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the March 2017 homepage archives.
Friday 10
 John Frye, as it turns out, was way ahead of his time. Many of
the somewhat zany electronics devices his fictitious teenage experimenters cum hobbyists cum scientists
cum Ham radio operators cum amateur sleuths
Carl and Jerry came up with have turned out to products available and popular in today's consumer
marketplace. This episode can be regarded as an early developmental version of a wearable calorie burner
facilitation device. Jerry's "Blubber Burner" sports an un-politically-correct name and uses ...
 "Radio amateurs around the world will celebrate
Saint Patrick's Day on the air through the St. Patrick Award. 'We hope to turn the
bands green,' the event's sponsors said. The St. Patrick Award activity will get under way at 1200 UTC
on March 16 and continue until 1200 UTC on March 18. Radio amateurs or SWLs are invited to take part.
Awards will be in four categories: SPD Station Award (for registered stations); Fixed Station Award;
Mobile Station Award, and Short Wave Listener Award. Register to be an official participating ..."
 As mentioned
in the past, I put a fair amount of effort into making
RF Cafe
as user friendly and resourceful as possible while also providing a valuable venue for RF product and
services companies to advertise. Reading articles on search engine optimization, effective user interface
and user experience, webpage organization, navigation, page load speed and content organization are
popular topics that the 'experts' have decided are most important to success. My ultimate philosophy
has been to make RF Cafe the kind of website I enjoy visiting. A piece ...
 Advanced
Test Equipment Rentals (ATEC) - a leading provider of electronic test and measurement equipment rentals
with products that stretch across industries from aerospace to electric, automotive and more – just
upgraded its ESD equipment offerings. The
ESD NX30 Electrostatic
Discharge Simulator by EM Test is now available to rent from ATEC, and makes an impactful addition
to ATEC's continuously growing fleet of EMC test equipment. As a leader ...
 Digi-Key
extended their online contest. As a PartSim or PCBWeb user, they'd would like your feedback in discovering
what is valuable and what needs improvement. The survey will take less than 2 minutes. Even if you've
already registered, you're still eligible to win the new prizes. Grand Prize winner will receive a
Digi-Key Insta-Lab Oscilloscope, Function Generator, Bench Power Supply and much ...
FCC to Consider How to Facilitate Mobile Broadband
Deployment
 "As the
new chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai, settles into his role at the agency that regulates the telecom industry,
he appears to be keen on finding ways to make sure that wireless technology will continue to advance.
Specifically, the agency announced that it will consider cellular service reform during its next opening
meeting, scheduled for March 23. 'The Commission will consider a Second Report and Order and Second
Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would facilitate mobile
broadband deployment, including LTE, promote greater spectrum efficiency, and reduce
regulatory burdens ..."
Thursday 9
 "Consistent
with its message that agreed-upon, industry-wide standards are the way to go with 5G, AT&T is among
a slew of operators and vendors pledging to support a unified,
global 5G standard achieved through 5G testing, trials and cooperation. During the
Global 5G Test Summit here Wednesday, AT&T, China Mobile, NTT DOCOMO, Vodafone, Ericsson, Huawei,
Intel, Keysight, MediaTek, Nokia, Qualcomm, Rohde & Schwarz, ZTE and Datang jointly declared a statement
promoting unified, global 5G standards ..."
 This is pretty cool. If I owned a good receiver, I would definitely
give it a try. In 1970 when this Popular Electronics article was written, a lot of Hams were
still using tube receivers so the recommendation to let the equipment warm up for several hours prior
to making the fine frequency adjustments was good advice. Unless I missed it, the author does not explicitly
state that the
frequency change measured over time is due to gravity acting on the mass of the crystal reference,
but I suspect that is his intention since part of the experiment involves disconnecting ...
 Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded
by Improbable Research group. "The 2016 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded on Thursday night, September 22,
2016 at the 26th First
Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard's Sanders Theatre." The 26th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize
Ceremony will introduce ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners - Each has done something that makes people laugh
then think. Winners travel to the ceremony, at their own expense, from around the world to receive their ..."
 "The
tower industry looks healthy heading into the second quarter, according to analysts,
but the cloud of potential consolidation among wireless carriers continues to loom over the segment.
Companies such as Crown Castle and American Tower have long been the foundation of the U.S. wireless
industry, but Cowen and Company said in January that they've become 'everyone's punching bag' as operators
increasingly look to small cells, distributed antenna systems ..."
