Aspen Electronics wrote to let me know that
Admiral Microwaves is now part of Aspen. Both companies were listed on my
Manufacturer's
Representatives and Distributors vendor pages, so I combined them. Aspen Electronics,
located in Middlesex, England, carries a wide range of RF and microwave products,
test equipment, and calibration services
"AMSAT-UK reports that four CubeSats will
comprise the BIRDS (Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds) constellation, which is set to
deploy from the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017. The 1U CubeSats — BIRD-B,
BIRD-J, BIRD-G, and BIRD-M — have identical designs, will use the same Amateur Radio
frequencies, and will be deployed as a group. The main mission of the 2-year project
is to use the constellation to carry out radio communication experiments via a network
of UHF/VHF Amateur Radio ground stations around "
Edwin Armstrong, often referred to as Major
Armstrong due to his commission in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, came up with a working
scheme for
wideband frequency modulation (FM) in the early 1930s. He did
not, as believed by many, invent FM. Narrowband FM was explored in the 1920s as
a replacement to amplitude modulation (AM) in hopes that it would eliminate the
susceptibility to static that AM suffered, but no improvement was achieved. When
this article was published in 1935, it was a mere two years after Armstrong was
awarded patents for his wideband FM
"Scientists in Switzerland have invented an
"acoustic prism" capable of splitting a
sound into its basic frequencies. Like an optical prism, which relies on the physical
property of refraction, the newly invented acoustic prism dissects sound using only
physical properties. Unlike an optical prism, which can be found in nature, the
acoustic prism is man-made. The prism takes the form of a rectangular tube of aluminum
with ten "
NuWaves Engineers has an immediate opening for
an Applications Engineer . Primary responsibility is to provide technical support
to the Product Solutions Domain. This individual would be responsible for understanding
the functionality, application, and internal circuitry of all NuWaves products.
Other responsibilities include finding innovative solutions to improve the manufacturability
and maintain NuWaves' product portfolio, providing in depth technical support to
customers, and to supporting new product introductions. This role ...
"The Edmonton Police Service has fessed up
to Motherboard that it owns a
Stingray and that it 'used the [surveillance] device in the past
during investigations.' After Vancouver cops admitted to using the phone tracker
to investigate an abduction in 2007, the publication called up other local police
stations in Canada to ask if they had also previously used one. As you can imagine,
the other stations kept mum. In the U.S., Stingrays are a regular part of government
and law enforcement agencies' "
Take a break and work this week's
electronics technology themed crossword puzzle. All the words
are pulled from a hand-built list of terms, names, and abbreviations that have only
to do with science, mathematics, and engineering. If you want a crossword with names
of movie stars and obscure countries, try the local newspaper. If you want to exercise
your nerd knowledge, this is the one for you
Writing for
IMS ExpertServices, Wendy Pearson, of
the Pearson Research Group, offers this second installment in a series of articles
advising people new to the expert witness realm on how to prepare for the process.
Being an authority in your professed field is not always enough to assure success
in the courtroom - or even for making it as far as a courtroom. Part 1 provided
a basic introduction to legal lingo. Part 2 discusses documents prepared by
attorneys during the
pre-trial discovery process of a case, including interrogatories,
requests for admission, requests for production, motions in limine, and motions
for summary judgment.
"A group
of researchers from the University of Cambridge have built an energy efficient,
miniature,
electro-optical switch for semiconductor
microchips. Using a form of liquid light and an external electrical field, the team
has created a semiconductor switch that can convert electrical signals to optical
signals. This development could potentially enable the development of faster and
more efficient electronics "
This is utterly impressive. Watch the Ukraine-based
Engineer BrunS dude use a metal lathe to create a
cube within
a cube within a cube. Did you even know a cube can be made on a lathe? The ingenuity
of people never ceases to amaze me. If you would like to be the proud owner of one
of these, Engineer BrunS is selling them on
eBay for only $59
(free shipping).
