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| 3 of the March 2017 homepage archives.
Friday 31
 This story from the April 1938 issue of Radio-Craft reports on
a ground-breaking (at the time) new television system, written by none other than the inventor himself
- Allen B. Du Mont. Television in the era was still largely in the experimental phase with
various schemes for transmitting, receiving, and displaying still vying for dominance as the national
/ international standard. The now-familiar NTSC standard, which ultimately passed over the Du Mont
system, was adopted in 1941 ...
 NI
AWR Design Environment will be showcased in the upcoming "Advanced Load Pull for Linear Power Amplifier Design" webinar hosted by Microwave
Journal on April 11, 2017. Presented by Andy Hughes, solutions architect at AWR Group, NI, this webinar
will highlight recently-added capabilities within NI AWR software that deal with complex sets of load-pull
data used for power amplifier design. These new features support digitally-modulated communication measurements
such as adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR), error ...
 Fully updated, the second edition of ARRL's
Small Antennas for Small Spaces is a valuable resource for radio amateurs who live
in apartments, condominiums, or houses on small lots. Filled with practical advice, this book guides
you to finding the right antenna design to fit whatever space you have available. In Small Antennas
for Small Spaces you ll find ideas and projects that will get you on the air regardless of where you
live ...
 "All those tiny
handheld devices we know and love are pretty great. The problem is that the smaller they get, the harder
it is to keep all those components cool.
Overheating
of batteries is a serious concern that's led to numerous accidents and malfunctions. Scientists
have been working on a way to cool all these electronic components - and now they may have finally found
one. Researchers at Rutgers University have invented a way to keep electronics cool by using graphene ..."
 RF Cafe visitor Tony C., who is an engineer working for one
of America's great, longtime manufacturers of green farm equipment, sent me a link to this unique memory
IC released by Signetics on April 1, 1973. Being April 1, 2017, it seems to be an appropriate day to
post the Signetics 25120 Fully Encoded, 9046 x N, Random access Write-Only Memory datasheet that per
Wikipedia, "...was created 'as a lark' by Signetics engineer John G 'Jack' Curtis and was inspired by
a fictitious and humorous vacuum tube datasheet from ..."
 "Dutch-Belgian
R&D powerhouse Holst Centre has presented a functional demonstrator for intuitive human-machine
interfaces, based on the
in-mold electronics (IME) technology developed there. The demonstrator, a center
console for vehicles, illustrates the potential for the IME technology in automotive and consumer appliances
- from shavers to cockpits, as Holst Centre advertises. Developed by a group of industry players led
by Holst Centre, the demonstrator features ..."
Thursday 30
 "X-rays have been sensed with high resolution using an
optical antenna on the end of an optical fibre - which could offer another route
to precision medical imaging. xray sensor Miguel Angel Suarez FEMTO-ST Institute 'We want to develop
this technology so that it could be used in radiotherapy, for example,' said Thierry Grosjean of the
FEMTO-ST Institute at France's National Centre for Scientific Research. 'Specifically, the sensor could
allow ..."
 This is not the first time I have learned a new word when reading
an episode of
Mac's Radio Service Shop. "Calumny," is the word-du-jour for entry into my personal lexicon.
It is not necessarily a technical word, but definitely one I shall attempt to incorporate in future
writings. Calumny is "a misrepresentation intended to harm another's reputation" per Merriam-Webster.
...but I digress. A customer and fishing buddy of Mac's, each of whom is a small business owner, drops
in at the repair shop to look for Christmas gifts for the family ...
 Thomas
Okon has a very nice article on the Electronic Design website detailing the development of
the world's first pocket electronic calculator - the
Cal-Tech, by Texas Instruments. Mr. Okon has photos and backstories of the
ICs leading to the Cal-Tech's incarnation,
 which is Part I.
This thumbnail shows the breadboard when designing the integrated circuit (Bob
Pease famously built similar breadboards for his IC design). Part II, coming soon, promises
to address the Cal-Tech calculator itself. Since Part I does not include an image of the actual
calculator, I found this
Cal-Tech
on the Smithsonian Institution website ...
