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3 of the November
2017 homepage archives.
Thursday 30
 "Statistics released by UK telecommunications
regulator Ofcom indicate that the
Amateur Radio population in the UK has grown by approximately
10% over the past 5 years. As of the end of August 2017, there were 52,195 Full
licensees, 9,739 Intermediate licensees, and 22,649 Foundation licensees. Figures
recently released in response to a Freedom of Information request from Peter Bowyer,
G4MJS, covered the period from June 2010 and August 2017. The statistics also show
803 Reciprocal licensees in June 2016. Overseas visitors do not need "
 "Sir John Ambrose Fleming is one of the world's most famous and
beloved electrical engineers of all time. Fleming made many great contributions
to mankind and some groundbreaking innovations in electrical engineering. His two-electrode
vacuum-tube rectifier, or diode, would be used for several decades before being
replaced with modern transistors. But you might still find one in your home today,
perhaps in your microwave! Heard of the "right-hand-rule"? Then this "
 Bandwidth compression is a major strategy
in today's seriously overcrowded communications spectrum. Compression has occurred
both through m-ary digital modulation and through downsampling of voice - the latter
of which is partially responsible for the crappy quality of cellphones versus old
fashioned copper landline telephones. The mathematics of sampling theory are complex
to say the least, and its ability to accommodate reliable communications in the
midst of incredibly dense interference is amazing. This article was written in 1969
near the beginning of digital communications; however, the earliest form of bandwidth
 "MATLAB allows you to handle linear algebra
and run powerful analyses with relative ease. This bundle helps you master these
skills and more through engaging video lessons. Used by engineers and students of
science, MATLAB (Matrix Laboratory) is one powerful platform. Once you master the
language, you can analyze and visualize data in unique ways.
The
Complete MATLAB Mastery Bundle helps you write your own data apps from scratch
through five video courses. You can grab the lot now for $27 at Popular Science
Shop "
 "Microwaves propagating back and forth through
a
metamaterial have been used to implement a quantum algorithm.
The efficiency of the technique was shown to match that of Grover's search algorithm,
with each round-trip of the wavefront corresponding to one iteration of the calculation.
The last place you look Grover's search algorithm is an approach to interrogating
a database for an output that matches a certain input value. Using classical computation,
searching a database of size N "
Wednesday 29
With all the reports of powerful men being outed for abuses against helpless
women, this recently discovered article seems timely. Last summer I spotted the
Sunday, July 21, 1969 edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper
at a yard sale. The front page gushed with coverage of the Apollo 11 moon mission
where on the previous day Armstrong and Aldrin landed at Tranquility Base. Page
2, however, is consumed with a report on Sen. Ted Kennedy's incident at
Chappaquiddick where he drove his car off that tragically famed
bridge. While our brave astronauts were flying to the moon, Kennedy was killing
Mary Jo Kopechne
December 11 to 13. The genesis of the IMaRC series of conferences can be traced back to the India Initiative
adopted by the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) in 2005, under
the guidance of the President of the Society in 2005, Late Professor K. C. Gupta.
This led to several MTT-S delegations visiting India in 2006, 2008, and 2009, including
discussion with MTT-S membership in India, and participation in local conferences.
These visits resulted in a number of accomplishments during 2008-2012, including
the establishment
 "Buy the best and cry only once" (BTBCOO) means that a customer cries once at the high price, but
doesn't cry again (because the higher price meant greater quality). It is not clear
what retailer originated or popularized the saying. "Buy quality and cry once— buy
cheap and cry forever" has been cited in print since 1922. - Anon, from
The Big Apple.
 "5G mobile technology was again among the hottest topics at this
year's Mobile World Congress with much of the attention devoted to what the improved
coverage and capacity the technology offers will be used for. Significant attention
at the event was devoted to virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) apps and services,
most likely because these show a clear need for the speed and low latency that 5G
networks will provide because of their need for uninterrupted "
 Here are a couple more
tech-themed comics from vintage Popular Electronics magazines.
Only one comic appeared in each of the May 1972 and July 1972 issues, so I combined
them onto a single page. What's that guy in the May comic in the background doing?
