Confining water inside carbon nanotubes changes
its physical properties so much that it can be solid at 100°C. This discovery, while
not fully understood, could lead to new advances in nanoelectronics. One of the
few scientific facts that everybody knows is that water freezes at 0°C and boils
at 100°C. One of the unusual properties of water is it is a very good
conductor of protons: 10 times better than conventional conductive
materials
..."
"Raytheon is being awarded a $9.6M Navy contract
to provide engineering technical services and field services for the AN/APG-65/65(V)/73/79
Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar, associated systems,
and support equipment in support of the F/A-18, EA-18G, and AV-8B aircraft. Many
Navy aircraft use AESA radars because of their superior ability . to thwart jamming
attempts and reduce the possibility of detection by
..."
Hard to believe it happened 30 years ago
in 1986! "The construction of theNew Safe Confinement at Chernobyl is entering its final stage.
The giant structure has been erected over the past four years in a secure area near
the damaged reactor in two pieces which are about to be joined together. Meanwhile,
a sophisticated ventilation system which will keep the structure corrosion-free
during its lifespan is being installed, a technological building as the
..."
As I have said before, there is no such thing
as too many
reactance charts. This one appeared in a 1952 issue of Radio &
Television News. If you do a lot of experimenting with circuit design, then
having a chart like this one handy can save a lot of time compared to punching numbers
into a calculator. A quick scan of the chart give you a useful overview of where
your component value lies within the realm of operating frequency. Smartphone apps
and computer programs are nice for calculating exact values, but when you're futzing
around with optimizing
...
Master Bond has been around a long time -
since 1976 in fact (the year I graduated from high school-
yikes!). I remember using their products for electrical assemblies when building
U.S. Navy equipment at Westinghouse Oceanic Division in Annapolis, Maryland, during
the 1980s. They have many nice white papers, including ones on both
electrically conductive and
electrically insulative epoxies. "Versatile Epoxy Compounds for Electronic Applications" is an overview
of various types and uses.
No mention is made in the article regarding
an ongoing battle waged by the Ham radio community against companies who thus far
have been unable to conform to unintentional radiation issues that wreak havoc with
radio signals. "Nowadays,
power line communications (PLC) has become a well-understood and
established technology that enables data transfer over your existing electrical
cabling; yet, it's a technology that's not ordinarily associated with extending
your home network in hard-to-reach
..."
Tuesday
"The annual
Youngsters on the Air (YOTA) event takes place during the entire
month of December, with YOTA stations attempting to contact many other young radio
amateurs around the world. The event offers an excellent opportunity for get radio
amateurs in their teens and early 20s to get together on the air. 'The idea of this
is to show the Amateur Radio hobby to youth and to encourage youngsters to be active
within the hobby,' said International Amateur Radio Union Region 1
..."
![Can America's [RF-]Quietest Town Be Saved? - RF Cafe](images2/green-bank-radiotelescope.gif)
"There's a town in West Virginia where there
are tight restrictions on mobile signal, WiFi and other parts of what most of us
know as simply: modern life. It means
Green Bank
is a place unlike anywhere else in the world. But that could be set to change. 'Do
you ever sit awake at night and wonder, what if?' I asked. Mike Holstine's eyes
twinkled like the stars he had spent his life's work observing. 'The universe is
so huge,' he began. 'On the off chance we do get that hugely lucky signal, when
we look in the right place, at the right frequency. When we get that… can you imagine
what that's
..."
The
Yagi–Uda antenna (usually referred to as
a Yagi), is a relatively simple to construct multielement structure consisting
of a combination of driven (director) and reflective
(reflector) diploes. Careful phasing of the configuration
results in a directional radiation pattern that is use often for long distance
(DX) and direction finding work. It is also useful
in a dense signal environment where there is a need to exclude received signals
not emanating from a preferred source. Common (or what used
to be) rooftop television antennas were of the Yagi type
...
