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Truth About FETs
 Sherlock Ohms is a regular feature of Design
News that presents submissions from readers about troubleshooting challenges and
how they were solved. This one is titled "The Shocking Truth About FETs."
 No sane person wants to dwell on tragic
events solely as an opportunity to wallow in endless misery. Rather, in scenarios
like the
September
11, 2001 attacks on America's homeland, lessons should be learned and systems
put in place to help mitigate the probability of similar misfortunes ever befalling
the United States again. Then we move on. Is that what has happened? Have we learned
a lesson and adopted a new mindset where sucker-punched citizenry now eternally
guards against the forces that threw the fatal blow to over 3,000 souls? Sadly,
it seems not. In an age of short attention spans, the country 's collective memory
has all but been erased. A line from the song Have You Forgotten? goes
like this, "They took all the footage off my TV, said it's too disturbing for you
and me. It'll just breed anger, that's what the experts say. If it was up to me,
I'd show it everyday." That was wayyyyyyy back in 2003, a mere two years after the
attacks. Eleven years have passed now and the amnesia problem is infinitely worse.
A constant pounding by the mainstream media day in and day out admonishing - even
threatening - us to not remember exactly who the perpetrators were or where they
came from has resulted in egregious actions by our government to the opposite extreme.
Not only are...
Vintage QST Issues Posted
 A
couple years ago I began posting selected articles from
QST magazines from the
World War II era. There are 30 articles thus far, and four full-page advertisements
of companies like RCA and Simpson Electric. More will be added as time permits.
Let me know if you see something in the TOC that you would like to have posted.
Crossword for 9/9/2012
For the sake of avid cruciverbalists, each
week I create a new
crossword
puzzle that has a theme related to engineering, mathematics, chemistry, physics,
and other technical words. You will never be asked the name of a movie star unless
he/she was involved in a technical endeavor (e.g., Hedy
Lamar).
for Long-Time Support!
Microwave ferrite isolators &
circulators, directional couplers, power divider/combiners, ceramic filters, and
power transformers. Surface mount, microstrip, waveguide, adapters. Power supplies,
transformers.
 If you have never seen it, I began collecting
examples of Smith
Chart art a few years ago. While reading through the website of Prof. Aziz Inan
of the U. of Portland, I discovered that he had his students create some Smith Chart
art on the August 29th, 25th anniversary of Phillip Smith's death. It might not
be as alluring as Pamela Anderson's Smith Chart T-shirt, but if a coloring exercise
helps get students familiar with Mr. Smith's wonderful chart, then so be it.
David Packard's Birth Date
 U. of Portland electrical engineering professor
Aziz S. Inan, Ph.D., just called to let me know about his "100th-Birthday Brainteaser Gift for David Packard"
(September 7 is Mr. Packard's birthday).
Prof. Inan likes to perform numerical investigations on dates of notable people
and events. Not to be confused with numerology, his treatises reveal interesting
mathematical
relationships of the numbers associated with his subjects. It takes a lot of
work to put these papers together. Nerd hobbies confound non-nerds, but the rest
of us appreciate the effort.
SM, SPDT Solid
State Switch
 PMI Model No.
P2T-14D415D4-15-SMT-20W is a driverless, 20 Watt, SP2T Solid-State
Switch that is supplied in a compact surface mount package. Operates from 14.4 to
15.4 GHz with insertion loss of 1.2 dB max at +25°C. Tx/Rx isolation is
better than 10 dB and this switch can handle input power levels up to
20 W.
Here are a few of the many free papers available from TradePub.
•
Invaluable: Making Yourself Irreplaceable
•
2012 Small Business Toolkit
•
Ultracapacitor Applications in the Power Electronic World
•
Testing the Reliability and Safety of Photovoltaic Modules: Failure
Rates and Temperature Effects
•
Photoshop CS6 Unlocked: 101 Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
for Supporting RF Cafe
Res-Net Microwave is a leader in the development
and production of the metal films required for these types of RF/microwave attenuators,
terminations, and resistors up to 2 kW, for commercial, military, and space applications.
 It was 1958, over the Taiwan Strait, when
the first Sidewinder air-to-air missile flew up the tailpipe of a MIG-17 Fresco
after being launched by an F-104 Starfighter. The age of
offensive infrared (IR) warfare had begun. It is
amazing that the detection and guidance system for the Sidewinder was built largely
from discrete components, without the advantage of large scale integration. IR night
vision devices were actually used by the military as early as WWII with the renown
Snooperscope (handheld) and the Sniperscope
(mounted to a carbine rifle). Both required an infrared
light source to illuminate the target. Today's night vision goggles and scopes are
sensitive enough to be totally passive. This "Infrared" article from the February
1961 Popular Electronics talks about early developments in infrared technology.
Corny-looking prototypes of IR wireless phones are shown, but...
