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Thursday 10
 What will
the space program changes sought by President Trump's administration mean to the RF / microwave
community? Each administration puts its own inflection on the
U.S. space program.
Some presidents set goals that ultimately change the destiny of the country, while others
promote changes that are less dramatic. It's too early to tell what mark the current administration
will leave on the space program. But initial remarks and actions suggest two major ...
 My 1970s-era Radio Shack Microanta model 22-208 FET-VOM
with a mirrored scale still does regular duty on my electronics workbench - particularly when
the DMM happens to have been left somewhere else. One of the first things a person is taught
about using
analog meters is to always select a range that put the needle toward the upper end of
the scale. It has to do with the accuracy of the reading based on characteristics of the meter
movement. A digital meters' accuracy is often assumed to be ±1 rightmost displayed digit,
but if you read the specifications, it is often not the case. Shop-owner Mac informs his technician,
Barney, on many ...
 "A market report from Frost & Sullivan reveals
the
global satellite transponder market is projected to grow at a CAGR of
2.9% from 2016 to 2023. Even with a low growth rate, the market will account for $2.71B more
in 2023 than in 2016, therefore causing market competition to remain strong. This modest but
steady growth is due to an increase in adoption in remote areas, the need for back-up and
emergency technology, new high bandwidth, and growth areas ..."
 Self-driving electric cars will be an absolute necessity
so people with their eyes closed to the child labor involved in building batteries for them
can get around safely. As with lithium
extraction that has peasants wading in hip boots while processing,
cobalt mining exploits desperately poor people - including children -
by exposing them to very dangerous conditions. The Democratic Republic of Congo has 60% of
the world's know stash of cobalt, which is a major component of electric car batteries. A
typical e-car needs 30 pounds of it. Articles by
Daily Mail,
Amnesty International, and many others document the situation's gruesome
reality. I'm betting Elon Musk knows all of this, but he probably feels really bad.
 Pasternack has launched a new series of handheld, RF
analyzer, rugged, phase-stable cable assemblies. Typical applications include field testing,
tower measurements, base station analyzers, handheld network analyzers, portable spectrum
analyzers, distance-to-fault measurements and site maintenance. Pasternack's new line of
test cables for handheld RF analyzers consists of 19 models designed to
deliver optimal amplitude and phase stability with flexure. They boast VSWR as low as 1.2:1
and maximum operating frequency of 27 GHz, depending ...
 "Widespread use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) within
the National Airspace System is limited because of regulatory restrictions on their access
to shared airspace. The
Airborne Sense and Avoid (ABSAA) Radar Panel, a phased array antenna developed
by MIT Lincoln Laboratory, has the potential to facilitate the introduction of UAVs into the
national airspace. The lightweight sensor enables ..."
Wednesday 9
 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 products for your convenience: a
2016.5 MHz
WiFi cavity bandpass filter with N connectors; a 10 MHz bandpass filter with N connectors;
and a surface mount 310/370 MHz ceramic duplexer filter ...
 "Almost simultaneously as they are flashed before the
NASA officials, the signals bearing in minute detail the progress of
Apollo 11 will be broadcast internationally, allowing the entire world to share in
the drama of the manned lunar landing." Such a statement meant something much different in
1969 that it does today. Back then, it meant news and government organizations with the required
equipment would be able to receive the information and then disseminate it via secondary media
sources like TV, radio, magazine, and newspaper. Today it means a real-time feed is available
on the Internet for anyone with a network connection to access. This article was written in
a forward-looking ...
 Aviat
Networks, a trusted expert in microwave networking, has an immediate opening for a Sales Engineer
to cover California, Oregon, Washington, San Antonio, or the Midwest. The
Sales Engineer
is responsible for providing technical support and technical guidance to one or more Territory
Manager(s) in their endeavor to sell company products, services and solutions to assigned
accounts or within a given territory resulting in the achievement of a given quota. The Sales
Engineer will be the key technical consultant assigned to understand the customers' business
and to develop product and service solutions ...
 We have all been treated to a seemingly endless series
of headlines portending rising ocean levels and the ensuing drowning of costal cities due
to
melting ice in the polar regions. This phenomenon ostensibly is brought on by the exponential
increase in carbon emissions from developing third-world countries as well as established
first-world countries in the post World War II era ... or was it post Vietnam, or maybe
post Gulf War? The reference keeps changing, but it definitely began occurring since at least
1990, right? There is a problem, though. In the early and mid 1970s climate scientists began
warning us of an approaching ...
