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Thursday 31
 Triad RF Systems announces the
TTRM1076, a 400 to 450 MHz, 32 W bidirectional amplifier
(BDA) designed for high data rate military and commercial radios. It is capable
of 12-watt 64QAM OFDM output and 32-watt peak power for lower data rate FM/BPSK
applications. High speed switching of 1 μS makes it compatible with time division
duplex (TDD) mesh radio systems. This class A LDMOS module is designed for both
military and commercial applications. It is capable of supporting any signal type ...
 "Many next-generation electronic and electro-mechanical
device technologies hinge on the development of ferroelectric materials. The unusual
crystal structures of these materials have regions in their lattices, called domains,
that behave like molecular switches. The alignment of a domain can be toggled by
an electric field, which changes the position of atoms in the crystal and switches
the polarization direction. These crystals are typically grown on supporting substrates
that help to define and organize the behavior of domains. Control over the switching
of ..."
 Electronics World magazine for a
while had a monthly feature titled "Radio & Television News." It was a roundup
of top news bits. This particular month's collection had a lot of notable topics.
On the heels of the
Apollo 11 moon landing, NASA informs people of the many benefits
research and development on necessary technologies that will redound to the commercial
and consumer sectors. "Success with on-board computers in spacecraft contributes
directly to the day when home computers take over hundreds of chores - from feeding
the cat to reminding you of appointments...- and maybe keep your checkbook balanced
..."
Top-Level Domain Name ".radio"
Now Available
 "The top-level domain (TLD) name ".radio" is now available to the radio industry and Amateur Radio
enthusiasts, and is reserved for individuals and companies with active interest
in the radio sector. Individuals or entities in these categories will be accepted
for the use of a .radio domain: •Radio broadcasting stations •Unions of Broadcasters
•Internet radios •Radio Amateurs •Radio-related companies selling radio goods and
services •Radio products and ..."
 QuickSmith, a creation of Nathan Iyer, has
been around for a long time. It is without a doubt one of the most feature-filled
examples of RF design software around. Nathan recently released a Web-based version
of QuickSmith on a GitHub server, which means it works on any platform with a browser
- desktop or mobile. Access is free, and you can save and reload your design files
rather than losing your work once you leave the website. Being online also means
that the latest version is always available. The screenshot to the right illustrates
where to place series and parallel components, and where to access the sweep ...
 "Several years ago, little was known about
the
StingRay, a powerful surveillance device that imitates the function
of a cell tower and captures the signals of nearby phones, allowing law enforcement
officers to sweep through hundreds of messages, conversations and call logs. The
secrecy around the technology, which can ensnare the personal data of criminals
and bystanders alike, spurred lawsuits and demands for public records to uncover
who was using it and the extent of its capabilities ..."
Wednesday 30
 "Illustration of a torsionally tethered coiled
harvester electrode and counter and reference electrodes in an electrochemical bath,
showing the coiled yarn before and after stretch. An international team of researchers
led by researchers at the University of Texas (UT) at Dallas - where they have been
working on making
carbon nanotube-based yarns for well over a decade - has devised
a way to make these carbon nanotube yarns into devices that can harvest energy from
stretching ..."
 Since 1961, MECA
Electronics manufactures an extensive line of
RF & microwave
components for in-building, satellite, radar, radio, telemetry, mobile radio,
aviation & ATC. Attenuators, directional & hybrid couplers, isolators &
circulators, power  dividers & combiners, loads, DC blocks, bias-Ts
and adapters & cables. MECA has long been the 'backbone' of high performance
wired and air-interfaced networks. Please visit MECA today to learn how they can
help with your projects ...
 QuinStar Technology, founded in 1993, designs
and manufactures millimeter-wave
products for communication, scientific, and test applications including millimeter-wave
products, microelectronic assembly, rapid prototyping, and mass customization. AS9100:2009
Rev C / ISO 9001:2008 certified. QuinStar has been added to RF Cafe's Vendor pages:
Amplifiers,
oscillators,
switches,
attenuators,
circulators &
isolators, filters,
waveguide,
antennas,
phase shifters,
and receiver &
radar
subsystems.
