Homepage Archive - July 2019 (page 3)

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.

Homepage Archive Pages

2024:  Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

2023:  Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

2022:  Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

2021:  Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

2020:  Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

2019:  Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

2018:  Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

2017:  Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

2016:  Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

2015:  Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

2014:  Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

2013:  Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

2012:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 (no archives before 2012)


See Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 of the July 2019 homepage archives.
col-width

Friday 19

A Question of Semantics

A Question of Semantics, October 1970 Popular Electronics - RF CafeJust as you will never get everyone to agree on who was the first person to successfully fly a powered aircraft (Wright, Whitehead, Curtiss, etc.), there will never be a consensus on who invented the radio. Most people would probably agree that it was Guglielmo Marconi, but this author makes a case for none other than Thomas Edison. I don't recall ever hear anyone making that claim before, but before you dismiss the opinion, read on...

Gore Products Made It to the Moon

Gore Products Made It to the Moon - RF CafeMost people working in the RF and microwave realm are familiar with Gore coaxial cable and shielding products. They have been around since 1958 - the year of NASA's birth (and mind, BTW). You might be interested in the story of Gore's many contributions the space program. From their webpage: "Gore Space Facts: Gore has provided highly reliable wire and cable solutions for the space industry since its start over 60 years ago. In fact, Gore began prototyping designs for fluorocarbon insulated wires and ribbon cables for use in space vehicles. In 1958, the same year NASA was established Gore began. Gore products have a 100% failure-free flight record. Gore has been a part of more than 100 spaceflight programs ..."

Apollo 11 Factoids: The Moon Has a Smell & What If the LM Return Had Failed?

The Moon Has a Smell - RF CafeOne of the most interesting things I remember about what we learned from the Apollo program is that the moon has a smell. Upon removing their helmets after the moon walk, Neil Armstrong remarked, 'We were aware of a new scent in the air of the cabin that clearly came from all the lunar material that had accumulated on and in our clothes.' Buzz Aldrin described it as 'the smell in the air after a firecracker has gone off.'

Apollo Program Abort Planning - RF CafeDid you ever wonder what would have transpired if the lunar module (LM) rockets had failed to fire for a return to the orbiting Command Module (CM)? Read "In the Event of Moon Disaster" that was prepared for President Nixon to broadcast to the world if the unthinkable happened. Of course NASA had all potential scenarios covered in their Abort Planning document, complimented by extensive scenario training. Some fools wanted to shut off communications with the LM to prevent a record of Armstrong and Aldrin panicking which, of course, would never have happen with the two seasoned professional military aviators.

!!! 20 Years of RFCafe.com !!!

Vintage RF Cafe Website Screen CaptureToday, July 19, 2019, marks the 20th year of existence for RFCafe.com. It was on this date in 1999 that I registered the domain name (and the .net version) with Network Solutions, which was the only domain name registrar at the time. RF Cafe really began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The Internet was still largely an unknown entity at the time, and not much was available in the form of WYSIWYG editors; in fact, my early pages were written using Notepad ...

Custom MMIC's the 2019 Women in Engineering Scholarship Recipients

Custom MMIC Announces the 2019 Women in Engineering Scholarship Recipients - RF CafeCustom MMIC, a leading designer and manufacturer of high performance monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), is proud to present its annual Women in Engineering Scholarship Award to three accomplished and deserving young women who personify academic excellence in the fields of math, science and engineering. The three recipients for 2019 are: Lillian Geller (Westford Academy), Ananya Gopalan (Chelmsford High School) and Lina Abu-Absi (Groton-Dunstable Regional High School). These candidates were carefully selected from a large group of well-qualified and thoroughly impressive applicants from the three target high schools in towns near Custom MMIC's facility ...

Straightening of Single-Molecule Conductors to Improve Performance

Straightening of Single-Molecule Conductors to Improve Performance - RF Cafe"Scientists from Osaka University in Japan have taken single-molecule conductors and straightened them in an effort to improve their performance. The team of scientists made single-molecule nanowires that measured up to 10 nanometers in length. Through their research, experts learned that taking the ribbon-like chains and forcing them to lay flat dramatically improved their conductivity, as opposed to their traditional twisted form. Scientists believe that this discovery could potentially help them to develop a new generation of high-tech devices, such as photovoltaics and smartphone screens, that are both powerful and inexpensive ..."

