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4 of the June 2021 homepage
archives. Monday the 14th
 In 1962 when this Bell Telephone Laboratories
infomercial appeared in Electronics World magazine, scientists were in
the early stages of developing communications via light signals. Most lasers (light
amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) were still of the ruby type mentioned
here. In fact, it was only two years previous in 1960 that Theodore Maiman created
the world's first "optical
maser" using a ruby. The term "maser" ("microwave amplification by stimulated
emission of radiation") seems to be a bit of a misnomer, but under the proper conditions
it could operate in the visual or infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
"Could coherent light, for example, be sent through protecting pipes to provide
high-capacity communication channels between cities?," the copy asks. We now know
the answer to that question as optic fiber now spans the globe, literally. This
is one of the main reasons I like to post these items from vintage magazines: to
remind - or maybe to inform for the first time - people of who it was that developed
all the knowledge taken for granted by such a large fraction of the population...
  Barry Manz, who is always on top the the latest
technology trends, has a new article on the Microwave Product Digest website entitled,
"Looking Forward
to 6G." In it, he retraces the roots of cellular service back to 1G, describes
the current state of 5G (GPP Release 17 ), and predicts how 6G will be different.
"6G proposes the use of unimaginably high frequencies in the sub-terahertz region,
for which the required technologies are currently in the very early stages of development
or simply do not exist. For that matter, many of the applications it is designed
to serve do not exist either in tangible form. So, it is easy to speculate what
all of these will be, but in general, the goal is to allow instantaneous communications
between people, devices, vehicles, and the surrounding environment. It will also
rely heavily on AI and machine learning to accommodate the needs of everything from
autonomous vehicles to high-definition holographic gaming..."
 Anatech Electronics (AEI) manufactures and
supplies RF and microwave filters for military and commercial communication
systems, providing standard LP, HP, BP, BS, notch, diplexer, and custom RF filters,
and RF products. Standard RF filter and cable assembly products are published in
our website database for ease of procurement. Custom RF filters designs are used
when a standard cannot be found, or the requirements dictate a custom approach for
your military and commercial communications needs. Sam Benzacar's monthly newsletters
address contemporary wireless subjects. Please visit Anatech today to see how they
can help your project succeed.
 SourceToday just published their
2021 Top 50 Electronics Distributors List. Arrow Electronics came in at #1,
with Avnet following at #2. Digi-Key Digi Key ranked #3, followed by Allied Electronics
and Mouser. Newark is #9. Advantage Electric Supply brought up the rear at #50.
Mouser, sponsor of the survey, came in at #7, which in this instance is probably
finishing at #1 lest they be accused of influencing the results. I could not find
ant information regarding how rankings were assigned.
 This is one of the earliest examples I have
seen (and I've seen many) of an electronics article that was written in a conversational
tone rather than in the typical stoic, all-business, just-the-facts type prose.
In fact, you would be hard pressed to discern it from a contemporary article in
QST magazine. Author Davis describes his process of interfacing 52 Ω
coaxial cable to a multi-element beam antenna. The
gamma match has the advantage in such an application of being usable when the
center of a driven element is directly grounded to the antenna boom. Most other
types of feed systems require that the driven element be isolated from the boom.
BTW, SWR ratios are written here with slashes as the ratio component separator rather
than a colon; that is 2:1 is written as 2/1...
 PCB Directory is the largest directory of
Printed Circuit
Board (PCB) Manufacturers, Assembly houses, and Design Services on the Internet.
We have listed the leading printed circuit board manufacturers around the world
and made them searchable by their capabilities - Number of laminates used, Board
thicknesses supported, Number of layers supported, Types of substrates (FR-4, Rogers,
flexible, rigid), Geographical location (U.S., China), kinds of services (manufacturing,
fabrication, assembly, prototype), and more. Fast turn-around on quotations for
PCB fabrication and assembly.