 Biographies focusing individually on Albert
Einstein, Thomas Edison, Isaac Newton, Alexander Graham Bell, and Henry Ford abound.
Someone, somewhere, is right now researching and writing yet another dissertation
on each them and other well-known historical figures of science and engineering.
Guys like
Michael Faraday rarely have books dedicated solely to their lives
and accomplishments, even though it is not unreasonable to expect that they would.
Usually Faraday, Alessandro Volta, Georg Ohm, André-Marie Ampère, Anders Celsius,
Max Planck, et al, are usually included in books featuring a collection of people
who have achieved notoriety in similar fields ...
 "U.S. military researchers are asking Northrop
Grumman Corp. to find ways of speeding how long it takes to develop new defense
electronics through the reuse and
integration of blocks of intellectual property (IP). Officials
of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va.,
announced a $7.1 million contract Tuesday to the Northrop Grumman Mission Systems ..."
To add to its high-quality line-up of education, 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 its plenary keynote speakers
at EDI CON USA, September 11-13 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA. EDI
CON USA will host more than 100 exhibitors and feature 88 education sessions that
fall into five focused areas: RF & Microwave Design, High-Speed Digital Design,
Measurement & Modeling, Systems Engineering and 5G Advanced ...
 "Imagine sending data over the air in the
form of light rather than radio waves - a method that eliminates the restriction
of spectrum availability in wireless networks. Researchers at the University of
Ottawa in Canada have taken a step forward toward that goal by sending a
quantum-secured message containing more than one bit of information
per photon through the air above a city. It may sound esoteric, but sending multiple
bits per photon ..."
Tuesday 29
 "It may take much longer for wireless carriers
to deploy services on their new
600 MHz spectrum than previously thought. Bidders committed more
than $19.63 billion for TV broadcasters' airwaves during the FCC's incentive auction,
which ended last spring, with T-Mobile leading the way by spending $8B on 600 MHz
licenses. Operators have repeatedly urged the agency to stick to the 39-month repacking
plan it has allotted to reshuffle TV broadcasters' airwaves ..."
 Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Smiljan,
Austrian Empire, and died in 1943 in New York City. His life is so amply documented
far and wide that regurgitating the information in books and blog posts would be
a waste. Most of what you find there is second-hand, having gone through the filter
of an author's preferences. I like to search for stories on various topics in their
original publications; e.g., scanned newspaper and magazine archives. A hunt for
early stories on Nikola Tesla turned up many 19th century examples from the Newspapers.com
website. It is interesting that back in the day, men like Nikola and Edison were
referred regularly to as "electricians." The oldest article I found on Nikola Tesla
appeared in the July 1, 1889 edition of The Pittsburgh Dispatch, titled "The
Electric Fiend" ...
 "As Tropical Storm Harvey heads southeastward,
Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES®) team members are being
advised that the impact to the region's communications infrastructure has been relatively
minimal so far, considering the strength of the storm and the magnitude of the flooding.
South Texas ARES remains on standby as the response phase continues and sheltering
becomes a growing need. ARRL South Texas Section Manager Lee Cooper, W5LHC, told
ARRL today (August 28) that the disaster will be in the response phase for several
days ..."
 "Adding slots to the chip-scale laser waveguide,
which generates
terahertz waves, and backing them with reflectors redirects the
lost back-end output 180°, boosting the front-end output power. Terahertz (sub-millimeter)
waves - wavelengths of 1 mm down to 30 µm, corresponding to frequencies from 300
GHz to 3 THz - pose a dilemma for practical use because they're in the zone between
the standard RF spectrum ..."
 2017 IEEE Internat'l Symposium on Radio-Frequency
Integration Technology (RFIT2017), August 30- September 1, 2017, Seoul, South
Korea. RFIT2017 will be held at
The K-Hotel, Seoul, Korea, on August 30- September 1, 2017. This conference is organized
and sponsored by the IEEE MTT-S, and will be supported by IEEE MTT-S Seoul Chapter.
The Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science (KIEES) is a Technical
Co-Sponsor of the RFIT ...
 "The FCC granted WorldVu Satellites Ltd.,
doing business as OneWeb, permission in June to enter the U.S. satellite market.