Axiom Test Equipment: Rent, Buy, Trade & Repair

Axiom Test Equipment - RF CafeAxiom Test Equipment allows you to rent or buy test equipment, repair test equipment, or sell or trade test equipment. They are committed to providing superior customer service and high quality electronic test equipment. Axiom offers customers several practical, efficient, and cost effective solutions for their projects' TE needs and is committed to providing superior customer service and high quality electronic test equipment. Please check out Axiom Test Equipment today!

Thursday 18

Japanese Technology - Bidding for World Leadership in Solid State Microwave Gear

Japanese Technology - Bidding for World Leadership in Solid State Microwave Gear, December 13, 1965 Electronics Magazine - RF CafeThe December 13, 1965 issue of Electronics magazine was largely dedicated to assessing Japan's status in the electronics industry. Japan, with the help of the United States, made a remarkable recovery from defeat during World War II to have become an emerging power in electronics. "Made in Japan" labels on products had transformed from being the butt of jokes because of pre-war low quality products to representing assurance of low cost, high functionality and high value products. It still does to this day. The Japanese people have worked hard to acquire the world's respect as smart innovators and hard workers, and have been sure to maintain manufacturing bases within their borders. When you read this article, be prepared for a few dated terms like a "Kita" diode ...

3D Smith Chart v1.02 Release Now Available

3D Smith Chart v1.02 Release Now Available - RF CafeDr. Andrei Muller, progenitor of the world's first 3D Smith Chart™ software program, has teamed with a handful of able colleagues to release a commercial version of this paradigm-changing design and analysis tool. IMHO, it is only a matter of time before one of the major players in RF/microwave simulation (NI/AWR, Keysight, COMSOL, et al) integrates this incredible analysis tool into a software package. The following press release was issued on July 17, 2019. "3D Smith Chart™ announces a new version (1.02) of the 3D Smith Chart with new features. The original 3D Smith Chart tool (version 1.01) extended the Smith Chart capabilities for the first time since the 1939s to make it usable for circuits with negative resistance based on a unit sphere that plots circuits with reflection coefficient magnitudes larger than 1 by mapping them as arcs ..."

For the Record: FCC Bears Down on CB Radio

For the Record: FCC Bears Down on CB, May 1967 Electronics World - RF CafeCitizen Band (CB) radios were all the rage during my high school years (1973-76). Previously the domain of over-the-road haulers, by then everybody who was anybody had a 23-channel CB in his/her car or pickup truck. My 1969 Camaro SS, of course, sported one - probably the cheapest model available. Those were the days of C.W. McCall's "Convoy" and Cledus Maggard's "The White Knight" lyrics. Everybody knew the words to it. Smokey and the Bandit fed the craze. After all, there were no cellphones. Rather than learning text messaging shortcuts like OMG, *$ (the company didn't even exist then), B4N, and IMHO, we learned to use clever words and phrases like "10-4," "bear in the air," and "what's your 20?" It's been a long time ...

Notable Quote: "That's One Small Step for [a] Man..."

"That's One Small Step for [a] Man..." - RF Cafe"That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." - Neil Armstrong, from the moon on July 20, 1969. Armstrong says he did utter the word "a," and that the scratchy radio transmission masked it. Having been a huge fan (short for "fanatic") of the space program and builder / launcher of model rockets, I was sure to watch the momentous event on TV as it was broadcast live from the moon on a Sunday evening at 10:56 PM EDT, a month before turning 11 years old. The Estes model rocket company issued certificates to rocketeers who launched any model during the flight time of Apollo 11; of course I got mine with an Alpha rocket.

ConductRF Intros POWeRUN RF Cables

ConductRF Intros POWeRUN RF Cables - RF CafeConductRF, an industry leader in high quality RF cable assemblies, introduces their line of POWeRUN RF cables. POWeRUN RF cables are designed for superior performance in the DC to 18 GHz frequency range at powers up to 170 watts for the WSA74 series and 345 watts for the WSA84 series. High phase and amplitude stability is, and low loss is standard across the series. Flexible construction is designed for high power and long cable runs. Rugged outer covering over cable supports outdoor use. Ideal for commercial and military applications ...