"Physicists in Germany have created a new
optical device that can absorb exactly one photon. They say that
this device, which exploits the physical properties of giant micron-sized atoms
known as Rydberg atoms, could be used in optical quantum computing networks of the
future. Sebastian Hofferberth of the University of Stuttgart explains that the device
first behaves like a dark sunglasses lens, but once it absorbs its first photon
it becomes
..."
evissaP ("Passive,"
backwards) is the one of the world's leading manufacturer of high performance
products such as cable assemblies,
adapters, connectors for RF and microwave applications. We work closely with
our customers to accelerate the pace of innovation and to create breakthrough and
timely solutions that are ahead of what's possible. evissaP is driving a more innovative
and connected world for the future. evissaP has been added to RF Cafe's
Coaxial Cables
and Connector / Adapters vendor pages.
"A new sensor that measures the local acceleration
due to gravity using a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) of ultracold atoms has been made
by physicists in Germany, the US and Canada. While the prototype device is not as
accurate as commercial gravimeters, its makers say it could be made much smaller
and much more accurate than existing devices. Atoms can be used to measure the acceleration
due to gravity by cooling a gas of them to near absolute zero and
..."
Monday
Performance review time has never been one
of my favorite parts of career management. Fortunately, my reviews have always been
pretty good so there never really has been any trepidation involved, but just the
hassle is more than I cared to endure. Most of the managers I've had over the years
were pretty ...
-
Getting Through Your Year-End
Job Performance Review
- Where The Tech Jobs Are in
Europe : Engineers Needed
- Syncing LinkedIn with Your
Resume for Optimal Impact
-
Workplace Negotiating Tips for
Women <more>
"D-Link and Microsoft have collaborated to
deliver the next generation of Wi-Fi, known as "Super Wi-Fi," to rural communities across the globe. They are
planning to tackle some of the world's greatest technology gaps, and laying down
a future network in currently underdeveloped areas. The Microsoft-led mission would
give communities a foundation for an enriched digital future. A first-phase pilot
is commencing in a US state, with three potential countries for future stages, and
is the culmination of years of research and development already invested
..."
Achieving what we consider relatively simple
results with electronics indicators used to be cutting edge technology. This 6AL7-GT
Electron-Ray Indicator Tube by Ken-Rad
(a division of General Electric) provided a dual-channel electrofluorescent
(i.e., cathode ray) display of relative signal strength
or tuning the new-fangled FM radio stations. The tube could also be used, of course,
for many other applications where signal strength from any measured process: fuel
level, voltage, temperature, stock price, phase angle, sound volume, speed, etc.
Today, we have electrochemical indicators so
...
VidaRF offers a new 32-Way Power Divider, model VPD-20180A32. Frequency range from
2 to 18 GHz and providing 30 W power as splitter with low insertion loss. This
model also provides high isolation port to port and low amplitude and phase balance.
Operating temp -55 to 85 C. Sealed and painted to meet IP65 standards
"The police, NHS and the tax man will now
be able to hack into your phones and check your browsing history after the
Snoopers' Charter was passed by Parliament last week. The bill,
officially called the Investigatory Powers Bill, forces electronic data to be stored
by internet providers for 12 months, which can be subsequently collected by law
enforcement. Now a blogger has created a list of all the people who will be able
to request to view your internet history if the bill
...
Side Note: The Iridium system was thusly
named because it originally was to consist of a constellation of 77 satellites.
77 is the atomic number of elemental iridium, hence an allusion to the Bohr model
of electrons orbiting a nucleus. "Iridium Satellite has been awarded a potential five-year, $8M
contract to support commercial satellite-based network services for the Department
of Defense in the areas of satellite, ground node, user equipment / terminal software
and hardware development, integration
..."
This week's crossword puzzle contains the
usual collection of science, math, engineering terms, amateur radio, but also has
many words specifically relating to
antennas (those are the clues marked with
an asterisk *). As always, you'll never be 'challenged' to know terms relating
to movie stars, leaders of obscure countries, or archaic pottery making terms. Enjoy
...
Friday
Anatech Electronics,
a manufacturer of RF and microwave filters, has published its November 2016 newsletter.
As always, it includes both company news and some tidbits about relevant industry
happenings. This month, Sam Benzacar discusses the topic of "Coming: The Small Cell
Invasion," which is a big part of the coming 5G tidal wave of information broadcasting.