 Fairview Microwave has launched a new line of
straight waveguide sections that operate in the frequency range of 5.85 GHz
to 110 GHz and in 13 waveguide bands from C to W band. Typical applications include test
benches, instrumentation, MILCOM, SATCOM, telecom, radar and high-efficiency RF/Microwave
transmission networks. Fairview's new line of straight waveguide sections consists of 61 models
that are available in sizes ranging from WR-10 to WR-137. These waveguide straights ...
 "Did you know the USA has four
Doomsday Planes? These are militarized Boeing 747-200's that are intended
to act as mobile command platforms in the event of catastrophic events like a nuclear attack.
Yeah we know, nice thought right? These aircraft are highly sophisticated jets with one sole
task, to maintain communications for civil and military operations should the unimaginable
actually happen. Let's take a quick tour of one of them. The Doomsday Plane or E-4B's were
formerly ..."
Tuesday 8
 "Electronic warfare (EW) experts at Northrop Grumman
Corp. are moving to full-rate production of common open-architecture RF jammers for infantry,
land vehicles, and fixed sites to protect U.S. and allied warfighters from radio-controlled
improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Officials of the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington
announced a $57.7M contract Monday to the Northrop Grumman Mission Systems ..."
 Throughout my years as in
the electronics field, I have had the good fortune to work with many very excellent engineers
and technicians. Some were
Ham radio
operators and some were not. I cannot say with any authority that those who were Hams
were better that those who were not; however, I can say that the Hams seemed to be on par
a little more enthusiastic about their jobs. That impression was not biased based on my own
status because I did not earn my license until a couple years after leaving the professional
workforce to run RF Cafe fulltime. In fact, I often felt somewhat inept around Hams because
their lust for circuit ...
 Innovative Power Products (IPP) has over 30 years of
experience designing & manufacturing RF &
 microwave
passive components. Their high power, broadband couplers, combiners, resistors, baluns, terminations and attenuators are
fabricated using the latest materials and design tools available, resulting in unrivaled product
performance. Take a couple minutes to visit their website and see how IPP can help you today ...
 Hallicrafters was founded in Chicago in 1932 by William
J. Halligan. He formed the company name based on a combination of Halli(gan)
and (hand)crafters - clever, non? Since Hallicrafters made radio gear for
commercial, amateur radio, and military application, their advertisements appeared in most
of the major electronics magazines of the time - QST, Popular Electronics,
Radio & Television News, etc. It is interesting to see how product physical appearances
changes over the years as user preference, materials, and technologies evolve ...
 This story about Russia's mysterious shortwave broadcasts
has appeared in QST magazine and other venues. An article on the BBC website begins by addressing
the one at 4625 kHz and digresses extensively into the history of stealth,
creepy transmissions and encryption. You will particularly enjoy the part
about how British field intelligence agents managed to procure code pages for use in cracking
the system. I have tried tuning a couple of the 'ghost' station on my el cheapo shortwave
radio and can barely receive a signal. A 'real' receiver and antenna evidently pulls them
in well ...
 Saelig has introduced the patented
Sol Chip Pak™ (SCP-R2801).
Power Modules which offer day/night non-stop functionality by combining state-of-the-art solar
cells, a rechargeable battery, and advanced power management circuitry. These power modules
include all the components that are required to harvest energy from ambient light, charge
a built-in rechargeable battery, and deliver a stable voltage to a load. Sol Chip's patented
technology integrates solar energy conversion with VLSI techniques ...
 This article
by Lou Frenzel is a nice compliment to the piece I recently wrote titled,
MIA: The Other Half of the Antenna and Cable Loss Equation. "When designing a
wireless product or system, don't discount the importance of
receiver
sensitivity. What does receiver sensitivity really have to do with wireless system performance?
Along with transmit power and antenna gains, it is a key indicator not only of the range of
the signal but also the data rate ..."
Monday 7
 "Spin wave technology goes back decades, but as an
alternative to semiconductor circuits that transmit information by electric charges, it's
been hampered by the fact that the properties of its signal propagation vary in different
directions - until now. Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have
developed a method of propagating spin waves that lead to the development ..."
 Axiom Test Equipment, a provider of efficient and cost
effective solutions customers' test equipment needs, offer the following special deals on
their inventory.
Free
ground shipping is offered on all rentals! Axiom offers our customers several practical,
efficient and cost effective solutions for their business or projects' test equipment needs.
