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Sunday 10
 For the sake of avid cruciverbalists amongst
us, each week I create a new
crossword puzzle that has a theme related to engineering, mathematics,
chemistry, physics, and other technical words. At least 12 clues in this puzzle
with an asterisk (*) are pulled from this past week's (9/4 - 9/8) "Tech Industry
Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage (see the Headline Archives page for help).
Enjoy!
Darryl Mayo, president & CEO of Res-New Microwave and Nova Microwave, offers
the following:
"Even though Hurricane Irma is heading straight
for us and our Clearwater, Florida facility,
Res-Net Microwave and
Nova Microwave will still
be displaying at the EDI CON show in Boston next week. We will be at booth #610
on Tuesday September 12th and Wednesday the 13th. We hope that everyone who is in
the storm's path stays safe. You will be in our thoughts and prayers."
Friday 8
 "NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC)
has issued a strong (G3)
geomagnetic storm watch for September 7 through 9. The SWPC said
the watch for September 7 remains in effect due to the arrival of a coronal mass
ejection (CME) and the effects of a CME on September 4. 'Additionally, a G3 watch
is now in effect for the 8 and 9 September UTC days in anticipation of the arrival
of another CME associated with the X9.3 flare (R3 — strong radio blackout) on 6
September "
I contacted David and Vicky, at Windfreak Technologies, this morning to check on their status.
The company is based a few miles north of Tampa, Florida. They offered the
following statement to customers and to well-wishers:
"The team at Windfreak Technologies has safely
evacuated New Port Richey in Florida and driven to Tennessee for Hurricane Irma.
They extend their best wishes to anyone else in the path of Irma. They have also
evacuated their product inventory and can still ship product with minimal extra
delay."
 "Does a choice transmitting antenna always
constitute the best receiving antenna?" That question alone, by author Carl Eller,
piques my interest and gives confidence that this article is the type I have long
said is lacking in the amateur
antenna system design realm. Most treatises, it seems, address
only the transmit half of the operation. Just as with the old aviation adage that
with enough power you can make a brick fly, in the non-professional world the attitude
is often that a really crappy base antenna / transmission line / power amplifier
mismatch is fine as long a tuner is capable of brining the VSWR into an acceptable
range
 You have probably heard about the massive
data breach at Equifax. I figured it might be a good idea to use their service
to determine whether it affected me. I stopped short, however, when Equifax required
6 out of 9 characters of my SSAN along with my last name. Bad plan Equifax; that
means another hacker only needs to guess at most 1000 combinations to get a name-number
match - a hacker's dream. Per
MarketWatch: "After Equifax Inc. discovered a massive data breach
that may have endangered the personal information of up to two-thirds of Americans,
but before the company divulged the information, three executives sold their Equifax
stock, according to Securities "
Southwest Antennas, an industry leader in MIMO / MANET antenna solutions, is
pleased to announce the introduction of two new C-Band RHCP & LHCP
body worn patch antennas. These new antennas join their existing
line of body worn antenna solutions, including options for L and S band radios.
Designed to be light weight and easily worn and hidden in tactical clothing, these
body worn antennas are ideal for use in multi-antenna MIMO / MANET radio applications
such as handheld
 "The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's
Intrachip / Interchip Enhanced Cooling (ICECool)
program, which teamed IBM and the Georgia Institute of Technology to solve the liquid
cooling problem for 3-D chip stacks, has yielded an approach that uses an insulating
dielectric refrigerant instead of water. Researchers who worked on the prototype
say the approach will lower the cost of cooling supercomputer CPUs by pumping refrigerants
through microfluidic "
Thursday 7
 Anatech Electronics, Inc. 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 ceramic RF duplexer filters for your convenience: a surface mount
1880 / 1960 MHz duplexer; a connectorized 770.5 / 715.5 MHz duplexer, and a surface
mount 2535 / 2655 MHz duplexer
 "With the chip scaling framework known as
Moore's Law clearly running out of steam, the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is attempting to reinvigorate and leverage a vibrant
domestic chip sector with a $200 million initiative designed to push the boundaries
of chip architectures such as graphics processors. DARPA recently announced that
its Electronics Resurgence Initiative seeks to move beyond Moore's Law chip scaling.
