Take a break and work this week's
RF Engineering-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.
Available in different versions the
IsoLOG 3D covers
a frequency range of 9 kHz to 40 GHz. The array consists of a total number from 16 to
40 directional antennas with horizontal and vertical polarization. Additionally 8 to
16 special LF antennas can be added in order to cover a frequency range starting at 9 kHz.
Overall, the antenna can be equipped with up to 64 independent antennas. The IsoLOG 3D
achieves a high sector-resolution of 22.5° without mechanical rotation. The extremely
fast
...
"Standard lasers are actually not useful for secure
communication because they emit what is called 'classical' light. Data eavesdroppers
could extract any data being carried via classical light without detection. In contrast,
a quantum Internet would be based on 'quantum' light, in which a single unit of light
-- a single photon -- cannot be measured without being destroyed. Therefore, an efficient
source of ..."
This
article by
Annie Dike, writing for IMS ExpertServices, discusses how the use of
technology might positively or negatively affect the jury, depending on the
demographic represented. Her mention of the 'holey-shoed'
lawyer trick, which I had not heard of, to appear humble and hopefully illicit the sympathy
of jurors, might be as ineffective with Millennial type panel members as would pulling
out an old-fashioned easel and paper to illustrate a concept. In a world of 3-D printed
mock-ups of crime scene or patent infringement 'evidence,' legal teams must more than
ever carefully
...
"Ulrich
Rohde, N1UL, has been honored with the 2016 Microwave Application Award by the
IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society. He was
credited with 'Significant contributions to the development of low-noise oscillators.'
The Microwave Application Award recognizes an individual, or a team, for an outstanding
application of microwave theory and techniques that have been put into practice within
the past decade. Rohde will receive the award at the annual IEEE MTT-S International
Microwave
..."
Graphene Foam to Unlock New Applications in Collaborative R&D Venture
Texting at Night Affects
Teens' Sleep, Academic Performance (this took research?)
FCC May Overhaul Rules for TV Set-Top Boxes
Internet May Soon Carry Traffic at Speed of Light
Apple Warns iPhone Sales Set to
Fall for 1st Time
Hams Turn out to Help as Massive Snowfall Stuns Several States
"Smaller, faster, and more robust and energy efficient
electronic devices could be developed, thanks to research into an entirely new form of
digital memory. The new form of memory, known as antiferromagnetic spintronics, was recently
unveiled in the journal Science, by an international team of researchers lead by Dr Peter
Wadley at
..."
December 1942 was just a year into America's 'official'
involvement in World War II. Already, both wired and wireless communications had
made major advances and were indisputably vital in both the logistical and strategic
aspects of troop movement, supply chains, fighting battles, and evacuation of wounded
personnel. It also played a large part in propaganda campaigns. This was all true for
both Axis and Allied forces. Ham radio operators provided a huge boost to the
Signal Corps
because they came at least partially trained for the jobs. These dozen and a half photos
from ...
"In the brutal naval battles of the future, the
first clash of arms will be a clash of electrons. If you don't win the invisible battle
of the airwaves, you can't win the visible battle of missiles. Before warships can concentrate
their fire on the enemy, they first must communicate with each other. Before they
can fire at long range at all, they have to
..."
This is a must-read article for all persons interested
in the history of wireless communications. Seriously. Stop what you are doing and read
it. I guarantee the vast majority have never heard of this challenge to the veracity
of
Mr. Guglielmo Marconi's bestowed title of "father of wireless telegraphy." Most of
us are at least passingly familiar with challenges to Samuel Morse's, Thomas Edison's,
and a few other notables' claims to being the first at a particular technical breakthrough,
but herein, as penned by of
Lieutenant-Commander Edward H. Loftin, is a first-hand account of multiple successful
challenges by the U.S. Patent Office against
...
""Common coaxial cables could be made 50 percent
lighter with a new nanotube-based outer conductor developed by Rice University scientists.
The Rice lab of Professor Matteo Pasquali has developed a coating that could replace
the tin-coated copper braid that transmits the signal and shields the cable from electromagnetic
interference. The metal braid is the heaviest component in modern coaxial data cables.
The research appears this month in
..."
