 Friday 31
 A couple years ago a house two streets away
had an estate sale after the elderly gentleman who owned it passed on. There was
a lot of old
amateur radio gear for sale, and most of it had been bought early in the morning,
right after the beginning of the sale according to the man's daughter who was on-hand.
The newspaper notice mentioned the Ham equipment. In the back yard was a nice 40-foot
crank-up tower that was a bit weather-worn, but otherwise appeared to be in good
condition. She said that was the first item sold. I didn't ask how much she got
for it. The house was to be sold, and they were glad to have the tower gone before
listing it on the market. I have wondered in the past when seeing a "For Sale" sign
in the lawn of a house with one or more radio towers in the yard how much they would
impact the sale price. Some Hams would plan to take...
 "MIRAIT Corporation, a leading information &
communication engineering solutions provider and Metawave Corporation, developer
of data communication antenna and in-vehicle millimeter-wave radar, have conducted
radio wave propagation experiments in the quasi-millimeter wave band (20 to 30 GHz)
using
metamaterial reflectors. They confirmed that the result reached the expected
performance level. MIRAIT is working to accelerate the technological development
of the next-generation 5G mobile communication system, and emerging enterprise local
5G, which will start in earnest in the spring of 2020. Metawave has state-of-the-art
technology in this field. Since last December, MIRAIT has been evaluating to confirm
the practicality of Metawave's metamaterial reflectors..."
 Anyone who pays attention in a present-day
high school physics class would read this article from 1944 and immediately appreciate
the advances that have been made in atomic theory during the ensuing 75 years. With
modern knowledge, it is hard to believe that even in 1944 someone would seriously
suggest that theorized
sub-electronic particles (building blocks of electrons) might be responsible
for supporting the propagation of electromagnetic energy. We still consider the
electron to be an elementary particle (although now not so the proton and neutron),
but at this point we are aware of many elementary particles other than the electron
(some of which make up protons and neutrons). There are six types of quarks, the
gluon, the photon, three types of bosons, and five other types of leptons other
than the electron - for a total of 17. The author's characterizing of the electron
as having a "flitting and jerking" "enormous" positional presence...
 Today
at 2300 hours GMT, Brexit is a done deal. Everyone reading this has by now heard
of the
British Exit from European Union governance. Many of you have opinions one way
or the other. Because I love the history of Europe, which is the history of my ancestors,
preserving independent countries and their unique cultures is, IMHO, a worthy endeavor.
Uniting under agreements like NATO provides for the mutual safeguarding of sovereignty
of individual nations without imposing the will of foreign rule on the citizens.
Like all societies and governments, Europe has had and still has its flaws (as do
we all), but in the process its peoples built the modern world without the need
to be a homogenous, borderless entity. My hope is that the naysayers will be proven
wrong and the the U.K. will serve as a model for other countries where the majority
of citizens choose to regain independence. Regardless of the outcome, I wish my
European ancestors and their progeny well.
 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...
 On February 11, Keysight Electronics will
present a live webinar entitled, "Testing
in the Automotive Radar Ecosystem," running from 9:00-11:00 am EST. Learn
how to identify and solve advanced automotive radar design test challenges. Growing
demand of advanced radar technologies, such as 79 GHz high frequency with 4 GHz
wide modulation bandwidth and micro-Doppler to detect and protect pedestrians, has
led to new design and test challenges. With the wide-scale adoption of radar, interference
is now a very real issue to solve. Guest presenters from Michigan Technological
University and Sekisui Chemical Group will contribute knowledge around mutual interference
and radar absorbers. Join this live streaming presentation from Keysight's Automotive
Customer Center in Novi, MI.
 QuinStar Technology designs and manufactures
mm-wave products
for communication, scientific, and test applications along with providing microelectronic
assembly, rapid prototyping, and mass customization. Amplifiers, Oscillators, Switches,
Attenuators, Circulators, Isolators, Filters, Waveguide, Antennas, Phase Shifters,
Transceivers, Mixers, Detectors. QuinStar specializes in cryogenic
amplifiers, circulators, and isolators. Please visit QuinStar today to see how they
can help your project.
Thursday 30
 Here be another brain teaser from quizmaster
Robert P. Balin. The "Amplifier
Quiz" is one of sixty or so I have posted thus far from vintage issues of
Popular Electronics magazine. Having been created in 1964, the circuit
schematics use vacuum tubes, but don't let that inhibit you from taking the test.
