westernizing Japan

Westernizing Japan, December 13, 1965 Electronics Magazine - RF CafeHere is an editorial excerpt from a 1965 issue of Electronics magazine that could be from a contemporary news publication: "If U. S. manufacturers continue to abandon their engineering and production for Japanese products, they are headed for oblivion because they cannot compete with the purely merchandising organizations such as Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Montgomery Ward* which buy Japanese products too." Of course you could easily substitute South Korea, China, Taiwan, or any other now-prominent technology company in place of Japan. American economic "experts" assured us in the 1990s that we no longer needed to manufacture anything; rather, we would become a service and retail economy. That worked out real well, eh? ...

GaN's Role in 5G

GaN's Role in 5G - RF CafeGallium Nitride (GaN) has become a big deal in the RF and power electronics worlds due to its ability to survive high temperatures. Fairview Microwave has a good article titled "GaN's Role in 5G" on the Microwave Product Digest (MPD) website. "The race to 5G appears to have picked up speed, particularly in the United States where major telecommunications companies such as AT&T and Verizon have made announcements to launch 5G services by the end of 2018. Advanced LTE (LTE-A) is already expanding rapidly with upgrades to current base stations (BS). Field trials for LTE-Pro (aka 4.5G) are in full swing with download speeds already reaching 1 gigabit per second (Gbps). Fixed wireless access (FWA) technology has already been through significant ..."

Triad RF Systems Intros a 1700-2400 MHz, 50 W, L-S Band PA

Triad RF Systems Intros a 1700-2400 MHz, 50 W, L-S Band Power Amplifier - RF CafeTriad RF Systems has introduced the all new TA1017, which is a 50 watt, L- and S-band power amplifier that offers impressive power in a small and lightweight package, making it ideal for DBV-T applications. The TA1017 is also an excellent choice for LTE, WiFi, and any other L- or S-band application where small size and high output power are essential. This class AB GaN module is designed for both military and commercial applications. It is capable of supporting any signal type and modulation format, including but not limited to 3-4G telecom, WLAN, OFDM, DVB, and CW/AM/FM. The latest device technologies and design methods are employed to offer high power ...

Wavelength-Scale Features Lead to Fast Practical Graphene Light Sensing

Wavelength-Scale Features Lead to Fast Practical Graphene Light Sensing - RF Cafe"Engineers at UCLA have designed a graphene-based photodetector that is sensitive and can work anywhere in the electromagnetic spectrum from ultra-violet to microwaves. The work is published in Nature Light Science & Applications in the paper 'Gold-patched graphene nano-stripes for high-responsivity and ultrafast photodetection from the visible to infrared regime,' whose title explains just about all you need to know. Photo-carrier generation is mostly confined to the graphene stripes and conduction mostly to the gold patches, meaning that the structures gets the broadband optical absorption ..."

Sunday 5

RF Cafe Engineering Crossword Puzzle w/Weekly Headlines for August 5

RF Cafe Engineering Crossword Puzzle w/Weekly Headlines August 5, 2018 - RF CafeFor the sake of all the avid cruciverbalists amongst us, each week I create a new technology-themed crossword puzzle using only words from my custom-created list related to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy, etc. At least 10 clues with an asterisk (*) in this technology-themed crossword puzzle are pulled from the past week's (7/30 - 8/3) "Tech Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage. 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 directly related to this puzzle's theme, such as Hedy Lamar or the Bikini Atoll, respectively. Enjoy! ...

Friday 3

Electronic Measurements Quiz

Electronic Measurements Quiz, August 1967 Popular Electronics - RF CafePopular Electronics' master quizmaster Robert P. Balin created this "Electronic Measurements Quiz" to test your ability to match the indicated component with one of the commonly associated parameter units. For instance, if a carbon resistor was illustrated, you would choose, if offered as an option, the temperature coefficient of resistance unit of ppm/°C. I erroneously swapped the units for item A and item H (80% score). Oh well, there goes the cumulative quiz GPA. Maybe you will do better ...

Wi-Fi Alliance Evaluating 6 GHz Band to Satisfy Expected Growth

Wi-Fi Alliance Evaluating 6 GHz Band to Satisfy Expected Growth - RF Cafe"Nearly two decades ago when Wi-Fi was a nascent technology, a limited amount of mid-band spectrum (2.4 to 2.483 GHz) was made available for unlicensed use. Subsequently, as the number of devices increased the 5 GHz band was also made available to Wi-Fi. Now, more than eight billion Wi-Fi devices are in use around the world, and that number is expected to reach nearly 12 billion by 2020. Users have come to rely on Wi-Fi as the primary means for internet access, in part because it is often their most affordable option and in part because Wi-Fi offers performance that is well suited for current and emerging applications. The increasing number of Wi-Fi devices combined with growing ..."