Car Navigation
Systems Easy Prey for Hackers
High-Temperature
Electronics Operate at 300°C
Underground Ring Lasers to Put General Relativity to the Test
Ultra-High-Speed Chip Could Make the Spectrum Feel Less Crowded
Memristor Variants and Models from Knowm
South Korea May Pick
4th Mobile Operator This Week
What could possibly go wrong with this? "With the
rise of social media, people have become more vigilant than ever about their private
information. Nowadays everyone knows that you have to be careful where you put your address,
phone number, or credit card info online, or else it might fall into the hands of the
wrong people. And now it's time to add one more item to that list of private things to
be careful about: your keys. The recently-started Japanese online service Aikagi Kojo
..."
An article title with both 'radar' and 'Great Lakes'
in the title is sure to catch my attention, as did this. Author Norman Schorr reports
on the state of the art of radar equipment and usage for the purpose of
maritime navigation. Research and development, along with an ample surplus of components
left over from World War II facilitated a rapid adaptation of radar to many venues.
Included among its applications were airway and waterway navigation, rocket trajectory
tracking, security systems, speed measurement, weather observation, and aerial mapping
...
Here is a spiffy idea. "Bespoke NFC tag supplier
and manufacturer RapidNFC has expanded its range to include
NFC asset tags that are designed to make it easy to tag a wide range of assets from
cables to shelving and machinery. 'If you have a scenario when you're in a warehouse
or you need to asset tag machinery or something like that, sometimes putting a sticker
or a PVC or ABS tag onto that isn't quite suitable,' Jack Sage told NFC World
..."
Z-Communications, Inc. announces a new RoHS compliant
Fixed Frequency Synthesizer model
SFS6265A-LF in the C-band. The SFS6265A-LF is a low cost phase locked loop that operates
at 6265 MHz with an external 100 MHz reference oscillator and features a typical
phase noise of -89 and -90 dBc/Hz at the 1 kHz and 10 kHz offsets, respectively.
The SFS6265A-LF is designed to deliver a typical output power of +3 dBm while operating
off a VCO voltage supply of 5 Vdc and drawing 35 mA (typical)
...
The
fourth book in the bestselling Artech House series by David Adamy. Like its predecessors,
EW 104 presents a series of highly informative and easy-to-comprehend tutorials,
along with insightful introductory and connective material that helps you understand
how each aspect fits together. This reference starts with a review of the generalities
of legacy threats, from the technical point of view, with a focus on what makes the new
threats more challenging. Readers are provided with details of threats in three major
areas - Communications, Radars, and IR Threats. Market Engineers and managers responsible
for designing or evaluating communications electronic warfare
...
"Currently, commercial wireless power transfer
is limited mainly to charging pads for phones: instead of plugging your phone directly
into the wall, simply place it on top of a wireless charging pad. In the future, the
same concept could be extended to much larger distances and higher transfer efficiencies,
enabling entire rooms and even buildings to serve as wireless charging zones for phones,
computers, and other electronic devices. Although wireless power transfer (WPT) was famously
..."
As mentioned many times in the past, I post these
online for the benefit of hobbyists looking for information to assist in repairing or
restoring vintage communication equipment. Here are the
Bendix Models 636A, C, D,
ECA
Model 108, and
Zenith Models 5D011-5D027 schematics and parts lists as featured in the February
1947 issue of
Radio-Craft
magazine.
Internet Addiction Among Students Leading to Family Conflicts
Glass-Based Shield Protects Space Electronics from UV Rays
Flexible and
Transparent Pressure Sensor
Mini Metal Blanket Foils Lithium Battery Freeze
Marvin Minsky, Pioneer in AI, Dies at 88
Mysterious
Behavior of Quantum Liquid Elucidated
U.S. Navy's New Motto: "Run, Hide, or Fight" (pathetic leadership)
"This Thursday, the FCC is voting on extending
online local public file requirements to radio. As you may recall, several years ago,
television stations were required to convert over to an FCC web-based local public file
for most local public file materials. So, what does all of this mean for you? The FCC
is proposing to do the same for radio. Like TV, the FCC's radio proposal is to require
an upload only of documents that are not already in the Commission's own database
..."