 "As
the industry ramps up for 5G deployments, there's a great deal of focus on technology features such
as network slicing and massive MIMO. These features have been proven to work in various
field tests, and the standards groups are starting to accelerate the release of
5G NR specifications. We've recently released a forecast that calls for more than a million 5G RRH units
to be deployed over the next five years. So, now we turn our attention to practical matters. Here's
an example: How will a million 5G radios be tested in production? This is not ..."
 "For the last few decades, microchip manufacturers have been
on a quest to find ways to make the
patterns of wires and components in their microchips ever smaller, in order to fit
more of them onto a single chip and thus continue the relentless progress toward faster and more powerful
computers. That progress has become more difficult recently, as manufacturing processes bump up against
fundamental limits involving, for example, the wavelengths of the light used to create the patterns ..."
Wednesday 29
 Today the IEEE Microwave
Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) in partnership with the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) is
announcing their collaboration on a special 5G Summit to be held June 5-6, 2017. The summit will feature
industry experts representing both the hardware/systems and networking/services aspects for the upcoming
5G standard. "5G is a leading topic in the industry right now and co-locating a summit with the world's
largest RF & Microwave event is a great opportunity. IMS brings thought leaders from industry, academia ...
 "The 5G race has been underway for a while, but now Ericsson
and SoftBank are stepping it up a notch with a
28 GHz trial in Tokyo that will involve indoor and outdoor environments covering
both device mobility and stationary tests. The two companies have already completed basic 5G trials
using 15 GHz and 4.5 GHz spectrum bands. The 4.5 GHz and 28 GHz bands are among the leading candidates
for 5G services in Japan. The trial will use Ericsson's mmWave 28 GHz 5G Test Bed solution, which
includes base stations and device ..."
 "One of the defining characteristics of the next generation of
mobile communications will be the use of a multitude of lower-power antennas to maintain ubiquitous
high-performance signal coverage. A team of researchers at KAUST recently developed a signal
optimization algorithm for future networks that, for the first time, can deliver the full performance
promised by
5G communications. According to the researchers, MIMO systems ..."
 What stood out to me when reading this article on
walkie-talkies is a statement made near the end where the author claims regarding loaded whip antennas,
"Transmit losses are many times greater than receiver losses." The last time I checked, passive antennas
are reciprocal devices, so gains or losses should be the same for transmit and receive. Methinks he
either didn't know that, or he meant something else. My main reason for posting the article is because
it pretty much completes the evolution cycle of walkie-talkies ...
 "A powerful laser shining up into space will soon transmit data
between the Earth and the International Space Station. NASA is hoping to establish laser links at a
rate of over one gigabit per second - a speed most home broadband users could only dream of. This would
pave the way for 3D video from space and enable high definition remote robotic exploration of other
moons and planets. The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will ..."
 Anokiwave is a fast growing
fabless semiconductor company looking for an ambitious, conscientious, and thorough
Senior Product Engineer to join the Anokiwave team. You will be responsible for coordinating with Engineering and Operations
to productize highly-integrated microwave and millimeter-wave RFICs in state of the art technologies.
Must have ability to manage and assist in product qualifications, perform material management in relation
to NPI, be able to liaison with Marketing to verify product design is well suited ...
 "A thorough and fully annotated
discussion of Near
Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) is available in the research paper, 'Radio Communication via Near
Vertical Incidence Skywave Propagation: An Overview,' by Ben A. Witvliet, PE5B/5R8DS, and Rosa Ma Alsina-Pagès.
First investigated in the 1920s, NVIS propagation was rediscovered during World War II as 'an essential
means to establish communications in large war zones such as the D-Day invasion in Normandy,' the paper
notes ..."
Tuesday 28
 "Nokia has made a jump-start on the low-band 600 MHz spectrum,
through completing the first pre-standard
600 MHz LTE call using commercially-available hardware. The 600 MHz is an attractive
one to the FCC and operators primarily because of the range which it offers in terms of mobile broadband.
When you look at the vast expanse of the US and the number of rural communities which are currently
being underserved in an increasingly digital world, the band becomes even more attractive. The problem
arises in the fact this band is already being used by traditional broadcasters ..."