Among the new fronts to be opened by the defense agency are "
 Mr. Lothar Stern, of Motorola Semi, published
a 3-part series on
transistor theory in Popular Electronics magazine in
1973. This is part 2. Part 1 introduced the basics of the bipolar transistor,
and this follow-on article starts addressing transistor circuit configurations -
common emitter, common gate, common collector, Darlington, differential - as well
as presenting gain equations and delving a bit into the physical construction of
the semiconductor elements
Planar Monolithic Industries (PMI) recently introduced four new products in their extensive
line of. Included are a 2-18 GHz threshold detector, a 0.5 to 18 GHz high power
limiter, a 6.0 to 18.0 GHz 8-bit digital phase shifter, and a 0.1 to 2.0 GHz successive
log video amplifier. Contact PMI today for more information
 "The FCC Technological Advisory Council (TAC)
is looking into FCC
technical regulations to determine if reforms or changes might
be in order. Greg Lapin, N9GL, represents ARRL on the TAC and chairs the ARRL RF
Safety Committee. The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) announced the
TAC public inquiry (ET Docket 17-215), which seeks comments by October 30 regarding
technical regulations and the process for adopting and updating "
RF/Microwave Training Webinar
Title: Mixers and Frequency Conversion
Date: September 28, 2017
Time: 8am PT / 11am ET
Sponsored by: National Instruments
Presented by: Allen Podell
Outline: Frequency conversion is a critical function in all wireless systems.
A key component used to accomplish this is the mixer. Designers need to understand
different mixer topologies and specifications in order to meet their system requirements.
This webinar provides a brief overview of frequency conversion
Wednesday 6
 September 19, 2017 at the Hotel Mercure Paris
Massy Gare TGV. The presentations dedicated to the
Teledyne e2v Space Forum will now be made available at our Paris
Tech Day following the cancellation of the Space Forum event including: ADX error-correction
IP for time-interleaved, high-speed ADCs systems, Improving economics of SatCom
Payloads with UWB data converters, Next-gen radar Earth observation enabled by UWB
data converters, GaN power solutions
 Channel Master has been making state-of-the-art
television antennas since 1949. Back in the day, there were many TV antenna manufacturers
because over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts were the only means of receiving programs.
The advent of cable, satellite, and Internet television has caused a steady decline
of OTA users even though most locations still broadcast from towers. It is a shame
because aside from the more on-demand aspect of some of those other venues, Chanel
Master notes: "Live Broadcast Television - It's 80% of what you watch. And it's
free." The wireless
Saelig Company has introduced the
GW Instek
MDO-2000E Series Oscilloscopes which combine several test instruments in one
enclosure. An actual spectrum analyzer is included in the design, not just an FFT
calculation to display the frequency domain. The series includes two instrument
combinations: MDO-2000EG and MDO-2000EX. MDO-2000EG models have a built-in true
spectrum analyzer and a dual channel 25 MHz arbitrary waveform generator, while
the MDO-2000EX models feature
 Available for viewing now. "What are the
challenges related to the creation and generation of
complex radar signals and what are the tools to help make this
task more efficient? Gain these insights and learn how to avoid common traps when
creating and generating complex signals with this hour long webinar. You'll learn:
• Why radar signals are particularly difficult to create and generate. • Methods
that will help reduce the complex "
 "The Air Force is looking for the next generation
of Very Low Frequency communications to maintain contact with its
ICBMs and bombers. In particular, the Air Force wants to address the problem that
different strategic forces use different communications systems. For example, the
Air Force has different 'VLF/LF receiver variants for its bombers, wing command
posts, strategic mobile command posts and the intercontinental ballistic missile
systems.' So the Air Force is searching for receivers, antennas, and waveforms that
will create "
Tuesday 5
 "Electronic waste is the fastest-growing form of waste. Could recycling
be a new revenue stream and an environmental boon? Japan is a small, island nation,
but its efforts in electronic waste recycling are attracting international attention.
Could the United States learn from the Japanese model? With a population of more
than 127 million, Japan recycles more than 2 million tons of electronic waste annually.
America only recycles about 679,000 tons annually, and that figure "
 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
 Common sense never goes out of style, especially
as it pertains to safety in the presence of electricity. Most people who have worked
in the electrical / electronics realm for a while are aware that lethal
electrocution can occur with currents as low as 100 mA when
it passes through the heart. Lower values cause progressively less profound maladies,
but in practice any level of current great enough to be felt is not a good thing.
I have written before about having received a few pretty scary shocks when working
on high voltage equipment and many lesser jolts throughout my 45± years of
exposure. Other than observing my father's being scared sh**less of anything with
an
 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. Whitepaper topics include careers, manufacturing,
and engineering, while magazine titles include Microwaves & RF,
Military & Aerospace Electronics, and Microwave Product Digest
 "You wouldn't dip a glass in the ocean, come
up with no fish inside and conclude, 'No fish exist.'" - astronomer
Jill Tarter regarding where humans are with SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence). July / August 2017 Discover magazine.
