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5 of the October 2019 homepage archives. Friday 25
 Even if you are not, never were, and don't
plan to be a color television serviceman, this installment of
Mac's Service Shop that appeared in a 1973 issue of Popular
Electronics provides an interesting insight into the manner in which the
electronics industry was rapidly changing in the 1970s. By 1973 most
manufacturers had fully committed to all solid state circuitry (except for the
CRT, of course), and the competition was focusing on customer satisfaction.
Point-to-point wiring of chassis with leaded resistors, capacitors, inductors,
and interconnecting wires and coaxial cable gave way to multiple printed circuit
boards (PCBs) with a maze of interconnecting wire harnesses. In theory the
scheme was much more reliable and serviceable, and for the most part it was. The
problem was that a lot of service guys were still struggling to come up to speed
on the newfangled technology. Trying to use a 500 watt soldering iron...
 Advanced Test Equipment Corporation (ATEC)
announced a new agreement was reached and contracts executed between L3 Harris's
Narda STS group and ATEC, making ATEC the North American distributor
and the only authorized service center for calibration and repair of Narda STS and
PMM equipment. ATEC is a worldwide leader in test equipment rentals, sales and calibrations,
providing companies with equipment that meets all types of testing and monitoring
requirements. ATEC partnered with Narda STS, the leading supplier of measuring
equipment in the EMF Safety, RF Test & Measurement and EMC sectors. The RF Test
& Measurement sector provides analyzers and instruments...
RF Cafe's raison d'être is and always has been to provide useful, quality content
for engineers, technicians, engineering managers, students, and hobbyists. Part
of that mission is offering to post applicable job openings. HR department employees
and/or managers of hiring companies are welcome to submit opportunities for posting
at no charge (of course a gratuity will be graciously accepted). 3rd party recruiters
and temp agencies are not included so as to assure a high quality of listings. Please
read through the easy procedure to benefit from RF Cafe's high quality visitors ...
 Atenlabs announces the availability of a
large variety of antenna measurement systems. Atenlab has developed four major categories
of Over-the-Air (OTA) measurement systems to meet various
requirements - A2 light type, A3 compact type, A6 standard type and A8
professional type. OTA measurement system is in widely used in communication and
devices manufacturing industry, With the advancement of the OTA measurement
system, customers are able to perform more comprehensive measurement and test,
staying ahead in the market. Compact Antenna Test Ranges (CATR) are able to
measure up to 100 GHz. The larger the compact range reflector, the larger
Network Analysis the Device Under Test (DUT)...
 People have been worrying and complaining
about machines and computers taking away jobs from humans ever since Eli Whitney
invented the cotton gin (probably even before then). In this advertisement in a
1946 issue of Radio News magazine, General Electric touts the wonders of
its electronic inspection apparatus that is capable of inspecting and testing
hand grenade fuses at a rate of 4,000 per hour. The job is performed
with a variety of specialty vacuum tube types, including an x-ray generator to produce
metal-penetrating energy and a phototube to detect the resultant image. A thyratron
tube provides 1/10th megavolt pulses to the x-ray tube, and sundry amplifier and
rectifier tubes decide whether the image represents a good fuse...
 "Only eight lithography masks to create a
low-power custom logic chips, compared with 20+ for CMOS, is the claim of Nottingham-based
fabless chip start-up 'Search For The Next' (SFN). As such, production lead time
is reduced – the target is two weeks by December 2020, according to company CEO
David Summerland. Using just those eight layers, he continued, it is also possible
to include power and analogue components. Key to the whole scheme, branded
Bizen, is a novel transistor - essentially a pnp device whose
base is driven through a quantum tunneling junction, and which includes a second
tunneling junction to internally self-bias the transistor ..."
Electro-Photonics is a global supplier of
RF &
Microwave components. Their products include SMT hybrid and directional couplers,
wire bondable passive components, mounting tabs, filters, transmission lines, 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 Electro-Photonics' website and see how your
project might benefit.
Thursday 24
 You need to have your thinking cap on for
this article entitled, "The dispersion transmitter," which appeared in a 1944 issue
of Radio News magazine. It might be more aptly entitled, "The Dispersion Antenna," or "How to Use a Phase-Driven
Horizontal and Vertical Dipole Antenna Array to Effect a Circularly Polarized
Transmission Antenna Which Continuously Scans All Combinations of Azimuth and
Elevation Thereby Effectively Covering Every Point on the Earth's Surface
Reachable by Ionospheric Reflection." That last title describes the ingenious
system devised by author H.W. Kline. A description of tests run to verify the
operation is included. He mentions that the circularly polarized signals emitted
by the transmitter are usually received in a horizontally polarized orientation
after being reflected in the ionosphere. Using the antenna setup for receiving
signals does not benefit...