 Fairview Microwave, a supplier of on-demand microwave and RF components,
has introduced a new series of 8-bit programmable phase shifters that are adjustable over a full 360° range. These
three new models can produce a discrete set of phase states of up to 256 total steps in 1.4° increments
with superior accuracy and minimal phase shift error. These digitally controlled analog phase shifters
cover broadband microwave and millimeter wave frequencies. They are ideal ...
 A major transition in the realm of test equipment readouts from
analog to digital was occurring during the 1970s. Prior to then, what few digital displays existed used
Nixie tubes, but the emergence of inexpensive LEDs, combined with equally inexpensive digital logic
ICs, made the change an easy decision.
D'Arsonval meter movements are prone to damage when even slightly overdriven or subject to physical
impact. Analog meter movements still have their place in a few ...
Notable Quote: "I link the abbreviation LTE to the
term Long Term Employment"
 RF Cafe visitor
Bob Davis in
a recent e-mail alluded the quote, "LTE stands for Long Term Employment," which I have heard before.
Based on a not-too-extensive Internet research, earliest published instance I can find is a December
2010 ECN piece by
Mr. Andreas Roessler, of Rohde & Schwarz, where he states, "That's the reason why I link
the abbreviation LTE to the term Long Term Employment."
 Triarchy's VSG6G1 is a very cost effective USB vector signal generator. Its capabilities
are comparable to the basic functions of a regular full size RF vector signal generator. VSG6G1 is miniature
and portable equipment, but it has more features and functions than full size analog RF signal generators,
with frequency range up to 6.2 GHz, frequency sweep, and frequency hopping using I&Q modulation
with arbitrary signal ...
 "In testing earlier this month, the laser - which has been developed
for the U.S. Army - produced a single beam of
58 kW, representing a world record for a laser of this type. Lockheed is now
is preparing to ship the system the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command / Army Forces Strategic
Command in Huntsville, Alabama. The system is based on combined fibre laser technology, meaning that
it brings together individual lasers, generated through fibre optics, to generate a single, intense
laser beam ..."
Monday 27
 How long will it be before someone flies an airplane through
it? "The race to build the world's most spectacular skyscraper has reached new heights - and taken a
turn in direction. Designs for 'The Big Bend', a slender tower that would transform Manhattan's skyline, have been
unveiled. Described as the 'longest building in the world,' the project's concept drawings reveal a
skyscraper reaching an apex then curving back down. And featuring an elevator system that can travel
in curves, horizontally and in loops ..."
 Premier
Farnell today announces a new global distribution agreement with EAM, a leading manufacturer of
Precision RF & Microwave Interconnect Products. Under their ConductRF Brand, the company offers,
innovative & reliable performance interconnect products operating from DC to 110 GHz. ConductRF's
products are recognized for their excellent performance and cost effectiveness by engineers & technicians
in numerous demanding industries including; Defense, Aerospace, Industrial, Medical Infrastructure,
Instrumentation ...
 This
Air-King Radio-Camera Model A410 might be the world's first production camera-phone. I suppose the
primary purpose for developing the unit was for wartime field correspondents or forward reconnaissance.
I found two examples on the Internet. The one with the reddish-brown case is from the EarlyPhotography.org
website; it appears to be more for personal or commercial use. The on RadioMuseum.org is an green color
that would have been best for military use. A schematic is posted on the RadioMuseum.org page ...
 "The
inner Van Allen
belt has less radiation than previously believed, according to a recent study. Observations from
NASA's Van Allen probes show the fastest, most energetic electrons in the inner radiation belt are actually
much rarer and harder to find than scientists expected. This is good news for spacecraft that are orbiting
in the region and can be damaged by high levels of radiation. The inner Van Allen belt has less radiation
than previously believed, according to a recent study in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Observations
from NASA's ..."