Anatech's business is to make certain that system and circuit designers have capable
filters available to assure successful implementation
"Including large numbers of
mathematical equations in a research paper could impede the effective
communication of the physics it describes. That is the controversial conclusion
of a study of citation numbers by researchers from the University of Exeter in the
UK, who advocate for the more accessible reporting of theoretical research. However,
some physicists disagree with their analysis and conclusion. Mathematics plays a
fundamental role across the
..."
Electro-Photonics, a market leader in RF and Microwave components has released
a new series of surface
mount directional couplers featuring frequencies from 800 - 2200 MHz. Our
new directional couplers have nominal values of 10, 15, and 20 dB and can dissipate
from 50-80 Watts of power in a small 0.283 x 0.197 inches (7.19 mm x 5.00 mm)
package. These SMT couplers offer excellent directivity, coupling flatness and low
insertion loss for the most critical applications
"There's new evidence that
excessive screen time early in life can change the circuits in
a growing brain. Scientists disagree, though, about whether those changes are helpful,
or just cause problems. Both views emerged during the Society for Neuroscience meeting
in San Diego this week. The debate centered on a study of young mice exposed to
six hours daily of a sound and light show reminiscent of a video game. The mice
showed 'dramatic changes everywhere in the brain
..."
Thursday
Here in the USA, it is Thanksgiving Day when
this is posted, so most people reading today are probably concentrating on sharing
a nice turkey dinner and all the trimmings with friends and/or family. Many also
take off Black Friday as well to make it a four-day weekend. Work is not on the
top of priority list right now. Perhaps the only holiday more anticipated is Christmas.
While waiting for those last few minutes to pass until you can check out for the
day, enjoy these electronics-themed comics from a vintage editions of
Electronics World and
Radio & Television News magazines. Have a nice holiday!
A headline news story appeared today that
reported on president-elect Donald Trump's meeting with the New York Times
editorial board. My eye was immediately drawn to the large photograph of
Thomas Edison on the wall behind Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne
Conway. Many other recognizable people of note are there as well. From what I can
find out, those are all autographed pictures of people who have visited the boardroom.
I have identified
...
Wednesday
Many RF Cafe visitors
are avid craftsmen and have appreciated my posting of projects over the years, so
here is another you might find interesting. Sometime around the year 2000, while
we were living in Fairfield, Ohio, our daughter, Sally, made a diorama of a Tae
Kwon Do martial arts dojo that was inspired by the school she was attending at the
time. Unbeknownst to Sally, Melanie and I had kept the diorama in a cardboard box
for lo these many years. We decided to make a nice wood and Plexiglas
display case for it and present it to her for her birthday. The
case is made from some scrap walnut given to me by a friend. Korean, Chinese, and
Japanese versions of "Greensboro Martial Arts Academy" and a few
...
VidaRF offers a wide selection of
Isolators
and Circulators designed to cover 80 MHz to 60 GHz. Configured for Coaxial,
Drop-In, Surface Mount or Waveguide. Standard connector SMA female, other connectors
available upon request. Magnetically shielded, clockwise or counter-clock wise rotation,
Low IMD of -80 dBc, reflected power from 1 W to 250 W on pending models, single
or double junction. RoHS compliant
I rarely use a cellphone - almost never while
driving (only if someone else does the dialing). Even
glancing at the dashboard GPS display can require more attention than I deem truly
safe. My dedication to events outside the car allow me to see many instances of
other drivers being oblivious to their surroundings while driving
(or stopped at a light). Accordingly, this
NY Times story is no surprise. Airplane pilots flying
on instruments (IFR) must have visual contact with
the runway within the legal
decision height or abort the landing because he/she cannot properly
fly the plane and concentrate on instruments inside the cockpit at the same time.
Sometimes you get lucky when ignoring the rules; other times you damage yourself
and/or innocents
..."
Alliance Test sells
used / refurbished test
equipment, we offer short- and long-term rentals. We also offer repair, maintenance
and calibration. Prices discounted up to 80% off list price. Agilent/HP,
Tektronix,
Anritsu, Fluke, R&S and other major brands. A global organization with ability
to source hard to find equipment through our network of suppliers. Please visit
Allied Test Equipment today to see how they can help your project
...