Whether you need to
rent & buy test equipment, repair test equipment,, sell or trade equipment, we are
committed to providing superior customer service and high quality electronic test equipment ...
 You probably will not be surprised to read Popular
Electronics editor Oliver Ferrell's comments on the costs and implications of handling
the large volumes of
postal mail from readers that magazines typically received. Not having e-mail back in
the day had both its advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage of having only paper
and envelope mail (aka snail mail) is that only serious people with concerns would bother
to write and pay for postage, whereas with e-mail very little effort and no out-of-pocket
cost is required to fire off a note for any reason. A disadvantage of not having e-mail is
that humans needed to open, read, and decide how to respond to each letter ...
These July 2017 charts were generated from the
website statistics data gathered
by my web host, Hostek.com. Presented is raw data with no manipulation or filtering. Peaks
are midweek and valleys are weekends. Details can be seen by clicking on the thumbnail images.
Overall traffic seems to be down by a couple percent since the last report in April, but that
is typical over the summer months. Still, an average of around 16,000 page views during weekdays
and 10,000 on weekends is not too bad. You might find the list of the top 100 search engine
keywords interesting. It is generated only from searches ...
 VidaRF offers a wide selection of
directional
couplers, dual directional couplers and hybrid couplers, designed to cover 100 MHz
to 20 GHz. Average power handling is from 50 W to 1 kW. Directional couplers
are 4 port circuits where one port is isolated from the input port and can be realized in
micro strip, strip line, coax and waveguide. Standard coupling values 6, 10, 15, 16, 20 and
30 dB. Standard Connector type: SMA female, other connectors available upon request ...
 "Here are five tips developers can use to help ensure
they set expectations that are realistic and not fantasy. Quite a few companies and teams
that I encounter have an expectations problem. They have
unrealistic expectations for the time and effort that it takes to develop
an embedded system. On the spectrum between pessimistic and optimistic, they typically blow
past optimistic into the fantasy land zone. ..."
Sunday 6
 Avid cruciverbalists amongst us will appreciate this
new RF & Microwave 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
Lamarr). Enjoy ...
Friday 4
 End the work
week on a humorous note with this comic strip from the
Soup to Nutz
series. The strip appeared in my local Erie Times News newspaper in February, but
I just now got around to reading it. You'll love it - guaranteed ...
Corporate
mergers, acquisitions, and name changes continue to narrow the field in
RF and
microwave test equipment manufacturing. It is not uncommon to go to the website of a familiar
company and discover that it is either the victim of the aforementioned trend, or is responsible
for perpetuation the trend. That's not to say that the situation is good or bad, but sometimes
confusing - although I will forever rue the sacrificing of the Hewlett Packard (HP) name to
the computer side of the business rather than the test equipment side. Please indicate which
of these companies' products you use in this newest RF Cafe Poll ...
 This educational note covers the theory and practice
of digital storage oscilloscopes based on concrete measurement examples that address authentic
everyday tasks. The theoretical portion of this paper begins with an explanation of the basic
operating concepts for digital oscilloscopes, followed by a discussion of the most important
parameters to be considered when setting up and performing the exercise measurements ...
(I do wish R&S would dispense with the light blue text on
gray background)
 LadyBug Technologies means Peak Performance in Power
Sensors: 9 kHz - 40 GHz and 80 dB dynamic range. LadyBug makes a broad line of First
Tier NIST traceable USB power sensors
that  are compatible with Windows systems, along with Linux.
LadyBug has the only SPI & I2C sensor available. Patented NoZero NoCal feature - Simply
connect and measure to receive a high accuracy measurement. Please contact LadyBug today to
find out how they can help you ...
 Anyone other than a complete novice (Ham pun intended)
at radio and antenna work is familiar with the basics types of
directional antennas presented here. However, the universe of people knowledgeable about
such things was very small in 1935, when this article appeared in Short Wave Craft
magazine. An effort to educate operators and designers was really just beginning. The ½-wave
dipoles shown here for the transmitter are somewhat directional at 2 dBi, and full-wave
square loop antennas for receiving have a gain of around 3 dBi. However, the most significant
direction-finding feature of a loop antenna is the comparatively ...
 NuWaves Engineering, an international Radio Frequency
(RF) and Microwave solutions provider, has released the latest in the NuPowerTM small, lightweight
and high-efficiency power amplifier (PA) family of products – the 100 Watt NuPowerTM
LS100A01 L & S-band PA. This PA will run at $3,775 per unit in quantities
of one hundred and will be available mid-September. The NuPowerTM LS100A01 provides saturated
RF ...