Navy Contract for Enhancing
Satellite Communications
"The Navy is adding to a contract to deliver
high-speed
multiband satellite terminals to about
300 ships, submarines and shore stations over the next six years. The Space and
Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego has awarded Raytheon a $9.1 million modification
to a contract awarded at the end of 2015 for fully integrated Navy Multiband Terminals,
which will quadruple the transmission speeds over current terminals while using
its dual antenna to allow simultaneous "
Some really good articles I wanted to link
to have been omitted from this month's list because the host website requires you
to give them your e-mail for the full content. I try not to send people to any website
that plays audio or video automatically, or that requires you to submit information
for access; that goes for news items, articles, etc. Fortunately, there
•
Design Guidelines for Metallic Enclosures
for RF Circuits
•
Near-Field Scanners Let You See EMI
•
Simplifying Antenna Design Without Compromise
• Compensating Frequency-Dependent Cable Loss
<more>
"A lot of radio amateurs bemoaning the recent
spate of poor HF conditions would love to have a way to improve
propagation — perhaps without even having
to rely on the whims of the Sun. The US Department of Defense is thinking along
the same lines. An August 9 article in New Scientist reports that the US Air Force
is exploring a plan to bombard Earth's upper atmosphere with ionized gas dispersed
from CubeSats. According to the New Scientist article by David Hambling, the Air
Force hopes to improve long-distance radio communication by 'detonating "
"The ship's transporters - which let the
crew 'beam' from place to place - really came out of a production need. I realized
with this huge spaceship, I would blow the whole budget of the show just in landing
the thing on a planet. And secondly, it would take a long time to get into our stories,
so the transporter idea was conceived so we could get our people down to the planet
fast and easy." -
Gene
Roddenberry, "Star Trek" producer, in the May 2016 issue of Smithsonian
magazine. This is another validation of the old saying that "Necessity is the mother
of invention "
has introduced the
Siglent SDM3045X
- a 4½ digit dual-display digital multimeter that is suited to high-precision, multifunction,
and automation measurement applications. It features a combination of basic measurement
functions, with multiple math and display choices, and special features including
histogram, trend chart, bar chart, statistics, hold measurement, dBm, etc. The SDM3045X
multimeter's front panel features a 4.3" (480 x 272) high resolution color TFT-LCD
display that clearly shows the 60000 count
We tend to take for granted 'standards' that have been in place and working well ever since
they were instituted long ago. Some - maybe most - standards evolve over time with
user preferences driving the end result; they tend to continue evolving. Examples
include keyboard layout, advertising and product color selection, and test instrument
front panel configurations. Other standards are driven by technology improvements.
More and more often it seems, standards are being set by industry groups that want
to assure interoperability and exchangeability amongst products and users
"A new type of optical
metasurface whose properties can be dynamically
reconfigured with a laser pulse has been developed by researchers in the UK. The
team believes that its technology, which has lower loss than traditional plasmonic
resonators, could be useful for reconfigurable optoelectronic components. Although
metamaterials were originally developed to "
This is a nice assortment
(83 at this time) of
electrical & electronics parameter calculators, with a couple
mechanical types as well. There are many types of substrate impedance and line dimension
calculators, and calculators for voltage dividers, inductance and capacitance, coax
lines and waveguides, amplifiers, impedance matching, free space loss, EIRP, radar
range, and noise figure. The really nice feature of these calculators is that they
are accompanied by an explanation and all the equations being used. Thanks to Kent D.,
of EETech Media, for reminding me
of this.
"Graphene is a very good conductor of electricity,
but because of its two-dimensional atomic structure a sheet of
graphene tends to conduct electricity
randomly across its whole surface, which is not very useful, particularly in electronics;
this depends on digital signals, which are either conducting electricity across
a defined gap or not at all. One way to influence the way that graphene conducts
electricity is to shape the sheet, which is the research focus "
Varian is a company familiar to most people
involved in early development of radar and other higher power microwave systems.
