"Mark Zuckerberg has given a rare glimpse
inside one of Facebook's secretive server farms. The Facebook boss said he is going
to reveal more pictures from Facebook's facilities around the world. To kick off
the project, he revealed a stunning series of pictures of the firm's gigantic
Luleå data center in Sweden. 'Over the
next few months, I'm going to start posting some rare photos of the most advanced
technology Facebook is building around the world,' Zuckerberg posted
..."
EDI CON USA 2016, a conference
that brings together engineers working on high-frequency analog and high-speed digital
designs, had a successful inaugural event in the US on September 20-22 in Boston,
MA. "We are very pleased with our first EDI CON USA, which exceeded our expectations
in number of exhibitors and submitted abstracts for the conference program. We appreciate
the support of the EDI CON USA exhibitors, received very positive feedback from
conference attendees, and look forward to building on these strengths for next year
"
Sal ammoniac is a new term for me; it appeared
in this 1395 issue of Radio-News magazine. It is a rare mineral composed
of ammonium chloride. I suppose I should have been familiar with it because of its
use for cleaning soldering iron tips. This compound is another example of how two
otherwise lethal elements can form a molecule that is safe for human consumption,
like sodium chloride (table salt). Per Wikipedia, sal ammoniac is used the Netherlands,
it is still widely used in the production of salty licorice candy known as Salmiak.
Sal ammoniac was also used in solution with sulphuric acid as a battery electrolyte.
Anyway, the main theme of this article positive
...
"A petition to the UK government asking for
UK access to European collaborative R&D to be maintained after Brexit has received
38,369 signatures as of this posting. However, the petition needs to exceed 100,000
signatures by January 12, 2017 to ensure that it will be considered for debate in
the House of Commons. The petition states that UK access to
EU R&D programs stimulates billions
of pounds of investment
..."
These fast-mo videos of whiteboard hand sketching
are some of the most clever and effective presentation schemes of the last decade.
A nifty one produced by Raytheon showed up in a news story titled "Raytheon Wins MDA Gallium Nitride Radar Deal,"
on the Breaking Defense website.
"Five years ago, Intel introduced today's
high-performance transistor to the world. Dubbed the
FinFET, the device takes its name from
its appearance: The transistor's current-carrying channel sticks up vertically in
the shape of a fin, and the gate that controls it drapes over the sides. The result
is a much tighter control over the flow of current, which in modern microprocessors
can fairly easily sneak across the transistor when it's supposed to be shut off.
But well before the FinFET exploded onto
..."
Windfreak Technologies is excited to announce the launch of the new
SynthHD PRO. The revolutionary SynthHD
PRO has all the features of the original SynthHD, but has a milled aluminum case
designed to be used in more rugged environments and to enhance electrical and thermal
performance. The new SynthHD PRO Dual Channel RF Signal Generator is also designed
for higher amplitude accuracy due to extra hours on the calibration bench getting
a fully unique 5000 point calibration lookup table. For the SynthHD PRO datasheet,
software user's manual, and software download
"Empirical evidence is continuing to pile
up confirming that so-called
topological insulators - materials that
behave as conductors near their surfaces, but act as insulators throughout the bulk
of their interiors - do exist. Now, researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory, in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Chemical
Physics of Solids in Germany, have produced a new type of topological matter. It
can carry an electrical current on its surface at room temperature and then get
that
..."
"Developed by researchers at North Carolina
State University, the integrated circuits can reportedly be manufactured with off
the shelf fabrication processes and could lead to novel computer architectures that
do more with less circuitry and fewer transistors.
Moore's law states that the number of
transistors on an integrated circuit will double every two years in order to keep
up with processing demands. This goal has so far been addressed by shrinking the
size of individual transistors
..."
There is no arguing that digital multimeters
are vastly superior to analog meters in many - maybe even most - ways. However,
analog meters still have applications that make them indispensible
in situations like monitoring slow variations in parameters and for quick visual
approximations of values. One example is looking for variation of voltage or current
levels under varying loads. Yes, digital instruments are available that emulate
an analog display in certain modes, but that just proves the point of he usefulness
of an analog movement. Another is the familiar control panel filled with meters
...