OneWeb wants to build a constellation of
720 satellites to provide internet services across the world and
expects to launch its first satellite next year. But it's far from the only company
with designs on space. Despite earlier attempts at satellite businesses that came
and went, new entrants want to take advantage of advancements in technology and
give it a go ..."
Monday 28
 Axiom Test Equipment
allows you to rent or
buy test
equipment, repair
test equipment, or sell
or trade  test equipment. They are committed to providing
superior customer service and high quality electronic test equipment. Axiom offers
customers several practical, efficient, and cost effective solutions for their projects'
TE needs and is committed to providing superior customer service and high quality
electronic test equipment. Please check out Axiom Test Equipment today! ...
 Mr. Lothar Stern, of Motorola Semi, published
a 3-part series on
transistor theory in Popular Electronics magazine in
1973. This is part 1. At the time, transistors had pretty much replaced vacuum tubes
in all new electronic products - if you don't count cathode ray tubes (CRTs) in
televisions and some high power applications. Technical schools were still teaching
about vacuum tubes since there was a still a lot of legacy equipment that needed
to be maintained, the the main concentration had switched over to transistor theory.
1973, the year I turned 15, is right around the time I began seriously delving into
the electrical and electronic realms as an eventual vocation ...
 "For perhaps the first time in the world,
trials taking place in China next month will use
lasers for street lighting, an innovation aimed at saving energy
and eliminating the cost of expensive cabling infrastructure. David Ho and the Jinjing
Co. have developed the new lighting technology in the city of Fuzhou in China's
southeastern Fujian Province. Trials will start next month in the nearby city of
Fuqing. The technology uses laser beams of blue light to transmit energy across
large distances without power ..."
 NuWaves Engineering, an international Radio Frequency (RF) and
Microwave solutions provider, announces the completion of the IRaD phase for their
newest miniaturized 10 watt C-band bidirectional amplifier (BDA), to be added to
their line of NuPower Xtender™ bidirectional amplifier products. This module will
be priced at $2,900/ea. in quantities of one hundred, and will be available Q4 2017.
The NuPower Xtender™ C10RX01 and C10RX02 BDA ...
 42 International Conference on Infrared,
Millimeter and Terahertz Waves (IRMMW-THz 2017), August 27 - September 1, in Cancún, Mexico. Founded
in 1974 under the title, International Conference on Submillimeter Waves and their
Applications, today's International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz
Waves (IRMMW-THz) continues to grow in scope and stature. The conference and its
long standing accompanying monthly publication, now known as the Journal of Infrared,
Millimeter and Terahertz Waves (JIMT), were among ...
Sunday 27
 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. At least 12 clues in this puzzle
with an asterisk (*) are pulled from this past week's (8/21 - 8/25)
"Tech Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage
(see the Headline Archives page for help). Enjoy! ...
Friday 25
 If only the people whose backyard became
the location for
Apple's 'Spaceship' headquarters had been northern spotted owls,
Yosemite toads, or SF garter snakes, maybe their peaceful existence would not have
been interrupted by 4 years of constant noise and dirt. But, because they are only
humans, a 175 acre, 2.8 million sq.ft. monster complex now sits in their backyards,
forever destroying the ambiance. Just as with using Chinese labor to build their
devices while paying wages not even Illegals would work for in the U.S., human rights
are defined by Apple's needs to satisfy investors and top management's pay expectations. ...
 Skyworks has introduced
SKY12239-11, a voltage-controlled variable attenuator (VVA) from
our series of broadband, flat attenuation, high third order input intercept point
(IIP3) products. The device has been designed to operate over the 10 MHz to
1.5 GHz frequency band, and is specifically optimized for use as a wide dynamic
range, ultra-low distortion attenuator. This VVA is well-suited for use in automatic
power leveling or gain control circuits in military radio, wireless infrastructure,
CATV and broad market applications. Features include low insertion ...