Anyone remember those pieces of furniture that were once a staple of engineering
offices? The July comic reminds me of a scenario that might have appeared in one
of the old Calvin and Hobbes comic strips that graced our newspapers up through
the end of 1995. Calvin's father, in case you didn't know, was a patent attorney
 "This illustration shows the steps to fabricate
a new
3D magnetic circuit. In steps 1 and 2, an electron microscope
and gas injector print a scaffold onto a silicon substrate. In step 3, the scaffold
is covered with a magnetic material. In step 4, a laser reads the magnetic information
contained within the structure. Researchers at the University of Cambridge in the
UK have broken the paradigm of two-dimensional circuits used to store and transmit
data and created a nanoscale magnetic circuit that can send along bits of information "
Radiocrafts
AS, a leading provider of RF modules and wireless connectivity solutions, announced
today a new dual mode radio module platform for Smart Metering, Internet of Things
(IoT) and Wireless Sensor Networks applications. The module has a 2.4 GHz radio
transceiver is addition to the sub-Giga Hertz transceiver that is available on the
RC18x0 module that was announced by Radiocrafts in September. The radio module
platform is a surface-mounted ultra-low power RF module based on the CC1350 system
Tuesday 28
 "The Amateur Radio clubs at National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) centers around the US have invited the Amateur Radio
community to join the
NASA On The Air (NOTA) special event. NOTA gets under way in December
2017 and continues through December 2018. In addition to being the agency's 60th
anniversary, 2018 will mark 50 years since NASA orbited the first human around the
moon, and 20 years since the first elements of the International Space Station (ISS)
were launched into low-Earth orbit. Starting on Monday, December 11, 2017 (UTC),
Amateur Radio "
 Provided
byArie Voors, "4nec2 is a completely free Nec2, Nec4 and windows based tool for
creating, viewing, optimizing and checking 2D and 3D style antenna geometry structures
and generate, display and / or compare near / far-field radiation patterns for
both the starting and experienced antenna modeler. When running frequency sweeps,
linear or logarithmic style SWR, Gain, F/B-ratio and impedance line-charts are produced.
With the included Optimizer and Sweeper one is able to optimize antenna - and /
or other environment-variables for Gain, resonance, SWR, efficiency and / or F/B,
F/R-ratio. "
 The 1970s was a time of major transition
in the electronics world. The transition from vacuum tubes to transistors, from
point-to-point wiring to printed circuit boards, and the beginnings of personal
computing were topics of all the technical publications. This 1973 issue of
Popular Electronics included in its news roundup a couple interesting items
whose effects are still dominant today - like the Supreme Court ruling that prevents
patents on computer programs and electro-optical devices reading
price tags in stores. Computer user interfaces have been patented, but the software
itself is mostly
 Rhode & Schwarz announces an app note
titled "Group Delay and Phase Measurement on Frequency Converters" - available
as a free download. You don't need to register if you use the hyperlinks provided
here. "This application note provides basic information about the concept of a group
delay measurement with spectrum analyzers and signal generators, and how this method
simplifies the test setup and improve s the measurement speed. Measurement examples
show the limiting factors of this approach and help the user to understand "
 "What if you could share a
computer-aided design (CAD) model and even allow a colleague to
manipulate it from afar? 'Click on this link, check out my design, and feel free
to add more holes or fill some in,' you might say. You wouldn't have to instruct
your distant coworker to install special software or worry about whether her operating
system could run it. Imagine that all your programs and data were stored in the
cloud and that even computationally intensive applications like multimedia "
Saelig Company has introduced four new members of Pico Technology's
PicoScope 9300 family of sampling oscilloscopes. With up to 25 GHz
bandwidth, the PicoScope 9300 series addresses digital and telecommunications applications
of 10 Gb/s and higher, microwave applications up to 25 GHz, and timing
applications with a resolution down to 64 fs. The new 15 GHz models replace
the preceding 9200 Series 12 GHz models, with significantly upgraded specifications
at lower prices. The 9301-15 gives the
Monday 27
 December 7, 11:00 am. "Interference in the
radio access network is ubiquitous and becoming more critical as the deployment
of the latest cellular standards increases sensitivity to interference and subsequent
degradation of network performance. This webinar will compare and contrast different
techniques to geolocate sources of
interference in mobile networks, with a focus on POA vs. AOA.
A real interference geolocation use case will be shared and a definitive procedure
for the fastest interference location will be "
 RoHS, Pb-Free, and other green programs were
not a significant concern in the electronics industry when this article was published
in the early 1970s. Instead, research and development efforts concentrated on understanding
and improving the chemical and mechanical aspects of
soldered electrical connections. Having "grown up" in the electronics
industry during that era, most of solder and soldering knowledge and practices still
tend toward Sn-Pb (tin-lead) alloys for most applications, whether for soldering
electronic components to a PCB or terminal post, soldering copper water pipes, or
soldering music wire landing gear assemblies for model
 KR Electronics designs and manufactures high
quality filters for both the commercial and military markets. KR Electronics
 manufactures all
filter types and individually
synthesizes filters for special applications. State of the art computer synthesis,
analysis and test methods are used to meet the most challenging specifications.