Is this cool or what? Saelig isn't kidding with their "unique electronics" logo
tag line. Saelig Company has introduced the
Aaronia Drone Detection
System (ADDS) for discovering the incursion of unwanted drones or other remote-controlled
flying objects, thus protecting privacy and insuring physical security. Detecting
the real-time directional measurement of the radio emissions used for controlling
drones, the ADDS system warns the user when drones are in the area and can send
automatic alerts (they need a
look-down/shoot-down system to compliment
it)
"A decade after
Martin Cooper made the world's first public
call from a portable phone in 1973, telephones were becoming truly mobile. 'It's
still pretty rare to see someone using a telephone in a car. But it's about to become
a lot more common.' That's how NPR host Jim Angle introduced a piece on November
5, 1983, titled 'Cellular Phones Are Completely Mobile' - the earliest mention of
the term found in NPR's archives. From the vantage point of 2016 - where mobile
..."
"In a cross-industry alliance, Audi, BMW
and Daimler along with telecommunications equipment providers Ericsson, Huawei and
Nokia as well as semiconductor vendors Intel and Qualcomm will bundle their R&D
resources to evolve, test and promote communications solutions for
connected mobility. The efforts will focus
on the development of 5G mobile technologies. The “5G Automotive Association” announced
to develop, test and promote
..."
"Miffed that you don't have a
headphone jack on your new iPhone 7? Don't
want to use the adapter that comes in the box? Don't want to spend $159 for Apple's
new wireless earbuds? Well, good news! There's a 'secret hack' that's gone viral
on YouTube. First, you get a drill with a 3.5mm bit. Then, you clamp your phone
into a vice. Please promise not to drill a hole into your $649 palm warmer, as the
jokester 'TechRax' advises you to do - and at least apparently does - to some hapless,
screen freaking-out
..." -- Yep, they're really out there.
This quiz tests your knowledge on the history
of familiar
electronics products companies' name changes
(aka etymology). Many of you have lived through the
plethora of acquisitions, mergers, and name changes represented here. There might
be more than one correct answer. You might need a motion sickness pill when navigating
all
...
I
was surprised to discover that the #1 cause of damage to extant
(currently used)
undersea cable in the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans is fishing trawlers that snag them while dragging nets and pots. An infographic
in the June 2016 issue of Scientific American lists the hazards as follows
...:
40% - Fish trawling
28% - Ship anchorages
8% - Subsea earthquakes
8% - Shunt (electrical) faults
4% - Amplifier or branching unit
failures
3% - Abrasion (wave seabed, etc.)
9% - Other factors (e.g., sabotage)
"In the search for alien life, China has
built the world's biggest radio telescope, which it says could 'lead to discoveries
beyond our wildest imagination.' The
Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio
Telescope (FAST), nestled between hills in the
mountainous region of Guizhou, began working this week. Built at a cost of ¥1.2B
(£140M, $182M), the telescope dwarfs the Arecibo Observatory
in Puerto Rico as the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, with twice the
sensitivity and a reflector as large as 30 football fields
..."
The TA1063 class AB GaN module is designed for both military and commercial
applications in the 6.4-8.5 GHz band. It is capable of supporting any signal
type and modulation format, including but not limited to 3-4G telecom, WLAN, OFDM,
DVB, and CW/AM/FM. The latest device technologies and design methods are employed
to offer high power density, efficiency, and linearity in a small, lightweight package
"Mary Cousins, ex-W1GSC, who was the first
woman in Maine to obtain an Amateur Radio license, celebrated her 108th birthday
on September 20. Now a resident of a care facility in the coastal fishing village
of Deer Isle, Cousins was treated to a party complete with a cake decorated with
images of local newspaper articles from 1908, the year she was born. The confection
also bore an image of her 1933 "Amateur First" radio
..."
"Engineers in the U.S. have developed a chip
that can
convert visible light into infrared and
back again, while preserving the quantum state of the original photons. This capability
would allow quantum devices to transmit information to each other via the existing
fiber-optic infrastructure. Researchers say this is a significant step in realizing
a quantum network of devices and computers that can exchange
..."
