Thursday 19
"SpaceX's
Falcon 9 rocket climbed into orbit from California's Central Coast on Saturday, resuming service after
an explosive setback last year and delivering much-needed reinforcements to
Iridium's satellite constellation providing communications by land, sea and sky.
The comeback mission kicks off a busy launch manifest with more than 20 SpaceX rocket flights expected
this year as the company prepares to start launching astronauts, vital national security payloads and
a slate of valuable telecommunications satellites for global broadcasters and network clients. The 229-foot-tall
..."
Panel Built is
a manufacturer of modular enclosures. Their Class 1,000, 10,000, and 100,000
modular clean rooms
feature standard hidden in-wall air chase, filtered air-return louver, ducting for FFU, and adjustable
door louver. Options include HEPA and ULPA filters, single package air-conditioning, 'Sticky Mats' to
keep dirt and grim from entering, air curtains, high speed roll-up doors, and entrance air-locks. Panel
Built has been added to my hand-selected list of vendors on the
Clean Rooms page. They also make
towers.
"The volume of discarded
electronics in East and Southeast Asia jumped almost two-thirds between 2010 and 2015, and
e-waste
generation is growing fast in both total volume and per capita measures, new UN research shows. Driven
by rising incomes and high demand for new gadgets and appliances, the average increase in e-waste across
all 12 countries and areas analyzed—Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines,
Singapore ..."
It
has been said that most people's historical perspective begins at the year they are born. Hence, they
might believe whenever something 'new' happens, it is the first time. This past U.S. election and the
ensuing talk over the
electoral system is a good example. Dig this editorial from a 1950 issue of The Saturday Evening
Post. Concern over the results of the very close 3-way race in the 1948 U.S. presidential election
between Truman, Dewey, and Thurmond had pundits pontificating and bloviating about the merits of the
electoral system
...
"Stage
4 of the reverse portion of the FCC's incentive auction ended Friday, with TV broadcasters setting a
clearing cost of just more than $10 billion for up to 84 MHz of airwaves, falling dramatically short
of the $40.3 billion set in Stage 3 and marking a tiny fraction of the $86 billion set in Stage 1. On
the plus side, the auction may not slog on much longer. 'Broadcasters were really suicidal,' Tim Farrar
of TMF Associates tweeted Friday
..."
"Amazon is preparing
to test
experimental wireless communications technology, including mobile devices and fixed-base
stations, in rural Washington and Seattle, the company disclosed in government filings this week. The
filings do not specify what the tests would be for, but they hint at a new type of technology or wireless
service, noting that the project would involve prototypes designed to support "innovative communications
capabilities
..."
Wednesday 18
Title: Analog Beamforming - What Is It and How Does It Impact Phased-Array Radar and 5G?
Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 Time: 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time
Duration: 1 hour. "As 5G communication systems are rolled out and phased-array radar
spreads its reach to non-military applications, our industry has taken a keen interest in beamforming.
This technical webcast will dive into everything you want to know about beamforming systems - typical
uses, digital versus analog, nulling
..."
"In a proof-of-concept
study, researchers drew magnetic squares in a nonmagnetic material with an electrified pen and then
'read' this magnetic doodle with X-rays. In the experiment, the scientists moved the electric tip along
the surface and applied a positive voltage. The electric field aligns the spins of the electrons in
the nonmagnetic material, and the ordering creates magnetic properties. If the voltage is
..."
"U.S. military researchers are asking for industry's help in
developing compact,
fiber laser diode modules suitable for pumping high power fiber laser weapons on
a variety of manned and unmanned combat aircraft and tactical land vehicles. Officials of the U.S. Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., have released a solicitation for the Efficient
Ultra-Compact Laser Integrated Devices (EUCLID) project. High-energy laser (HEL)
..."
"Inventor of the television. For over 80 years, Loewe has invented
television, we have kept our 'Made in Germany' promise. Development, production and service departments
are still based in Kronach." So reads the history page on the Loewe website regarding its involvement
since 1923. This article, which appeared in a 1935 issue of Short Wave Craft, begins by lamenting
America's lag in the development of
commercial
television; to wit, "practical public television is fast asleep in this country." The German system
...
"At least one-third of tech workers are significantly underpaid.
That's the conclusion of a study by Paysa, a startup that markets tools designed to help software engineers
and other technology professionals analyze and compare salaries and benefits. Paysa looked at 5 million
resumes of technology professionals and concluded that nearly 2 million of them are
currently underpaid by 10% or more. For an average software engineer making $112,000,
the company indicated, that translates into $11,200 a year of missing income. It's probably a good time
..."
"Oxfam's report,
An Economy for the 99 Percent, shows that the gap between rich and poor is far greater than
had previously been estimated and details how big business and the super-rich are fueling the inequality
crisis by dodging taxes, driving down wages and using their power to influence politics. The report
also calls for a fundamental change in the way we manage our economies so that they work for all people,
and not just a fortunate few
..." 3/4 of them are communications / computer moguls: Zuckerberg, Bezos, Gates,
Helu, Ellison, Bloomberg.
A Fully-Updated, No-Nonsense Guide to Electronics. Advance your
electronics knowledge and gain the skills necessary to develop and construct your own functioning gadgets.
Written by a pair of experienced engineers and dedicated hobbyists,
Practical Electronics for Inventors, 4th Edition, lays out the essentials and provides
step-by-step instructions, schematics, and illustrations. Discover how to select the right components,
design
...