 NuWaves Engineering announced the development of their latest
miniaturized C-band
bidirectional amplifier (BDA) to their line of NuPower Xtender™ bidirectional amplifier products.
The NuPower Xtender™ 06D05A BDA
module, part number NW-BA-06D05A, follows the recent releases of both the C-band low noise amplifier
(HILNA™ CX) and the C-band power amplifier (NuPower™ 06D05A). This BDA offers the performance of a traditional ...
 "The Raspberry Pi foundation has launched the
Raspberry Pi Zero W, a wireless-enabled version of the 65 x 30mm Zero launched in
2015. Costing $10, it gets the same Cypress CYW43438 wireless chip as Raspberry Pi 3 Model B to provide
802.11n wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity. It also picks up a camera interface that was not
on the original Zero. 'We imagine you'll find all sorts of uses for Zero W,' said Foundation co-founder
Eben Upton. 'It makes a better general-purpose computer because you're less ..."
Wednesday 8
 "Startup company
Irresistible Materials Ltd. (Birmingham, England) is set to claim a breakthrough in the development
of resist material for extreme ultra violet (EUV) lithography at the
SPIE Advanced Lithography conference in San Jose, California. Irresistible Materials
(IM), a 2010 spin-off from the University of Birmingham, has developed a couple of photo-resist products
for use with EUV lithography based on a novel type of resist chemistry known as a multi-trigger resist
system. The resist is molecular rather than polymeric ..."
 1963 was five years since America's first
communications satellite, Echo, was placed in orbit. Echo was a passive, spherical reflector that
merely provided a good reflective surface for bouncing radio signals off of. By 1963, the space race
was well underway and active communications satellites were being launched at a rapid pace. Spotting
and tracking satellites has long been a popular pastime with two types of hobbyists: amateur astronomers
using telescopes and binoculars, and amateur radio operators using antennas and receivers ...
 ConductRF is continually
innovating and developing new and improved solutions for RF Interconnect needs. See the latest
TESTeCON RF Test Cables for
labs. ConductRF makes production and test coax cable assemblies as well as standard & precision
RF connectors. Over 1,000 solutions for low PIM in-building to choose from in the iBwave component library.
They also provide custom coax solutions for applications where some standard just won't do. Please visit
ConductRF today to see how
they can help your project!
 A lot of famous
people have been or are currently amateur radio operators. A 1958 edition of Popular Electronics published
a story title "VIP's Are Hams Too!," which included Arthur Godfrey (9K4LIB), Herbert Hoover, Jr. (W6ZH),
and Arthur Collins (W0CXX). I wrote an article on radio host Jean Shepherd (K2ORS), of "A Christmas
Story" fame. Senator Barry Goldwater (K7UGA), of Arizona, was also an active Ham, as evidenced here
in this June 1967 edition of the ARRL's QST magazine.
Senator Goldwater also
appeared in the May 1967 issue of QST ...
 Innovative Power Products introduces
their newest Model IPP-7150. The IPP-7150 is 3dB, 90 degree surface mount hybrid coupler which operates
from 2.0 – 6.0 GHz. at 150 watts CW and has improved Amplitude Balance of less than +/- 0.4 dB
across the full band. The IPP-7150 will combine two signals up to 150 watts CW of total output
power and is in a Surface Mount (SMD) package which is 1.250 x 0.200 x 0.208 inches. Insertion ...
 "According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS),
jobs for engineers are expanding, and so are salaries. The BLS figures are similar to results from the
Design News study presented in the article,
Engineering Career & Salary Survey – Are You Getting Paid Enough? . The average
salary in our survey was $98,000, which is quite a bit higher than the average engineering salary of
$85,000. The difference is likely because the Design News respondents included a preponderance of electrical
and ..."
 "A hot air balloon launched by
Project Loon to one day bring the internet to remote villages in the Amazon has
landed in the rainforest. The large balloon fell from the skies to the jungle floor following recent
flight tests, to the surprise of the local community. The huge inflatable descended from 11 miles high,
above a remote town in Brazil. X, an innovation lab under Google's parent company Alphabet and the group
behind Project Loon, has apologised for 'surprising' locals in the Autazes area, in the north-central
Brazilian state of Amazon
..."
Tuesday 7
 This week at Satellite 2017,
Teledyne Microwave Solutions (TMS)
is featuring a wide range of innovative Satcom offerings reflecting the company's ongoing integration
of Satcom expertise across many business units. Each of the business units of TMS have long had Satcom
capabilities and engineering expertise, including Teledyne Cougar, Teledyne MEC, Teledyne Defence &
Space, Teledyne Paradise Datacom, Teledyne Labtech, and the former Teledyne Microwave and Teledyne KW
Microwave. As a result of the operational consolidation ...