The standardized
wiring diagram symbols chart has been updated recently to reflect
recent additions of semiconductor components, including the solid state diode and
transistors. Notice the similarity between these symbols and many of the ones in
the ARRL Handbook chart. Also presented are a resistor color code chart and capacitor
charts for color codes and
capacitor dot markings ...
, the company delivering on the promise of global, mobile connectivity and
TECOM, a Smiths Microwave
brand and a leader in innovative design and manufacturing of high-performance antenna
systems, today announced a Partner Development Program Agreement for the aviation
market. Under the terms of the agreement, TECOM will incorporate Kymeta® mTenna®
technology into an terminal to demonstrate connectivity to a Ku-band satellite.
Kymeta's flat panel satellite antenna technology offers a lightweight, low profile
I posted Scott Adams' previous blog supporting
Hillary, so in the spirit of bipartisanship,
here is the balance. "As most of you know, I had been endorsing Hillary Clinton
for president, for my personal safety, because I live in California. It isn't safe
to be a Trump supporter where I live. And it's bad for business too. But recently
I switched my endorsement to Trump, and I owe you an explanation. So here it goes
..." Adams is a brave man.
"The Air Force is moving ahead with its delayed
GPS III constellation, awarding Lockheed
Martin a $395M contract modification for the ninth and tenth of what will be a 32-satellite
constellation. Deployment of the third generation of the Global Positioning System,
which is expected to have a 25% longer lifespan, three times the accuracy and eight
times the anti-jamming capability of GPS II, has been delayed by funding cuts and
some technical problems
..."
"The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG)
has released several updates to their developer
Bluetooth toolkit line-up. The latest
toolkits empower developers to build faster and smarter when creating things like
mobile apps and low-cost beacons, as well as gateways that control IoT sensors.
What developers can do today with Bluetooth far surpasses what they could do just
a few years ago. Whether it's connecting a Bluetooth device to the web, using beacons
to develop unique
..."
Dang, I meant to post this article on July
20th. It is an editorial commemoration written by Radio-Craft publisher
Hugo Gernsback to radio pioneer
Guglielmo Marconi, who died on that day in 1937. He was only 63
years old. Gernsback states, "The debt which the world owes to Marconi is staggering
- if you figure only one single result of his accomplishments - the saving of tens
of thousands of lives which would have perished in the sea and otherwise, if had
not been for Marconi." The January 1939 issue of Radio-Craft featured an article
titled, "Marconi - Father of Radio?," wherein author Edward H. Loftin challenges
the veracity of Marconi receiving
...
Hams take
note! Here we go again with power line carrier schemes. "AT&T
has unveiled its
Project AirGig experimental program that
aims to use power lines as a way to extend internet access to hard-to-reach users
in urban, rural and underserved parts of the world. The first field tests involving
Project AirGig technologies are set to begin in 2017 through AT&T Labs, the
company said in a September 21 announcement, with the goal of eventually delivering
low-cost, multigigabit wireless internet
..."
"To address the need for radio systems that
can adapt to changing environments on the fly and that can be easily reconfigured
once they're in the field, our engineers have developed the innovative
MATRICs (Microwave Array Technology for
Reconfigurable Integrated Circuits) chip. MATRICs helps address the future requirements
of communications, electronic warfare, and signal intelligence systems. The new,
general-purpose chip enables engineers to develop customized radio systems without
the need
..."
This is a great resource provided by Charan
Langton, retired from Loral Space Systems. "Communications is not an easy science.
The math is heavy, and intuition is slow to develop. To complicate things
further,
the field does not stay put. New concepts are always coming to the fore. This website
offers tutorials I have written on various topics in analog and digital communications
that will help you cut through this complexity. I keep adding to this collection
..."
Skyworks is pleased to introduce a family of , high performance RF cellular switches
for LTE and GSM applications. The
SKY13581-676LF (SP2T),
SKY13582-676LF (SP3T) and
SKY13626-685LF (SP4T) are for LTE,
while the
SKY13597-684LF (SP4T) is for GSM.
This new family of switches is ideal for smartphones, data cards and MiFi® hotspot
applications. These devices are designed to operate over the complete cellular frequency
range including support for
Avid cruciverbalists amongst us appreciate
that 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!
...