Keysight Technologies is proud to be working with
IEEE Communications Society to share
complimentary access to a few of the most popular topical research papers each month.
This month, our focus is on Millimeter-Wave. We hope you find this content useful as
we strive to provide the information, design and test solutions that enable your next
insight. Get complimentary access to 4 papers: Millimeter-Wave Beam Forming
as an Enabling Technology for 5G Cellular
...
"The
Pythagoras
theorem has changed. Better yet, our understanding of it has changed – from two to
three dimensions. For the past 2,500 years, the Pythagoras' theorem, arguably the most
well known theorem in the world, has greatly helped mankind to evolve. Its useful right
angles are everywhere, whether it is a building, a table, a graph with axes, or the atomic
structure of a crystal. It is universally applicable, but still it is exclusively bound
to two
..."
Improve Satellite Communications
"Penn State engineers have used a tunable, lightweight
metamaterial to build an antenna system that could improve satellite communications.
Previously, metamaterials and small antennas have both been considered to be limited
by their narrow operating bandwidths. However, the researchers found that by tuning a
metamaterial and an antenna in tandem, they were able to create a small antenna that
can operate at lower frequencies. To make it work, they used modern digital radios
..."
Not surprisingly, there is a website dedicated
to only the
Regency TR-1 transistor radio and its history from development through retail sales.
As reported in this January 1955 issue of Radio and Television News, The TR-1
was the world's first commercially available, fully transistorized portable radio. A
complete schematic and functional description is provided. It used four germanium transistors
and operated on a 22-1/2 volt battery, which provided about twenty hours of listening
pleasure. The unit weighed eleven ounces and cost $49.95
...
"It's an incredible success, and we physicists
can boast about it." -
Hitoshi Murayama,
theoretical physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, in the October 2015
issue of Discover magazine, regarding "Pretty much everything is explained by
the Standard Model" of quantum physics. The
Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
is considered to be the complex machine ever built. It's prime motivation for being built
was to find the Higgs boson, which is responsible for the Higgs field that is thought
to give mass to particles by virtue of how they interact with it
...
"Software engineers Jay Flatland and Paul Rose
built the
Rubik's cube-solving machine In a YouTube video the robot unscrambles the cube in
just 1.047 seconds. The Guinness World Record for fastest time to solve a Rubik's cube
is held by a robot that solved the puzzle in 2.39 seconds in November Flatland and Rose's
machine uses the Kociemba Rubik's cube solving algorithm to solve
..."
Rehab Camp for Internet-Addicted Teenagers
Ham Radio Operators Have Been Design Engineering Innovators
Qualcomm, TDK Prep $3B RF Joint Venture
Norway Consults
on Fresh Radio Spectrum Auction
Consolidation Paces Quickens in Cyber Defense Market
Facebook's Friend Finder Found Unlawful by Germany's Highest Court
An ample supply of surplus
coaxial cable
after the end of World War II provided an inexpensive and easy to use form of transmission
line. Not having to worry about cable routing and unintentional radiation makes transitions
through walls, running along metal surfaces, and routing high power transmission lines
near habitable areas a no-brainer. Issues like power handling, bend radius, and higher
attenuation need more attention during the installation design phase, but that pales
in comparison to coaxial cable's advantages. Author Byron Goodman addresses some of the
issues Hams accustomed to using
flat transmission
lines ...
"The largest-ever prime number has been discovered
in Central Missouri - and oh, what a number it is: 274,207,281 - 1. The record
number, nicknamed
M74207281, has more than 20 million digits. That's nearly 5 million digits
longer than the previous record. If you printed
each digit 1 mm wide, the number would stretch for more than a half marathon's 13.2 miles.
So how can a number be 'discovered?' It happens when a human notices
..."
When I first saw an
Erie Resistor Corporation advertisement in the December 1958 issue of Popular
Electronics, I decided to research its history here in Erie, Pennsylvania, where
I live. Click on that hyperlink if you are interested in what I discovered. This advertisement
appeared in the January 1952 issue of Radio & Television News, so I figured I'd post
it as well
...