Systems' Long-Time Support
Please visit
Cobham Antenna Systems
(formerly European Antennas) in appreciation of
their helping to deliver RF Cafe. Cobham provides high gain, printed circuit arrays,
ultra wide-band spirals, multi-octave bicones and collinear omnidirectional antennas
from 100 MHz and 40 GHz. Custom designs. WLAN, RFID, WiMAX, TETRA, and
telemetry.
 Material Choices and Tradeoffs for Printed Circuit Board Antennas
(p.12), by J. Coonrod
A Review of Smart Grid, Smart Metering Technology and its Uses
(p.22), by D. Tomanek and J. Alrawi
RF Fundamentals – Low Noise Design Technique (p.30), by
Gary Breed
 New electrical and computer engineers stepping
out into the real world this year might not get the multiple job offers and off-the-charts
starting pay of the pre-crash days, but they can rest assured that their skills
will be put to good use. Hiring is up by 10 percent over last year, and pay has
increased slightly for electrical and computer engineers of the class of 2012.
Amplifiers Cover 9 to 14 GHz
 Hittite Microwave has launched 3 new
four stage GaAs pHEMT MMIC 2 watt medium power amplifiers
with temperature compensated on chip power detectors which operate between 9 and
14 GHz. Ideal for microwave radio, military and space, SATCOM and test &
measurement applications.
 "Scientists like to say that a discovery's
significance can be measured by how many prior scientific papers it renders obsolete."
- Timothy Ferris, May 2012
Smithsonian magazine.
Appreciation of Their Support
Off-the-shelf & custom designed
noise testing solutions. Noise standards, BER testers, analog & digital noise
sources, noise diodes, calibrated noise source, HD radio test set. Repair &
calibration services.
 Power Amplifier Design with X-Parameters,
by Agilent & MWJ, Thursday, September 6, 1:00 PM ET
Year Engineering Student?
 Smithsonian magazine had a one-page
feature promoting the soon-to-be-opened Manhattan Museum of Mathematics, and included a URL for a 10
question test of your mathematics skills ranging from
Algebra I
to Calculus. Any engineer should whip through it quickly... unless maybe you
have been out of college for a few decades. In the spirit of Jeff Foxworthy's
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, I challenge you
here. My score? I got 10/10 but only after finally figuring out the interior angle
requested for the pentagon is not the total but just for one angle.
 In 1967 when this article appeared in Popular
Electronics, the use of integrated circuits in consumer electronics was still relatively
new. RCA, GE, Westinghouse, and Philco had just released their first TVs and radios
with IC front ends, and Heathkit even had a build-it-yourself model. The military
was using them (ICs) in proximity fuse designs. The new technology was really cooking.
ESD issues were discovered and needed to be dealt with as gate sizes shrunk and
the vulnerability to arcing became a problem. A photo is shown where NASA developed
a method for mitigating the potential damage by looping a spring-loaded wire around
the leads of MOS-based ICs during handling...
Tours Europe This Autumn
 France and UK Venues Conjoin as National Instruments/AWR
“RF and Microwave Design
and Test Forum.”
August Book Winner!
 Craig P., of Cambridge, MA, is the August
2012 book drawing winner! Craig
selected Modern Communications Jamming Principles and Techniques (Graciously provided by
Artech House).
80 books given away to date.
for Continued Support
Test equipment for measuring the
power of RF and microwave systems used in both military and commercial sectors.
RF voltmeters, peak & CW power meters, spectrum & modulation analyzers,
capacitance meters.
as Our Newest Sponsor!
Global supplier of RF, microwave, wireless
and fiber optic components and assemblies supported by international distributors
who service customers in more than 30 countries worldwide.
 The September 2012 edition of IEEE's
Spectrum magazine has an interesting chart on the last page
that shows the percentage of researchers that immigrate/emigrate to/from 16 different
countries versus how many emigrate from the them. The chart bars represent percentages,
not absolute numbers. Switzerland has
the highest number of researchers immigrating to it (~60%)
while about 35% emigrate from it. We don't know whether any of those immigrants
stayed a while and then joined the emigrants ranks. India has the greatest number
of researcher emigrants leaving (~40%) while immigrants
relocating to India are almost immeasurable. China is not included because access
to researchers there was too restricted (gotta love those
Communist regimes).
on RF Cafe
 I
am going to start running private ads in the banner slots again. Since the first
of the year I have used just Google, but although the payout is good, I prefer to
control which ads appear to visitors. Digi-Key and Avnet type ads are useful, but
I don't care for having non-relevant ads taking up space on the pages. If your company
can benefit from RF Cafe's exposure to technicians, engineers, managers, students,
hobbyists, and a host of other tech-centric people, please check out the advertising information page.