Anokiwave is a fast growing
fabless semiconductor company looking for an ambitious, conscientious, and thorough
Staff RFIC Design Engineer to join the Anokiwave team. You will be responsible for designing highly-integrated microwave
and millimeter-wave RFICs in state of the art technologies. You will work with an incredible team of
IC design and test professionals developing state of the art products for 5G, SATCOM, and A&D markets.
You will learn circuit ...
 Anatech Electronics, a
manufacturer of RF and microwave filters, has published its February newsletter. As always, it includes
both company news and some tidbits about relevant industry happenings. In it, Sam Benzacar discusses,
among other topics, spectrum sharing,
including the ISM bands and a DARPA program called Shared Spectrum Access for Radar and Communications
(SSPARC) that has the goal of developing more advanced sharing technology so that radars and military
and commercial communications systems can cooperate in near real time ...
Sunday 26
 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 (3/20 - 3/24) "High Tech News" column on
the RF Cafe homepage (see the Headline Archives page for help). Enjoy! ...
Friday 24
 When
I first as the title of this article, I thought it was going to be a comical parody on how wives (YLs)
of Ham radio operators (OMs) viewed their husbands' hobby. It turned out to be a report on a nationwide
survey. Many of wives of Hams were themselves licensed operators which, at the time, required Morse
code proficiency in addition to radio theory and regulations. In 1966 the average cost of a Ham shack
layout was about $1,000, which is equivalent to $7,518 in 2017. As with most electronics ...
 Another chapter in American tradition has come to an end. Sears
Roebuck is likely going into bankruptcy and then disappear - thanks to poor management. Fortunately,
the Craftsman tool line has been sold to Stanley Black & Decker, so at least part
of the legacy will live on. Most of
my tools are Craftsman - motivated mostly by tradition and a desire to support American
companies. Plans call for establishing new Craftsman manufacturing facilities stateside. BTW, the Sears
store here in Erie closed last November.
Boscov's,
a Reading, PA-based department store chain ...
 VidaRF offers a wide selection
of 2-way through 64-way power divider/combiners, designed to cover 100 MHz to 20 GHz with average
power handling of 30 watts for narrow, octave, dual and multi-octave band applications. Standard
connector type: SMA female, other connectors available upon request. VidaRF is a North Carolina based
company that is focused on being a solutions provider by building to customer specs and offering zero
days lead time for custom parts through ...
Electrocrystallization: Breakthrough in Gold Nanoparticle
Research
 "A
research team as published a research study that demonstrates how it is possible to obtain very high
quality crystals formed of gold nanoparticles. The research on gold nanoparticles is a field of both fundamental
and applied importance" explains Academy Professor Kari Rissanen of the Department of Chemistry at the
University of Jyväskylä. X-ray crystallography is the most powerful method for molecular-structure determination
of these nanosystems, but obtaining good quality single crystals suitable for accurate X-ray ..."
 NI (formerly AWR Corporation) continues
to proudly sponsor this year's 2017 IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS) thirteenth annual
High-Efficiency
Power Amplifier Student Design Competition (HEPA-SDC). The competition encourages student teams
from around the world to design and construct a power amplifier (PA) and bring it to IMS in Honolulu,
Hawaii, where industry experts will evaluate the performance of all entered PAs ...
 In Millimeter Wave Wireless Communications, four of the field's pioneers, including
Theodore S. Rappaport, Robert W. Heath, Robert C. Daniels, and James N. Murdock, draw on their vast
experience to empower engineers at all levels to succeed with mmWave. They deliver fundamental, end-to-end
coverage of all aspects of future mmWave wireless communications systems. The authors explain new multi-Gigabit
per second products and applications, mmWave signal propagation, analog and digital circuit design,
mmWave antenna designs ...
 "U.S.
military microelectronics experts are looking to GlobalFoundries U.S. 2 LLC in Hopewell
Junction, N.Y., to continue providing foundry and electronic chip fabrication services for crucial U.S.
military electronics systems. Officials of the Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA) in McClellan,
Calif., announced a $99.8 million contract modification to GlobalFoundries on Friday for option year
one for access to leading edge, current, and legacy microelectronics and trusted processes for the U.S.
Department of Defense (DOD) ..."