Advanced Test Equipment Rentals (ATEC) now rents
Fluke 1736 power loggers for data collection of power, voltage, current, harmonics
and other power quality values. ATEC - a leading rental company of test and measurement
equipment for a variety of industries including power, energy, and utility - has added
the Fluke 1736 to an extensive inventory of rental equipment. The Fluke 1736 is the latest
in a line of Fluke power loggers. This three-phase power
...
Woman Strangled with
Mobile Phone Charger Cable
Google 'Paid Apple $1B in 2014
to Keep Search on iPhone'
Weaving a New Story for COFS and MOFs
Semiconductor
R&D Growth Slows in 2015
Nitrogen Supercharges Supercapacitors
China's Chip Jackpot Teases
"Fragments of spent rockets and other debris orbiting
the Earth pose 'special political danger' of damage to satellites being misconstrued
as attack. The steady rise in
space junk that is floating around the planet could provoke a political row and even
armed conflict, according to scientists, who warn that even tiny pieces of debris have
enough energy to damage or destroy military satellites. Researchers said fragments of
spent rockets and
..."
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!
Are You Suffering from 'Smartphone Pinky'?
Congressman Intercedes with FCC Chairman on Amateur Radio Interference Concerns
Pentagon Eyes Laser-Armed Drones to Shoot Down Ballistic Missiles
Google
to Pay the UK $185M in Back Taxes
Antenova Ltd, manufacturer of
antennas and RF antenna modules for M2M and the Internet of Things, is adding two
new positioning antennas, Bentoni and Asper, to its range of flexible FPC antennas. Bentoni
is a positioning antenna for all of the global public satellite constellations: GPS,
GLONASS, Beidou and GALILEO. It is designed to be used in trackers, portable devices,
network components, and wearable electronics. Asper is a dual antenna
...
"Defence, which brings in one of the widest ranges
of engineering disciplines of any sector, offers graduates a host of opportunities at
the cutting edge of technology. The UK defence sector sits at the cutting edge of technology
and needs high-calibre engineers from a myriad of disciplines to help uphold operations
in-theatre (that's military speak for on the battlefield) manufacture and maintain new
and existing platforms, and design the weapons for tomorrow's battlespace
..."
Most people know this, but chose to conveniently
'forget' when buying and using their handy electronic devices.
OWS protestor types are among the most hypocritical
(see The Real Price of Gold).
"Illegal
child labor runs rampant at mines in the Republic of Congo, where a key ingredient
used in rechargeable batteries is often found in popular electronics made by Apple Inc.,
Microsoft Corp., HP Inc. and Samsung Electronics, according to a recent report by Amnesty
International. The allegations are just the latest to showcase unfair labor
...
Here, for your Friday, end-of-the-work-week enjoyment,
are a half dozen
electronics-themed comics that appeared in the January 1950 edition of Radio &
Television News. When is the last time you saw a comic in a technical magazine?
I particularly like the one with the 'green worm' displaying on the television. There
is a list of other comics at the bottom of the page
...
"The very first
experimental observations of knots in quantum matter have just been reported. The scientists
created knotted solitary waves, or knot solitons, in the quantum-mechanical field describing
a gas of superfluid atoms, also known as a Bose--Einstein condensate. Visualization of
the structure of the created quantum knot. Each colorful band represents a set of nearby
directions of the quantum field that is knotted
..."
Fast Way of Electron Orbit Simulation in Complex
Magnetic Fields
"The design of advanced synchrotron radiation sources
requires precise algorithms for the simulation of electron trajectories in complex magnetic
fields. However, multi-parameter studies can be very time consuming. Now, a team has
developed a new algorithm which significantly reduces the computation time. In a storage
ring like BESSY II electrons circulate nearly with
..."