 Since 1961, MECA
(Microwave Electronic Components for America) has manufactured 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 such
as. Please visit MECA today to learn how they can help with your projects ...
 Even in this era of incredibly complex electronics, nearly every
communications circuit, whether analog, digital, or a mix thereof has a
crystal oscillator somewhere at its heart. Technology has advanced significantly in the design and
manufacture of crystals, but fundamentally the key parameters of center frequency, phase noise, stability
over temperature and time (aging), susceptibility to microphonics effects and magnetic fields, etc.,
are the same. This article is a good primer on crystals that explains how they work and how they are
used ...
 "At the University
of California's San Francisco campus, 79 IT employees lost their jobs this week, some of them after
explaining to their replacements at Indian
outsourcing firm HCL how to do their jobs. The union representing the employees,
University Professional and Technical Employees CWA Local 9119, says it's the first time a public university
has offshored American IT jobs. In a statement sent yesterday, UPTE-CWA says the layoffs could
..."
 Anatech Electronics 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 filter designs: a 1059 MHz cavity bandpass filter
with N type connectors, a surface mount 1.25 MHz crystal bandpass filter, and a surface mount 4,450 MHz
ceramic bandpass filter. Custom designs are available on request ...
 It sure would be nice to have
batteries that don't pose a bigger risk of burning down your house, car, or cellphone than glow fuel.
"A team of engineers led by 94-year-old John Goodenough [what a great name!],
professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and co-inventor
of the
lithium-ion battery, has developed the first all-solid-state battery cells that
could lead to safer, faster-charging, longer-lasting rechargeable batteries for handheld mobile devices,
electric cars and stationary energy storage
..."
Monday 6
 Skyworks Solutions has
introduced
SkyOne® Ultra 3.0, a highly integrated front-end solution for premium mobile device
and smartphone manufacturers worldwide utilizing Skyworks' powerful SkyBlue™ enabling technology for
industry-leading efficiency. SkyOne® Ultra 3.0 is a fully optimized front-end system that incorporates
all of the high performance RF and analog functionality including power amplification, duplex filtering
and antenna switching into a single
...
 "Triboelectric
nanogenerators (TENG) convert mechanical energy harvested from the environment to electricity for
powering small devices such as sensors or for recharging consumer electronics. Now, researchers have
harnessed these devices to improve the charging of molecules in a way that dramatically boosts the sensitivity
of a widely-used chemical analysis technique. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) convert mechanical
energy harvested from the environment to electricity
..."
 "Ijad
Madisch, a founder of
ResearchGate, a social network, says it has signed up 12 million scientists, or
roughly 60 percent of all such potential users worldwide. Calvin Coffey, a professor of surgery at the
University of Limerick in Ireland, has a world of gadgetry, scientific equipment and medical tests at
his disposal. Recently, he added another tool: social media. During a months-long project to prove that
the mesentery - folded tissue that connects the intestines to the wall of the
..."
 Comics in modern magazines are a rather rare phenomenon for some
reason, but they were fairly regular features up until a couple decades ago. This set of
electronics-themed comics is from the December 1949 edition of Radio & Television News.
The first one would probably not make sense to someone not familiar with the extents to which some radio
operators go to deploy antennas. During field day events and other mobile scenarios, Hams have been
using kites and balloons to create 1/4-, 1/2-, or even full-wave vertical antennas with wires run ...
 Saelig Company has introduced the new
MFG-2000
Series Multi-channel Function Generators from GW Instek that includes the MFG-21XX entry-level models
and the MFG-22XX advanced models with up to five functional channels. Channels 1 and 2 provide high-performance
arbitrary function generators up to 60 MHz; Channel 3 - the RF signal generator channel, with output
up to 320 MHz, is a full function signal source; identical to CH1/CH2, it can output sine, square,
ramp, pulse, noise ...
 "When it comes
to engineers, we aren't known for our communication skills. This may seem standard with the
introverted
engineering stereotype, but communication is perhaps the most necessary skill an engineer can have
- and we need more engineers that can communicate. I am of course not talking about engineers ability
to speak a language or form basic words. Rather, too many times there have been incredibly smart engineers
that simply can't communicate what is happening
..."
Sunday 5
 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.
Clues in this puzzle with an asterisk (*) are pulled
from this past week's (2/27 - 3/3) "High Tech News" column on the RF Cafe homepage (see the Headline
Archives page for help) ...