Thursday 23
Anokiwave is a fast growing
fabless semiconductor company looking for an ambitious, conscientious, and thorough
Senior Test Engineer to join the Anokiwave team in Billerica, MA. The ideal candidate
should possess a strong working knowledge of mmW measurements, calibration methodologies, semiconductor
probing, and python script language. You will play an instrumental role in the growth and excellence
of Anokiwave and our commitment to satisfying our customers. The successful candidate should demonstrate
proven ...
 The
TTRM1004-D01
LDMOS amplifier operates at a frequency range of 2300 MHz to 2500 MHz and has a power
output of 25 watts, while still maintaining a compact form factor of 3.33 x 2.69 x 0.65 inches.
This unit also features internal protection against over/under voltage and excessive temperature conditions,
which coupled with its rugged construction, ensure fault-free operation in even the most extreme environments.
This class AB LDMOS module is designed for both military ...
 "According
to a recent report by Yole Group of Companies, the
RF front end modules and components market for cellphones is expected to grow from
$10.1B in 2016 to approximately US $ 22.7B by 2022. The investigative report based on the front-end
of the RF industry not only reports of a complex market that will more than double in six years but
also states the growth to be un-evenly distributed and with something or the other for every market
player. The group proposed two reports ..."
 Is this an über-cool homebuilt radio or what?
Proud Canadian and RF Cafe contributor
Dr. Marek Klemes
wrote to me a couple weeks ago regarding a quotation I had posted a while back. At the end of our communications,
he casually made a comment about needing to engage in an electronics project that would be free of the
rigors of his professional pursuits. Being a trained notable quote recognizer myself, I instantly realized
that his statement was itself worthy of being quoted widely. He granted permission to post it here (with adornment of ...
 "This tiny US flag - just a few nanometers wide and invisible
to the naked eye - is arguably the world's smallest image of Old Glory, according to its creators at
the University of Texas at Dallas. In an experiment, the nanoflag pattern emerged unexpectedly as sheets
of the 'stripe' material -
molybdenum ditelluride - were heated to about 450 degrees Celsius, at which point
its atoms began to rearrange and form new structures - the 'stars' in this false-color image. Each star
consists of six central ..."
 everything RF has created the
largest database of Bias Tees
on the internet. We have listed products from 28 of the leading manufacturers at the moment. We
are currently working on adding more manufacturers. Product data from each company has been standardized
and listed in a single database which can be searched by parameter. You can enter the frequency range
of the Bias Tee you need, the voltage it must withstand, the insertion loss, impedance and connector
type. Once you enter the required specification, everything RF scans the database ...
 "Has the
tech bubble peaked? Signs that the startup boom may be fizzling. Startups are beginning
to run out of money and investors are becoming more discerning. How does this compare to the time leading
up to the dotcom crash? If you were looking for an apartment in the Bay Area 18 months ago, realtors
recommended you took your checkbook to viewings and were prepared to fork out for the deposit and first
month's rent – that's $8,000 to $10,000 for a two-bedroom place in San Francisco – on the spot ..."
Wednesday 22
 3D Insider is all about giving
you the tools and information to create whatever your heart desires with a
3D printer. If you are looking to make a
 full time career out of 3D printing or you are just looking for a
new hobby, 3D Insider has it all for you. 3D printing has been growing at a tremendous pace and we love
working in such a fast-paced industry. 3D Insider has been added to RF Cafe's
3D Printers and Fabrication resources page.
 A story in
an electronics magazine on the physics and biology of the human ear is as relevant today as it was in
1936 when this appeared in Radio-Craft. Back then, creating sound in an efficient and effective
manner for consumer, commercial, and military purposes was a relatively new science. Thomas Edison introduced
his phonograph in 1877. While it did not feature an electrically driven speaker, research determined
the shape, size, and material composition of the mechanism that converted minute vibrations ...
 "Who's the next Jon Rubinstein? For millennials that name might
not ring a bell. Rubinstein was the 'podfather': as head of hardware engineering at Apple he launched
and ran the project that became the iPod, the product credited from turning Apple from a computer company
into a consumer electronics company.