Bismuth-Based
Nanoribbons Show 'Topological' Transport
Semi-Polar GaN on Sapphire Long-Wavelength LEDs
U.S. Military Bases Not Accepting Driver's Licenses from 5 States as ID
U.S. New Poll: Germany #1, Canada #2, UK #3, US #4, Sweden #5
Apple Stock Near Freak-out Level
China, Russia Plan Floating Nuclear Power Plants (Trojan horse?)
e2v is looking for an RF Applications Engineer that
will support high performance RF IC products and Broad Band Data Converters. This position
will provide application support for RF switches, mixers, PLLs, DSA, and prescalers in
challenging environments for defense an space systems. High speed data converters with
industry leading performance will also be a key focus. The position will also require
the candidate to take the lead role in assessing and understanding Aerospace and Defense
Electronics customers' system requirements and provide guidance to the R&D teams
to develop successful semiconductor products. This position provides a unique opportunity
to support current and new cutting edge technology that supports some of our nation's
...
Anatech Electronics, Inc. offers the industry's
largest portfolio of high-performance standard and customized
RF and microwave filters and filter-related
products for military, commercial, aerospace and defense, and industrial applications
up to 40 GHz. Anatech has introduced
3 new filter
designs: a 136 MHz highpass filter, a 200 MHz highpass filter, and a 3500 MHz
lowpass filter. Custom design are available
...
"About 600 miles from Earth's surface is the first
of two donut-shaped electron swarms, known as the
Van Allen Belts, or the radiation belts. Understanding the shape and size of the
belts, which can shrink and swell in response to incoming radiation from the sun, is
crucial for protecting our technology in space. The harsh radiation isn't good for satellites'
health, so scientists wish to know just which orbits could be jeopardized in different
situations. Since the 1950s, when scientists first began forming a picture of these rings
of energetic
..."
This episode of "Mac's
Radio Service Shop" goes down a drastically different path than most, at least until
the very end where a completely unrelated anecdote about interference with a remote garage
door opener is told by Mac. Although the exact issues chanted by electronics technician
cum repairman Barney Gallagher regarding many manufacturers' penchant for designing and
selling unserviceable equipment is dated, the principle remains the same. We have all
wished a designer had to service the product he/she has designed and sold to us
...
Pasternack, a leading provider of RF, microwave
and millimeter wave products, introduces a brand new
rackmount variable gain RF amplifier with performance from 100 MHz to 18 GHz. This
19-inch rack mounted RF amplifier is designed for lab use and various test and measurement
applications. Normally this type of test equipment commands long lead-times for delivery
often exceeding several months; however, Pasternack has made this product available from
stock for immediate shipment
...
China Mobile Surges
Past 300M 4G Customer Milestone
Yahoo Staffers Fear 20-25% Workforce Layoff
Philippines to Launch Its 1st Satellite in April
UK Government's Migration Bill Will Hit Manufacturing (egad!
welfare class might have to work)
Can Wikipedia Live Forever?
The
Forgotten Pieces of AM Revitalization
If this Radio-Craft article article is
accurate, it was sometime around 1935 that the
8-pin glass-encased vacuum tube base came into existence. The glass-metal designation
refers to these being glass enclosed equivalents to otherwise metal encased vacuum tubes.
Evidently, the relatively new (and expensive) line of metal
tubes sported 8-pin bases so these glass tube designs had to conform in order to be suitable
substitutes
...
X-COM Systems,
LLC, a subsidiary of Bird Technologies, today introduced the latest version of its
Windows-based
Spectro-X signal analysis software that adds new features to tools for developing
and testing radar, ELINT, SIGINT, ECM, ESM, commercial and military communications systems.
The latest version of the software makes it easier to quickly find signals of interest
and pinpoint them in time, enhanced broader pulse signal analysis and waveform search
capability, and filtering of export
...
Although
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was a complete surprise and
shock to the nation, that fact that the United States would eventually be drawn officially
into World War II was well known. The
amateur radio community
had begun talking about the potential impact on radio communications hobbyists earlier
in the year, as evidenced by articles printed in QST and other magazines. Within
a couple weeks of Congress declaring war, all unauthorized transmissions from Ham stations
were terminated in order to prevent both intentionally and unintentionally conveyance
of information that could proves useful by the enemy. Along with being a patriotic bunch
that were eager to help defeat Axis powers, they also
...
"A new type of
semiconductor laser has been created using the unique electronic properties of graphene.
Designed in the UK by researchers at the University of Manchester, the prototype operates
in the terahertz band and can be easily tuned to output radiation at specific wavelengths.