Enhancement mode field effect transistors (FETs) are an apt analogy to tubes for
determining function, so I added symbols for FETs next to the vacuum tube symbols
to help you visualize the equivalence. I usually do a respectable job on these quizzes,
but have to admit to only getting 4 out of 6 this time (67%), and one of those was
just a lucky, semi-educated guess. Shameful.
 Breaking News!
Qorvo Announces Acquisition of Decawave and Custom MMIC-
proving once again that if you work hard and create a good product and/or service,
you just might be handsomely rewarded. Bob Bruggeworth, president and chief executive
officer of Qorvo, said, "Qorvo delivered an exceptional December quarter. In Mobile
Products, 5G design wins are accelerating, and in IDP we are enjoying robust design
win momentum. We're also looking forward to welcoming two industry-leading teams,
Decawave and Custom MMIC, to the Qorvo family, expanding our technology portfolio
and product offerings." Fiscal 2020 3rd Quarter Financial Results Strategic Highlights:
"Signed, following the quarter, definitive agreements to acquire Decawave, a pioneer
in ultra-wideband (UWB) technology and provider of UWB solutions for mobile, automotive
and IoT applications; and Custom MMIC, a leading supplier of high-performance GaAs
and GaN MMICs for defense and aerospace applications..."
 This is the second of a two-part series
discussing the
propagation of shortwaves, the first part having appeared in the December 1931
/ January 1932 edition of Short Wave Craft. Keep in mind that at the time
of the writing, no instrumented sounding rockets had been sent into the upper atmosphere
for empirical measurements, so the author's conjectures being inaccurate are forgivable.
Mr. Meyer's supposition that there are "cosmically-located network of conductive
lines" that influence seasonal propagation as the earth moves through them during
its revolution around the sun is actually not an unreasonable theory for its era.
It certainly is no more outlandish than a modern-day celebrated astrophysical genius
proposing a series of vibrating 'strings' in an 11-dimensional universe...
 ConductRF offers RF Engineers a large selection
of
Hi Flex cable for vector network analyzers (VNAs). We have standards for applications
at 18-40 GHz, 50 GHz & 70 GHz. Our torque resistant connector
heads and phase stable constructions ensure great performance for many tests to
come. Other key features include: 2.92 mm, 2.4 mm & 1.85 mm connector
options, low VSWR & insertion loss, low phase change with flexing, options available
swept right angle connectors. ConductRF VNA series provides customers with reliable
ruggedized solutions for Lab and Production Vector Network Analyzer testing. With
options for 18 GHz, 26.5 GHz, & , 40 GHz, 50 GHz, &
70 GHz, these cables offer cost leading alternatives to original OEM VNA cable
solutions...
 "Medical implants of the future may feature
reconfigurable electronic platforms that can morph in shape and size dynamically
as bodies change or transform to relocate from one area to monitor another within
our bodies. Researchers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
and the University of California, Berkeley report a silicon honeycomb-serpentine
reconfigurable electronic platform that can dynamically morph into three different
shapes: quatrefoils (four lobes), stars, and irregular ones. 'Quatrefoils can be
used for rectangular object-based operation, while stars are for more intricate
architectures, and irregular-shaped ones are specifically for implanted bioelectronics..."
 On February 5th at 12:30 pm ET, Keysight
Technologies will present a live-streamed event entitled, "RF
Back to Basics Seminar." You can attend the entire entire event or simply join
for your topic of interest. "This seminar will improve your understanding of basic
RF measurement, design and simulation techniques. Recent engineering graduates involved
in RF and engineers or technicians transitioning to RF will benefit from this seminar.
Attendees should have a good understanding of basic electrical engineering principles.
Sessions include RF/microwave signal chain and network analysis, transmit and receive
signal chains, key characteristics for design and measurement, network analysis,
transmission line theory, S-parameters, Smith Chart, and impedance measurements
/ matching techniques..."
 KR Electronics designs and manufactures
high quality filters for both the commercial and military markets. KR Electronics'
line of filters includes lowpass,
highpass, bandpass, bandstop and individually synthesized filters for special applications
- both commercial and military. State of the art computer synthesis, analysis and
test methods are used to meet the most challenging specifications. All common connector
types and package form factors are available. Please visit their website today to
see how they might be of assistance. Products are designed and manufactured in the
USA.