 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 15,000 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. If you need your company news to be seen, RF Cafe
is the place to be.
Sunday the 13th
 This
Radio
Theme Crossword Puzzle for June 13 has many words and clues related to RF, microwave,
and mm-wave engineering, optics, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and other technical
subjects. Also, it contains at least five (5) instances of this puzzle's theme word.
As always, this crossword contains no names of politicians, mountain ranges, exotic
foods or plants, movie stars, or anything of the sort unless it/he/she is related
to this puzzle's technology theme (e.g., Reginald Denny or the Tunguska event in
Siberia). The technically inclined cruciverbalists amongst us will appreciate the
effort. Enjoy!
Friday the 11th
 According to the United Nations Office for
Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA),
11,444 objects have been launched into space from Sputnik up until the date
of this writing (June 11, 2021). That includes satellites, space exploration probes,
sounding rockets, manned missions, etc. With the advent of OneWeb, StarLink, and
other kilosatellite constellations being launched, the number will increase by thousands
more in the next few years. Most are in low earth orbit (LEO) with limited lifetimes
before particle drag eventually degrades their orbit to where they burn up in the
atmosphere. Those in high orbits - up to geostationary altitudes† - will physically
last well beyond their operational lifetimes. When Hugo Gernsback wrote this article
for Radio-Electronics magazine at the end of 1958, he says there were 34 satellites
in orbit...
 This vintage
Heathkit
HD-1481 Remote Coax Switch kit is one the latest unbuilt Heathkit kits
which appeared on eBay. I have been saving the images in order to preserve the history.
The constantly growing list is at the lower right. The first instance I could find
for HD-1481 being offered for sale was in the Fall 1984 Heathkit catalog, at a cost
of $89.95 ($230.61 in 2021 money per the BLS). A comparable remote coaxial switch
today is the Ameritron RCS-4 at $199.95, so the price has remained fairly constant.
Use a single feedline to select from up to four antennas. The Heathkit HD-1481 Remote
Coaxial Switch is a tower or mast-mounted RF coaxial switch that you can conveniently
control from inside your house. the Switch consists of a remote unit - outdoor switching
network - and an indoor control unit...
 "A prototype
multibeam antenna passed its first tests, bringing it one step closer to filling
the U.S. Air Force's desire for ensured connectivity through multiple satellite
constellations. Working in collaboration with satellite operator SES Government
Systems, Isotropic Systems is assessing whether its new multibeam antenna can connect
to multiple satellites simultaneously, even if they are in vastly different orbits,
the developers explained in a June 3 announcement about the tests. The Air Force
doesn't want to rely on any single constellation in any single orbital range. As
laid out in the U.S. Space Force's Fighting SATCOM Vision, the military wants to
ensure that its systems can communicate..."
 Skyworks is pleased to introduce the
SKY66122-11, an RF front-end module (FEM) for Wi-SUN and other proprietary technologies
operating in unlicensed bands. Designed to enable greater range extension, the SKY66122-11
provides more than two times the range of standalone SoCs, greater power delivery
to antenna and low power consumption for optimal battery operation. This new solution
is uniquely designed for IoT applications including end points and access points
for smart grid and smart metering, smart city, industrial IoT sensors, surveillance
and more. The SKY66122-11 is a high-performance, highly integrated RF front-end
module (FEM) designed for high-power ISM band, Wi-SUN, and other IOT applications
operating in the 863 to 928 MHz frequency range...
 Long distance communications (DX) thrives
on ionized atmosphere. It causes boundary layers at various altitudes that function
as reflecting surfaces and thereby facilitate the "bouncing" of radio waves off
the sky so that they bend around the curvature of the Earth. Early sounding rocket
experiments verified that indeed
ionized layers of atmosphere did exist as suspected based on theories of aurora
activity during periods that correlated with observed solar flare activity. Intense
solar flare periods are associated with large numbers of sun spots, since coronal
mass ejections (CMEs) are produced which supply enormous amounts of electrons traveling
at high speed earthward. CME matter of course shoots in all directions, but only
those moving in the direction of the Earth matter to us. Amateur and professional,
as well as military and academic communications practitioners learned to exploit
not only the fairly regular diurnal ionization...
