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5 of the October 2018 homepage archives. Friday 26
 Robert Radford's (not to be confused with Robert
Redford) "Electromaze
Puzzle" is a unique - and weird - sort of word puzzle that first appeared in this
February 1966 issue of Popular Electronics magazine. Some people have
been confused about the strategy, believing that all the white spaces needed to
be filled in. They do not. Just because a letter might have an empty square
adjacent to it does not imply that another letter must fill it. Also, read the
instruction carefully, especially the part about the last letter of one word
being the first letter of another word. You will probably want to print out the
maze grid and find an old guy who should still have a pencil stowed away
somewhere you can borrow to use for filling in the boxes...
 Copper
Mountain Technologies'
Technical Sales Territory Manager will be a part of our growing global sales
team. Our USB VNAs are next generation analyzers designed to meet the needs of
21st Century engineers. Our VNAs include an RF measurement module and a
processing module, a software application which runs on a Windows PC, laptop or
tablet, connecting to the measurement hardware via USB interface. The successful
candidate will have the technical background, sales experience, and personal
drive to solve customers' technical and business problems, and as a result, grow
sales in their assigned territory. Take this opportunity...
 If you appreciate the legacy of the people and
facilities of early electronics manufacturers, then you will want to visit Mr. Tom
McKee's (K4ZAD) website titled, "General Electric's Mobile Radio History."
He has loads of photos of facilities and equipment from all across the country.
Having worked for a while at the Syracuse (Liverpool, more accurately), NY, GE
Electronics Park campus, I particularly like seeing photos of the heydays when
the company turned out military radars and sonars, and lots of consumer products
like televisions, radios, washing machines, and refrigerators. Tom has fairly
extensive archival information that you might not find anywhere else. Take a few
minutes to look around, especially if you or someone you knew worked for GE;
maybe you will recognize a face...
 Transient Specialists, a leader in EMC rentals
for over 30 years, announces that they will be offering continued support for
electrostatic discharge products. There are a variety of ESD simulators, or ESD gun
manufacturers, however it is crucial to consider the application when selecting a gun.
Having the ability to buy or rent components to enhance testing capabilities could pay
dividends down the road. Many simulators, including the Dito, NSG 437, and ESD3000
have the ability to remove and change discharge networks. This allows for additional
testing beyond the 150 pf / 300 Ω the commonly tested to IEC 61000-4-2.
Transient Specialists conveniently located in the mid-west offers a variety of
EMC test equipment rentals to accommodate your testing needs...
 Axiom Test Equipment allows
you to rent
or buy test
equipment, repair test
equipment, or sell or trade
test equipment. They are committed to providing superior customer service and
high quality electronic test equipment. Axiom offers customers several
practical, efficient, and cost effective solutions for their projects' TE needs
and is committed to providing superior customer service and high quality
electronic test equipment. Please check out Axiom Test Equipment today!...
 "Graphene-based remote epitaxy enables inexpensive
copying of gallium arsenide and gallium nitride chips. Future high-efficiency solar cells
molded to the surface of a car, ultrasmall photonics chips, and low-power, long-lasting
wearable devices will all require something no one's yet been able to achieve, namely
chips made from high-efficiency materials that are
flexible, thin, and inexpensive to manufacture. A research group
at MIT has announced a couple of developments in recent weeks that bring such a confluence
of innovations closer to the achievable. Jeehwan Kim's research group announced
separately this month..."
Thursday 25
 Erie Technological Products, located in
my adopted hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania, was a re-branding of Erie Resistor
Company as the concern had begun manufacturing a wide variety of discrete
electronic devices - resistors, capacitors, feed-through filters, silicon
rectifiers. The Erie Resistor complex on 12th Street in Erie occupies a huge
amount of real estate on both sides of the road. The overhead foot bridge can be
seen in this photo. The buildings have long been vacated and stand with many
others as reminders of the thriving manufacturing center that Erie once was. We
still have a good bit of manufacturing here, but nothing like back in the hey
days of the last century...
 We might just have a major scandal on our hands.
Whilst perusing the October issue of Microwaves & RF magazine I saw this ad for
Mini-Circuits
filters. I really liked how they showed the internal construction of the various
filter types - cavity, slab line, microstrip, ceramic resonator, MMIC. Then, I noticed
the lid is shown installed on the lumped-element filter. "What are they trying to hide?"