EMI Emissions Testing: Peak, Quasi-Peak, and Average Measurements

EMI Emissions Testing: Peak, Quasi-Peak, and Average Measurements - RF CafeEMI emissions testing is an area of RF measurement Dorine Gurney of Tektronix - RF Cafethat causes confusion in even seasoned professionals - maybe not so much the terms themselves as determining how they are to be made in order to determine compliance with the multitude of specifications for various formats of WiFi, Bluetooth, cellular, etc. That is why there as so many specialty service ready to do it for you. Dorine Gurney, of Tektronix, has a brief piece on the EDN website offering her experienced insight. "EMI emissions testing is critical to bringing a product to market. Most electrical and electronic products require regulatory compliance testing, which must be performed in an approved test lab. Such testing can be expensive, especially if the product fails. A failed test can result in lost time to market and cost overruns. To minimize unwanted trips to the test lab prior to compliance tests, you can measure EMI emissions from your product. ..."

Mac's Service Shop: Servicing Amateur Equipment

Mac's Service Shop: Servicing Amateur Equipment, July 1959 Electronics World - RF CafeAccording to sources I can find, it wasn't until the early 1970s that most (>50%) of homes in America had air conditioning. Many homes on my boyhood street, including ours, didn't get their first window unit until the late 1960s. We suffered through some pretty miserable hot, humid summers just a few blocks from the Chesapeake Bay in Annapolis, Maryland. Going into stores - especially grocery stores, was a great relief from the oppressive heat. The A&P frozen foods aisle, with the open freezers, was my favorite spot. It's kind of gross, in retrospect, to imagine all the sweat that dripped off people and onto the icy packages lying in the freezers. Electronics service shops of the era definitely required air conditioning to keep all the vacuum tube TVs and radios cool while troubleshooting and aligning them ...

RF Cascade Workbook 2018 - Your Support Helps Keep Me off Welfare ;-)

RF Cascade Workbook 2018 Is Available Now! - RF Cafe

RF Cascade Workbook 2018 is the next phase in the evolution of RF Cafe's long-running series, RF Cascade Workbook. It is a full-featured RF system cascade parameter and frequency planner that includes filters and mixers for a mere $45. Built in MS Excel, using RF Cascade Workbook 2018 is a cinch and the format is entirely customizable. It is significantly easier and faster than using a multi-thousand dollar simulator when a high level system analysis is all that is needed. An intro video takes you through the main features ...

Defense and 5G to Propel RF GaN Market Past $1B

Defense and 5G to Propel RF GaN Market Past $1B - RF Cafe"RF gallium nitride (GaN) market growth continued to accelerate in 2017 and, with revenues growing at over 38% year-on-year, will exceed $1B by 2022 (with defense sector demand slightly greater than commercial revenue), forecasts the Strategy Analytics Strategic Component Applications (SCA) group report 'RF GaN Market Update: 2017–2022.' GaN is seeing adoption across a range of RF applications. Growth is driven primarily by the rollout of commercial wireless infrastructure coupled with demand from military radar, electronic warfare (EW) and communications applications ..."

Thursday 2

G3YMH Vintage Electronics Website

G3YNH David Knight website - RF CafeThanks once again to Bob D. for pointing out another great website for those of us who appreciate the history of electronics. Mr. David Knight, of the UK, has a collection of topics on both vintage components as well as modern gear and techniques. Include are Nixie and other digital readout tubes (see my recent Experiment with Digital Readouts article), demodulators and rectifiers, converting bikes to e-power, unusual valves (aka vacuum tubes), high power RF transmission (with some cool photos of ionized gas in presence of coils), gas discharge tubes, and more. It's worth a few minutes of your time ...

Thales & SSL Consort to Design & Develop Telesat's LEO Constellation

Thales, SSL Consort to Design and Develop Telesat's LEO Constellation - RF Cafe"Thales Alenia Space, a Joint Venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), and SSL, a Maxar Technologies company, have signed a consortium agreement to pursue the development and manufacture of Telesat's highly advanced global LEO satellite constellation and end-to-end system. In addition the consortium, led by Thales Alenia Space, announced reports that they have been awarded a contract by Telesat for a System Design and Risk Management Project for the Telesat LEO constellation. Following a highly rigorous process involving leading satellite manufacturing companies ..."

Rohde & Schwarz Ad, December 13, 1965 Electronics Magazine

Rohde & Schwarz Ad, December 13, 1965 Electronics Magazine - RF CafeThis might be one of the first advertisements for Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) test and measurement (T&M) products to appear in a U.S. publication (December 13, 1965 Electronics). A brief search for earlier instances did not turn up anything prior to 1965. Please contact me if you have seen one. R&S, as you probably know already, is now a major player in the communications T&M world. Hewlett Packard (HP) of course was one of the largest - if not the largest - maker of spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, noise figure test sets, modulation generators and analyzers, signal generators, o-scopes, etc., up through about the 1980s - maybe into the 1990s. Once the cellular and wireless everything markets took off, Rohde & Schwartz test equipment (TE) began ...

Experiment with Digital Readouts

Experiment with Digital Readouts, August 1969 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeYou might have heard of Pixie tubes and Nixie tubes from the era preceding light emitting diodes (LED's), but how about Elfin tubes? They were considered the next stage in the evolution of digital display devices. This article from a 1969 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine provides an introduction to Elfin tubes. The images are from a listing on eBay (at this time) offering to sell MG-19B Elfin Readout tubes for $10 each, in case you want one for a conversation piece or for a project. Elfin tubes are fairly accessible if this guy depletes his supply. I grabbed a shot of the tube and datasheet in case they disappear someday ...