While the name sounds like a moniker construed from a combination of technical terms,
it is actually the surname of engineer brothers Russell and Sigurd Varian. They
are credited with building the first practical reflex klystron tube, and its
variant the rhumbatron, while at Stanford University.
Velocity modulation changes the speed of a stream of electrons
flowing at a constant current rate, rather than modulating the current. It was a
big deal that eventually found application in CRT displays for adding another dimension
to information on monochrome presentations
Weak Demand for Macro Base Station to
Impact Semiconductor Market
"The Annual forecast from research company,
Mobile Experts on Semiconductors RRH 2016 (Remote Radio Heads)
shows that a weak demand for LTE base stations has impacted the RF semiconductor
market, but losses are partially offset by a wider bandwidth and MIMO requirements,
which drive higher prices. The five-year forecast for RRH semiconductors includes
explanatory block diagrams and breakdowns of revenue, pricing, shipment, and market
share analysis "
"The
tug-of-war
between cellular and Wi-Fi over unlicensed spectrum is close to a breaking point
at the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA). Qualcomm claims the LTE-U co-existence tests the group
is about to ratify are unfair and could restrict or even prevent from coming to
market products using the 4G protocol for 5 GHz spectrum. The battle pits Wi-Fi
vendors such as Broadcom and cable-TV carriers against Qualcomm, cellular carriers
and their equipment suppliers. It foreshadows bigger "
On July 3, the
Dog Days of Summer began. It happens every
year and runs for 40 days through August 11. "Dog Days" comes from the coincidence
of the
heliacal rising of
Sirius (the Dog Star) with the sun.
Sirius is the brightest star in the sky, and can easily be seen during the day if
you know where to look for it. Ancient people believed (wrongly)
that its brilliance added to the sun's heat and caused the most torrid period of
the year. You might think the precession of the equinoxes causes the Sirius rising
to cycle through the Zodiac every 11,00 years, but the 1,460 year
Sothic cycle
keeps it within about a 11° range, hence, within the bounds of
Canis Major.
You're welcome.
"Heathkit was world renowned as a manufacturer
of electronics in kit form. This book covers
Heathkit's test equipment, starting with
a brief history of Heathkit, an overview of the test equipment product lines and
tips on buying and restoring vintage test equipment from sources like eBay. Separate
chapters cover the major categories of component testers and substitution boxes,
frequency counters, meters, oscilloscopes, power supplies, signal generators, tube
testers and checkers and miscellaneous test equipment. Each chapter includes one
or more 'In-Depth' sections "
"A
solar storm that jammed radar and radio
communications at the height of the Cold War could have led to a disastrous military
conflict if not for the U.S. Air Force's budding efforts to monitor the sun's activity,
a new study finds. On May 23, 1967, the Air Force prepared aircraft for war, thinking
the nation's surveillance radars in polar regions were being jammed by the Soviet
Union. Just in time, military space weather forecasters conveyed information about
the solar "
Membership in the American Radio Relay League
(ARRL) is currently $49.00 per year, and includes a subscription to its flagship
publication, QST. According to this postcard insert that I found in a June
1940 issue of QST, membership then was a whopping $2.50, and it also included the
magazine subscription. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' online
Inflation Calculator, $2.50 in 1940 bought you what $43.04 buys in 2016. You
can't get much more consistent in holding costs to a consistent standard over a
span
It is a shame that the U.S. Navy's Mobile
User Objective System satellite (MUOS-5) failed to achieve its intended
geosynchronous orbit over Hawaii. Hopefully, some genius type will figure out a
work-around. A very interesting note in this story is that 'hobbyist' were the first
to publically report the failure. Both visual and radio telescopic equipment available
to amateurs these days rival what the best government and research facilities had
a few decades ago. It's darned hard to keep any kind of a secret anymore
Heathkit reintroduced itself as an electronics
kit maker a year or so ago. They reigned as king of kits up through the 1980s, when
it became cheaper to buy completed electronic equipment from foreign manufacturers
than to built it yourself from a kit of parts (i.e., you
provided the 'free' assembly labor). Heathkit released their
Explorer AM Radio kit last year. The
GC-1006 'Most Reliable Cock' is Heathkit's first new clock kit
in 30 years. "This is a solder kit, suitable for people with no prior electronics
experience." Please encourage Heathkit by purchasing a kit for yourself or as a
gift
"Engineers from Bristol University have developed
a new shape-changing metamaterial using Kirigami, a development that could lead
to morphing aerospace structures and
smart antennas. Kirigami is the ancient
Japanese art of cutting and folding paper to obtain 3D shapes and can be applied
to transform two-dimensional sheet materials into complex three-dimensional shapes
with a broader choice of geometries than 'classical' origami. The research, developed
"
Suzanne Deffree, over at Design News,
posted a short slide show pointing out some the Olympiads who have degrees in engineering.