How NASA Recruited Snoopy and Drafted Barbie

How NASA Recruited Snoopy and Drafted Barbie (and GI Joe) - RF CafeSnoopy Astronaut Comic Strip c1969 - RF CafeThe title of this IEEE article is misleading in that NASA did not "draft" Barbie - only Snoopy (and Charlie Brown, BTW). "Snoopy" was the official name of the Apollo 10 lunar module (LM) and "Charlie Brown" was the name of the moon-orbiting command module (CM). There was a Gemini astronaut GI Joe at the time, too. Actually, it was the Apollo 10 astronauts who chose the Peanuts characters as mascots because of the popularity of the comic strip and Charles Schulz's giving Snoopy the alter ego of an astronaut (and, of course, a WWI flying ace). Here is the Kennedy Space Center account of the history of NASA's adoption of Snoopy. This Saturday, July 20th, marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Centric RF: Attenuators, Adapters, Cable Assemblies, Power Dividers

Centric RF microwave components - RF CafeCentric RF is a company offering from stock various RF and Microwave coaxial components, including attenuators, adapters, cable assemblies, terminations, power dividers, and more. We believe in offering high performance parts from stock at a reasonable cost. Frequency ranges of 0-110 GHz at power levels from 0.5-500 watts are available off the shelf. Order today, ship today! Centric RF is currently looking for vendors to partner with them. Please visit Centric RF today. 

Wednesday 17

American Telephone and Telegraph from a 1917 Saturday Evening Post

American Telephone and Telegraph from the August 11, 1917, The Saturday Evening Post - RF CafeThe American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) was founded as part of the Bell Telephone System to build a nationwide wired, long distance communications service. When this advertisement was printed in a 1917 issue of The Saturday Evening Post magazine, many American households still did not have a telephone installed, and most of those that did subscribed to "party line" hookups. Party lines were a service sharing agreement whereby multiple users were connected to the same telephone number and agreed to share the line. The upside was a discounted phone bill, but the downside was the any other member of the "party" could listen in on your conversation. I remember back in the 1960s when our house had a party line. My sister and I (both preteens) would sometimes carefully pick up the phone receiver and listen in hopes of ...

EDI CON Online Announces Speaker Line Up and Platinum Sponsors

EDI CON Online Announces Speaker Line Up and Platinum Sponsors - RF CafeEDI CON Online, a new interactive event being held online September 10-12, 2019, has announced its line up of technical session speakers. The interactive technical sessions will occur at no cost to attendees, and sponsors have the opportunity to present workshops and keynote sessions as part of the daily schedule. The sessions on September 10th will focus on 5G and IoT, September 11th on radar and antennas, and September 12th on signal integrity and power integrity. Attendees select the sessions for the online event in a single sign-on registration portal and can participate ...

World's Largest Gold Coin Worth $50 Million

World's Largest Gold Coin Worth $50 Million - RF CafeThat's a lot of gold-plated connector contacts and gold wire bonding stock (about 63.5 kilomiles of 1 mil wire)! This feature about the Perth Mint (Australia) having set a new Guinness world record by minting this one metric tonne (2,204.6 pounds avoirdupois) solid gold coin has been in the news the last couple days. It is on display at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The current spot price of $1,411.10 per ounce sets its bullion value to 2204.6 lb. x 16 oz. x 1411.1 $/oz. = $49,774,576.96, or $50M in round numbers.

Many Thanks to ERZIA for Continued Support!

Many Thanks to ERZIA for Continued Support!RF Cafe's continued existence depends on companies like ERZIA providing support. ERZIA produces microwave and mm-wave modular amplifiers and integrated assemblies operating from low frequencies up to 100 GHz. 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.

8 Technologies We Owe to the Apollo Program

8 Technologies We Owe to the Apollo Program - RF CafeA part of Design News' "Space Week 2019" feature is this "8 Technologies We Owe to the Apollo Space Program." Not mentioned in the list of NASA innovations are freeze-dried food, space blankets (those foil-looking things), miniaturized quartz crystal timekeeping, joystick controllers, and smoke detectors. NASA popularized but did not invent Velcro, Tang, or Teflon. Says the author, "The innovations of the Apollo program didn't stop at the Moon. Many technologies were created, or innovated into what they are today, thanks to the space program."

MECA Electronics: Passive RF & Microwave Components

MECA Electronics

Since 1961, MECA Electronics has designed and manufactured 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 such as in-building applications, satellite communications, radar, radio communications, telemetry applications, mobile radio, aviation & air traffic communications.