Visualize Antenna-Array and SINR Patterns on a Map

Algorithms to Antenna: Visualize Antenna-Array and SINR Patterns on a Map - RF Cafe"Visualizing antenna patterns on a map can be Rick Gentile of MathWorks - RF Cafehelpful in design - this latest blog post from Rick Gentile discusses several methods on how to do that via MATLAB. I have covered many aspects of modeling antenna elements and antenna arrays in 'Algorithms to Antenna: Achieve System Performance Goals with Less Hardware' and 'Algorithms to Antenna: Designing an Antenna Array.' The focus to date has been on evaluating an antenna-array design based on the beam pattern of the array. For some projects, it's also helpful to visualize the antenna pattern on a map. I would like to introduce you to a few examples that show how these patterns can be displayed on a map in MATLAB ..."

Severe Bluetooth Breach Discovered

Severe Bluetooth Breach Discovered - RF Cafe"Researchers in Computer Science Department of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the Hiroshi Fujiwara Cyber Security Research Center at the Technion have successfully discovered a 'severe' breach in Bluetooth communication technology. This was done as part of Lior Neumann's master's thesis, supervised by Prof. Eli Biham, head of the Hiroshi Fujiwara Cyber Security Research Center. Bluetooth technology, developed in the 1990s, quickly became a popular platform. Unlike Wi-Fi, Bluetooth is not based on a network connecting several devices to one another but rather on the individual pairing of two devices (e.g. a headset and a telephone). This method allows ..."

Wednesday 1

Volvo Becomes 1st European Car Maker to Integrate Certified eCall System

Volvo Becomes 1st European Car Maker to Integrate Certified eCall System - RF Cafe"Swedish automobile manufacturer Volvo Cars has become the first car-maker to equip its vehicles with eCall devices. The European eCall regulation, which came into effect from April 1, requires all new car and light van types sold in the EU to be fitted with the emergency systems. The eCall device in Volvo vehicles is manufactured by ACTIA Nordic in Sweden and has been successfully tested by NavCert's eCall Laboratory in Germany. The readiness of automotive suppliers and technical services to equip the vehicles was partially due to actions taken by the European GNSS Agency (GSA) and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, who launched ..."

Saelig Introduces the ABI BoardMaster-RM Universal PCB Test Solution

Saelig Introduces the ABI BoardMaster-RM Universal PCB Test Solution - RF CafeSaelig Company has introduced the ABI BoardMaster-RM Universal PCB Test Solution - a unique, versatile, self-contained, and easy-to-use PCB test system, now housed in a convenient 19" rack case. It is an all-in-one unit featuring a comprehensive set of test instruments, complete with a built-in Windows 10 PC and special software for testing and fault-finding on almost any kind of PCB and assembly. Numerous valuable investigation methods are provided, such as V/I testing and digital / analog IC test, to speed up PCB repair and get equipment back in operation ...

Selecting Film or Electrolytic Capacitors for Power-Conversion Circuits

Selecting Film or Electrolytic Capacitors for Power-Conversion Circuits - RF CafeRudy Ramos has a useful article on the Design News website that reviews which types of capacitor are most suitable for power conveRudy Ramos of Mouser - RF Cafersion applications. With so many different kind of dielectrics to choose from, advice from the voice of experience is invaluable. "Capacitors can provide vital ride-through (or hold-up) energy or mitigate ripple and noise in power-conversion circuits. Choosing the right type can profoundly affect a system's overall size, cost, and performance. With their low equivalent series resistance (ESR), which allows for good ripple-current handling as well as high surge-voltage ratings and self-healing ..."

Electronics-Themed Comics May 1969 and April 1960 Electronics World

Electronics-Themed Comics, May 1969 and April 1960 Electronics World - RF CafeWhen I saw this first electronics-themed comic in the May 1959 issue of Electronics World, my first thought was how most people today probably cannot relate to the task of installing and adjusting a rooftop antenna for televisions. Ditto for FM antennas. Most people who still watch TV use cable, although some have satellite TV. Then I thought about how Ham radio operators are the last vestige of civilians who rely on antennas and over-the-air radio communications (other than the world's 4.5 billion cellphone users who don't realize their phones are radios). Television antenna design and installation was never a high-tech sport for typical homeowners as it is for Amateurs; it was just a necessary nuisance. Finally, it occurred to me than for a growing number of Hams ...

Finnish Team Builds World's 1st All Optical Calculator

Finnish Team Builds World's 1st All Optical Calculator - RF Cafe"Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have developed the first binary calculator that entirely uses light instead of current. The interdisciplinary team have shown how a new type of nanowire-based nanostructure enables light to perform logic functions, allowing simple addition and subtraction operations. The study, published in Science Advances , is the first to demonstrate nanoscale all-optical logic circuits. 'We're able to perform binary number calculations and show, for instance, how this nanostructure can carry out these functions just like a simple pocket calculator--except that instead of using electricity, the nanostructure uses only light in its operation,' said Dr. Henri Jussila ..."