Tuesday
"Russian and U.S. researchers have developed
a technique whereby the direction of light can be manipulated using a novel optical
nanoantenna. The researchers believe that this nanoantenna could
help lead to a new era in optical information processing in telecommunications systems.
Of course, replacing electrons with photons is the basis of optical computing. However,
realizing this switch is fraught with difficulties — not the least of which is the
fact that because a photon
..."
Windfreak Technologies and Saelig are offering Special Sale Prices on the very
popular SynthUSBII
and SynthNV
RF frequency synthesizers during Cyber Week 2016, running
from November 21 through December 4, 2016. The Windfreak SynthUSBII is a 34.4 MHz
to 4.4 GHz software tunable RF signal generator controlled via USB port. The
SynthNV is a 34.4 MHz to 4.4 GHz software tunable RF signal generator,
sweeper and RF power detector controlled via software
When this article was published in 1952,
the
transistor was not quite five years old, and the first commercially
available transistor had been on the market for a year. Germanium was the semiconductor
of choice at the time since silicon had not been refined enough yet. The term 'point
contact' refers to the manner in which early transistors were built where the emitter
and collector connections with the base material were metal pieces pressed against
a doped germanium slab. The obvious mechanical weaknesses
...
"Based on an application for Special Temporary
Authority (STA) filed with the FCC, it looks like
Nokia wants to demonstrate its 5G gear at
28 GHz for Charter Communications at Charter's Englewood, Colorado,
facility. The application didn't name Charter, but it included an address to demonstrate
5G wireless equipment 'to one of our customers located in Englewood Colorado.' The
STA period would be from
..."
Saelig Company has announced the
1908 and 1908P Digital
Multimeters - high accuracy, high resolution dual-measurement benchtop instruments
with USB and other optional interfaces. Additional features include frequency, capacitance,
and temperature measurements, as well as a wide range of math and data logging functions.
Unlike most high performance bench multimeters, these DMMs include internal rechargeable
batteries for 'use anywhere' versatility. This enables
Charles Murray, over at Design News,
posted an interesting piece on where to earn a for-real
engineering degree without going broke. The thumbnail image here
is instantly recognizable as the interior of the chapel at the U.S. Air Force Academy,
in Colorado Springs. There, as with the U.S. Naval Academy
(Annapolis), the U.S. Military Academy
(West Point), and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy
(New London), a duly appointed person can earn not
only a highly respected engineering degree, but get paid for doing it to boot. None
of the four academies has ever made the
Top
Party Schools list, but as with Ivy League colleges will gain you favor by many
alumni in industry and government who favor fellow travelers
...
Monday
$5B in
government subsidies can buy a lot of innovation: "Elon Musk's
SpaceX wants to launch thousands of satellites into space with the aim of providing
super-fast global internet coverage, according to a regulatory filing. SpaceX –
the company on a mission to colonize Mars – outlined plans to put
4,425 satellites into space in an FCC filing from earlier this
week. That's 3x the 1,419 satellites that are currently in space, according to the
Union of Concerned Scientists, a not-for-profit group made up of scientists
..."
Finding current information on the ARRL's
Brass Pounders League (BPL) is difficult, and in fact a search
on the ARRL.org website does not get you to a page with a date more recent than
around 2012. I don't know whether the BPL has been 'obsoleted' or just does not
enjoy the promotion level it once did. This article in The Dipole publication
reviews a bit of the history of the Brass pounders League, and even mentions Mae
Burke, who is featured in this 1953 QST article. If I wasn't so busy, I
would do some research to find out what the percentage of licensed female Hams was
in 1953 compared with today. I wouldn't
...
You have heard
the referenced cheerleading call but do you know its origin? Me neither, until last
night when I read about it in the December issue of
QST magazine. That makes
it a legitimate RF-related topic for consuming column space here. ARRL CEO Tom Gallagher
wrote in "Cheers for College Amateur Radio:
Sis-boom-bah!,"
"Dating back to 1867, the
onomatopoetic phrase 'sis-boom-bah' imitates the sound of a skyrocket
flight (sis), the burst of the fireworks (boom), and the reaction of the crowd (ah)."