Beer Can WiFi Signal Booster
 Don't throw that beer can away. You can turn
it into an antenna
to boost your Wi-Fi coverage. Watch Kim show you exactly how to get it done. Note
no sissy butcher's gloves or safety goggles being used by our tech maven maiden
- those are for Home Depot ads and handyman magazine articles where marking a piece
of wood with a pencil lead that can break is too risky to go without fully body
armor.
Contest Season Refresher
 The fall and winter months are packed with
contests for every taste: DX, domestic, single-band and specialty events of every
stripe. Shake off a little rust with this quiz and get ready to put some
QSOs in the log.
Remember, too, if you're not a contest aficionado, most major contests use only
one mode and 12, 17 and 30 meters bands are entirely contest-free and wide open!
Isolation and Low Loss SP4T
 Skyworks has a new 0.02-4.0 GHz, GaAs
based high isolation, single-pole four-throw switch with integrated 50 Ω
terminations in small 3 x 3 mm quad flat no-lead plastic surface mount technology
package. The
SKY13384-350LF is ideal for designs where low insertion loss (<1.0 dB),
high isolation (>40 dB) and broadband return loss (15 dB).
for Continued Support
High-precision programmable
delay line (PDL) instruments and modules w/GPIB interface for RF signal applications
as phase shifters where extremely high precision accurate delay is required.
 In 2012, Webster's dictionary defines luminescence
as, "the low-temperature emission of light produced especially by physiological
processes (as in the firefly), by chemical action,
by friction, or by electrical action." Per this 1961 article on
electroluminescence in the November 1961 edition of Popular Electronics, Webster
defined it back then as, "any emission of light not ascribable directly to incandescence,
and therefore occurring at low temperatures." Interesting that the contrast to incandescence
is no long used. Maybe in 1960 the phenomenon of electroluminescence was still new
and novel enough to emphasize the distinction. Barely a decade had passed since
it had moved out of the laboratory and into the marketplace. The ability to economically
produce large panels for lighting was deemed...
That Shorted Out
Sherlock Ohms is a regular feature of Design
News that presents submissions from readers about troubleshooting challenges and
how they were solved. This one is titled "The Shortcut That Shorted Out."
Dryden Flight Research Center
 Arcata Associates, Inc. has a job opportunity
for a Systems Engineer at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) at Edwards
Air Force Base, California. The Systems Engineer position is a mid to senior-level
position responsible for defining, designing, and developing system requirements.
The incumbent will act as a Project Leader for major product/project designs and
implementations.
Crossword for 9/2/2012
For the sake of avid cruciverbalists, each
week I create a new crossword puzzle that has a theme related to engineering, mathematics,
chemistry, physics, and other technical words. You will never be asked the name
of a movie star unless he/she was involved in a technical endeavor (e.g., Hedy Lamar).
SPST Switch in SM Package
 PMI Model No.
P2T-14D415D4-15-SMT-20W is a driverless high-power SP2T switch
in a compact package designed for surface mount applications. This switch operates
from 14.4 to 15.4GHz and has an insertion loss of 1.2dB maximum at +25°C.
 "I aim at the stars... but
sometimes I hit London." - Wernher von Braun (erroneously).
Often incorrectly misattributed to von Braun (designer
of the Saturn V rocket), it was actually the subtitle suggested
(but not official) of a 1960 bio film of his life.
The line is credited to comedian Mort Sahl alluding to von Braun's work on
the V-2 rocket launched against Great Britain during WWII. However, reportedly the
line actually is spoken in the film by a newsman.
Distribution Agreement
 Linx Technologies, a developer and manufacturer of wireless
products such as RF modules, announced a distribution agreement with Richardson
RFPD, a global electronics distributor that provides deep technical expertise and
extensive design support for the latest products from the world's leading suppliers.
Richardson RFPD will sell and support Linx modules and Antenna Factor antennas.
Stuff You Don't Learn in Engineering School:
Skills for Success in the Real World, by Carl Selinger. "Congratulations! You're
an engineer, and now you're ready to take the corporate world by storm. But in order
to succeed in your career, you'll need more than just great technical skills."
as Our Newest Advertiser!