I asked myself (not really). It is reasonable to ask, though, why the cover is on the
LC filter? Is there some proprietary, top-secret method being used that would blunt their
competitive edge - maybe superconductor inductors with infinite Qs and/or graphene capacitors?
Someone needs to ask Mini-Circuits whazzup wit dat? The world deserves to know.
 It is probably safe to say that most people, especially
today, believe that the United States was suddenly and unexpectedly thrust into involvement
in
World War II on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese navy launched a
surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The fact is the U.S. was "unofficially" engaged
for over a year beforehand by "lending" both equipment and personnel to British,
Russian, Chinese, French, and other militaries as part of their effort to drive
back invading German, Italian, and Japanese Axis forces. World War II actually
began in the Fall of1939 with Hitler's invasion of Poland. Americans, being
safely separated from the front lines by the Seven Seas, knew little of and were
concerned little about the goings on "Over There." Once the call to arms was
sounded with the Pearl Harbor attack, the country quickly and enthusiastically
converted to full wartime mode. Manufacturing plants...
 Anatech Electronics, a manufacturer of RF and microwave
filters, has published its October newsletter. In it, Anatech founder and owner Sam Benzacar
discusses the finally come-of-age
Microelectromechanical
systems (MEMS) switch for RF use. A MEMS switch is smaller and lighter than
any other switch technology, has very little insertion loss, provides very high
isolation, can theoretically operate into the millimeter-wave region, and can
handle substantial amounts of RF power. RF MEMS switches' Achilles heel at the
moment is relatively low isolation (~25 dB) compared to other types of RF
switches. Sam also includes some relevant telecomm industry headline news...
 Centric RF is a company offering from stock various
RF and Microwave coaxial
components, including attenuators, adapters, cable assemblies, terminations, power
dividers, and more. We believe in offering high performance parts from stock at a reasonable
cost. Frequency ranges of 0-110 GHz at power levels from 0.5-500 watts are available
off the sheld. Order today, ship today! Centric RF is currently looking for
vendors to partner with them. Please visit Centric RF today...
 "If you position yourself between a stationary
transmitter and receiver, it's possible to deflect signals and
steal information. Society is poised to enjoy a major communications
upgrade with the widespread launch of commercial 5G networks. Meanwhile, a handful of
researchers have already started to think ahead to
6G - the next
(next) generation of wireless and cellular technology. Just as 5G networks will transmit
data on higher frequencies than previous generations, preliminary research suggests that
the trend may well continue with
6G
networks. Harnessing these waves brings a wealth of benefits. Along with
offering more bandwidth for data transfers..."
Wednesday 24
 "Pharrowtech, a spin-off initiative from imec,
demonstrated a prototype of a
60 GHz active phased array
at the Telecom Infra Project Summit in London. This solution paves the way for
telecom OEMs to dramatically increase range and field of view of backhaul nodes,
access points and home units. It is built using low-cost, high-volume chip and
antenna technologies. This marks an important step towards accelerated
deployment of cost-effective high-speed internet solutions for rural, urban and
suburban environments..."
 RF Superstore launched in 2017, marking the return
of Murray Pasternack, founder of Pasternack Enterprises, to the RF and microwave Industry.
Pasternack fundamentally changed the way RF components were sold. Partner Jason Wright
manages day-to-day operations, while working closely with Mr. Pasternack to develop RF
Superstore into a world class RF and
microwave
component supplier. RF coaxial connectors & adapters, coaxial cable & cable
assemblies, surge protectors, attenuators. Items added daily. Free shipping on orders
over $99. We're leading the way again!
 In this saga of YL (young lady) and OM (old man)
Ham radio operators, General license holder
Carole H. Allen elucidates, with a touch of humor, the woes beset upon women
pertaining to repairing radio equipment. Mrs. Allen's lament is in fact not the
treatment of women participating in the communication aspect of Ham radio, but
the reluctance of men to allow them to engage in the technical aspects of the
electronic equipment. From an operator standpoint, guessing the gender of the
Ham on the other end of the signal can be nearly impossible, particularly with
CW (Morse code). Poor transmission quality can make phone (voice) determination
of YL or OM difficult sometimes as well. Back in the 1960s it was not possible
to simply surf to the FCC's Universal License System website...