Friday 3
 Since 2003, Bittele
Electronics has consistently provided low-volume, electronic contract manufacturing (ECM) and turnkey
PCB assembly services. It specializes in board level turnkey
PCB assembly for design engineers
needing low volume or prototype multi-layer printed circuit boards.
Free Passive Components:
Bittele Electronics is taking one further step in its commitment of offering the best service to clients
of its PCB assembly business. Bittele is now offering common passive components to its clients FREE
of Charge ...
 A few days ago I posted a headline about a judge requiring the
California Dept. of Public Health to release a "Cell Phones
and Health" report. Today it appeared on a Google Drive - all 2 pages of it. Basically, it amounts
to a simple fact sheet warning people that some studies have suggested a link between cell phone radiation
and some forms of cancer, and offers tips on how to minimize exposure and reduce risk. This appears
to be much ado about nothing, or the paper that was released is not the document sought, but is being
passed off as it. How's that for a conspiracy theory? ...
 Most of us Baby Boomers remember a time when cell towers did
not present a ubiquitous (and, frankly, ugly) presence across the landscape.
Microwave relay towers for television and telephone links could be spotted sitting atop hilltops
and mountain ridges in some areas, and giant television and radio station towers sat behind broadcast
stations, and multi-element antennas dotted house rooftops everywhere. Our grandparents
(Millennials' great grandparents) remember when even microwave relay towers
were missing
...
 Practical Digital
Wireless Signals, by Earl McCune, answers the question, "Do you need to know what signal type to
select for a wireless application?" Quickly develop a useful expertise in digital modulation with this
practical guide, based on the author's experience of over thirty years in industrial design. You will
understand the physical meaning behind the mathematics of wireless signals and learn the intricacies
and tradeoffs in signal selection and design. Six modulation families and twelve modulation types are
covered
...
 "The hot topic at
Mobile World Congress this
year is not a new phone - apart from the Nokia 3110, they all look the same. Nor is it a new technology
like virtual reality - compared with last year, there seem to be fewer VR headsets around. No, the biggest
thing in Barcelona is something invisible that doesn't yet exist, 5G. The hype about the potential of
the next generation of mobile networks has reached new heights, with every major company exhibiting
here eager to explain how it will be at the cutting edge of the coming 5G
..."
 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. Topics include careers,
manufacturing,
engineering,
management,
meetings and travel. Note: I earn a few pennies (literally) when you
download one of these or the many other pubs available, so please help yourself.
 "If
you're getting sick of your touchscreen phone, there's good news - BlackBerry's latest device has revived
the physical keyboard. TCL Communication has unveiled the
BlackBerry KEYone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week. The device
features a QWERTY keyboard alongside a touchscreen display, in the hopes of making the phone easier
to use than standard touch-controlled phones. The phone has an aluminium frame and soft textured back,
making it durable
..."
Thursday 2
 Empower RF announces the market release of the New Scalable
Pulsed L Band Amplifier with an expandable system hardware architecture designed to save you money
- "you buy only the power you need today" and add power amplifier blocks later when your test or application
requires more output power. Adding 3U power amplifier blocks is accomplished easily and simply with
no phase matching required. In addition to scalability, this amplifier offers an inherently rugged design
and is based on patented
...
 RF Cafe visitor
and frequent e-mailer Joe Birsa (N3TTE) sent a note saying that the Spring 2017 issue of Classic
Trains magazine contains an article titled "Radio and the People's Railway,"
by Greg Gormick. I do not have a copy on-hand, so I went to Wikipedia for some information on the Canadian
National Railways Radio Department, where it says in part: "The Canadian National Railways Radio Department
was the first national radio network in North America. It was developed, owned and operated by the Canadian
National Railway between 1923
..."
 It is hard to
believe in 1936, a time when cars were huge and dashboards had almost nothing behind them except some
heater ducts, that access to something as simple as a radio speaker would be difficult. Evidently it
could be, according to the first-place winner of "Short-Cut" in Radio-Craft magazine. There
was not then the rat's nest of wires, air bags, and control cables found in modern autos. Voluminous
trunks back in the day, and engine compartments that you could almost stand in while changing spark
...
ConductRF is continually
innovating and developing new and improved solutions for RF Interconnect needs. See the latest
TESTeCON RF Test Cables for labs. ConductRF makes
production and test coaxial cable assemblies as well as standard & precision RF connectors. Over
1,000 solutions for low PIM in-building to choose from in the iBwave component library. They also provide
custom coax solutions for applications where some standard just won't do. ConductRF has been added to
RF Cafe's Coaxial Cable Assemblies and the
RF Connectors & Adapters
vendor pages.