 "In a threat environment that is rapidly expanding
into the electromagnetic spectrum, the KC-46A Pegasus has just successfully proved its immunity
to
electromagnetic pulse weapons. Eliminating a major operational risk and
an obstacle on the way to product delivery, according to Boeing executives. 'The KC-46A tanker
is protected by various hardening and shielding technologies designed into the aircraft to
negate any effects ..."
Thursday 3
 In 1970,
Sylvania ran this 2-page advertisement in Popular Electronics magazine touting
the accomplishment of reducing the equivalent of 60,000 discrete components to a mere 60 -
thanks to integrated circuits. That 1,000:1 ratio is miniscule compared to this year (2017)
where AMD's 24-core EPYC 7401P sports 19,200,000,000 transistors. If Moore's Law continues,
we can expect nearly 40 billion in another year and a half. Sylvania was not claiming to be
able to replace all components with integrated circuits, just to drastically reduce the number
of parts needed to stock for prototyping and production. Even AMD's ...
 "Breakthrough Starshot, the $100 million initiative
aiming to send robotic missions to nearby stars by the mid-21st century, has achieved what
might prove to be a 'Sputnik moment' in successfully lofting its first spacecraft - the smallest
ever launched and operated in orbit. In 1957 the Soviet Union shocked the world by flying
the first artificial ..."
 Pasternack has released a new series of RF and microwave
power amplifier accessories that includes heat sinks, heat sinks with
cooling fans and power control cable assemblies. Heat sinks are devices that enhance heat
dissipation from a hot surface and are ideal for thermal management of power amplifiers in
test and measurement applications. A functioning power amplifier will generate elevated levels
of heat that needs to be properly dissipated to insure the internal circuit assembly does
not become damaged from extreme high temperature exposure ...
 These 8 new schematics from a 1936 issue of Radio-Craft
magazine for vintage
tube-type car radios brings the total to 210 posted on RF Cafe. Included are Motorola
"Golden Voice" Model, RCA Victor Model H-6, Simplex Model TA, Automatic "Magic Eye" Model
A1, Arvin Model 28, Philco Model 818, Fada Model 266 Motoset, Bosch Models 736, 737, 738.
The Motorla "golden Voice" model features a "magic eliminode" circuit which not only filters
out automobile engine noise, but balances the noise out of the antenna lead, so that suppressor-less
operation is possible on almost all cars. A glance at the schematic shows that all that magic
is performed by a built-in L-C filter ...
 Triad RF Systems announces the availability of their
TA1025 solid
state power amplifier produces over 1 W of linear COFDM power and 5 W peak.
The amplifier is protected from high, low, and reverse DC bias, thermal overload, and high
output VSWR. The amplifier draws 0.8 A (100% duty cycle), and measures only 3.75 x 1.9
x 0.5 in. This class A GaAs module is designed for both military and commercial applications.
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 ...
 "The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
has released
IEC 61191-4:2017. This standard pertains to 'Printed board assemblies
- Part 4: Sectional specification - Requirements for terminal soldered assemblies,' and is
now available on the IEC webstore. Description: -IEC 61191-4:2017 prescribes requirements
for terminal soldered assemblies. The requirements pertain to those assemblies that are entirely
terminal/wire interconnecting structures or to the terminal/wire portions of those assemblies
that include other related technologies (i.e. surface mounting, through ..."
Wednesday 2
 Title:
Design and Simulation of 5G 28-GHz Phased Array Transceiver,
Date: August 3, 2017 Time: 10 am PT / 1 pm ET,
Presenter: Jack Sifri, MMIC/Module Design-Flow Specialist.
"This presentation describes the design and simulation
of a 4-channel transmit chain of a mmWave 28 GHz transceiver with a beam-steered patch
antenna array. Design techniques are demonstrated to achieve the desired level of performance
using system, circuit and electromagnetic simulation technologies. Array antenna, PA, LNA,
Switch and Phase Shifter are designed with 0.18 um SiGe BiCMOS technology and complementary
technologies ..."
 Those
of us who came of age in the early 1970s are very familiar with the Dolby B noise reduction
system since it was the key differentiator when buying stereo equipment in the day. The first
commercial products containing the technology appeared in 1968. I am fairly certain that neither
I nor any of my friends who insisted on tape decks with the Dolby logo on them had any idea
how the circuit worked. At the time, to us filters were those fan-folded things on top of
a carburetor and feedback was the annoying squeal that happened when a microphone got too
close to a speaker. Knowledge ...