You're welcome.
"A research team in Japan developed a technique
to quantitatively evaluate the internal
magnetic structure of permanent magnet materials using a neutron
beam. A research team led by postdoctoral researcher Tetsuro Ueno, Elements Strategy
Initiative Center for Magnetic Materials (ESICMM), Research Center for Magnetic
and Spintronic Materials (CMSM), National Institute for Materials Science
..."
Skyworks Solutions is empowering the
wireless networking revolution.
Our highly innovative analog semiconductors are
connecting people, places and things spanning
a number of new and previously unimagined applications within the automotive, broadband,
cellular infrastructure, connected home, industrial, medical, military, smartphone,
tablet and wearable markets. Skyworks is Hiring!
View current openings for SOI and RF Design Engineers today!
Careers
at Skyworks
This week's RF Cafe crossword puzzle contains
the usual assortment of engineering and science related words and clues, but there
are also a few specific words commemorating our
Thanksgiving Day holiday (indicated by
a asterisk *) that is celebrated each year on the fourth Thursday of November.
Macy's 90th Thanksgiving Day Parade occurs on the morning of November 24th and follows
a route along Central Park West and 6th Avenue. Interestingly, the parade was cancelled
during the World War II years of 1942, 1943, and
...
Friday
Peregrine Semiconductor Corp., founder of RF SOI (silicon
on insulator) and pioneer of advanced RF solutions, announces the
UltraCMOS®
PE45361, a monolithic 100-watt power limiter. The next generation in Peregrine's
power limiter product family, the PE45361 builds on the success of the award-winning
50-watt UltraCMOS power limiters and adds higher pulsed power handling, a lower
limiting threshold and positive threshold control. UltraCMOS power limiters provide
a monolithic alternative to discrete, PIN-diode
KR Electronics designs and manufactures high
quality filters for both the commercial and military markets. KR Electronics
manufactures all
filter types and individually
synthesizes filters for special applications. State of the art computer synthesis,
analysis and test methods are used to meet the most challenging specifications.
Please visit their website today to see how they might be of assistance
...
"Light has been confined to volumes smaller
than the size of a single atom for the first time. The feat, which seemed completely
impossible even just a few years ago, has been achieved by researchers in the UK
and Spain. They say that the "picocavity" that confines the light can be thought of as the world's
smallest magnifying glass. It could be used to study how light and matter interact
at tiny
..."
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO) is constantly advertising for examiners. Its
workload is overwhelming and the consequences are significant. Based on information
on an extremely well-written and researched article in the July/August 2016 issue
of Popular Mechanics magazine titled "The Greatest American Invention," the situation is practically
out of control. Similar to many other pieces published in the last few years, author
Scott Eden meticulously outlines the systematic failures of the current patent bureaucracy
and how, as is typical, mostly unqualified lawmakers in an attempt to 'reform' it
pass regulations that make matters
...
"Physicists successfully measured time in
zeptoseconds while watching an electron escape from an atom. This
is now the smallest observed span of time. A team from the Max Planck Institute
of Quantum Optics led the research. They used lasers to hit a helium atom. They
were able to observe Einstein's photoelectric effect in full swing. Einstein proposed
the effect in 1905 and said it happens when light particles (photons) hit an atom's
..."
"SK Telecom and Ericsson are claiming a first
after conducting
5G trials with BMW at a BMW driving center in Yeongjong Island,
Incheon, South Korea, using the 28 GHz band. The companies said the trial showed
that 5G performance will support V2X (Vehicular Connectivity)
services that require low latency and consistent high bi-directional throughput.
SK described it as the world's largest millimeter wave 5G trial network using the
28 GHz band. Known as “T5,” the 5G-based vehicle was
..."
Thursday
Way back
around 1996, I slipped on an icy sidewalk in Colorado Springs, landing on my back and
whacking my head on the concrete. Ever since then, I have had recurring nerve-related
issues in my right arm and hand due to cartilage damage in the
C4-C5 cervical vertebrae region. It is strange to experience a
pain that seems to originate in my fingers, upper arm... The design
is neither elegant nor sophisticated; it's even a little embarrassing. Why embarrassing,
you might ask? If you look at the labeled assembly photo, you will see that the
bottom and top mounting components are
...