Please visit their website today to see how they might be of assistance
 "The FCC's plans regarding
net neutrality, set to be revealed in detail on Nov. 22, aren't
going to end net neutrality. What the FCC is planning to do is reverse the 2014
decision that placed the internet under Title II of the Communications Act. Despite
dire warnings from some corners of the media, the FCC's planned action isn't the
end of net neutrality, and in fact it may foster growth on the internet. Before
we get started, let's all take a deep breath. That's it. Breathe all the way in
then hold "
Sunday 26
 For the sake of avid
cruciverbalists amongst us, each week I create a new technology-themed
crossword puzzle using only words related to engineering, science, mathematics,
chemistry, physics, astronomy, etc. At least 10 clues in this puzzle with an asterisk
(*) are pulled from this past week's (11/20 - 11/24) "Tech Industry
Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage (see the Headline
Archives page for help). Enjoy!
Friday 24
 Long before any one was overly concerned
with relatively paltry electrostatic discharge (ESD) current causing damage to semiconductor
components, there was a need to model the human body's resistance to current flow
due to
electric shock concerns. Even with a huge number of people being
severely shocked and/or killed due to exposure to potentially lethal voltage levels,
it was not until the late 1960s that OSHA and the National Electric Code began requiring
exposed metal components (chassis, switches, etc.) to have a safety ground connection.
Popular Electronics ran an article titled "Shocking But True" in August
 The
ARRL Store is having
a Black Friday (and Saturday and Sunday) sale. Enter
the coupon code of SAVETEN at checkout to save $10 on orders over $70.
There are also buy-one-get-one-free deals and members-only pricing on some items.
The 2018 ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications is supposed to be really
nice with lots of new material. I haven't bought a new edition since 2012 - sure
would make a nice present ;-)
 "It's the time of year when kids are thinking
about their holiday wish lists. So what's a parent to do when a child, possibly
a very young child, asks for a
smartphone? We hear that smartphones can be addictive, that screen
time can hurt learning, but can't these minicomputers also teach kids about responsibility
and put educational apps at their tiny fingertips? To learn more, let's look at
two families: one where smartphones are allowed for elementary to middle school-aged "
Thursday 23
A Microwave Journal technical education webinar will highlight the use of NI
AWR software products specifically Microwave Office circuit design and
AntSyn™ antenna synthesis and optimization software, for designing
a compact internet of things (IoT) dual-band Wi-Fi multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO)
array antenna. Presented by Dr. Derek S. Linden, director of technology for AntSyn
at AWR Group, NI, the webinar will describe how to determine the initial specifications,
explore the design space, and obtain optimized antennas from the
 "Germanium, an elemental semiconductor, was
the material of choice in the early history of electronic devices, before it was
largely replaced by silicon. But due to its high charge carrier mobility - higher
than silicon by threefold - the semiconductor is making a comeback.
Germanium (Ge) is generally grown on expensive single-crystal
substrates, adding another challenge to making it sustainably viable for most applications.
To address this aspect, researchers at RPI demonstrate "
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
 Anyone who watched the
WKRP in Cincinnati
sitcom back in the 1970s has to remember what was one of the funniest episodes ever.
Here is the 5 minutes that made Prime Time history. In this Thanksgiving episode,
station owner Arthur Carlson decided he would do a surprise good deed - that doubled
as a promotional stunt - and drop live turkeys from a helicopter for lucky shoppers
at the local shopping mall. Watch the disaster unfold as Les Nessman reports live,
and then hear Carlson's final comment that is still used or alluded to in many
Wednesday 22
 Another era, sadly, has come to an end. H. Ward
Silver (aka Ward Silver, NØAX) has announced the end
of his monthly column, "Hands-On Radio,"
in QST magazine. The title of each column was enumerated as "Experiment
#nnn," followed by the subject. To wit, "Experiment #179 Maxwell's Equations - The
Wave Emerges" is Mr. Silver's final column, appearing in the December 2017
QST. "Hands-On Radio" topics ranged in intensity from relatively simple
discussion on calculating power dissipation in resistors, capacitors, and inductors
to more heady treatises on subjects like electromagnetic fields within coaxial cable
and waveguide to Maxwell's equations. Mathematics, too
Triad RF Systems designs and
manufactures RF power amplifiers and
systems. Triad RF Systems comprises three partners (hence
'Triad') with over 40 years of accumulated knowledge of what is required
to design, manufacture, market, sell and service RF/Microwave amplifiers and amplifier
systems. "We view Triad more as a technology partner than a vendor for our line-of-sight
communications product line." Please check to see how we can help your project
 Prior to the advent of high frequency solid
state devices like Gunn diodes, working at or above a couple GHz - even at low power
-required the use of cavity oscillators such as klystrons and magnetrons. They were
bulky, espensize and electrically very inefficient. This article outlines the theory
of bulk oscillators as developed by Dr. John A. Copeland, of Bell Labs, and points
out the peculiarities of the LSA (limited space-charge accumulation) mode that makes it possible
to obtain 20 milliwatts of power at 88 GHz. Use of gallium arsenide (GaAs) enabled
designers to construct receiver circuits into the mm-wave region without the need
for klystrons, thereby reducing cost
 ConductRF is offering standard
D38999 RF
coaxial cable assembly configurations with RF Contacts including; BMA to 20 GHz
SMPM to 60 GHz Size #8 to 18 GHz Size #12 Mil-Spec. Size #16 Mil-Spec.