Wednesday 29
 Interestingly, the February 1958 article
in Radio & TV News magazine entitled "Report
on the Soviet Earth Satellite" never mentions the craft's name - "Sputnik 1,"
or "Простейший Спутник-1," which in English is "Elementary Satellite 1." Sputnik 1
was, in case your history is a bit fuzzy, the world's first successful artificial
communications satellite. Launched by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
on October 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 remained operational for about three weeks in
low Earth orbit (284 miles average), during which time radio receiving stations
across the globe anxious tuned in hoping to hear the 20.005 MHz and 40.002 MHz
pulses that alternately repeated continuously in an alternating manner - the first
FSK (frequency-shift keying) from space. Ruskie engineers made the signal frequencies
and periods as stable as possible in order to enable careful frequency and timing...
 Sam Benzacar of
Anatech Electronics, an RF and microwave filter company, has published his January
newsletter that features his short op−ed entitled "Some Good News on IoT Wireless
Protocol Incompatibility," which gives kudos to the many independent IoT device
manufacturers who are making their products with in[ter]compatible - rather than
incompatible - communications protocols. Was there no organized industry collaboration
effort for this before a group called "Open Connectivity Foundation" introduced
itself at CES 2020? Sam also mentions Amazon's new 900 MHz "Sidewalk" longer
range, low datarate device protocol. Verizon believes that 5G can eventually replace
Wi-Fi, reversing the trend for small Wi-Fi cells filling the bandwidth gap...
 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.
 Advertisements for this
Scotch 200 magnetic tape product appeared many time in electronics magazines
during the big stereo era that ran from the 1950s through to the 1980s. High Fidelity
(Hi-Fi) was a big deal as major improvements in receivers, tape decks, phonographs,
amplifiers, and speakers were being made. I decided to highlight this one in particular
for a couple reasons. First is that when I was in the USAF stationed at Robins AFB,
GA (1979-1982), one of the roommates I had in the barracks had a father whom, at
least per his claim, invented reflective tape for 3M. The guy was a true Lennon
fanatic, and even wore faux Lennon glasses when off duty. He didn't look the part.
When Mark David Chapman shot and killed Lennon on December 8, 1980, his entire raison
d'être came to an end. I'm surprised he didn't go for psychiatric counseling. Second,
did you know (or care) that "3M" stands for...
 That's a mighty familiar-looking
Yagi antenna configuration with reflector and director elements
- implemented with gold deposited on a glass substrate. "Physicists from the University
of Würzburg have developed a low-footprint optical nano antenna that measures only
800 nanometres in size. The physicists used the antenna to convert electrical signals
into photons and radiated them in specific directions. Directional antennas convert
electrical signals to radio waves and emit them in a particular direction, allowing
increased performance and reduced interference. This principle, which is useful
in radio wave technology, could also be interesting for miniaturized light sources.
After all, almost all internet-based communication utilizes optical light communication..."
 Mark Miller, of Pasternack, has an article
on the Electronic Design website entitled, "Waveguide Makes a Comeback
in 5G - for Antennas." Says Mr. Miller: "Waveguide is taking on a new role
in the next generation of wireless systems in small form factors considered inconceivable
before. For most design engineers, study of
waveguide technology ended when they got their last degree. The only time waveguide
comes up is to use it as a last resort in applications such as mmWave measurements,
where coaxial cable is too lossy, expensive, and fragile. That's not to say waveguide
isn't used anymore, but it's not considered 'modern' technology and of little use
in applications such as wireless. However, that perception is beginning to change,
and the needs for waveguide's benefits at mmWave frequencies for 5G are driving
substantial amounts of research..."
 Windfreak Technologies designs, manufactures,
tests and sells high value USB powered and controlled radio frequency products such
as RF signal generators, RF synthesizers, RF power detectors, mixers, up / downconverters.
Since the conception of WFT, we have introduced products that have been purchased
by a wide range of customers, from hobbyists to education facilities to government
agencies. Worldwide customers include Europe, Australia, and Asia. Please contact
Windfreak today to learn how they might help you with your current project.