 Empower RF Systems is conducting
remote live demonstrations of our broadband, high power 1 kW 1 to 3 GHz amplifier,
Booth 321. The amplifier will be housed in Los Angeles and viewed in the IEEE EMC exhibit
venue with live streaming video while remotely controlling the amplifier from the exhibit
floor through a standard web browser. What you will see is a demonstration of remote operation
of the Empower 2170 1 kW RF amplifier in a test setup that includes a signal generator,
spectrum analyzer, external ...
 Rick Lindquist, of QST magazine, reviewed
this mystery story,
Murder on Frequency, by Patricia Smith Wood, KE5FVS
(she's a Ham). "I run a 'net' once a week and talk to a lot
of hams on that day," says Patricia on her
website.
" Rick comments, "I was reminded of the Hardy Boys' young
 adult adventure,
The Shortwave Mystery." Harrie McKinsey, whose husband is an FBI
agent, is the central investigative figure in the series. As with The Hardy Boys, this book
is geared toward young adults.
 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,
mixers, up/downconverters. Worldwide customers include Europe, Australia,
 and Asia. Please contact Windfreak today to learn how
they might help you with your current project ...
 Electronic Design magazine is running this fun challenge
to see how many of these
vintage computer-related items you can a identify. The first one, pictured
here, was used in the radar IFF system I worked on in the USAF. "What are these devices? See
if you can determine the tech from a close-up photo. Can you guess what devices are in the
images below? The images come in pairs. The first will be a close up. Try to guess what you
are looking at before scrolling down to the next one, which will show a zoomed-out version ..."
Tuesday 1
 "From Shenzhen to New York and Silicon Valley,
technology incubators
are popping up, providing affordable space for dreamers and entrepreneurs to build and nurture
startups. Among these nurseries, Station F - which opened in Paris earlier this month as the
world's largest startup campus - might be the epitome, in terms of size, amenities, perks,
and a built-in ecosystem compatible with innovation. A brainchild of French billionaire Xavier
Niel, Station F, converted from an abandoned train depot, is designed to house 1,000 startups.
The re-architected building, about 34,000 square meters, maintains the original ..."
 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 ...
 "Catalog-Carrying Charlie," "Electronic
Hypochondriac," "Stop-the-Presses Guy," "Belittler," "Man with a Relative in the Racket,"
"Suspicious Sam," all pet names for the pain-in-the-posterior type of service shop customers
that Mac and trusty sidekick Barney had to deal with on a regular basis. After giving a humorous
description of each type, the two then come up with a "Ten Commandments" for their customers
that outlines how the customer should approach a service request to help assure the best results.
Even though the closest thing to an electronics repair shop we see today is the cellphone
LCD replacement kiosk in the local shopping mall, you can bet employees still get their fill ...
 "The
Inertial Navigation System (INS) by Honeywell Aerospace navigates without
emitting a single GPS signal. The ADA GPS anti-jamming system by Israel Aerospace Industries
(IAI) stops jamming signals in their tracks. Together, these two technologies strive to ensure
the survival of GPS navigation in the age of electronic warfare. 'Facing today's threats to
GPS, the ability to combine advanced anti-jamming capabilities as part of the Embedded GPS
INS systems is a must,' said Boaz Levi, Executive Vice President of the IAI Missile and Space
Group. The IAI and Honeywell Aerospace memorandum ..."
 The
Electronic Design Innovation Conference and Exhibition (EDI CON) USA, the first industry
event to bring together RF/microwave and high-speed digital design engineers and system integrators,
announced today that Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) is taking on the role of host sponsor of the
exhibition and conference program at the Hynes Convention Center, September 11-13 in Boston,
MA. Engineers from ADI will be presenting a short course, several paper sessions, and workshops
on topics for high-frequency and high-speed electronic applications. Dr. Thomas Cameron, CTO
for ...
 "Efforts
to tackle space debris are underway with an experiment to de-orbit CanX-7, a Canadian satellite
that began a controlled descent using space sails in May, 2017. CanX-7 is part of the Daedalus
experiment, an effort led by scientists at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL)
to tackle space
junk. According to NASA, over 500,000 items are tracked as they orbit Earth, yet fewer
than 5,000 are operational satellites. Travelling at speeds of up to 17,500mph, relatively
small pieces of orbital debris can damage a satellite or a spacecraft. DSTL ..."
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