Tuesday 16

Montgomery Ward Airline Model 04BR-1105A Radio Service Data Sheet

Montgomery Ward Airline Model 04BR-1105A Radio Service Data Sheet, June 1941 Radio-Craft - RF CafeMontgomery Ward (aka "Wards" or even "Monkey Wards") had their own line of radios, electric guitars, and other products that went by the name of "Airline." Sears, Roebuck and Company, by the way, had the "Silvertone" series of radios, electric guitars and, other electronics products. This 2-page radio service data sheet for the Montgomery Ward Airline Model 04BR-1105A console type radio appeared in a 1941 issue of Radio-Craft magazine. Some of the electronics magazines of the era ran these features to help out people who wanted to attempt troubleshooting and aligning their own equipment. Many electronics manufacturers would sell service data documentation only to authorized dealers and repair shops. Unlike today where ...

Linx nanoSplatch™ nSP250 Dual-Band WiFi/WLAN Antenna

Linx Technologies nanoSplatchTM nSP250 Dual-Band WiFi/WLAN Antenna - RF CafeLinx Technologies, a Merlin, OR based developer and manufacturer of antennas, is pleased to introduce the nanoSplatch™ nSP250 dual-band WiFi/WLAN antenna for embedded applications. nanoSplatch antennas are a reduced-size evolution of Linx Technologies successful surface-mount embedded Splatch™ and microSplatch™ antennas. The nanoSplatch™ nSP250 is an ideal embedded antenna for use in compact or portable devices targeting WiFi/WLAN and other 2.4 GHz or 5.8 GHz ISM frequency band technologies such as Bluetooth® and ZigBee®. The surface-mount nSP250 antenna uses just 80.6 mm2 of board space and costs under one dollar in volume. In addition, Linx designed the antenna to accommodate close proximity effects ...

Neil Armstrong - Aircraft Modeler at Purdue

Neil Armstrong Purdue Aeromodelers - RF Cafe"One Small Step with Model Aviation," produced by the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA), is a memorial to the launch of Apollo 11 on this day, July 16, 1969. This short video features of Neil Armstrong's early life as an avid aeromodeler before and during his time as an aeronautical engineering student at Purdue University. He is shown here in the dormitory holding a slide rule outfitted with wings, which was the Purdue Aeromodelers' club logo. It can be seen printed on their T-shirts. Neil was an AMA member (as I have been since the early 1970s, AMA#92498). The video includes narration of some of his friends from the era. Here is my Estes Saturn V rocket model in the Apollo 11 configuration ...

Electrolysis and Corrosion

Electrolysis and Corrosion, July 1959 Popular Electronics - RF CafeNo, the electrolysis and corrosion of boat propellers is not really in line with the theme of RF Cafe; however, it presents the same sort of problems that grounding and anchoring systems for radio antennas and equipment shacks have. If you bury a piece of metal in the Earth, it will, over time, magically disappear. Much effort has been expended on the part of both amateurs and professionals to mitigate the anodic action that occurs when dissimilar conductors come into intimate contact because each metal - be it a base or an alloy - has an electric potential relative to other metals. What happens when there is a difference of potentials and a conduction path is present? Yep, current flows. Through that action, material is physically transferred from the more positive metal to the less positive metal ...

DARPA's $1.5B Remake of U.S. Electronics

DARPA's $1.5B Remake of U.S. Electronics - RF Cafe"About a year ago, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency pulled back the covers on its five-year, $1.5-billion scheme to remake the U.S. electronics industry. The Electronics Resurgence Initiative included efforts in 'aggressive specialization' for chip architectures, systems that are smart enough to reconfigure themselves for whatever data you throw at them, open-source hardware, 24-hour push-button system design, and carbon-nanotube-enabled 3D chip manufacturing, among other cool things. As always with DARPA, this is high-risk research; but if even half of it works out, it could change the nature not just of what kinds of systems ..."

ConductRF: Precision & Standard Grade RF Cable Assemblies

ConductRF coaxial cables & connectors - RF CafeConductRF is continually innovating and developing new and improved solutions for RF Interconnect needs. See the latest TESTeCON RF Test Cables for labs. ConductRF makes production and test coax cable assemblies for amplitude and phased matched VNA applications as well as standard & precision RF connectors. Over 1,000 solutions for low PIM in-building to choose from in the iBwave component library. They also provide custom coax solutions for applications where some standard just won't do. A partnership with Newark assures fast, reliable access. Please visit ConductRF today to see how they can help your project! 

