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5 of the January 2019 homepage
archives. Friday 18
 In 1988, the National Bureau of Standards
(NBS) was re-named National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) because
a government bureaucrat needed to justify his/her position and the financing to
change all the signs, brochures, and letterhead would be paid for with OPM
(Other People's Money, pronounced like 'opium'). Regardless
of its name, the NBS is charged with establishing, maintaining, and enforcing standard
units of measure for the country, as well as with coordinating standard units with
other countries. It is interesting to read how standards have changed over the years,
and what methods have been suggested for establishing those standards; e.g., the
Ohm (Ω) could have been based on a foot of copper wire weighing 100 grains, an English
mile of No. 16 copper wire...
 "The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), in a bid to address the
increased adoption of Bluetooth mesh networking in Smart Home solutions, has formed
a new Smart Home Subgroup. The announcement follows the decision from a growing
number of market leaders to adopt Bluetooth mesh networking as a strategic communications
protocol for smart home solutions. The new Smart Home Subgroup has been established
to create additional Bluetooth mesh model specifications for smart home and related
applications. Mesh models constitute the application layer of Bluetooth mesh networking
and define the behavior of devices connected to a Bluetooth mesh network. For example,
mesh models define how a Bluetooth mesh light is controlled by a Bluetooth mesh
switch ..."
 A few years ago I posted links to this amazing
collection of tutorials written by Charan Langton. She relocated her content to
a WordPress server so they all have new URLs now (which I have updated). Ms. Langton's
website is called Complex
to Real. Says she, "Communications is not an easy science. The math is heavy,
and intuition is slow to develop. To complicate things further, the field does not
stay put. New concepts are always coming to the fore. This website offers tutorials
I have written on various topics in analog and digital communications that will
help you cut through this complexity. I keep adding to this collection, albeit very
slowly. Our field represents a pinnacle of human achievement in applied mathematics.
During our engineering education, most of us don't develop the intuitive understanding..."
 The
Radio & Wireless
Week 2019 event will be held at the Rosen Plaza in Orlando on January 20-23.
The venue is located in family-friendly Orlando near Walt Disney World, Universal
Orlando Resort and SeaWorld. RWW2019 consists of five related conferences that focus
on the intersection between wireless communication theory, systems, circuits, and
device technologies, creating a unique forum for engineers to discuss various technologies
for state-of-the-art wireless systems and their end-use applications. The 4-day
conference bridges the gaps between digital, RF, hardware, and software, which all
need to be seamlessly combined to keep the wireless industry and mobile applications
growing...
 The
R&S® NRQ6 combines the accuracy of a power meter with the
dynamic range of a spectrum analyzer. It is the first of its kind and performs extremely
precise and fast power measurements. - i.e. power measurements on a selected transmission
channel - down to -130 dBm. It delivers extremely high-precision, high-speed
measurements beyond the limits of currently available power meters. In addition
to conventional continuous average measurements, the R&S®NRQ6 has a trace display
function and also performs ACLR measurements. Key Facts: Frequency selective power
measurements, Frequency range: 50 MHz to 6 GHz, Power measurement...
 Check out the number of wheels on the transport
trailer! Note this is DC power - Has Edison won "The War of
the Currents" over Tesla in China? "State Grid's
1.1 MV DC line pushes power from Xinjiang to eastern megacities
over 3000 km to the east. China's primary grid operator has energized its biggest
and most powerful line yet, a 1.1 MV direct current (DC) behemoth that crushes
world records for voltage, distance and power. The new ultra-high voltage DC (UHVDC)
line built by Beijing-based State Grid Corporation of China can transmit up to 12 GW.
That is enough to power 50M Chinese households, according to a statement issued
in Chinese by State Grid last week, and 50% more than most of the 800 kV UHVDC
lines that State Grid has built over the past decade..."
 Copper Mountain Technologies
develops innovative and robust RF test and measurement solutions for engineers all
over the world. Copper Mountain's extensive line of unique form factor
Vector Network Analyzers
include an RF measurement module and a software application which runs on any Windows
PC, laptop or tablet, connecting to the measurement hardware via USB interface.
The result is a lower cost, faster, more effective test process that fits into the
modern workspace in lab, production, field and secure testing environments...
Thursday 17
 When minimum signal loss in a
transmission line is required for maximum power transmission between
the receiver and/or transmitter, nothing come close to waveguide. Waveguide is very
expensive and for frequencies below a gigahertz or so, very impractical (or even
impossible) due to the required physical size. It has the advantage, too, of being
nearly impervious to outside interference or leakage to the outside, and it can
handle extremely high power levels. Waveguide can be installed in almost any manner
and anywhere without concern for signal disruption. Its biggest vulnerability is
probably arcing due to contaminants within when the system has not been purged of
humid air and backfilled with a gas such as dry nitrogen. Coaxial cable has many
advantages of waveguide, but is less expensive and easier to install and maintain...