 With more than 1000
custom-built stencils, this has got to be the most comprehensive set of
Visio Stencils available for RF, analog, and digital system and schematic
drawings! Every object has been built to fit proportionally on the provided
A-, B- and C-size drawing page templates (or can use your own). Stencils are provided
for equipment racks and test equipment, system block diagrams, conceptual drawings,
and schematics. Unlike previous versions, these are NOT Stencils, but instead are
all contained on tabbed pages within a single Visio document. That puts everything
in front of you in its full glory. Just copy and paste what you need on your drawing.
The file format is XML so everything plays nicely with Visio 2013 and later...
 News broke recently of
COVID-19 vaccine trials begin on children 6 months to 11 years old. All current
COVID-19 vaccines are experimental and are approved under an emergency order. Parents
or legal guardians must give consent, of course. Here's a conspiracy theory for
you: The government, being the legal guardians of hundreds of thousands
of accompanied minors flooding across the southern border, can approve using them
as Guinea pigs. Hopefully, someone will determine whether there is a coincidence
in locations where the vaccine trials are being held and where the children are
being relocated. Does this comply with
Nuremberg Code principles? Remember you saw it here first.
 Empower RF Systems is a global leader in
power amplifier solutions. Empower RF Systems is an established and technologically
superior supplier of high power solid state RF & microwave amplifiers. Our offerings
include modules, intelligent rack-mount amplifiers, and multi-function RF Power
Amplifier solutions to 6 GHz in broadband and band specific designs. Output
power combinations range from tens of watts to multi-kilowatts. Unprecedented size,
weight and power reduction of our amplifiers is superior to anything in the market
at similar frequencies and power levels.
Thursday the 10th
 You can see by the news items in this 1962
issue of Electronics World "Recent
Developments in Electronics" column that electronics was make a big transition
in the early 1960s from vacuum tubes to semiconductors. As covered in other magazine
articles of the era, the tiny nuvistor triode tube was a last-ditch effort to keep
vacuum tubes relevant as transistors were making a move into the industry. Computers,
with the increasing availability of semiconductor elements, were beginning to no
longer be the purview of universities, government agencies, and large corporations.
Rather than requiring hundreds of square feet of floor area and massive cooling
systems, newer designs could fit in an office space. Thin film microcircuits took
up a small fraction of the volume needed by traditional printed circuit assemblies
(get a load of the silver Mercury dime used for size comparison). A "high-speed"
serial binary adder had been built using tunnel diode and coaxial delay lines that
blazed along at 125 MHz...
 The "SMD
Air Coil Inductor Design Kit" by Wurth Elektronik (P/N 74491) contains a wide
variety of surface mount, wire-wound, air core inductors for use while prototyping
circuits. Digi-Key sells this exact kit for $143.85, and usually they have the best
prices anywhere. All the inductors that came with it are present and have never
been used or even removed from their packaging. Note: This kit is a coupe years
old, so reference the chart in the box top regarding what parts are included. You
can be the proud owner of this kit for only $65 + shipping. I can have PayPal send
you an online-payable invoice. Please send me an e-mail with your shipping information
and I can get you a total price. "Why be Würth-less when you don't have to be?"...
 "Sceye, a developer of
high-altitude platform stations (HAPS), announced that it successfully launched
its stratospheric platforms and flew at an altitude of 64,600 ft. The announcement
comes on the heels of Sceye's long-range record for maintaining data connection
in OpenRAN at a distance of 140km. With financial support from the State of New
Mexico, the company also joins a consortium of New Mexico-based telecommunications
companies and tribal entities to pilot the delivery of universal broadband access
to the Navajo Nation. Sceye CEO Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen said that they view
the successful flight and the record-setting data connection as a significant milestone
for their technology, one that could dissolve the rural broadband barrier..."