The team says that its research could lead to the development of compact devices for
a variety of different applications, from security scanning to medical
..."
Z-Communications, Inc. announces a new RoHS compliant
VCO (Voltage-Controlled Oscillator) model
SMV4350A-LF in the C-band. The SMV4350A-LF operates from 4345 to 4355 MHz within
a tuning voltage range of 1 to 4 Vdc. This low cost VCO features phase noise performance
of -110 dBc/Hz @ 100 kHz offset and covers the frequency range with an average sensitivity
of 50 MHz/V. The SMV4350A-LF is designed to deliver -0.5 ±2.5 dBm of output power
into a 50 Ω load while operating over the industrial temperature range of
...
Antenna Physics: An Introduction: Delve
Deeper into Antenna Theory
Antenna Physics: An Introduction is written to
bridge the gap between basic theory and graduate-level engineering texts.
Robert J. Zavrel,
Jr, W7SX, well-known author and professional antenna engineer, explains many of the
underlying principles of antennas and antenna physics and introduces the mathematics
behind these principles. Radio amateurs are familiar with antennas and use them every
day to communicate on the air. We know how long to make a dipole or vertical antenna
for a particular frequency, but do we know how the antenna really works? Note that this
is not a book of "how-to" projects, but rather a theoretical and mathematical approach
to the topic ...
Intel Metamaterials
Breakthrough for EMI Field Shunt
Startup Develops Room-Temp Metallic "Velcro" Glue
UK Teams up to Bridge LED Green Gap with 3C GaN
Baby Boomers Slow to Sell Businesses as Retirement Looms
Sensors Slip into Brain, Dissolve When Job Is Done (sounds
like the perfect crime)
Many Young People Fear Losing Their Jobs to Robots
Compiled by Rob Spiegel, Senior Editor, Design
News - "Here is the 2016 data on the best engineering schools by mid-career pay.
This year's list is quite different from the 2015 list -- you'll find some unusual schools
producing high-earning grads. Engineering schools in general usually win top marks in
PayScale's annual College Salary Report. Engineering graduates get a head start by leaving
school with a specific, applicable set of in-demand skills
..."
VidaRF offers high performance "SMD"
Circulators and Isolators with LOW
IMD. This rugged design uses a screwed in cover and machined housing. Units are fully
tested to perform vibration, thermal shock and moisture making suitable for base station
and other infrastructural environments
...
The cover of this month's Radio & Television
News magazine is part of the issue's story on performance testing of resistors.
The author was an engineer for
International Resistance Company (IRC), which is still in business as part of TT
Electronics. The massive ovens were used for load-life testing to certify resistor products
for both military and commercial uses. When required, humidity enclosures subjected resistors
to increased levels to test for insulation breakdown at high voltage. As the article
observes, since a 10-cent resistor can take down a multi-thousand system, it is important
to guarantee every component's integrity
...
The first article in the list, "Basic Rules for
Anechoic Chamber Design, Part One: RF Absorber Approximations," will be of interest to
anyone thinking about implementing a test area for electromagnetic field testing, whether
for measuring EMI or measuring radiation patterns. If you like reading about 'squegging'
in oscillators, then you won't want to miss "Chasing Wild Ghosts." Enjoy
...
•
Basic Rules for Anechoic Chamber
Design, Vince R.
•
Statistical Pulse Measurements
Using
USB Power Sensors, Orwill H.
•
Chasing Wild Ghosts, Glen C.
•
Pulse Compression Radar System
Analysis, Herbert S. <more>
"I would have
been sorry for the Dear Lord because the theory is correct." - Albert Einstein, in response
to a student's question regarding what he would have thought if the observations of astronomers
did not agree with general relativity's prediction. This was part of a story in the October
2015 issue of
Smithsonian magazine. 2015 marked the 100-year anniversary of Einstein's
public presentation of his theory of general relativity.