People who earn mechanical and chemical engineers are evidently more the competitive
sports types based on this sample, although there is one
radar engineer in the mix
...
Anatech Electronics offers the industry's largest portfolio of high-performance
standard and customized RF and microwave filters and filter-related products for
military, commercial, aerospace and defense, and industrial applications up to 40 GHz.
Anatech has introduced 3 new filter designs: a
2440 MHz WiFi cavity bandpass filter with
"N" connectors, a surface mount 1350 MHz ceramic bandpass filter, and a 3400 MHz
highpass filter with SMA connectors. Custom design are available
The free whitepapers, pamphlets, books, magazines,
and chapter examples listed here are a small sample of a lot of new items that are
offered for FREE through
TradePub. The publishers make them available
to qualifying people as a promotional campaign for their full line of offerings.
Note: I earn a few pennies (literally) when you download
one of these or the many other pubs available, so please help yourself
"Meet
Jeremy Shuler: He's 12, he's from Texas,
and he's smart—very smart. He's so smart that this fall, he will enter Cornell University
in Ithaca as a member of the class of 2020, the Ithaca Journal reports. That's right:
this bright kid will become a freshman at an Ivy League school this fall—at age
12. If he graduates on time at age 16, he will become the youngest graduate in Cornell
history. Shuler, who will major in engineering, is the son of two aerospace engineers
"
"According to the scientists behind the study,
from Imperial College London, the
coupled light and electron would have properties that could lead
to circuits that work with packages of light - photons - instead of electrons. It
would also allow researchers to study quantum physical phenomena, which govern particles
smaller than atoms, on a visible scale. In normal materials, light interacts with
a whole host of electrons present on the surface "
"Cosmology is begging for a reboot - one that
brings life into the equation." - Bob Berman, writing in the August 2016 issue of
Astronomy magazine. Bob (a famous
astronomer) and Dr.
Robert Lanza (a leading stem cell researcher)recently
wrote a book titled
Beyond Biocentrism: Rethinking Time, Space,
Consciousness and the Illusion of Death, in which melds the physics of
biological life with the physics of star generation, including the ramifications
of relatively newly popular concept of quantum entanglement - what Einstein called
'spooky action at a distance."
Innovative Power Products introduces their newest Drop-In 90 Degree Couplers,
the IPP-2331
and IPP-2332
which operate from 100 – 520 MHz. and handle 400 watts and 800 watts respectively.
The IPP-2331 and IPP-2332 will combine two signals up to 400 and 800 Watts CW of
total output power. These couplers were recently redesigned to increase the bandwidth
out to 520 MHz. while reducing the package size by approximately 60% to 1.50" x
3.30" making these products ideal for many applications
"Action figures of the Man of Steel are rarely
made out of steel. They are, like seemingly everything in our lives, made of cheap,
easy to mold plastic. But what if steel and other metals were as easy to work with
as plastic? Bulk
metallic glasses are metallic alloys whose
neatly ordered atomic structure can be altered into an amorphous, non-crystalline
structure - giving metal the malleability of plastic, while maintaining its durability
and conductivity. Metallic glasses "
develops and produces powerful, intelligent measuring equipment solutions
tailored to each application to handle the demanding measurement tasks that are
required. These precision instruments from the specialist for
EMF measurement make it possible for those responsible to record
all the field values relevant to a safety assessment complying with the directive
in real time without too much effort. The high quality range comprises wideband
and selective
I usually try to post something a little
less serious and technical on Mondays to help everyone ease into the long week ahead.