 "Keysight Technologies announced the
PathWave Test 2020 software suite, which delivers an integrated
experience for leading electronic manufacturers to accelerate time-to-market of
their digital and wireless platforms and products. Developed on the Keysight PathWave
software platform, the PathWave Test 2020 software suite enables 5G, IoT and automotive
engineers and managers to streamline test data processing and analysis to speed
product introductions and secure a competitive advantage in the market. PathWave
Test 2020 software provides data sharing and management between platform software
tools including test automation, advanced measurement, signal creation and generation ..."
ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications
 Both the
ARRL Radio Communications Handbook and the
ARRL Antenna Handbook (2020 editions) have
grown so large with information that they are being been made available as a set
of volumes that make handling and storing them much more convenient. The six
volumes are divided by major topic areas: Volume 1: Introduction & Fundamental
Theory Volume 2: Practical Design & Principles PART 1 Volume 3: Practical Design
& Principles PART 2 Volume 4: Antenna Systems & Radio Propagation Volume 5:
Equipment Construction & Station Accessories Volume 6: Test Equipment,
Troubleshooting, RFI and Index. This 97th edition of The ARRL Handbook is your
complete guide to radio experimentation, discovery, and innovation...
 J.K. Bach (not Johann S.) was amazingly prescient
in 1944 with the specific types of RF-based devices that would come to be common
place in our modern world. Dig this: "Radar can even be applied to the home, as
a burglar-alarm, for example, or to detect obstructions on the cellar steps. Electronic
devices will find many other uses as high-frequency paint-dryers, veneer-gluers,
and even cordless permanent-waving machines for the ladies. Garage-door openers
and other remote-control devices are not only possible but practical. Then there
are certain to be other applications such as personal pedestrian telephones, two-way
wrist-radios and nursery baby-cry announcing systems." Nostradamus' divination record
might not even be that good. His tongue-in-cheek thesis of
ubiquitous RF interference due to the presence of Ham radio
operators...
 "Researchers from the University of Maryland,
the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National High Magnetic
Field Laboratory (NHMFL) and the University of Oxford have observed a rare phenomenon
called re-entrant superconductivity in the material uranium ditelluride. The discovery
furthers the case for uranium ditelluride as a promising material for use in quantum
computers. Nicknamed "Lazarus superconductivity" after the biblical character who rose
from the dead, the phenomenon occurs when a superconducting state arises, breaks
down, then re-emerges in a material due to a change in a specific parameter - in
this case, the application of a very strong magnetic field ..."
 MPDevice (MPD) has become a trustworthy and
reliable company in the global RF market as a manufacturer of
passive RF Devices.
Included are attenuators and terminations, coaxial connectors, adapters, and cable
assemblies, DC blocks, surge arrestors, power combiner / dividers, and directional
couplers. The Korean Telecommunication market is now entering into the era of hyperconnected
society. With continuous enhancement in R&D capabilities and quality control,
MPD will continue in an effort to become the No. 1 technologically innovative
company with a focus on the emerging 5G marketplace.
Wednesday 23
 As I have pointed out in the past, by the
end of 1944, everyone - at least in the United States - was pretty much convinced
that World War II was all but done. Advertisements and articles in most of
the magazines were going full force with promoting a
plethora of great new consumer products that would soon be
flowing from post-war factories and into the homes of the families who had
sacrificed life, limb, fortune, and opportunity on the parts of fathers,
brothers, boyfriends, and husbands who fought Axis powers during the past four
and a half years. Parents, children, and wives of those who went "Over There"
played an invaluable part back home in the success by managing single-parent
households and filling in on jobs formerly performed by the servicemen. Life was
difficult at home and on the battlefield but they persevered. We still refer to
them collectively as "The Greatest Generation." Interestingly, one of the main
impediments to implementing the aforementioned grand plan was difficulty in
transporting raw materials and piece parts to manufacturing plants, and then
distributing finished goods to the stores. Recall that...
 Empower RF Systems'
Model 2226 is a compact high power GaN solid state CW emitter
designed for GPS denial and is based on the established and field proven Next Generation
system architecture. This architecture is tactically deployed and operating on multiple
levels in support of a variety of critical DOD missions. Equally suited for Jamming,
Threat Simulation, Multipaction, HIRF, and Automotive EMC applications the 2226
comes complete with internal DDC, external forward and reverse sample ports, and
an easy to use web served GUI. In depth health monitoring with alarms visible on
the front panel are also pushed out the LAN port. Output modes include Manual
Gain Control (MGC), AGC and ALC...