 Presenting yourself or your company as being modeled after a person
of great accomplishment has been a common promotional tactic for as long as there
has been print media. The John Hancock chose in this issue of
The Saturday Evening Post to suggest, albeit by an indirect
approach, to elicit the admiration Americans had for Thomas Edison' lust for innovation
and desire to make people's lives better in hopes that readers would associate Edison
with the insurance company. While the juxtaposition is strained, I do like one line
in particular, "He lured electricity into a bottle and taught it to glow with good
cheer." This short tribute to on of the world's greatest engineers is worth your
a few moments of your valuable time...
 QuinStar
Technology engineers have written a variety of application notes on
mm-wave systems
and components. Topics include Sensitive Receivers,Radiometers, Radar Subsystems,Communication
Subsystems, and Radios. QuinStar designs and manufactures millimeter-wave products
for communication, scientific, and test applications. We excel in millimeter-wave
products, microelectronic assembly, rapid prototyping, and mass customization. As
a result, we serve both established and emerging markets with system applications
in the commercial, scientific, and defense arenas...
 "Wi-Fi Alliance has introduced the next generation
Wi-Fi certification program -
Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ - to ensure devices based on IEEE 802.11ax
technology meet industry standards for interoperability and security. The Wi-Fi
Alliance certification program, coming in the third quarter of 2019, will provide
capacity, coverage, and performance required by users to experience next-generation
Wi-Fi use cases, from streaming ultra high-definition (Ultra HD) movies to mission-critical
business applications. Advanced capabilities supported by Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 will
bring innovation for Wi-Fi to excel even in diverse Wi-Fi environments with many
devices. Key benefits include higher data rates..."
 Concentric Technology Solutions is your one
stop source for RF shield boxes,
RF enclosures, Bluetooth testers, WiMax testers, RFID testers and RF power amplifiers.
CTS can supply off-the-shelf or custom products for your testing needs requiring
maximum RF shielding in order to produce repeatable results in laboratory and production
environments. Manual and pneumatic operation is available. TEM cells, glove boxes,
forensic enclosures, and special purpose per your requirements.
Wednesday 16
 Just as the evolution from vacuum tubes to
transistors changed the
test equipment (TE) landscape in the 1970s with drastic decreases
in physical size, ruggedness, price, functionality, portability, bandwidth, and
power consumption, today's products move ahead at an equal or even greater pace.
Microprocessors make possible programmability and reconfigurability, mathematical
signal processing, LCD displays, high speed interconnectability, data storage, automation,
and intuitive user interfaces. Surface mount components and other advanced production
methods, super high bandwidth semiconductors, advanced filter construction, and
light weight, rugged packaging have resulted in an amazing selection of special-purpose
and multi-purpose test equipment. This 1972 Popular Electronics article
gushed over the relatively recent advent of triggered sweep oscilloscopes...
 Skyworks Solutions, an innovator of high
performance analog semiconductors connecting people, places and things, today announced
that its
SkyOne® Ultra 3.0 portfolio is being leveraged by Inseego (NASDAQ:
INSG), a pioneer in 5G and intelligent IoT device-to-cloud solutions, for their
next generation mobile hotspot. Given the significant growth in mobile subscribers
and densification of data traffic - which will intensify with 5G - demand for portable,
reliable, anytime connectivity is rapidly increasing. Skyworks' compact, highly-integrated
front-end system is being utilized in combination with Qualcomm's LTE X20 modem
to power Inseego's MiFi 8800L device, the industry's first commercially available
gigabit LTE platform for Cat 18..."
 Chapter 8 of the U.S. Navy's basic electronics
course of study, titled "The Series Circuit: Why Know Circuits?" introduces the concept
of series electrical circuit analysis. After discussing basic characteristics and
applications of resistors, capacitors, inductors, conductors, and insulators, analyzing
series circuits are traditionally the beginning point for fledgling technicians,
scientists, hobbyists, and engineers. Purely resistive series circuits have just
one current path with the same value through every component, making calculations
extremely simple. Things start getting a bit tougher when reactive components are
introduced, but simple trigonometry takes care of that. The move into parallel circuits
is typically the first barrier that washes out students least likely to succeed.
A few guys in my USAF tech school had to change career fields after about the third
weeks of Basic Electronics because they could not grasp...
 Copper Mountain Technologies' Steve Sandler
will present a webinar on January 22, at 11 am EST, about
VNA Impedance Measurement for Power Distribution Networks. Almost
all modern circuits are sensitive to power quality, which to a large extent is a
measurement of the power rail impedance. This is because flat impedance power rails
result in much lower noise than power rails that aren't flat. In RF circuits the
peaks generally result in increased phase noise, while in digital circuits the issues
are related to the allowed voltage window for the ASICs. In high-speed transceivers,
these peaks result in jitter, which is also related to phase noise. In analog circuits,
the peaks...