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
Monday 4
 It is Labor Day 2017 in the USA, so most people
are off work today (which seems antithetical to the "labor" part of the holiday
name). For those unfortunate enough to be at work, here is a bit of vintage
electronic comic relief from a 1969 Electronics World
magazine for your office-bound condition. Actually, during my years of working for
someone else, I used to work the holidays (except Christmas) if I could get another
day off instead. With very few managers around, those of us at work would enjoy
what we termed "IPV," of In-Plant-Vacation. Very little work
The agendas have been set and registration is open for the China and Taiwan leg
of the seventh annual AWR Design
Forum (ADF 2017). The tour will visit Beijing and Chengdu on September 26 and
29 respectively, followed by a stop in Hsinchu, Taiwan on October 3. Highlights
of the China and Taiwan ADF 2017 agendas include: 5G: Multi-user multiple-in-multiple-out
(MIMO), the active phased array in 5G applications, MIMO and beam-steering
 "The International Electrotechnical Commission
(IEC) has released
IEC 60728-3:2017 PRV Pre release version. This includes 'Cable
networks for television signals, sound signals and interactive services – Part 3:
Active wideband equipment for cable networks.' This pre-release version is now available
on the IEC webstore. Description: 'IEC 60728-3:2017 specifies the measuring methods,
performance requirements and data publication requirements for active wideband equipment "
Sunday 3
 For the sake of avid cruciverbalists amongst
us, each week I create a new
crossword puzzle that has a theme related to engineering, mathematics,
chemistry, physics, and other technical words. At least 12 clues in this puzzle
with an asterisk (*) are pulled from this past week's (8/28 - 9/1)
"Tech Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage (see the Headline Archives
page for help). Enjoy!
 I am buying life insurance for the first time
in 11 years. After being a model citizen for 59 years and maintaining my health
- regular exercise, 5'-8", 135 lbs., never smoked nor drank nor took illegal drugs,
no major health issues, never received welfare or unemployment - my rates will be
inflated because both my father and mother died at age 51 from heavy cigarette smoking
related illnesses (heart attack and lung cancer, respectively).
I am being forced to pay for the sins of my parents. The same government that permits
penalizing me wants illegal children of illegal adults to not pay for the sins of
their parents; i.e.,
DACA. It is evidently OK to punish a legal citizen but not an
illegal alien.
Friday 1
Antenova manufacturer of antennas and RF antenna modules for M2M and the Internet
of Things, is to launch Robusta part no.
SR4G031, a new antenna for metal surfaces - at the GSMA MWC Americas
show. The antenna operates in the 1559-1609 MHz bands and is designed for tracking
metal objects and smart city applications. Antenova takes antenna design a step
forward with its REFLECTOR family, which answer to the challenge of operating on
a metal surface or housing, where it is extremely difficult for an antenna
 When I entered electronics manufacturing
in 1982, most large companies had in-house PCB fab capability, then everything was
outsourced. It's coming back thanks to 3D printing. "Moving
PCB production in-house can save over 60% in prototyping time,
produce better products, and greatly reduce the supply chain. More companies and
universities are integrating 3D printing with their electronic design. The non-traditional
process "
 You would be forgiven if you think a technology
as crude as
slow-scan television (SSTV) has gone out of vogue with live YouTube
videos and webcams, but such is not the case. What has changed is the portion of
Amateur Radio spectrum allocated to SSTV and which classes of license holders may
use it. Of course the equipment used has been modernized, but vintage systems still
work. Originally, only Advanced class ticket holders were allowed access, but nowadays
all Hams may operate SSTV, including the entry level Technician class. SSTV was
used extensively on space exploration platforms including Apollo; in fact the historic
Apollo 11 video feed of astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin hopping around
 How many times have I said it? The Germans
sure know how to build magnificent machines. Some of the most incredible giant scale
model airplanes come from Deutschland. Baron von Richthofen could only dream of
his red triplane performing these maneuvers. Not to diminish the video pilots' skills,
but modern RC models benefit from computerized radio systems and onboard gyros to
help stabilize the aircraft during slow flight when it is the engine's raw power
holding the plane in the air.
I have also said many times that it is a shame how Germany
now seems to be committing national suicide with its open doors immigration policy.
Skyworks has introduced the
SKY66403-11, a new 2.4 GHz fully-integrated RF front-end module
(FEM) designed to support ZigBee®, Thread and next-generation Bluetooth® wireless
protocols (including Bluetooth Low Energy "BLE"). This high-performance device is
designed for ease of use and maximum flexibility for Internet of Things (IoT) applications,
particularly within the connected home, wearables and M2M markets. This module is
also suitable for coin cell
 "A collaborative team of researchers has
developed a new kind of transistor that could make your computer
1,000 times faster. The transistor uses graphene instead of silicon.
Graphene was discovered in 2004 and was soon being used in a wide range of applications,
to the point where it has become known as the 'wonder material'. It possesses a
unique set of properties, amongst them is the ability to conduct electricity ten
times better than copper. Copper is currently the most commonly used conductor in "
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