 You would be hard pressed to find an electronics
magazine today that included
poetry as part of its typical features. I have published pages
from the ARRL's QST magazine from the 1940s that had poems. Of course,
the theme of the poems is almost always humor or parody, but poetry was not an unknown
/ unpracticed art by the general populace as it appears to be today. Anyway, enjoy
the jovial rhymes here from the August 1959 issue of Popular Electronics.
Frequent comic contributor Carl Kohler provides the illustrations for the rhymes
of Saunder Harris...
 Both the
ARRL Antenna Handbook and the
ARRL Radio Communications Handbook (2020
editions) have grown so large with information that they are being been made
available as a set of volumes that make handling and storing them much more
convenient. The ARRL Antenna Book for Radio Communications is undoubtedly the
best single resource covering antenna theory, design and construction, and
practical treatments and projects. This 4-book set contains everything you need
to understand how radio signals propagate, how antennas work, and how to
construct your own antenna system. Presented in this 24th edition of The Antenna
Book is persistent pioneering development by radio amateurs, for radio
amateurs...
 "Researchers in Switzerland and the U.S.
have a non-destructive technique that can reverse engineer an entire chip without
damaging it.
Ptychographic X-ray laminography can scan an entire chip or zoom
in on a particular spot to reveal its circuits. Scientists and engineers in Switzerland
and California have come up with a technique that can reveal the 3D design of a
modern microprocessor without destroying it. Typically today, such reverse engineering
is a time-consuming process that involves painstakingly removing each of a chip's
many nanometers-thick interconnect layers and mapping them using a hierarchy of
different imaging techniques, from optical microscopy for the larger features to
electron microscopy for the tiniest features ..."
 Exodus Advanced Communications is a multinational
RF communication equipment and engineering service company serving both commercial
and government entities and their affiliates worldwide. Power amplifiers ranging
from 10 kHz to 51 GHz with various output power levels and noise figure
ranges, we fully support custom designs and manufacturing requirements for both
small and large volume levels. decades of combined experience in the RF field for
numerous applications including military jamming, communications, radar, EMI/EMC
and various commercial projects with all designing and manufacturing of our HPA,
MPA, and LNA products in-house.
Tuesday 22
 Dr. Allen Du Mont played a huge role
in making television practical because of the improvements he made to the cathode
ray tube (CRT). Prior to his work, the lifespan of a CRT was measured in tens of
hours, and they were expensive, so their use was limited to special military and
research applications. Du Mont's interest in "wireless" began at an early age,
and he earned his commercial radio operator's license at the age of 14 (in 1915).
He designed and produced oscillographs (i.e., oscilloscopes) that incorporated his
CRTs. His involvement in the television industry was a natural evolution and extension
of the work done in related industries. The DuMont Television Network was formed
in 1942, rivaling the established CBS and NBC...
 Skyworks is pleased to launch the
SKY66405-11, a 2.4 GHz front-end module (FEM) designed for ZigBee®,
Thread, and Bluetooth® (including Low Energy) ultra-low power IoT applications spanning
sensors, beacons, smart meters and thermostats, wireless cameras, smoke and CO detectors,
wearables and medical wearables. This high-performance, integrated multi-chip module
comes in a compact form factor (1.9 x 1.9 x 0.56 mm) and provides increased efficiency
as well as more than 4X range extension versus system-on-chip (SoC) alone. The
solution includes a power amplifier, low-noise amplifier, low-loss bypass path,
transmit and receive switches...
 I usually take you straight to the source
of a survey, but in this case you're better served reading EE Times' report
on the newly released "IEEE GlobalSpec 2019 Pulse of Engineering Survey." Martin Rowe
provides a comparison between the 2018 and 2019 results. One of the most significant
differences I see is response to "New hires are being added to handle additional
work, not just to replace staff vacancies" dropping from 38% last year to 28% this
year. Mr. Rowe offer two possible reasons, but a third reason might be that
employers hired most of their needed engineers last year ...
 With a cover date of August 25, 1945, this
issue of The Saturday Evening Post obviously went to print some time prior
to the dropping of the two nuclear bombs on Japan that ended World War II. Victory
in Japan Day (V-J Day), was August 14, 1945. There is no hint inside the magazine
that the end of the war was nigh. There were, however, plenty of ads by companies
touting their contributions to the war, and even some ads, particularly food ads,
anticipating the end of rationing. Within this edition is also a short quiz entitled,
"How's Your Radio Knowledge?" The author, Captain James F. C.
Hyde, Jr., challenges readers to identify the locations of radio stations just
by looking at their call signs. As is done today, most stations attempt to get
call signs that are relevant to their location...
 "Researchers from Japan have developed a
highly sensitive rectifying element in the form of a
nanowire backward diode, which can convert low-power microwaves
into electricity. The research was carried out by leading communication technology
company, Fujitsu, in partnership with the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST),
and the Tokyo Metropolitan University. Through JST's Strategic Basic Research Programs,
the technology was developed by researchers led by Kenichi Kawaguchi of Fujitsu
Limited and Professor Michihiko Suhara of the Tokyo Metropolitan University. The
new technology can generate electricity from ambient radio waves ..."
