May 25, 2020 Update: Many thanks
to Brad B. for contributing Tech Notes v5-3, v5-4, v5-5, v5-6, v6-2, v6-3,
v6-4, v6-5, v6-6, v8-1, v8-4, v9-1, v9-2, v9-3, v9-4, v9-5, v10-2, v10-5, v10-6.
March 12, 2019 Update: Thanks to Chuck U.
for providing new Tech Notes v10-3 and v15-2, and an improved v5-2.
August 14, 2018 Update: Thanks to Larry Jugler
for providing three new Tech Notes (v11-4, v11-5, and v11-6).
February 7, 2018 Update: Thanks to Paul Herzig,
of Raytheon, for writing to tell me that the hyperlink I originally had to the Watkins-Johnson
Tech-Note collection on the TriQuint website is no longer valid. Qorvo (formerly
RF Micro Devices, RFMD) took them down after acquiring TriQuint a few years ago.
They were all still available as of September 2015, but alas no more. Paul provided
many of the Tech-Notes in the following list for posting directly on RF Cafe. Also,
I discovered that some of the original Watkins-Johnson Communications web pages
can still be accessed via the Wayback Machine™ on the Archive.Org website:
Watkins-Johnson Tech-Notes
As of this time, you can purchase
Original
WJ Tech Notes here for just a couple bucks apiece.
Believe
it or not, there was a time when the Internet did not exist and getting quality
information could be difficult. Perhaps more notably today, bad information is far
too easy to get online because there is no qualified peer review of content. Waaaaayyyyyy
back in the 1970s and 1980s when I was new to the electronics design world, offices,
cubicles, laboratories, company technical libraries, even hallways, were piled high
with reference books, magazines, component books, applications notes, datasheets,
white papers, and every other form of information that might be useful.
Now, of course, the preferred source for information is the Internet, particularly
from trusted sources like universities, book publishers, RF Cafe, etc. The problem
is that a lot of the old data that was uniquely useful, has not been archived on
the Web.
Such is the case with an exceptionally useful set of Tech-Notes that
appeared in the Watkins Johnson parts catalogs of yore (circa 1980). It is quite
difficult to locate those notes, especially since websites keep moving the files
around, breaking links. So, as a matter of public service, I am making them available
here. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged. At this time there are 85 Tech-Notes.
RF Cafe 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 World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at
the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps
while typing up your telephone line, and a nice lady's voice announced "You've Got
Mail" when a new message arrived...
All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images
and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged.
Believe
it or not, there was a time when the Internet did not exist and getting quality
information could be difficult. Perhaps more notably today, bad information is far
too easy to get online because there is no qualified peer review of content. Waaaaayyyyyy
back in the 1970s and 1980s when I was new to the electronics design world, offices,
cubicles, laboratories, company technical libraries, even hallways, were piled high
with reference books, magazines, component books, applications notes, datasheets,
white papers, and every other form of information that might be useful.