Tuesday 17
This
guy is a modern-day RF superstar in both the professional and Ham radio worlds. "Ulrich L. Rohde, N1UL, of Synergy Microwave Corp was invited to deliver the sixth
Sir J.C. Bose Memorial Lecture at the IEEE Hyderabad Section on December 2 during a joint session of
the IEEE MTT, AP, and EMC Societies in Hyderabad, India. Rohde's talk was 'Next Generation Networks:
Software Defined Radio - Emerging Trends.' While working under a US Department of Defense contract at
RCA in 1982, Rohde's department developed the first SDR, which
..."
"To provide better sea-surface
electronic warfare
(EW) capability, Lockheed Martin is adding enhanced sensors to MH-60 Sea Hawk helicopters. The company
is developing an EW pod for both MH-60 R/S Sea Hawk versions to help provide anti-ship missile defense
as part of Lockheed's Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP), said Joe Ottaviano, EW
director at Lockheed. Called the Advanced Offboard Electronic Warfare (AOEW) system, the airborne sensor
and links will
..."
"In what it calls an
'extremely urgent complaint' to the FCC, ARRL has targeted the interference potential
of a series of audio/video transmitters used on unmanned aircraft and marketed as Amateur Radio equipment.
In a January 10 letter to the FCC Spectrum Enforcement Division, ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD,
said the transmitters use frequencies intended for navigational aids, air traffic control radar, air
route surveillance radars, and global
...
It seems the title, "Mac's Radio Service Shop" for John Frye's
tech tales might have been dropped after Radio & Television News magazine changed its name
to Electronics World in May of 1959. The characters' names and roles were all the same, but
the title was missing - probably to not bias the new theme of the magazine. This episode discusses some
of the strange ways in which a faulty
bypass
capacitor can manifest itself. A big part of effective troubleshooting is the experience of 'having
seem that before.' Interestingly, by 1963 vacuum
...
"The real threat to global critical
infrastructure is not enemy states or organisations but squirrels, according to one security expert.
Cris Thomas has been tracking power cuts caused by animals since 2013. Squirrels, birds, rats and snakes
have been responsible for more than 1,700 power cuts affecting nearly 5 million people, he told a security
conference. He explained that by tracking these issues, he was seeking to dispel the hype around cyber-attacks.
His Cyber Squirrel 1 project
was set up to counteract ..."
"ITURHProp,
a new point-to-point propagation prediction tool based on an ITU engine and developed by Gwyn Williams,
G4FKH, is now available via the RSGB website. The new web-based prediction tool is said to be more accurate
than previous engines. ITURHProp calculates the path characteristics between two points on the globe
to determine projected path maximum usable frequency (MUF) and SNR. Development on the project is ongoing
..."
Monday 16
The Latest
Products and News from
Triad RF Systems.
Triad RF has developed a high power system that extends the distance a typical Mobile Network MMIO (MN-MIMO)
operates over. Utilizing Triad's high power bi-directional amplifiers (BDAs), the Transmit RF output
power of the four (4) channel MIMO radio is increased by 25 dB. The receive link is increased by 10
dB to overcome any losses in system connections. The unit can operate over specific frequency bands
...
National Company, an early manufacturer of electronics components
for radio products, ran a series of unique advertisements in the ARRL's QST magazine. Rather
than using precious cash for directly promoting specific products or product lines, company president
John Millen occupied full pages with text explaining why it makes the things it does and how they can
be used to solve problems or enhance performance. This article/ad on TMS condensers (aka variable capacitors)
was number 61 in the series, which means if they printed one every
...
"Researchers have brought
electrides into
the nanoregime by synthesizing the first 2D electride material. Electrides are ionic compounds, which
are made of negative and positive ions. But in electrides, the negative 'ions' are simply electrons,
with no nucleus. The electrons are very close to each other and very loosely bound, causing them to
act as an electron gas. This electron gas gives electrides certain electrical properties, such as a
high electrical mobility and rapid electrical
..."
Advanced Test Equipment Rentals (ATEC), a global leader in electronic
equipment rentals with products from over 300 manufacturers, has announced that it now carries the newly
released Teseq NSG 3150.
The new NSG 3150 15kV Combination Wave Surge Generator enables users to conduct immunity tests in compliance
with IEC/EN-61000-4-5. Built to excel in outdoor applications, the Teseq NSG 3150 can be used to test
lightning, communication
...
This
Antenna Basics white paper by Rohde Schwarz is an excellent primer on antenna on
topics like Fresnel zone, polarization, Hertz's antenna model, wave propagation, Maxwell's equations,
radiation density field pattern, beamwidth, directivity, and antenna factor. Simple explanations and
illustrations facilitate comprehension. A review of various antenna types concludes this white paper.
The download is free
...
"Electronic warfare (EW) experts at BAE Systems will provide RF countermeasures systems
to help U.S. special-operations C-130J turboprop aircraft evade and jam enemy radar systems. Officials
of the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., announced a $67.7
million order Tuesday to the BAE Systems Electronic Systems segment in Nashua, N.H., to provide radio
frequency (RF) countermeasures systems for special operations
..."
This week's crossword puzzle has an RF System Analysis theme.
Most of the longer words are terms you will find in cascade calculators such as RF Cascade Workbook.
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
...
Friday 13
Who knew the 'left leg
shake' was a well-known symptom of Glossophobia? "As a an engineer, there is a good chance that you
are an introvert. There is nothing wrong with being soft spoken unless part of your job includes
public
speaking. You are great at communicating complex ideas, but just not to large groups of people.
You get speech anxiety. In the privacy of your dim lit office, your fingers dance across the keyboard
and you have no problem expressing yourself. You love what you do, but when the time comes to give
..."