 Installing radios in cars and trucks was big
business in the 1930s. Most cars of the day did not include a radio as standard
equipment. In fact, the most challenging aspect of installing a radio in an automobile
was the antenna and tuning mechanism. Electronics magazines of the era - Radio-Craft,
Short Wave  Craft, et al - had photos of technicians with
equipment spread all over the public sidewalks next to where the car having the
radio installed is parked. Yep, the car radio installers came to your location like
the guys who replace windshields. This photo of the Crosley Model A-157 Fiver Roamio ...
 Saelig Company has introduced the ComfilePi
- an industrial Raspberry Pi-based touch-panel PC. Leveraging the compact, ubiquitous
Raspberry Pi 3 board, the ComfilePi inherits the Raspberry Pi 3's 1.2 GHz 64
bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, a Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU, and 1 GB
of RAM. It comes in two screen sizes - 7" (CPi-A070WR)
and 10.2" (CPi-A102WR) both providing identical capabilities. The displays
are 24-bit color LCDs with a resistive touchscreen and the units provide 22 x ESD-protected
GPIO lines, 3 x USB 2.0 host ...
 "New
membrane-based antennas could be nearly 100 times smaller than
the most compact current antennas, a new study finds. These antennas could find
use in portable wireless communications systems, including wearable electronics,
smartphones, bio-implantable antennas, bio-injectable antennas, bio-ingestible antennas,
and the Internet of Things, researchers say. State-of-the-art compact antennas are
designed to resonate at specific wavelengths. But their miniaturization is limited
to roughly one-tenth of their resonant ..."
Thursday 24
 "With weapons and communications systems
increasingly relying on connectivity and signal communications, the U.S. Naval Research
Laboratory is looking to develop phased array antennas that are light-weight and
jam resistant for the next generation of systems. The NRL is working
with the Tactical Reachback Extended Communications to develop an ultra-wideband
phased array antenna with extended line-of-sight communications capabilities. LOS
technology is able to support ..."
 A score of 80% is nothing to brag about,
but at least I got all the easy ones right. A couple ones I guessed at based on
how the circuit looks - like the 'gimmick' coupling. This quiz by Popular Electronics'
quizmaster Robert P. Balin tests your knowledge of
coupling circuits. If it had not been for studying for my
Ham radio tests, I would not have recognized the gamma match circuit. Fewer and
fewer people nowadays - at least as a percentage of those engaged in electronics
- are familiar with the detailed level of design. Entire products can be designed
nowadays using just integrated circuits and, usually, a little software code ...
 These schematics, tuning instructions, and
other data are reproduced from my collection of vintage radio and electronics magazines.
As back in the era, similar schematic and service info was available for purchase
from sources such as SAMS  Photofacts, but these printings were a no-cost
bonus for readers. A Google search for a photo of the Fada Model 190 only turned
up a magazine advertisement that appeared on the RadioMuseum.org website ...
 Triad RF Systems has announces the
TTRM1104, a 2.2 to 2.5 GHz,
15 W bidirectional amplifier (BDA) with a bypass feature. The TTRM1104 is designed
for UAV video, data link, and C2 applications. It has a selectable gain control
to vary the amp output based on link distance, and can also be placed in bypass
mode when the BDA is not required. An analog RSSI output is also included ...
 "The U.S. Department of Labor (DoL)appears
to be moving forward on an
overtime rule that caught up millions of workers and employers
in some muddy waters last year. Under the Obama Administration, a new requirement
had been expected to take effect would have required an additional 4 million American
workers to be paid overtime if they worked more than 40 hours in a week. Recently,
the DoL published a Request for Information from the public to gather information ..."
Wednesday 23
 The RF Engineer will help drive new Copper Mountain
Technologies (CMT) VNA solutions and support current ones used by customers all
over the world. Our USB VNAs are next generation analyzers designed to meet the
needs of 21st Century engineers. Our VNAs include an RF measurement module and a
processing module, a software application which runs on a Windows PC, laptop or
tablet, connecting to the measurement hardware via USB interface. CMT was awarded
innovation and product leadership awards by Frost & Sullivan in 2015 and 2017.
The RF Engineer will be responsible for identifying new comprehensive test ...