 Skyworks Solutions, an innovator of high performance
analog semiconductors connecting people, places and things, today announced that its
advanced wireless engines are enabling
Philips' CityTouch end-to-end street lighting management platforms. Specifically,
Skyworks' connectivity solutions provide superior efficiency, extended range and complete
network coverage to facilitate seamless communication between Philips' smart street lamps
and cellular base stations. These innovative devices allow city operators to reduce power
consumption and support public safety through adaptive scheduling and remote services.
Installations of CityTouch have commenced worldwide, fostering more livable...
 Since 1961, MECA Electronics
has designed and 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 in-building applications, satellite communications, radar,
radio communications, telemetry applications, mobile radio, aviation & air
traffic communications...
 "Just like their biological counterparts, hardware
that mimics the neural circuitry of the brain requires building blocks that can adjust
how they synapse, with some connections strengthening at the expense of others. One such
approach, called
memristors,
uses current resistance to store this information. New work looks to overcome
reliability issues in these devices by scaling memristors to the atomic level. A
group of researchers demonstrated a new type of compound synapse that can
achieve synaptic weight programming and conduct vector-matrix multiplication
with significant advances over the current state of the art. Publishing its work
in the Journal of Applied Physics, from AIP Publishing, the group's compound
synapse is constructed..."
Tuesday 23
 Here is a good, brief introduction to
harmonic and intermodulation distortion measurement methods that were
commonly used in the 1960s. Total harmonic distortion (THD) was used often,
especially for audio equipment, which of course most frequency conversion
circuits ultimately were in the era since digital data transmission over the air
was not too common. Author Charles Moore worked for Hewlett-Packard (HP) and
references HP Application Note 15, "Distortion and Intermodulation" which,
thankfully, is made available by Hewlett-Packard / Agilent / Keysight on their
website. In fact, a complete list of all the vintage app notes are available on
this page by downloading the Excel file. I highly recommend that you download
and save all you think...
 "Boy Scouts of America
Jamboree on the Air
(JOTA) Coordinator Jim Wilson, K5ND, is urging JOTA participants to file
post-JOTA reports. JOTA and the companions Jamboree on the Internet (JOTI) took
place over the October 19-21 weekend. The reporting system combines JOTA and
JOTI reports. 'It's critical that we demonstrate the activity level for this
event to support further work in developing support systems, information, and
activities for the 2019 JOTA-JOTI event,' Wilson said. Station information will
be compiled into the US JOTA-JOTI report and filed with the World Organization
of the Scout Movement for their overall 2018 JOTA-JOTI report..."
 Please
take a few moments to visit the
everythingRF
website to see how they can assist you with your project. everythingRF is a
product discovery platform for RF and microwave products and services. They
currently have 227,460 products from more than 1210 companies across 285
categories in their database and enable engineers to search for them using their
customized parametric search tool. Amplifiers, test equipment, power couplers
and dividers, coaxial connectors, waveguide, antennas, filters, mixers, power
supplies, and everything else. Please visit everythingRF today to see how they
can help you...
 The following article / app note titled, "Bias
T, Band Splitter and Other RF Diplexers," was submitted to RF Cafe by
Bree Engineering. It is a brief
introduction to and explanation of the theory and application of the named frequency
selective devices. A Bias-T is frequency dependent just as much so as a band splitter
or diplexer; it differentiates between DC (0 Hz) and the RF frequency. Bree Engineering
Corporation was founded in 1999 and is a manufacturer of custom electronic filters, multiplexers,
filter banks and other related types of components in the frequency range of 0.1 MHz
to 40 GHz. Designs include Chebyshev, Bessel, Butterworth, Gaussian, transitional,
elliptic-function and pseudo-elliptic-function filters in lumped element, cavity, combline,
interdigital...
 It's time for a few more
electronics-themed comics. This set from four different artists comes from the September
1967 issue of Popular Electronics magazine. Users of modern, solid
state radio gear are not familiar with the kinds of problems that plagued the
older vacuum tube equipment - mainly overheating and a tendency for that smoke
that is supposed to remain inside resistors and capacitors leaking out and
breaking the set. One good thing about the overheated components that help with
troubleshooting is that the designers at the factory added a chemical to give
off the unique burnt resistor or capacitor odor that let you sniff out the
faulty part; you know, kind of like the odor added to natural gas (which itself
is odorless) to alert you to a leak. Be sure to use one or more of these in the
opening slides of your next presentation...