 On a fairly regular occasion someone will
write to one of the QST magazine columnists or post on a forum asking about
information on a particular
antenna configuration he recalled seeing printed many moons ago, but can no
longer find anything on it. Fortunately, the columnists are guys who have been in
the Ham game for a many decades and not only remember what the writer references,
but knows where to dig out the original info. Even with the plethora of resources
available on the Web, some things still cannot be found because nobody yet has posted
it. That is one of my prime motivations for doing what I do - that is to help make
useful data available. That is the reason I also scan and post schematics and service
pages for vintage radios...
 "Intelligence is a constant. The smarter
your phone is the dumber you are." - Anon. Scientists have assigned
a word to describe the psychological condition where a person experiences fear and/or
anxiety over not having access to a cellphone -- "nomophobia"
(short for "no mobile
phobia"
). Per Wikipedia: "...cell
phones are 'possibly the biggest non-drug addiction of the 21st century,' and college
students may spend up to nine hours every day on their phones, which can lead to
dependence on such technologies as a driver of modern life and an example of 'a
paradox of technology' that is both freeing and enslaving." "...young adults and
adolescents are more likely to suffer from nomophobia." I only carry a cellphone
while travelling out of town, and then turn it on only when I need it. Governments
and corporations know practically nothing about my daily movements.
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 15,000 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. If you need your company news to be seen, RF Cafe
is the place to be.
Anatech Electronics (AEI) manufactures and
supplies RF and microwave filters for military and commercial communication
systems, providing standard LP, HP, BP, BS, notch, diplexer, and custom RF filters,
and RF products. Standard RF filter and cable assembly products are published in
our website database for ease of procurement. Custom RF filters designs are used
when a standard cannot be found, or the requirements dictate a custom approach for
your military and commercial communications needs. Sam Benzacar's monthly newsletters
address contemporary wireless subjects. Please visit Anatech today to see how they
can help your project succeed.
Wednesday the 9th
 This
electronics-themed crossword puzzle was published in the August 1962 issue of
Electronic World. Crosswords were a fairly standard feature in magazines
up through the late last century. Keeping with tradition , every week (usually)
I create an engineering-themed crossword puzzle that uses a hand-selected collection
of a couple thousand words and clues from a dictionary I built over the last 20
years. Unlike most crosswords seen in technical and hobby publications, RF Cafe
crosswords contain only relevant words - never filling in with the names of movie
stars, obscure countries, or portmanteaus relating to social oddities...
 "Like all metals, silver, copper, and gold
are conductors. Electrons flow across them, carrying heat and electricity. While
gold is a good conductor under any conditions, some materials have the property
of behaving like metal conductors only if temperatures are high enough; at low temperatures,
they act like insulators and do not do a good job of carrying electricity. In other
words, these unusual materials go from acting like a chunk of gold to acting like
a piece of wood as temperatures are lowered. Physicists have developed theories
to explain this so-called
metal-insulator
transition, but the mechanisms behind the transitions are not always clear..."
 This vintage
Heathkit IM-2400, 512 MHz Handheld Frequency Counter kit is one the latest
unbuilt Heathkit kits which appeared on eBay. I have been saving the images in order
to preserve the history. The constantly growing list is at the lower right. The
first instance I could find for IM-2400 being offered for sale was in the Winter
1981 Heathkit catalog, at a cost of $139.95 ($429.59 in 2021 money per the BLS)
as a kit or $179.95($552.37 in 2021) assembled and tested. A comparable handheld
frequency counter today is the TTi PFM3000 3 GHz Hand-Held Counter, at a cost
just south of $200...