Japanese Company Makes World's 1st Washable Smartphone
Annihilating
Nanoscale Defects
Self-Organised Photoresist Boosts Lithography
In Taiwan, Survivor Mentality Stymies Tech Innovation
First All-Antiferromagnetic
Memory Device
Researchers May Have Licked Flaming Lithium-Ion Battery Problem
NI announces its slate of activities at
IEEE Radio & Wireless Week 2016 (RWW2016),
being held in Austin from January 25 to 27. Featured in NI booth #308 will be the latest
V12 release of NI AWR Design Environment™,
inclusive of Microwave Office for circuit design, Visual System Simulator™ (VSS) for
system design, and AXIEM and Analyst™ electromagnetic simulators. In addition, NI AWR
software will be showcased in several other events, including a technical presentation
and hands-on workshop
...
"A professor
in mathematics, Kokichi
Sugihara, from Meiji University in Tokyo has created an optical illusion that
seems to defy gravity. In his demonstration, there seems to be four planks that
are connected to a central point, which seems to be at a higher level compared to the
other sides of the planks as shown
..."
In case you don't already know, a grown-up's version
of the much-ballyhooed
littleBits electronics building block system is available. Instead of assembling
snap-together functional blocks for making LEDs flash or robotic carts,
X-Microwave's
system provides a relatively simple and inexpensive venue for designing and building
RF and microwave circuits based on a selection of component blocks for frequencies ranging
from hundreds of kHz to tens of GHz. As you can see in the X-Microwave video, functional
blocks are screwed to a base plate with optimized interconnects providing low-VSWR, low-loss
interfaces between blocks. Package sides, isolation compartment walls, and lids complete
the system package with coaxial connectors at the I/O ports
...
"Portuguese OSATS company Nanium S. A. has pushed
its wafer-level packaging expertise to 3D SiPs, under a new packaging technology dubbed
WLSiP / WL3D for 3D Wafer-Level System-in-Package. The new packaging technology was
initiated from a specific customer requirement to move from a SMD-populated printed circuit
board to a more compact SiP. Integrating more than 40 different components
..."
PMI Model No.
DP-5700M-6500M-CD-SFF
is a diplexer with a low passband of 5700 to 6500 MHz and high passband of 13750
to 14500 MHz. This unit offers SMA female connectors, power handling of 20 Watts,
channel to channel isolation of >70 dB and passband insertion loss of <1 dB
...
"The ARRL Board of Directors has elected ARRL First
Vice President
Rick Roderick, K5UR, of Little Rock, Arkansas, as the League's next president. The
Board took the action as it convened for its 2016 Annual Meeting in Windsor, Connecticut.
Roderick, 63, will officially assume office for a 2 year term at the conclusion of the
Annual Meeting, which wraps up on January 16. He will become ARRL's 16th president, succeeding
Kay Craigie, N3KN, of Blacksburg, Virginia, who is completing her third term as the League's
president. The Board also
..."
5G Hurdles Gauged at
DesignCon
Middle East Stock Crash £27B off as Tehran Enters Oil War
Standing Desks May Help Students Improve Grades
Profitability Concerns
Spark a Rethink Among Global Telcos in Africa (rest of the
world pays for most of it)
U.S. Military Wants a Photon Detector
Nanodevice,
Build Thyself
IEEE Society: Data Science, 5G, Virtual Reality Among Top Tech Trends in 2016
Consumers Feel Perils of Connectivity
Is Space-Time Like a Rainbow?
Woman Sues Twitter for Helping ISIS Spread Globally
You've no doubt heard the old admonition that too
much of a good thing can be bad. Ignore that warning when working this week's
RRF Cafe Crossword
Puzzle. Coming or going, forward or backward, there is no such thing as too much
of this theme. As always, only engineering and science words are used throughout. !yojnE
A couple weeks ago,
Erie, Pennsylvania experienced a major wind storm with lots of rain. Living just a mile
from the shores of Lake Erie means that we typically get the worst of the winds. The
street we live on has overhead power distribution, telephone, and Internet lines, so
they are more vulnerable than underground buried lines. During the aforementioned storm,
a very tall pine tree in the yard right on the corner where the main feeder branches
to our road snapped about halfway up and pulled the lines right out of their connections
on the mains as it fell. To make a long (45 hours to be exact)
story short, our entire street was
without power for nearly two days. That is an unacceptable situation when you run
your business from home, as I do
...