 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 for amplitude
and phased matched VNA applications 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. A partnership with Newark assures fast, reliable access. Please visit
ConductRF
today to see how they can help your project!
 "The GAO revealed the presence of several vulnerabilities
in the weapons that were never fixed. 'In operational testing, DOD routinely found mission-critical
cyber vulnerabilities
in systems that were under development, yet program officials GAO met with
believed their systems were secure and discounted some test results as
unrealistic.' reads the report. 'Using relatively simple tools and techniques,
testers were able to take control of systems and largely operate undetected, due
in part to basic issues such as poor password management and unencrypted
communications.' The report was committed by the Senate Armed Services Committee
that requested to review the way the Pentagon was securing its weapons
systems..."
Monday 22
 "Graphene Flagship researchers have shown in a
paper published in Science Advances how
heterostructures built from graphene and topological insulators have
strong, proximity induced spin-orbit coupling which can form the basis of novel information
processing technologies. Spin-orbit coupling is at the heart of spintronics. Graphene's
spin-orbit coupling and high electron mobility make it appealing for long spin coherence
length at room temperature. Graphene Flagship researchers from Chalmers University of
Technology (Sweden), Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology - ICN2 (Spain),
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain)..."
 ConductRF offers an extensive line of
RF and mixed signal cable harnesses and assemblies with custom
configurations, lengths and markings. Thousands of combinations of coaxial,
power, and digital and analog signal connectors available. Flexible
phase-stable, low-loss, phase-matching, high power, and other options per your
requirements. Broad insert connector solution choices including BMA, SMPM, for
cable sizes #8, #12 & #16 Custom marking and ruggedization enhancements
capability. Contact ConductRF today and let us help your project...
 INSTOCK Wireless Components designs & manufactures
UHF/RF power dividers, bias tees, GPS antenna signal splitters, DC blocking L-Band splitters,
high-power combiners, and current steering splitters with more than three hundred twenty-five
models in 2-way thru 64-way configurations with Type N, SMA, TNC, BNC, & QMA connectors
covering frequencies from 10 MHz to 6 GHz. Custom configurations also available
including mix-and-match connector options, IP67 outdoor weatherproof, rackmount,
and micro-sized units. Our comprehensive portfolio of RF splitter combiners
encompasses all UHF, RF, and microwave frequency applications within the ranges
350-1000 MHz, 698-2700 MHz, 1-2 GHz, and 2.4-6.0 GHz...
 If only eBay had been around at the end of World
War II, this surplus equipment would have dominated the electronics and electromechanical
gizmo categories. Electronics magazines of the post-WWII era were filled for years with
advertisements like this one from
G & G Radio Supply Company in a 1953 issue of Radio & Television
News. That B-29 bomb sight, like the one used on the Enola Gay, could be purchased
brand new for a scant $295, which even in equivalent 2018 dollars of $2,758 (per the
BLS), is a steal. This is not the famous Norden bombsight, but it's still a
sweet collector's item, which is available on eBay today if you would like to
own one. Already have a B-29 bombsight? How about a complete IFF (Identification
Friend or Foe) secondary radar system? For a mere $350...
 Rohde & Schwarz develops, produces and markets
test & measurement,
information and communications technology. Focus is on test and measurement,
broadcast and media, cybersecurity, secure communications, monitoring and
network testing. Markets serviced are wireless, the automotive industry,
aerospace and defense, industrial electronics, research and education, broadcast
and media network operations, consumer electronics, cybersecurity for business
and governments, communications and security solutions for critical
infrastructures and the armed forces, reconnaissance equipment for homeland and
external security, and much more...
 "Organic semiconductor materials have the potential
to be used in innovative applications such as transparent and flexible devices, and their
low cost makes their potential use particularly attractive. The properties of
organic semiconductor materials can be tuned by controlling their
structure at the molecular level through parts of the structure known as electron-accepting
units. A group of researchers centered at Osaka University has specifically tailored
an electron-accepting unit that was then successfully used in an organic semiconductor
applied in solar cell device that showed high photovoltaic performance. Their findings
were published in NPG Asia Materials. 'Electron-accepting units are important elements
of organic semiconductors,' study corresponding...
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