 Withwave manufactures an extensive line of
metrology quality coaxial test cable assemblies, connectors (wave-, end-, vertical-launch,
board edge, panel mount), calibration kits (SOLT), a fully automated 4-port vector
network analyzer (VNA) calibrator, between- and in-series connector adaptors, attenuators,
terminations, DC blocks, torque wrenches, test probes & probe positioner. Special
test fixtures for calibration and multicoax cable assemblies. Frequency ranges from
DC through 110 GHz. Please contact Withwave today to see how they can help
your project succeed.
Monday 21
 When I saw this photo of the
Mount Säntis television transmission tower in Switzerland, the
first thing I thought of was the scene in the James Bond "Moonraker" movie where
007 battles the infamous Jaws while riding a cable car. That took place in an area
around the Mediterranean though, so maybe it was "Where Eagles Dare" or some other
spy / military movie I was thinking of. The tower is featured on a Wikipedia webpage
where it states in part: "Located at the peak of the Säntis is a 123.55 meter
high transmission tower, which was commissioned in November 1997. The original
tower stemming from the year 1955 had to be renovated several times due to the
rough...
 RF Cascade Workbook 2018 is the next phase in the evolution
of RF Cafe's long-running series, RF Cascade Workbook. It is a full-featured
RF system cascade parameter and frequency planner that includes filters and mixers
for a mere $45. Built in MS Excel, using RF Cascade Workbook 2018
is a cinch and the format is entirely customizable. It is significantly easier
and faster than using a multi-thousand dollar simulator when a high level system
analysis is all that is needed. An intro video takes you through the main
features. Hundreds of hours have gone into developing this tool...
 Withwave has introduced a new line of
High Speed & High Density Multicoax Cable Assemblies (WMX
Series) that provide a wide range of multiple coax connectors and flexible cable
assemblies with a choice of 20, 40, 50, and 67 GHz configurations based on
precision array design and superior high frequency cabling solutions. The WMX
Series are excellent signal integrity solutions for bench-top testing and
automated test equipment to meet increasing demands of semiconductor test
equipment and optical testing industries. These products consist of high
performance flexible assemblies which can be bundled in housings (8 and 16
channels) and the interface to board is compression type...
 This Radio Service Data Sheet provides schematics
and parts lists for
Westinghouse Models H-161, H-168 and H-168A receivers. Most -
if not all - electronics servicemen had subscriptions to these magazines because
they were a ready source of not just these service sheets, but because of the extensive
articles offering advice on servicing radios and televisions. In fact, many electronics
manufacturers had a policy of supplying service data only to bona fide shops. A
large list is included at the bottom of the page of similar documents from vintage
receiver schematics, troubleshooting tips, and alignment procedures. They were originally
published in magazines like Radio-Craft, Radio and Television News,
Radio News, etc. I scan and post them for the benefit of hobbyists who
restore and service vintage...
 "Silver dipoles are arranged across the folds
of a Miuri-Ori pattern to enable frequency blocking. Researchers at the Georgia
Institute of Technology have devised a method for using an
origami-based structure to create radio frequency filters that
have adjustable dimensions, enabling the devices to change which signals they block
throughout a large range of frequencies. The new approach to creating these tunable
filters could have a variety of uses, from antenna systems capable of adapting in
real-time to ambient conditions to the next generation of electromagnetic cloaking
systems that could be reconfigured on the fly to reflect or absorb different frequencies.
The team focused on one particular pattern of origami ..."
 TotalTemp Technologies has more than 40 years
of combined experience providing thermal platforms.
Thermal Platforms
are available to provide temperatures between -100°C and +200°C for cryogenic cooling,
recirculating circulating coolers, temperature chambers and temperature controllers,
thermal range safety controllers, space simulation chambers, hybrid benchtop chambers,
custom systems and platforms. Manual and automated configurations for laboratory
and production environments. Please contact TotalTemp Technologies today to learn
how they can help your project.
Sunday 20
 For two decades, I have been creating custom
engineering- and science-themed crossword puzzles for the brain-exercising
benefit and pleasure of RF Cafe visitors who are fellow cruciverbalists. This October
20, 2019, puzzle uses a database of thousands of words which I have built up over
the years and contains only clues and terms associated with engineering, science,
physical, astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, etc. You will never find a word taxing
your knowledge of a numbnut soap opera star or the name of some obscure village
in the Andes mountains. You might, however, encounter the name of a movie star like
Hedy Lamarr or a geographical location like Tunguska, Russia...
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.
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