Baytems designs, develops, manufactures electronic
instruments and systems for electronics manufacturers and product testing, development
and research. Communication products for the aerospace & defense industries.
 RF amplifiers,
triode cavity oscillators, sources, transmitters, test equipment for cellular, military,
medical, sterilization, for university and private labs. 600-3000 MHz, 500 W
peak to 50 kW peak nominal. Design, manufacture and service RF drivers. Repair/refurbish
medical RF drivers.
China Registration Opens
 AWR Corporation, the innovation leader in
high-frequency EDA software, has finalized the agendas and opened registration for
the 2012 AWR Design Forums China
venues of Xi'an and Chengdu.
Adventures of Carl & Jerry
 In the continuing saga of
Carl and Jerry, our two young electronics hobbyists visit a college radio station
where the manager gives a tour while explaining the technical aspects of the equipment.
RF bridges, hybrid junctions, oscillator coils and plate-tank pi-networks, cue amplifiers,
limiter amplifiers, patch board, power supplies, and a lot of other terms that cause
RF Cafe visitors to salivate are woven into the story. Carl and Jerry are surprised
to learn that the transmitter output power is high enough that dormitory residents
can pick up the signal with "only a pair of earphones clipped across a 1N34 diode"
as well as with a standard AM radio. In fact, that's the whole point of the story
because the broadcast is not over the air, but via the campus' AC electrical system
- hence, "wired wireless."
"Guess the # of Gs"
 Dang, I'm not sure how I missed this but Analog
Devices ran a "Guess the G's Contest" in a promotion for one of their
accelerometers
(model # not identified). It was placed in an
Estes
Big Daddy model rocket and launched on video by Patrick
Kusior. Andy Robinson, one of 4,900 entrants, guessed exactly the correct number
of 5.561 Gs. He is now the proud owner of an iPad. Watch the video by clicking on
the thumbnail above. Another contest will be announced in a couple months.
RF Components
 You might have missed the trend, but in the
last year or so there has been an increasing practice of component manufacturers
creating videos for introducing products to engineers. Typically the videos present
not just the charts and tables from the datasheets, but also some info on applications.
RFMD s sent me a link for their Video
Datasheet for
RFVA0016 Variable Gain Amplifier. This will probably become
de rigueur for components companies in the future.
Military Antennas Summit
 At IDGA's Military Antennas Summit you will
learn about the latest technological advancements and capability requirements in
the antennas world. The conference will provide a gathering of Senior Executive
Personnel from both the military and the industry. This years' event is the only
ITAR compliant, US citizens only Summit, where the antennas community can meet and
exchange their knowledge and latest improvements.
Broadband Deployment Map
 This map was created by the FCC to illustrate
the Commission's broadband deployment results found in the
Eighth Broadband
Progress Report, which uses data underlying the National Broadband Map, as of
June 30, 2011. It shows census block areas of the United States with and without
access to fixed broadband of 3 Mbps download and 768 kbps upload. The
term "rural" used in the key has the same meaning as defined by the 2010 Census.
View additional demographic data and broadband deployment by technology by zooming
in on and mousing over the specific county...
Simulator v2.72 Release R
 LINC2 Version 2.72R
adds many new component models to the program's extensive model library. These
include more than 600 new capacitor models, 350 inductor models and a number of
new active models including GaN power devices. Also offers enhanced schematic capture.
-
Optimize Signal/Spectrum Analyzer Throughput For High-Volume Manufacturing
Test, by B. Nelson -
Fractal Antenna Aims at 2.9 to 14.6 GHz, by I. Srikanth
and R. Kumar -
Dual-Band Coupler Links with CRLH Lines K. Wei, W. Hui,
Y. Guo, M. Chen, and W. Wen
for Long-Time Support
Electro-mechanical &
solid state RF switches. Coaxial & waveguide SPDT, DPDT, transfer, multi-position,
matrices, multiple-pole, multiple-throw, 12 x 12, 6 x 12, 8 x 16, 32 x 48, custom.
Space qualified.
Tranquility Base Photo
 Apollo 11
astronaut
Neil Armstrong died on August 25, 2012. As most Americans
over the age of 30 know, Armstrong was the first human to step foot on the moon.
On July 20, 1969, in fulfillment of President Kennedy's 1961 challenge to put
a man on the moon and return him home safely by the end of the decade, Armstrong
made a giant leap for mankind. That day in 1969 I launched an model rocket as part
of Estes' commemorative effort. Last night, in his memory, I took this photo of
the Tranquility Base region of the moon. Thank-you, and rest in peace, Mr. Armstrong.