Facebook, it seems, would very much like to make a similar leap into consumer hardware.
So they need lots of good engineers - including an EE 'podfather.' Right ..."
 "Researchers at the University of Bath have gained new insights
into the mechanisms of the
Northern Lights, providing an opportunity to develop better satellite technology
that can nullify outages caused by the natural phenomenon. The research team from the University of
Bath's Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering in collaboration with the European Incoherent
Scatter Scientific Association (EISCAT) observed the Northern Lights in Tromsø ..."
 "Noting that today's additive manufacturing and roll-to-roll
processes for flexible electronics still lack the adequate materials and level of precision to do without
discrete
surface mount devices (SMD), researchers from the University of Barcelona have investigated
the possibility to replace the screen-printing of reflow solder pastes, epoxies or other conductive
adhesives with direct inkjet printing of a silver-based ink. They describe their ..."
 Planar Monolithic Industries (PMI) recently introduced two new
products in their extensive line of RF and microwave components. One is a
10-bit
programmable, 30 dB PIN diode attenuator covering 26.5 to 40 GHz. The other is a suspended
substrate bandpass filter that offers a wide passband of 8 to 18 GHz. Contact PMI today for more information ...
 "Common sense might dictate that for an object to move from one
point to another, it must go through all the points on the path. Not so for electrons in the
quantum world, which don't follow such common-sense rules for the most part. 'Electrons
can show up on the first floor, then the third floor, without ever having been on the second floor,'
Zhao said. 'In a sample made of three atomic layers, electrons in the top layer move ..."
Tuesday 21
 Here for radio hobbyists are eleven handy-dandy 'kinks,' otherwise
known as
tricks,
shortcuts, or clever ideas, that could prove useful while working in the lab at work or in your
shop at home. Admittedly, most of these ideas would not have much application with today's ready-made
radios, antennas, power supplies, etc., but there are still people who build custom equipment and/or
repair circuits. The most useful kink offered here that could come in handy for anybody is to clip off
part of ...
 Pasternack has released the
PEM010, a complete millimeter wave transmitter module that is ideal for use in the
development of multi-gigabit, high-speed, point-to-point wireless communication links. These communication
links provide low-cost, gigabit wireless throughput for a variety of applications involving telecommunications
'last kilometer' distribution, telecommunications cellular backhaul, millimeter wave wireless gigabit
Ethernet data communications, building-to ...
 The
vast majority of advice columns on job searches recommend
strategies to job seekers while participating
in an interview; however, "Choosing an Interview Style and Format," by Will Zimmerman of CareerCast,
covers the other side of the interview. His article discusses ways you as an interviewer might consider
to most effective tactic ...
- How to
Negotiate Salary in
Engineering
Job Interviews -
Key Phrases to Use When You
Talk to Your Boss -
Choosing an Interview
Style
and Format
<more>
 "The
Texas Symposium on Wireless and Microwave Circuits and Systems conference committee
invites paper submissions for the 2017 conference, to be held on the beautiful campus of Baylor University
in Waco, Texas, on March 30-31, 2017. Authors from the industry and academia worldwide are invited to
submit four-page papers of their original and previously unpublished work. Paper submissions in all
areas of wireless and microwave circuits and systems are welcome. Topics of interest include: • RF and
microwave circuits and systems ..."
 Since 2001,
Antenna Test Lab Co has evaluated countless antennas and RF transmitter products.
With a fully anechoic  chamber, antennas can be quickly developed and RF products refined
and deployed. Mounting surfaces like drywall, glass, wood, and even curved metal
 simulated automobile
available. The price for a standard resolution
2D or 3D field pattern plot is only $450 - for a passive
or radiating antenna. That is an incredible deal!
 "A tiny company based in Barcelona is promoting a new technology
that it hopes can revolutionize smartphone antennas - by removing them altogether. The job of any smartphone
antenna is to radiate a radiofrequency signal generated by the phone's transmitter out to the nearest
cellular base station or Wi-Fi router. Now,
Fractus Antennas wants to replace that antenna with a much smaller component called
an antenna booster—a tiny lightweight cube ..."
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