 Maybe what piqued my interest in electronic
enough during my teenage years to eventually enter into the field as a lifelong
vocation was wondering what the heck all those
components were doing that were sprinkled around circuit boards
and inside product housings. The circuits I was building at the time were typical
beginning hobbyist types with just enough capacitors, resistors, inductors, diodes,
etc., to make the lamps blink properly or to pick up a strong local AM radio station.
Even in undergraduate college circuit design classes we rarely went beyond noise
bypass capacitors on ICs or counter-EMF-snubbing diodes across solenoid coils. Having
already ...
 While searching for newspaper stories on
some old radios, I ran across this "Don't Listen to Mr. Shickelgruber" comic that was part of
the
War Production Board's appeal for recycling. It appeared in a
March 1943 issue of The Harrisburg Telegraph. The
Department of War needed discarded cooking fat for extracting
glycerine for use in making gunpowder.
Schicklgruber
was the original surname of Adolph Hitler's father. References to the little
National Socialist
(aka Nazi) dictator as 'Mr. Shickelgruber' (and it's various
spellings) were frequent in the era.
 "An international team of researchers has
developed a photovoltaic cell based on a combination of magnetic electrodes and
C60 fullerenes - sometimes referred to as Buckyballs -that increases the photovoltaic
efficiency of their device by 14 percent over photovoltaics using ordinary materials
and architecture. In research described in the journal Science, scientists from
China, Germany, and Spain have taken spin valves—devices based on giant magnetoresistance ..."
 Lou Frenzel, of Electronic Design,
evidently has a love affair with classic American-made
muscle cars. He wonders whether a future of autonomous vehicles
(AVs) and the weeniefied (my term) cars on the drawing board will hasten the extinction
of vintage Mustangs, Camaros, Challengers, Corvettes, and the like. Who wants to live
in a world where cars with big cams, headers, and traction bars are no longer found
idling erratically at stop lights? Instead you find silent e-cars with Hal doing
the driving while Dave reads the latest online edition of Mother Earth News to the
kids in the back seat. An e-Harley sits silently next to it, devoid of the trademark
syncopated "potato-potato-potato." Aye, 'tis a sad thought.
...
 Who among us has not had to track down a
mysterious signal displayed on an o-scope, only to discover that
the waveform was not 'real,' but was the manifestation of an improper test setup?
This piece by Electronic Design's Paul Rako is a good tale of such circumstances
and how you can avoid being duped into spending needless effort trying to eliminate
signals that don't really exist - or don't matter, as the title suggests ...
Tuesday 22
 Teledyne e2v introduces the
EV12DS460A, the world's first K-band capable Digital-to-Analog
Converter. This ground breaking DAC provides an analog bandwidth extending beyond
7 GHz facilitating multi-band, direct digital synthesis up to K-band (26.5 GHz).
A flexible 4:1 or 2:1 input multiplexer enables guaranteed sampling rates up
to 6 GSps with the capability to operate at 7 GSps. Teledyne e2v's EV12AS350
is set to be the only 12-bit resolution ADC on the market that combines signal digitization
at 5.4 GSps, input bandwidth in excess ...
 "Although maneuvering
nanosatellites in space is a complex procedure, a new micro-propulsion
method features the simplest of ingredients: water. The system from Purdue University
uses tiny nozzles to release precise bursts of water vapor. The development supports
future efforts to steer the miniature 'CubeSats' in space. Nanosatellites, which
NASA specifies as having a mass of 1 to 10 kilograms, have been increasingly employed
to perform a variety of tasks, including high-resolution imaging, Internet services,
military surveillance ..."
 If you need a little brushing up on your
basic
single sideband (SSB) operational theory versus straight amplitude
modulation (AM), then let this dissertation by Mac to Barney be it. There are no
circuit details, just talk about how power from the carrier and dual sidebands is
reallocated to a single sideband, thereby improving efficiency. I like the 'dried
milk' analogy Mac uses in reference to SSB being transmitted sans carrier (i.e.,
water), with the receiver being responsible for reintroducing the carrier in order
to demodulate the signal. Although I cannot personally comment as to its validity,
many people familiar with comparing DSB AM to SSB AM say there is a certain
je ne sais quoi that is missing in the tonal quality of SSB ...