It could be a
Carl & Jerry or a
Mac's Radio Service Shop story, an
electronics quiz, or even something I found out on the Internet.
This time it is a 'believe-it-or-not' type feature titled "Curiosa in Radio" about radio manufacturing, operating, and infrastructure.
Enjoy
NuWaves Engineers has an immediate opening for
an Sales Engineer. The Sales Engineer's overall objective is to successfully manage
current, and create new customer relationships. This position assists with the definition
of long-term strategic sales goals, builds key customer relationships, identifies
business opportunities, negotiates and closes business deals, and maintains extensive
knowledge of current market conditions. Working closely with the Director of Product
Solutions to achieve strategic ...
"Physicists at Friedrich-Alexander Universität
Erlangen-Nürnberg and the Vienna University of Technology have successfully created
one-dimensional
magnetic atom chains for the first time. Their break-through provides
a model system for basic research in areas such as magnetic data storage, as well
as in chemistry. Their results were recently published in the journal Physical Review
Letters. Nanotechnology is revolutionising the way we live by making microelectronic
systems "
For the sake of avid cruciverbalists amongst
us, each week I create a new
crossword puzzle that has a theme related to engineering, mathematics,
chemistry, physics, and other technical words. You will never be asked the name
of a movie star unless he/she was involved in a technical endeavor (e.g., Hedy Lamar). Enjoy!
"UC, Berkeley engineers have built the first
dust-sized, wireless sensors that can be implanted in the body, bringing closer
the day when a Fitbit-like device could monitor internal nerves, muscles or organs
in real time. Because these batteryless sensors could also be used to stimulate
nerves and muscles, the technology also opens the door to "electroceuticals" to treat disorders such
as epilepsy or to stimulate the immune system or tamp down inflammation. The so-called
neural dust, which the team implanted in the muscles and peripheral "
Mann Wireless has a fantastic Entry / Early Career
RF Field Engineering / Project Engineering opportunity in the area of RF/Wireless
communications. As an Engineer in our small business, you will have the opportunity
to work on everything from new business development, to design, estimating and proposal
development, to RF Field Engineering and Project Management. This is a "hands-on"
position. In this capacity you will be on the ground, managing day to day operations
at job sites. This includes conducting site surveys, interfacing with customers
...
"Researchers have fabricated a large-area
textile that emits bright yellow light for more than 180 hours. The low-cost, flexible,
transparent textile has potential applications
in light-emitting clothing, signs, and architectural features. The scientists, led
by Ludwig Edman, a professor in the Organic Photonics and Electronics Group at Umea
University in Sweden, together with researchers of LunaLEC AB and sefar AG, have
published a paper "
Skyworks is pleased to introduce two new RF switches ideal for the Internet of
Things applications including the connected home. In addition to the connected home,
the SKY13587-378LF, which is a pHEMT GaAs SPDT switch, can be used
for transmit and receive switching in industrial, lighting and smart energy applications,
as well as 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN networks that operate at 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz. The
SKY13588-460LF is a CMOS silicon-on-insulator SP3T switch made for antenna selection
in Wi-Fi
Albert Einstein was an
assistant patent examiner in the
Swiss Federal Intellectual Property
Agency (IPI). He developed his theory of Special Relativity while working there.