 Rohde & Schwarz has produced a white paper
titled, "How to Select the Right Power Sensor and Get Results Faster."
One of the most fundamental RF measurement tools is the power sensor . Today , the
marketplace is filled with lots of choices and bold claims of fast speeds and large
numbers of readings per second, but when sifting through the datasheets it can be
difficult to determine what sensor will meet the needs for any particular measurement.
In this white paper we will review the fundamentals of RF power sensors and discuss
what you need to consider when selecting a power sensor. Today, the RF power sensor
marketplace is filled with bold claims of fast speeds and large numbers of readings
per second, but when sifting through the data sheets, it can be difficult to determine ...
RF Cafe's continued existence depends on companies like ERZIA providing support.
ERZIA produces microwave and mm-wave
modular amplifiers and integrated assemblies operating from low frequencies
up to 100 GHz. Their catalogue of standard amplifier modules comprises more
than 100 different models, having also a high capacity of customization for amplifiers
and integrated assemblies. Some of products have space heritage and are used in
aerospace, commercial, military and scientific systems, having a wide range of final
applications...
Tuesday 15
 Amateur radio operators have been blamed
for a lot of radio frequency interference (RFI) and
television interference (TVI) over the years, with some being
justified and a lot being unjustified. The surest sign that a Ham set is interfering
with your entertainment box is when you actually hear voice or a series of dits
and dahs. However, when the interference is a steady or waver buzzing sound or scratchy
intermittent hash, chances are greater that the interference is coming from a noisy
motor in a vacuum cleaner, a kitchen blender, a power tool, or an arcing power line
transformer / cracked insulator. The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) has jumped
through burning hoops (figuratively) to educate licensed operators on how to avoid
complaints by assuring gear is functioning properly, and educating the public about
the likelihood that the problems they experience are not coming from the guy down
the street with big antennas in the yard but from the next-door neighbor's swimming
pool filter pump...
 Antenova, manufacturer of antennas and RF
antenna modules for M2M and the Internet of Things, is to show a
development kit for a certified Cat4/LTE design at CES2019. LTE
Category 4 (Cat4) is the next step in 4G LTE device capability. A Cat4 device uses
two antennas - a main antenna for transmit and receive, and a second antenna for
receive only. The two antennas radiate in different pattern directions which means
they will always provide a good signal in any orientation, as the unit is moved
around or turned. The kit gives designers a short cut to a successful Cat4 design
and certifications, which can otherwise be difficult to achieve...
 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...
 Millimeter waves (mm-waves) are the subject
of a great many articles today describing advances being made in the part of the
spectrum above 30 GHz (Ka and EHF bands); however, when this piece was published
in 1935, it was
decimeter waves that were the big to-do. Crowded frequency bands
have been a problem since the beginning of radio because technology is constantly
not only filling available bandwidth, but also pushing the frontiers higher. The
advantage of going higher in frequency is that required bandwidths for existing
modulation schemes represent a smaller percentage of the center frequency. For example,
an 802.11b WiFi signal's 22 MHz bandwidth represents roughly 1% of its 2.4 MHz
center frequency. 802.11a does 20 MHz at 5 GHz for 0.4%. Extend that center
frequency up to 50 GHz and the channel occupancy...
 Nokomis, the preeminent company in the world in
the detection, identification, and geolocation of electronics, currently has an
opening for an \ASIC Designer Engineer. This position is for an engineer with significant
Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) design and development experience
that will be part of a team with diverse talents and skills. The candidate will
be involved in all phases of engineering and design of electrical and electronic
devices. We are seeking versatile problem solvers that can apply their skills and
experience to a wide array of design challenges and produce results that enhance
the company's electrical and electronic device offerings. Innovative and driven
engineers who bring unique solutions to challenging engineering problems are highly
desirable. The engineer will develop and implement Integrated circuit design as
part of a larger complex...
 "The current trade war with China has many
companies re-evaluating their outsourcing practices. But even before the tariff
hikes, many companies were
reshoring their manufacturing because in the long run, it's better
for business. There's a reason the U.S. trade deficit with China exceeded $301B
in 2018. Cheap labor and fewer regulations mean that 'Made in China' tends to cost
less than 'Made in America.' But the ongoing trade war with China has led many companies
to re-evaluate the practice of outsourcing from a cost-efficiency perspective. That's
with good reason, since the U.S. is currently imposing about $250B in tariffs on
products coming from China. With recent tariffs combined with quality issues, the
case of reshoring grows stronger. The notion that outsourcing could be detrimental..."