 Isaac Newton famously said, "If I have seen
farther it is from standing on the shoulders of giants." His statement was figurative,
of course, but I can now say literally that I have stood on the shoulders of a giant.
Somewhere recently, I don't recall where, I read that although American Radio Relay
League (ARRL) founder
Hiram Percy Maxim was born in New York and spent most of his adult life in Connecticut,
he was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery located in Hagerstown, Maryland. That just happens
to be where Melanie and I stop a couple times each year to visit her mother. We
lived there ourselves for about three years in the early 1990s. That day, I surely
stood if not exactly atop Mr. Maxim's shoulders, then very nearly so as I maneuvered
to take this picture of his grave marker. Why is he buried in Maryland, you might
ask? That is where his wife's family's burial plot is located. Mrs. Maxim was the
daughter of former Maryland senator and governor William T. Hamilton. Hamilton,
in fact, helped establish the Rose Hill Cemetery in the mid 1880s...
 Res-Net Microwave has a complete line of
precision RF & microwave components including attenuators, terminations,
resistors, and diode detectors for commercial, military, and space applications.
Products range from the small flange type to large 2,000 watt connectorized power
attenuators and/or terminations at frequencies up to 26.5 GHz. In-house photo
etch and laser trim capability. The company is a leader in development and production
of the films required for these type of RF/microwave components. Please check out
Res-Net Microwave's website to see how they can help with your current project.
Tuesday the 8th
 This is probably the handiest set of
coil winding nomographs I have seen. Created by Donald Moffat, they appeared
in the August 1962 issue of Electronics-World magazine. Sure, a calculator
app might get the job done more quickly and to a greater number of decimal places,
but the beauty of using the graphical approach is being able to get a mental picture
of where all the numbers are in relation to each other. Besides, calculating a coil
value to more than a couple significant digits is an exercise in vanity unless you
are using a EM simulator where you are also defining dozens of physical parameters
for the conductor, insulation, nearby structures, temperature, etc. The author explains
how to use the dimensions of a coil to predict its inductance, distributed capacitance,
and self-resonant frequency. With nomograms "calculations" are performed simply
by drawing straight lines across the scales. Along with parameters like wire size...
 "Wirepas, an IoT connectivity company from
Finland, has Developed an Infrastructure-less and Autonomous Technology, now becoming
the first
non-cellular 5G. The new 5G Standard for IoT challenges the cellular monopoly
No middleman, No infrastructure, No subscription fees, Free dedicated global frequency,
Dense network capabilities, One tenth of the cost Wirepas, a Finnish company on
a mission to change enterprise IoT, today announces the world's first purpose-built
non-cellular 5G technology, operating on a free global 1.9 GHz spectrum. The new
standard lets any enterprise set up and manage its own network autonomously with
no operators anywhere in the world..."
 RF Cascade Workbook 2018 is the next phase in the evolution
of RF Cafe's long-running series, RF Cascade Workbook. Chances are you
have never used a spreadsheet quite like this (click here for screen capture). 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...
 You could take this 1950 Radio &
Television News magazine article and substitute "drone" for "intercontinental
bomber" and it would do a good job of describing present-day capabilities for global
defense based on modern communications. Get a load of the photo of an Air Force
technician doing repair on a radar chassis - using a Weller soldering gun! Compare
that to today's method of circuit repair that often requires a hot air tool, tweezers,
and an eye loupe. Actually, I can remember replacing fried resistors in my USAF
group's radar system using just such a soldering gun. Most of the chassis had point-to-point
connections where components connected to bifurcated terminals or terminal tab strips.
The
Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) mobile trailer pictured looks a lot like the
Equipment Trailer for our MPN-14 search radar system, except the search radar antenna
was narrower (probably for a narrower beam pattern)...
 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. For anyone seeking a way to offload surplus or obsolete
equipment, they offer a trade-in program or they will buy the equipment from you.
Some vintage items are available fully calibrated. Please check out Axiom Test Equipment
today!
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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