Midland Space Radar to Protect from Space Junk
 "Violent
collisions with orbiting debris could await future travellers into space, if the growing problem of
'space junk' isn't solved. But one Californian firm believes it might have a solution to keeping tabs
on some of the millions of objects believed to have amassed around the Earth. The recently constructed
Midland Space Radar could help LeoLabs track up to 250,000 objects in low earth
orbit - around 95% of the total, according to the company, which tracks debris in low Earth orbit (LOE)
..."
 It has been
a long time since I read a
Robert Lucky article: "Almost limitless bandwidth beckons -if we can tame a wild
region of the spectrum. There is an eternal quality to how technology evolves. As existing areas get
overworked, new frontiers open up at the fringes. Then innovators rush in to occupy the new territory
before it, in turn, becomes overworked. There is an example of such a frontier today in wireless communications.
IEEE's 5G wireless initiative has the goal
..."
 The
DHTS Store, operated by Dave Hanley (that's the 'DH' part) out of
Montreal, Canada, is devoted to bringing hard-to-find surplus, discontinued and vintage electronic components
to the hobbyist, restorer or experimenter. Transistors, vacuum tubes, switches, cables, transformers,
manuals, power supplies, TV tuners, and even grab bags of parts. Find small lots and unique parts on
our eBay store. The DHTS Store has
been added to RF Cafe's "Obsolete Components"
vendor page.
 "Within the next fifty years, scientists at BAE Systems believe
that battlefield commanders could deploy a new type of
directed energy laser and lens system, called a Laser Developed Atmospheric Lens
which is capable of enhancing commanders' ability to observe adversaries' activities over much greater
distances than existing sensors. At the same time, the lens could be used as a form of 'deflector shield'
to protect friendly aircraft, ships, land vehicles and troops from incoming attacks by high power laser
weapons that could also become
..."
Wednesday 1
 "A Superior
Ct judge ordered the state to release papers discussing the risk of cell phone use. The documents were
written by the state's Environmental Health Investigations department and are believed to contain
cell phone radiation
warnings and recommendations for public use. But the state refused to hand them over when requested
by a director at Univ of CA at Berkeley's School of Public Health. So Joel Moskowitz Phd sued the state
below the CA Public Records Act. Moskowitz, the UC Berkeley School
..."
 February 13, 1935 was probably the first case of a major news
organization incorrectly reporting a courtroom verdict because of a radio communications fail - the
birth of Fake News! The Associated Press (AP) thought it was being uniquely creative - and
sneaky - during "The
Trial of the Century" involving the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindberg's young son. A
reporter secreted in a miniature shortwave transmitter, concealed within a leather brief case. A receiver
station above the courtroom stood ready
...
 everything RF has introduced
three RSS (Rich Site Summary, aka Really Simple Syndication) news feeds that can be subscribed to for
receiving the latest information automatically. The
everything
RF News RSS feed contains replicas of the industry news items and press relapses which
appear on the homepage. The
everything
RF Products RSS feed highlights components added to their searchable database. The
everything RF Products and News RSS feed combines the other two RSS feeds.
 This writer thinks
electrical engineering is the easiest field to get the title of 'engineer' without
having a degree - compared to civil, mechanical, and chemical engineering. True or hogwash? "Engineering
is a time-old field that used to require years of apprenticeship in the industry but now requires years
of school just to become licensed. However, could you become an engineer without an engineering degree?
If we are going to examine this question, we need to set some groundwork for who exactly we consider
an engineer
..."
 "Qorvo
today announced the industry's first
5G RF front end for smartphones, laptops, tablets and other wireless mobile devices.
Qorvo's highly integrated, high performance QM19000 RFFE delivers high linearity, ultra-low latency,
and extremely high throughput to meet or exceed the developing requirements of upcoming 5G applications.
Qorvo is paving a path to 5G by helping define 5G standards as a delegate to 3GPP and through close
collaboration with the leading wireless infrastructure manufacturers, network
..."
 "Scientists
have discovered the
magnetism of electrons in three layers of graphene. This study reveals a new kind
of magnet and provides insight on how electronic devices using graphene could be made for fundamental
studies as well as various applications. Metals have a large density of electrons and to be able to
see the wave nature of electrons one has to make metallic wires that are only a few atoms wide. However,
in graphene
..."
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