Monday 15

Electronics-Themed Comics, July 1971 Radio-Electronics

Electronics-Themed Comics, July 1971 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeHard as it is to believe, the weekend is over and another five days of the work week lie ahead. It will be at least four more days before you can sleep in again and tend to the yard work, home improvements, camping excursions, sports endeavors, road trips, etc. Even if you love your job, having a time of reprieve is always welcome. Here is a little for you compliments of the July 1971 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine. It included a couple pretty good technology-centric comics. I particularly like the one on page 79 - a theme that occurs in many places. The guy reminds me of an engineer I worked with at Westinghouse Electric's Oceanic Division back in the 1980s ...

Trade School vs. College?

Trade School vs. College? - RF CafeWe seem to have reached a crossroads in America, as well as in a lot of other similar countries. Over the last few decades government agencies, universities, public schools, and media have convinced many people that the only way to succeed and be happy and productive is to go to college and earn a Bachelor's (or higher) degree - in anything. Drilled into us continually is that the average person with at least a four-year degree will earn up to a million dollars more in his/her lifetime. Sounds good, right? As anyone with knowledge of statistics will tell you, averages are meaningless without an accompanying figure for standard deviation. That would be the same as saying if you stand with one foot in a pot of near boiling water and the other in a pot of ice water, on the average you would feel just right. The propaganda has been so successful ...

Espionage Agent Made in China

Espionage Agent Made in China - RF CafeThis article was sent to me by an RF Cafe visitor. With the way U.S. companies have been routinely passing off critical technology to China for nearly three decades now, I'm surprised it is even considered illegal. "A Lexington businessman has been charged with trying to sell sensitive technology that was stolen from his former employer, Norwood electronics company Analog Devices Inc. A federal grand jury in Boston indicated Haoyang Yu and his company Tricon MMIC LLC with 12 counts of misappropriating Analog Devices' trade secrets, and with three counts of smuggling for selling electronic components to a customer in Spain in violation of US export control laws. Yu was scheduled to appear Friday in US District Court in Boston ..."

Editorial - The Origin of "Ham", December 1931 QST

Editorial - The Origin of "Ham", December 1931 QST - RF CafeHere it is the year 2019, a full 88 years after this editorial was published in ARRL's QST magazine, and nobody is any more certain of the origin of the term "Ham" being applied to amateur radio operators than they were in 1931. Being closer to the date of origin, though, might have given editor Kenneth Warner a bit more insight. In fact, the term Ham is usually uttered in a mildly pejorative manner; e.g., "he is such a ham." Per the QST's editor's research, Ham might be a shortening of Hamlet, referring to Shakespeare's play and the 2-bit actors who endlessly recited the lines in an attempt to impress others. Analogously, a Ham radio operator would be a professional broadcaster wannabe. However, Mr. Warner offers an even more plausible explanation that has the term descending more directly from the craft of amateur radio operation. Read on to find out ...

Galileo Satellite Navigation System Outages

Galileo Satellite Navigation System Outages - RF Cafe"Signals Are Not to Be Used - EU's Galileo global navigation satellite system nears 100 hours of downtime. Galileo, the EU's global navigation satellite system, has been down for four days, since July 11, following a mysterious outage. All Galileo satellites are still non-operational, at the time of writing. According to a service status page, 24 of the 26 Galileo satellites are listed as 'not usable,' while the other two are listing a status of 'testing,' which also means they're not ready for real-world usage. The European GNSS Agency (GSA), the organization in charge of Galileo, has not published any information in regards to the root of the outage, which began four days ago, on Thursday, July 11 ..."

Copper Mountain Technologies: Vector Network Analyzers

Copper Mountain TechnologiesCopper 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.

Sunday 14

Engineering & Science Crossword Puzzle for July 14

Engineering & Science Crossword Puzzle July 14, 2019 - RF CafeUnlike all of the other engineering and science-themed crossword puzzles I have ever seen, every word and clue - without exception - in these RF Cafe puzzles has been personally entered into a very large database of relevant terms. The list has been built over nearly two decades of creating these crossword puzzles. Let me know if you would like a custom crossword puzzle built for your company, school, club, etc. (no charge). The same software, Crossword Express, has been used to generate the puzzle for all those years. Read down near the bottom of the linked page and you will see where he was doomed by people distributing his software without paying for it (I paid for mine). I suffer the same injustice from people who receive my RF Stencils for Visio and RF Cascade Workbook software without paying me for my hard work ...