While being employed as a patent examiner comes with the disclaimer that 'past performance
does not guarantee future results,' it certainly could serve the purpose of motivating
your creativity. "Are you an engineer or scientist interested in joining an international
team at the forefront of technology?" At this time the
European Patent Office is seeking engineers and scientists to
work as patent examiners. Don't let this opportunity pass, Albert
"Snapchat and Kik, the messaging services,
use bar codes that look like drunken checkerboards to connect people and share information
with a snap of their smartphone cameras. Facebook is working on adding the ability
to hail rides and make payments within its Messenger app. Facebook and Twitter have
begun live-streaming video. All of these developments have something in common:
The technology was first popularized in China. WeChat and Alipay, two Chinese apps,
have long used
..."
Kevin R., of Hillsboro, Oregon, is the
second Book Drawing winner for July. It has been many moons since both
people notified of winning have responded. Kevin wisely selected
RF Positioning: Fundamentals, Applications,
and Tools, by Rafael Saraiva Campos (graciously provided
by AArtech House). I pay postage for most shipments. Anyone
who buys my software or sends me a note during the month is entered
Radio controlled drones have gotten a bad
name, mostly due to moronic operators that have no regard for other people's privacy
or safety. I would like to be able to say those types are in the minority, but unfortunately
they probably do make up the majority of drone owners. That is because unlike with
R/C airplanes and helicopters which require at least a modicum of skill and common
sense to fly successfully, even the cheapest drones incorporate stability systems
that make flying them so easy a caveman can do it. At the opposite end of the drooling
loser contingent of the drone pilot spectrum is the rapidly growing number of highly
skilled pilots that advance not just
"Scientists in China are set to launch the
world's first
quantum satellite, which could one day
make for an ultra-secure global communications network. The 1,300 pound craft contains
a crystal that produces pairs of entangled photons, which will be fired to ground
stations in China and Austria to form a 'secret key.' Entangled photons theoretically
maintain their link across any distance, and according to the scientists, any attempts
to breach this type of communication would be easily detectable "
Saelig Company announces a new entry in the
Rigol DSA800 Spectrum
Analyzer Series - DSA832E, a high performance, economical, and compact 9 kHz
to 3.2 GHz Spectrum Analyzer. A tracking generator function is available with the
"-TG" model. The digital IF circuitry guarantees reliability and performance that
meets the most demanding RF applications. The rugged but very affordable DSA832E
Spectrum Analyzer has a broad set of features and specs, including a large 8"
"'X' marks the spot!
Hamvention®
announced today that it will be moving to the Greene County Fairgrounds and Event
Center in Xenia, Ohio, after 52 years at Hara Arena. That's about 16 miles east
of Dayton center off US Route 35 (see map). Hara Arena
announced last week that it would be closing, and Hamvention indicated that it soon
would be announcing its back-up plan for a new venue in the Dayton area. 'We appreciate
and value all the time and effort of the many partners, in particular the Greene
County Agricultural Society, the Greene "
"A room-temperature 'supercurrent' has been identified in a
Bose–Einstein condensate of quasiparticles called magnons. That's the finding of
an international team of researchers, which says the work opens the door to using
magnons in information processing. Other researchers, however, believe the claim
is premature, arguing that less-novel explanations have not been ruled out. The
term "supercurrent" describes the resistance-free current of charged particles in
superconductors. It also describes the viscosity-free current of particles in superfluid
helium. The common denominator of these systems is that they can "
Since 1961, MECA Electronics has designed and manufactured an extensive line
of RF / Microwave components including attenuators, directional & hybrid couplers,
isolators / circulators, power dividers / combiners, RF loads, bias Ts and adapters &
cables. MECA has long been the 'backbone' of high performance wired and air-interfaced
networks such as in-building, satellite, radar, radio, telemetry, mobile radio,
aviation & ATC comms. Please visit MECA today to see if their products and/or
services can be of use to your project
"Invisibility cloaks have less to do with
magic than with
metamaterials. These human-engineered
materials have properties that don't occur in nature, allowing them to bend and