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. PA, LNA, bi-directional, and frequency translating
amplifiers are available, in formats including tower mount, benchtop, rack mount,
and chassis mount. "We view Triad more as a technology partner than a vendor for
our line-of-sight communications product line." Please check to see how they can
help your project...
Monday 14
 Popular Electronics editor Milton
Snitzer used his space in the January 1972 issue to announce to readers the
merging of Electronics World magazine with itself.
Electronics World was published monthly from May 1959 through December 1971.
Electronics World editor William Stocklin wrote an editorial in that final
issue alerting his readers to the change coming in the next edition. "Over the years
many people have asked us 'Why two electronics books in the same company ?' We thought
we had a pretty good answer, but times change, and evolution makes its mark in the
publishing field, too. It is therefore with a mixture of sadness for the old and
exhilaration for the new that we bring you the news that next month, Electronics
World will merge with its sister publication, Popular Electronics,
which even today, before the merger, has the largest circulation of any electronics
magazine in the world...
 "A robotic Chinese spacecraft named Chang'e
4 braked out of lunar orbit and slowed to a controlled touchdown on the
far side of the moon Thursday, a first in the history of space
exploration. The lander later deployed a small rover to explore the surrounding
landscape. The spacecraft landed at 0226 GMT on Jan. 3 (9:26 p.m. EST on Jan. 2)
in the 110-mile-wide Von Karman crater, located in the southern hemisphere on the
back side of the moon. Chinese websites released several images captured during
the lander's descent, and then revealed several more pictures taken of the mission's
six-wheeled rover as it drove down a ramp and onto the lunar surface..."
 In 1945, when this article was published
in QST, radar was still in its infancy. Engineers were already aware of the need
to shape pulse waveforms from experience with CW keying and the need to mitigate
the effects of "chirping." A perfectly rectangular pulse in the time domain, as
we learned in our signals and systems courses, creates a sin (x)/x response in the
frequency domain. The Fourier transform shows that a perfectly square pulse in the
time domain is the summation of an infinite number of odd harmonics of the fundamental
(1st harmonic). The first few harmonics are audible to the CW copier as higher frequency
"chirps." To reduce the annoyance (and wasted transmitted energy), time constants
were added to the leading and trailing edges of the waveform to remove the higher
frequencies, while leaving the pulse shape sufficiently rectangular to achieve its
goal...
 Nokomis is a dynamic technology company with
over 16 years history of technical excellence in the development of next-generation
Radio Frequency (RF) sensor systems. During the last 6 years, Nokomis has experienced
rapid growth in the area of materials development, both aimed at supporting the
core RF technology areas and also independent technology areas, such as EO/IR sensor
materials and ultra-low wear protective films. Nokomis is seeking innovative and
ambitious Scientists and Engineers, to join and complement our 20+ member R&D
team. The Materials Scientist role at Nokomis will drive innovative R&D efforts
through government grants and contracts to develop revolutionary materials and materials
applications...
 "After developing a method to control
exciton flows at room temperature, EPFL scientists have discovered
new properties of these quasiparticles that can lead to more energy-efficient electronic
devices. They were the first to control exciton flows at room temperature. And now,
the team of scientists from EPFL's Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures
(LANES) has taken their technology one step further. They have found a way to control
some of the properties of excitons and change the polarization of the light they
generate. This can lead to a new generation of electronic devices with transistors
that undergo less energy loss and heat dissipation. The scientists' discovery forms
part of a new field of research called valleytronics and has just been published
in Nature Photonics..."
 Providing full solution service is our motto,
not just selling goods. RF & Connector Technology has persistently pursued a
management policy stressing quality assurance system and technological advancement.
From your very first contact, you will be supported by competent RF specialists;
all of them have several years of field experience in this industry allowing them
to suggest a fundamental solution and troubleshooting approach. Coaxial RF connectors,
cable assemblies, antennas, terminations, attenuators, couplers, dividers, and more.
Practically, we put priority on process inspection at each step of workflow as well
as during final inspection in order to actualize "Zero Defects ..."
Sunday 13
 Each week, for the sake of all avid cruciverbalists
amongst us, I create a new
technology-themed crossword puzzle using only words from my custom-created
lexicon related to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy,
etc. You will never find among the words names of politicians, mountain ranges,
exotic foods or plants, movie stars, or anything of the sort. You might, however,
see someone or something in the exclusion list who or that is directly related to
this puzzle's theme, such as Hedy Lamarr or the Bikini Atoll, respectively. Enjoy...
These archive pages are provided in order to make it easier for you to find items
that you remember seeing on the RF Cafe homepage. Of course probably the easiest
way to find anything on the website is to use the "Search
RF Cafe" box at the top of every page.
About RF Cafe.
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