Systems for Support
High-power solid
state amplifiers suitable for virtually any RF, microwave and radar application.
Architecture employs full circuit protection against electrical power and RF faults
down to the component level.
Crossword for 8/26/2012
 For the sake of avid cruciverbalists, each
week I create a new crossword puzzle that has a theme related to engineering, mathematics,
chemistry, physics, and other technical words. You will never be asked the name
of a movie star unless he/she was involved in a technical endeavor (e.g., Hedy Lamar).
"It is unfortunate that patent law can be
manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners..."
- Samsung spokesman re recent lawsuit.
for Notebook Computer
 These Samsung-K4B2G0846B-HCF8
2 GByte DDR3-1066 SDRAM modules are in perfect condition. I'll
sell the pair of them for $15 plus shipping (should be less than $5). Please let
me know if you're interested in buying them.
Wide Bandwidth ADC
 The
HMCAD1104
is a 10-bit octal channel ADC which offers an industry best combination of low power
and high performance. Operating at 65 MSPS, the HMCAD1104 delivers a SNR of 61.6 dB,
while dissipating only 30 mW of power per channel.
Software Receiver Design: Build Your Own Digital
Communication System in Five Easy Steps, by C. Richard Johnson Jr., William A.
Sethares, Andrew G. Klein
 •
10 Mistakes to Avoid If You Want a Promotion •
Entry Level Jobs Are No Longer Entry Level•
IBM India Hires More New Women Grads Than Men
1300 MHz Pulsed PA Module
 Model TA1004
1300 MHz , 40 W Pulsed PA Module. This L-Band LDMOS amplifier module is
ideal for pulsed applications including radar, medical and laboratory applications.
This amplifier has several protection circuits including Load VSWR protection, low
or high bias protection, reverse bias protection and thermal protection.
Sign Distribution Agreement
 Hittite Microwave Corporation announced the
signing of a global distribution agreement with Digi-Key Corporation. Select
Hittite products are now available for purchase through Digi-Key sales channels.
Digi-Key will stock Hittite products and offer fast delivery to its global customer
base.
Articles
These articles from the August 2012 MPD might interest you.
-
Integrated Low Noise Multi-Chip Amplifier Modules, by S. Moreschi
and A. Roy -
Wide BW Measurement Techniques for 802.11ac WLAN Devices, by
D. Asquith -
Best Practices for Making the Most Accurate Wireless and Radar Pulse
Measurements, by S. Hua Wong and S. Lee -
Minimizing PIM Generation from RF Cables and Connectors, by
F. Hull
Articles
Here are articles from the August 2012 HFE that you might find useful.
- High Frequency PCB Probing with Fixture Removal for Multi-Port Devices
(p.24), by H. Barnes, J. Moreira, M. Resso, and R. Schaefer
- Satellite Data Transmitting Systems and In-Orbit Performance
(p.36), by D.V. Ramana and Jolie R.
for Support!
Frequency counters, upconverters / synthesizers,
downconverters / local oscillators, frequency synthesizers, broadband / narrowband
oscillators, high-speed clocks, custom RF / microwave subassemblies.
Advance in Tube Design
 In article titled "One Receiver - All Bands"
that appeared in the January 1963 Popular Electronics was a single tube
design, but the trick to using a single tube was that the it was actually three
tubes in one - a 6AF11
compactron. It contained two separate triodes and a pentode within the same
glass capsule. A modern equivalent would be to use an IC package that contains three
or more opamps in the same package. This article from the October 1960 edition of
Electronic World reported on the engineering behind compactrons.
 The early 1960s was evidently a good time
for printing quizzes in electronics magazines. Popular Electronics was no exception.
As I look through my collection I am finding quite a few. Here is the latest, from
the January 1963 edition, that tests basic
knowledge of using analog multimeters (digital types were not around yet). I
managed to get all the ones I tried correct, but with question 9 I thought maybe
it was a trick question, so I didn't bother venturing a guess. Give it a try for
yourself.
Design & Test Challenges
 LTE-Advanced Design & Test Challenges
– Carrier Aggregation, Thursday, August 23, 2:00 pm EDT
 RF Cafe visitor David M. wrote to ask that
I scan and post this article from the January 1963 edition of Popular Electronics.
It is an article written by Philip Hatfield, of the
Receiving Tube Department of General Electric that describe a very simple design
that uses a "compactron" vacuum tube, which consist of two triodes and a pentode.
The compactron was sort of a vacuum tube version of the multi-amplifier integrated
circuit of today. They are still available for purchase on eBay for a couple bucks
each.
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