manipulate light in weird ways. For example, some of these materials can channel
light around an object so that it appears invisible at a certain wavelength. These
materials are also useful in applications such as smaller, faster, and more energy
efficient optics, sensors, light sources, light detectors and telecommunications
devices. Now researchers have designed a new kind of metamaterial whose "
This is a different type of Radio Service
Data Sheet in that rather than presenting a schematic and service data on a particular
piece of electronic equipment, it provides a table of "The First 10 Metal Tubes" introduced to the industry. As reported
in other articles I have posted from the mid-1930s era magazines, the advent of
vacuum tubes that used a metal envelope rather than the typical glass envelope was
pitched as the most significant advancement in electronics since the invention of
the amplifier tube itself (Lee DeForest's Audion) in 1906. In fact, much
AntSyn™, the newest
product within the NI AWR software portfolio, has been named
Most Valuable Product (MVP) in the July
issue of Microwave Journal. AntSyn is an automated antenna design, synthesis and
optimization tool that enables users to quickly and easily input antenna engineering
requirements and output antenna designs. AntSyn combines EM simulation with the
use of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) to uniquely explore the design
"In the
quantum world, physicists study the tiny particles that make up
our classical world -- neutrons, electrons, photons -- either one at a time or in
small numbers because the behaviour of the particles is completely different on
such a small scale. If you add to the number of particles that are being studied,
eventually there will be enough particles that they no longer act quantum mechanically
and must be identified as classical, just like our everyday world. But where is
the line between the quantum world "
Charles Murray, of Design News just posted
a piece about a new book called
Calculated Risk: The Supersonic Life and
Times of Gus Grissom, by George Leopold." Anyone knowing the history of
America's manned space flight program is familiar with the hatch blowing off the
capsule (which quickly sunk) of the
Mercury Redstone 4 mission while awaiting a helicopter rendezvous
for pickup in the Atlantic Ocean. Grissom insisted he
did not activate the firing mechanism, and now, 55 years later,
a forensic investigation suggests that possibly an ESD event was the cause. An electrical
spark, ironically, is believed to have ignited the fire on
Apollo 1
that claimed Grissom's life. I haven't read the book yet, but will add it to my
library list.
In 1931, QST reader John H. Miller,
Electrical Engineer, of the Jewell Electrical Instrument Company, wrote to the editor
regarding the story "What Is This Thing Called Decibel?," which appeared in the
August issue of that year. Mr. Miller wished to inform (or
remind) readers that the American Wire Gauge system for assigning sizes to
wire cross-section ratios closely follows a
decibel
(i.e., logarithmic) relationship. Applying his information:
A 28 AWG solid wire has a cross-section of 160 circular mils, so at 3 sizes larger,
25 AWG should be 320 circular mils. In fact, it is 320 circular mils
VidaRF offers low cost drop-in, 1"x1"
circulators &
isolators designed for various wireless and power amplifier applications in
the 800 to 2100 MHz range. The robust design provides high performance and reliability.
Circuit tab can be straight or bent flush with base for surface mounting
"Researchers have demonstrated how to control
the "electron spin" of a
nanodiamond while it is levitated with
lasers in a vacuum, an advance that could find applications in quantum information
processing, sensors and studies into the fundamental physics of quantum mechanics.
Electrons can be thought of as having two distinct spin states, "up" or "down."
The researchers were able to detect and control the electron spin resonance, or
its change from one state to the other. "We've shown how to continuously flip the
electron spin in a "
EDI CON USA 2016, a conference
that brings together engineers working on high-frequency analog and high-speed digital
designs, taking place September 20-22 in Boston, Massachusetts, at the Hynes Convention
Center, announces its Measurement Track for this year's conference and exhibition.
The exhibition will host more than 138 exhibiting companies from the RF, microwave,
and high-speed digital industries, including demonstration pods in the Signal Integrity
Zone
Yeah, I thought the same thing... a "Wamoscope?" Was it produced by the Wham-O toy company that makes
the Hula Hoop, the Frisbee, the Super Ball, and Silly String? Wham-O was founded
in 1948, so why not? Actually, Wamoscope is derived from "WAve-MOdulated oscilloSCOPE."