Tuesday 28
 Each month Radio & TV News magazine
contained a section entitled, "What's New in Radio," which reported on some of the
latest happenings in the fields of commercial, military, space, transportation,
broadcast, and all other forms of wireless communications. This 1958 issue show
the world's first volume production airborne digital computer, designed by Hughes
Aircraft Company, installed in the nose of a U.S. Air Force F-102A Delta Dagger
fighter jet (built by Convair). The 456th Fighter Interceptor Squadron website has
a lot of information about the
Hughes MA-1 Digitair computer and its integration with airborne radar to create
a flight control system that could guide aircraft to a target for ordinance (bombs,
missiles) deployment. Other topics included a wideband oscilloscope from Electronic
Industries (EIC) that handled a whopping 5 MHz...
 Paul Rako
has a useful article over at Electronic Design entitled, "How
to Select a Fuse." Not all fuses are created equal however, to paraphrase Thomas
Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. "Fuses
for Electronics" and "Selecting
the Proper Fuse"" are a couple articles I've posted on the topic from vintage
magazines. Paul begins, "It's easy to trivialize the need for a fuse and how to
select one. We have all been annoyed or exasperated by a blown fuse. Sometimes we
wish there was no such component needed for our circuits. With the advent of electrical
distribution in the 1800s, fuses became an essential device in preventing fires.
Electrical systems need them for the same reason. Electronic systems have the same
fire concerns and they need fuses as well..."
 Custom MMIC is a
fabless RF and microwave MMIC
designer entrusted by government and defense industry OEMs. Custom and off-the-shelf
products include switches, phase shifters, attenuators, mixers and multipliers,
and low noise, low phase noise, and distributed amplifiers. From next-generation
long range military radar systems, to advanced aerospace and space-qualified satellite
communications, microwave signal chains are being pushed to new limits - and no
one understands this more than Custom MMIC. Please contact Custom MMIC today to
see how they use their modern engineering, testing and packaging facility to help
your project.
 ThinkRF Corporation, the leader in software-defined
spectrum analysis, today announced the launch of the
ThinkRF™ Surveillance System for in place monitoring and bug detection to secure
facilities or to understand channel utilization for dynamic signal allocation. The
complete surveillance system allows government agencies and enterprises to locate
unauthorized RF signals more quickly and cost-effectively, even in difficult indoor
environments, such as large corporate office buildings, government facilities, and
other secure locations. The system is comprised of a ThinkRF R5x50 Real-Time Spectrum
Analyzer, combined with the Kestrel Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM)
Professional Software, as well as omni-directional or optional directional antennae,
and all other required equipment in an easily transportable case. The fully integrated,
networkable system can be deployed...
 For a given semiconductor compound, the maximum
operational speed of a transistor is governed pretty much by its gate thickness.
Capacitance and impurities along with lithography precision and accuracy are the
culprits. Shrinking gate sizes and growing crystals with greater purity has driven
operational speeds upward significantly over the years. An equivalent set of issues
plagued vacuum tube development a century ago. The physical spacing of grid elements
wrt each other as well as to the cathode and plate placed an
upper limit on amplification bandwidth. As always, judicious study of the underlying
causes led to the development of new designs that, along with improved manufacturing
techniques, overcame existing barriers and, also as always, exposed yet a new set
of limiting criteria for conquering...
 "A team of researchers affiliated with several
institutions in France and one in the U.S. has found that
objects of different mass dropped in space fall at a rate within 2E-12% of each
other. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the
group describes their satellite-based physics study and what they learned from it.
Most everyone has heard the story of Galileo dropping two different sized cannon
balls from the Tower of Pisa in the 17th century to demonstrate his theory that
in the absence of air resistance, two objects will fall at the same rate. Einstein
later refined the theory and added it to his Theory of General Relativity. Since
that time, many people have tested the theory, and it has always been confirmed.
Still, some physicists believe that there are bound to be exceptions to the theory
because of the disconnect between general relativity and quantum mechanics..."
 Since 2003, Bittele Electronics has consistently
provided low-volume, electronic contract manufacturing (ECM) and turnkey PCB assembly
services. It specializes in board level turnkey
PCB assembly for design
engineers needing low volume or prototype multi-layer printed circuit boards.
Free
Passive Components: Bittele Electronics is taking one further
step in its commitment of offering the best service to clients of its PCB assembly
business. Bittele is now offering common passive components to its clients FREE
of Charge.