Cable choice include Low Loss Flexible and standard RG styles. Custom marking and
also ruggedization coverings including Nomex weave available
 "Scientists have taken an important step
towards using
'twisted' light as a form of wireless, high-capacity data transmission
which could make fiber optics obsolete. Scientists can 'twist' photons - individual
particles of light - by passing them through a special type of hologram, similar
to that on a credit card, giving the photons a twist known as optical angular momentum.
While conventional digital communications use photons as ones and zeroes to carry
information, the number of intertwined twists in the photons "
Tuesday 21
 "Qualcomm, China Mobile and ZTE combined
their 5G expertise and demonstrated what's being described as the world's first
end-to-end
5G New Radio (NR) Interoperability Data Testing (IoD) system with
a data connection based on 3GPP Release 15. Conducted at China Mobile's 5G Joint
Innovation Center, the demo used ZTE's 5G NR) system with a data connection based
on 3GPP Release 15. Conducted at China Mobile's 5G Joint Innovation Center, the
demo used ZTE's 5G NR) system with a data connection based on 3GPP Release 15. Conducted
at China Mobile's 5G Joint Innovation "
 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 a two new filters and a gas tube surge arrestor for your
convenience: a surface mount 32.0 MHz SAW filter, a leaded 1.25 MHz crystal filter,
and a cool-looking DC-3 GHz
gas tube surge arrester with SMA connectors
 "So far, the FCC appears to have struck a
balance between the goals of terrestrial wireless and satellite interests, at least
based on early reads of the millimeter wave spectrum item it passed at its open
meeting Thursday. The
Satellite Industry Association (SIA) announced that it is initially
encouraged by the FCC order regarding the future deployment of wireless services
in spectrum bands above 24 GHz. In a news release, the FCC stated it will adopt
rules regarding the use of spectrum "
Monday 20
 "UK government launches
Year of Engineering campaign to inspire next generation of engineers.
The UK government has pledged to work with hundreds of industry partners throughout
2018 to encourage young people and their parents to take a closer look at engineering.
Launched in response to an estimated shortfall of 20,000 engineering graduates a
year, and growing reports from industry that the skills shortage is having a significant
impact on productivity and growth the so-called 'Year of Engineering' hopes to galvanis "
 Electro-Photonics
LLC is a global supplier of RF & Microwave components. Our products include SMT hybrid
and directional couplers, wire bondable passive components, filters, and very useful
test boards for evaluating components (spiral
 inductors,
single-layer capacitors). The Electro-Photonics team can support your small R&D
design requirements with RF & Microwave test fixtures and save you valuable
design and characterization time. Please take a moment to visit their website and
see how your project might benefit
 Reading through the news items in the vintage
electronics magazines provides a mixture of important historical facts and figures
along with some predictions on the future of the industry. Some of the predictions
turn out to be amazingly accurate, even though in retrospect they might seem obvious.
Take, for example, Sylvania VP Dr. Robert Castor's foresight about how, "the future
growth of the
semiconductor industry lies in a major switch from the production
of individual components to solid-state subsystems that can be used as building
blocks in electronic designs." "Well of course," you might be temped to say; however,
at the time there were still significant hurdles to overcome related to material
purity, wafer size, photolithography
 Webinar Title:
Pulse Shaping in High Power Solid State Jamming Amplifiers When:
Thursday, November 30, 12 pm to 1:30 pm Location: Marriott Marquis Hotel Marquis
Ballroom. Pulse shaping, as it is done today, is an effort to fix fidelity issues
caused by the transmitting amplifier and is accomplished by a combination of imperfect
methods, most external to the amplifier. In this technical session, Paulo Correa
will describe a new high power amplifier architecture with built in real time feedback
that is capable of matching the input signal shape, minimizing droop, overshoot,
ringing, rise
 "IBM quantum computers with 20
superconducting qubits will soon be available for online use by
the firm's clients – according to the US-based company. The quantum systems will
be running by the end of 2017 and IBM also says that it has built and tested a prototype
quantum computer with 50 qubits. Part of the IBM Q family of quantum computers,
the new systems are based on transmon qubits. These store quantum information in
terms "
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