It combined a traveling-wave tube with a cathode ray tube in single enclosure. Articles
on the Wamoscope appeared in the November 1956 issues of both
Popular Electronics and
Radio & Television News.
"Like a whirlpool, a new light-based communication
tool carries data in a swift, circular motion. Described in a study published by
the journal Science, the optics advancement could become a central component of
next generation computers designed to handle society's growing demand for information
sharing. It may also be a salve to those fretting over the predicted end of
Moore's Law, the idea that researchers
will find new ways to continue making computers smaller, faster and cheaper "
Windfreak Technologies designs, manufactures,
tests and sells high value USB powered and
controlled radio frequency products such
as RF Signal Generators, RF Synthesizers, RF Power Detectors, RF Mixers, RF
Upconverters and RF downconverters. Worldwide
customers include Europe, Australia, and Asia. Please take a moment to visit Windfreak
today to see whether their products and services can be of use to your project.
"Hamvention® has announced that
Hara Arena, the home of Hamvention since
1964, is closing, but Hamvention will continue. Hamvention 2016, the event's 65th
running, was also the last held in the six-building Hara complex. Hamvention 2017
will be held at a new, yet-to-be-disclosed location in the Dayton area. 'The Dayton
Amateur Radio Association (DARA) regrets to inform our many vendors, visitors and
stakeholders that, unfortunately, Hara has announced the closing of their facility,'
a news release from Hamvention General Chair Ron Cramer, KD8ENJ, said today "
It was a fairly common practice in the early
days of radio to run full-page advertisements in trade magazine that looked like
the front page of a newspaper. This one by
Radio Corporation of America (RCA) is a good example. The ad appeared
in a 1937 edition of Radio-Craft, pitching primarily its new radio models
with improved shortwave reception and band extensions. Also promoted ACR-111 amateur
radio receiver. Interestingly, there is mention of what was the equivalent of an
800 toll-free number with a centralized call center for RCA customers to call for
service. Their call would then
"A group of nano-scientists has discovered
a way to arrange individual atoms to store and rewrite data 500 times more efficiently
than the best hard drives on the market. A team of researchers from the Netherlands,
Portugal and Spain has made a major breakthrough in so-called
atomic memory - an approach that stores
one bit of data on each atom with a goal of creating a new kind of tiny data storage
device of the future. With this technology, little patterns of atoms can be arranged
to "
Each month I randomly select one or two names
from a list of people who have contacted me during that month or who have purchased
one of my
software items to receive a
FREE book. The
books have been provided by Artech House and Cambridge University Press. Stephen G.,
of Newark, Ohio, wisely chose
Homeland Security: Threats, Countermeasures,and
Privacy Issues, by Giorgio Franceschetti and Marina Grossi. (Graciously provided by
Artech House).
I pay the postage cost in most cases.
NuWaves Engineers has an immediate opening for
an Advisory Engineer. An Advisory Engineer reports directly to the Director of RF
systems or the Director of Range Systems. The Advisory Engineer works closely with
the Engineering technical teams and with Program Management to design and document
RF Engineering designs which meet project requirements. The Advisory Engineer applies
sound RF engineering principles to the design, development, and documentation of
complex systems and products ...
I don't usually give much consideration anymore
to claims of Microsoft having been built on stolen goods, but after reading this
piece by Max Maxwell, of Design News, there might actually be something
to it. Based on recently available source code for MS-DOS and CP/M, one of the world's
foremost
software forensic analysts is prepared
to make a major announcement on August 6 re his findings. This could be interesting
How did we ever accomplish research without
the Internet? Sure, that is a rhetorical question, but I find myself asking that
often when I find information on something I figured there was no way anything
would be available. Such was the case when
looking up this
Kolster K20 radio. Its Radio Service Data Sheet appeared in the
October 1930 edition of Radio-Craft magazine