 The agenda has been set and registration
is open for the India leg of the seventh annual
AWR Design Forum (ADF 2017), featuring NI AWR Design Environment
suite of high-frequency design tools. ADF 2017 will visit four cities in India:
Bangalore on September 4, Hyderabad on September 6, Ahmedabad on September 6 and
New Delhi on September 8. ADF, an open forum that brings together NI AWR software
customers, partners and microwave/RF engineering ...
 As a service to RF Cafe visitors, I will post
your company's tech-related job openings at no cost. Only direct hiring companies'
jobs are posted for free. Recruiters may submit jobs for posting at a cost of $100
per job. If you are responsible for hiring in your company, send me an e-mail with
the job listing information and I'll be glad to post it for you ...
•
Elevate Your Social Media Game for Recruiters
•
Age Discrimination: The Hows and the Whys!
• JobSite Quiz: What Is Your Workplace Personality?
•
What on Earth Is an Internship Good For?
<more...>
 "Researchers at Stanford University in the
U.S. have found two new materials that can extend the life of silicon below 5 nm.
Hafnium diselenide and zirconium diselenide both form stable, high K oxides in layers
just a few atoms thick with a similar band gap to silicon. The new materials can
also be shrunk to functional circuits just
three atoms thick and they require less energy than silicon circuits.
Although still experimental, the materials could be a step toward the kinds ..."
Monday 21
 Francis A. Gicca, manager of Raytheon's Space
Communications Systems, published a very extensive two-part article in Electronics
World magazine in 1969. Part 1 covered Score through Intelsat II
satellites which launched between from December 1958 and December 1968, respectively,
in the July 1969 issue. Part 2 begins with
Intelsat III, which commenced operation in September 1968.
Rather than reiterating the article's contents, I will offer an anecdote about the
altitude used by geostationary satellites, which is 22,300 miles. In the early 1990s,
I worked for a few years at COMSAT Laboratories (famous for involvement in both
Intelsat and Inmarsat), in Clarksburg, Maryland ...
 This is an interesting behind-the-curtain
infographic showing "What the Employer Sees When You Click 'Apply' on LinkedIn." It
appears on the YouTern website. "When you complete a LinkedIn profile and use the
job search features, your profile becomes your resume and application. When a posting
interests you, simply click apply and let the automated process go to work. But
what does the employer actually see? What parts of your profile are included in
the ..."
 I can definitely relate to this story. The
right-hander's school desk was always an awkward situation in the classroom - no
wonder I nearly failed 9th grade! For that matter, I nearly failed kindergarten
because of struggling to use right-hander's scissors. With all the emphasis the
world puts on accommodating everybody's quirky needs these days, it is amazing that
we
south paws are still routinely discriminated against on a daily
basis by a self-serving, thoughtless, sometimes maniacal right-handed majority
(you know who you are). No concern is exhibited for
the inconvenience their comfortable world causes my comrades and me who make up
10% of the population. The 0.0000001% of men that think they are
girls can now use the lady's room at Target, while I still have to tolerate a right-hander's
preferences ...
 "By shining laser light at carbon nanotubes
containing special defects, scientists in the US and Japan have taken a step forward
in the quest to deliver
single photons at room temperature and at wavelengths suited to
the telecommunications industry. The technique, which would be a boon for developers
of quantum technology, allows the researchers to tune the light emitted by the nanotubes
across a range of infrared wavelengths, at some of which they showed room-temperature ..."
 It's finally here - the
Great North American Solar Eclipse of 2017! The amateur astronomy
community has been anticipating and preparing for the event for a couple years.
Astronomy magazine dedicated the entire August issue to providing detailed
information on viewing suggestions along the entire path. Traffic from the Pacific
Coast of Oregon to the Atlantic Coast of South Carolina will probably be a challenge
as people vie for positions as close to the centerline as possible. Those who manage
optimal locations will see about 2 minutes and 40 seconds of total darkness. Others
within the 68-mile-wide path of totality will see from a fraction of a second up
to the full extent. According to a calculator on the Vox website, we in Erie will
only see a 76.2% eclipse, which will barely darken our skies ...
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