"Scientists from the Moscow Institute of
Physics and Technology (MIPT), Semenov Institute of
Chemical Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ICP
RAS), and Chuiko Institute of Surface Chemistry of the National Academy of
Sciences of Ukraine (ISC NASU) have proposed a model
nanosized
dipole photomotor based on the phenomenon of light-induced charge
redistribution. Triggered by a laser pulse, this tiny device is capable of directed
motion at a record speed and is powerful enough to carry
..."
Skyworks has released the
SKY13592-689LF, a new single-pole, double-throw (SPDT) switch
for mode switching in WLAN applications such as ISM band radios, smartphones and
connectivity modules. This 1.0-6.0 GHz device uses advanced switching technologies
to maintain low insertion loss and high isolation for all switching paths. It also
delivers high-linearity performance, making it an ideal choice for low-power transmit/receive
applications. Integrated DC blocking capacitors
Capacitor science has evolved at a very rapid
rate since the beginning of electronics and electrical circuitry. Since the early
Leyden jar (named after the city where it was invented by
Ewald Georg von Kleist) type capacitor, continual advancements in materials
for electrolytes and metal plates, as well as in packaging, have led to incredibly
high storage density, miniature size, high voltage and current, mounting configuration
...
"The latest edition of an annual space security
index emphasizes that it's getting congested up there, that
space debris is a growing problem and new space situational awareness
tools are needed to detect and track a growing constellation of satellites used
for military and commercial purposes—often both. Along with crowding at prime slots
in geosynchronous orbits, the annual index released this week warns
..."
Codename "Titanpointe," commissioned in 1974, pales in comparison to the
spy centers built in the last 8 years, but is still looms mysteriously
in downtown lower Manhattan. "They called it
Project X. It was an unusually audacious, highly sensitive assignment:
to build a massive skyscraper, capable of withstanding an atomic blast, in the middle
of New York City. It would have no windows, 29 floors with three basement levels,
and enough food to last 1,500 people two weeks in the event
..."
Wednesday
Throughout the design process of the
RTSA 7500
series Wideband Receivers, Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation's focus on end-user
functionality was paramount. On a platform that supports Real-Time measurements—with
the ability to be daisy chained for multi-channel phase coherence—BNC has shown
the world once more that big things come in small packages. With BNC's Wideband
Receivers, a solution is now available for any
"The
EO-79/FUNcube-3 satellite has transitioned to Amateur Radio service,
now that its primary mission has been completed. AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NL have announced
that the FUNcube U/V transponder on the 2U CubeSat QB50p1 has been activated with
a regular schedule. Due to power budget constraints, the transponder cannot be operational
24/7, and an orbit-specific schedule has been developed. The transponder will commence
operation 27 minutes
..."
"Remcom has announced the release of
Wireless InSite MIMO, a new version of its site-specific radio
propagation software that simulates the detailed multipath of large numbers of MIMO
channels while overcoming the increased level of computations required for traditional
ray tracing methods. With a tremendous increase in the number of connected devices
and mobile data demand predicted over
..."
Ryan Aeronautical Company was founded in
1934, and became part of Teledyne in 1969, and eventually being owned Northrop Grumman
in 1999. Ryan, which produced many airplanes and drones, was perhaps most famous
for building the Spirit of St. Louis (Ryan NYP) used by Charles Lindbergh on his
historic transatlantic flight. Ryan also dabbled in jet engines and electronics.
The 'packaged radar' concept described in this 1952 article was the
precursor to modular
...
"Terahertz radiation can peer through objects
to spot hidden items and analyze their chemistry, but today's THz detectors are
typically inflexible and bulky. Now scientists in Japan have for the first time
created a portable, flexible, wearable
terahertz scanner in order to better image objects with curves,
including the human body. Terahertz rays, which lie between the infrared and microwave
bands
..."
"Two proven technologies have been combined
to create a promising new technology that could meet future navigational challenges
in deep space. It also may help demonstrate - for the first time -
X-ray communications in space, a capability that would allow the
transmission of gigabits per second throughout the solar system. The new technology,
called NavCube
..."