Monday 27
 Upon seeing this advertisement by Bell Laboratories
for their "Twistor"
form of magnetic memory data storage in a 1958 issue of Radio News magazine,
my thought was that it was just another flash in the pan, so to speak, in the history
of breakthrough, paradigm-changing inventions. It was a variation of the non-volatile
magnetic core memory that used sections of ferromagnetic wire twisted around copper
wire in such a way that electrical currents directed to particular intersections
in an x-y grid would cause a magnetic orientation to be set (store a bit) and a
set or read and sense wires permitted detection of the stored magnetic field to
be determined (read a bit). The Twistor was hailed as a much more manufacturable
form of the magnetic core memory, which required production workers with small hands
and finger to manually thread...
 News headlines are filled with stories about
how certain segments of the society are routinely excluded from participation in
activities which have been historically 'dominated' by adult white males. Not only
have 'outsiders' been prevented from engagement, but, you would likely conclude
based on the invective words that drip from the pens and/or mouths of those reporting,
tireless campaigns have been mounted to see to it that exclusiveness continues.
I will agree that there have been instances of preferential treatment by some groups
and people, but I also know many attempts have been made over the decades to attract
other than white males into all kinds of activities normally associated with white
males. In fact, it is not a stretch to say many specialty groups go out of their
way to make a big deal out of non-typical persons interested in joining. Here is
one of many examples that appeared in a 1935 (yes, 1935) edition of Short Wave Craft
where the editor, Hugo Gernsback,
encouraged women and girls to get involved in amateur radio...
 RF Cafe typically receives 8,000-15,000
website visits each weekday and about half that on weekends.
RF Cafe is a favorite of engineers, technicians, hobbyists, and students all
over the world. With more than 8,000 pages in the Google search index,
RF Cafe returns in favorable
positions on many types of key searches, both for text and images. New content
is added on a daily basis, which keeps the major search engines interested enough
to spider it multiple times each day. Items added on the homepage often can be found
in a Google search within a few hours of being posted. I also re-broadcast homepage
items on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. If you need your company news to be seen,
RF Cafe is the place to be. Advertising
begins at $45/month.
 "Analog machine learning hardware offers
a promising alternative to digital counterparts as a more energy efficient and faster
platform. Wave physics based on acoustics and optics is a natural candidate to build
analog processors for time-varying signals. In a new report on Science Advances,
Tyler W. Hughes and a research team in the departments of Applied Physics and Electrical
Engineering at Stanford University, California, identified mapping between the dynamics
of
wave physics and computation in recurrent neural networks. The map indicated
the possibility of training physical wave systems to learn complex features in temporal
data using standard training techniques used for neural networks. As proof of principle,
they demonstrated an inverse-designed..."
Windfreak Technologies designs, manufactures,
tests and sells high value USB powered and controlled radio frequency products such
as RF signal generators, RF synthesizers, RF power detectors, mixers, up / downconverters.
Since the conception of WFT, we have introduced products that have been purchased
by a wide range of customers, from hobbyists to education facilities to government
agencies. Worldwide customers include Europe, Australia, and Asia. Please contact
Windfreak today to learn how they might help you with your current project.
 Copper Mountain Technologies (CMT) has produced
a series of videos to help users of its diverse line of VNAs get the most out of
their extensive capabilities. Proprietary features in both hardware and software
supplies VNAs designed by CMT with capabilities far beyond similar equipment by
other companies. This video entitled, "Time
Domain Reflectometry Measurements with a Vector Network Analyzer," is one of
a series of videos that can be found on the Copper Mountain Technologies website.
Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) has traditionally been performed using a fast oscilloscope
and a very sharp impulse or step type excitation. Reflections from the excitation
are measured at the source and distance and the magnitude...
 Innovative Power Products (IPP) has over
30 years of experience designing & manufacturing RF & microwave passive
components. Their high power, broadband couplers, combiners, resistors, baluns, terminations and attenuators
are fabricated using the latest materials and design tools available, resulting
in unrivaled product performance. Applications in military, medical, industrial
and commercial markets. Take a couple minutes to visit their website and see how
IPP can help you today.
Sunday 26
 As with my hundreds of previous
engineering and science-themed crossword puzzles, this one for January 26, 2020,
contains only clues and terms associated with engineering, science, physical, astronomy,
mathematics, chemistry, etc., which I have built up over nearly two decades. Many
new words and company names have been added that had not even been created when
I started in the year 2002. 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, for reasons which, if you don't already know, might
surprise you...
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Qorvo Acquires Decawave
and Custom MMIC
