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4 of the June 2021 homepage
archives. Monday the 21st
 August 1962 was a good month for lovers of
nomographs and infographics. Electronics World magazine published three
articles feeding the mania, including this one, Sound | Audio | Music Infographic,
and Coil-Winding Charts. All make good printed references to keep on-hand. One nomograph
converts the ratio of two power levels (in watts, milliwatts, etc.) to equivalent
decibels of gain. It can also be used to find the unknown power level if one is
known and the gain in dB is known. The other nomograph facilitates graphically calculating
voltage or power based on the source resistance (assumed to have only real components;
i.e., no complex values). If you are not sure how to keep units constant for voltage,
power, and resistance (milli, micro, etc.), calculate using the base units and then
convert afterward...
 Qorvo, a leading provider of innovative RF
solutions that connect the world, is now shipping the world's first commercially
available family of
electronically reconfigurable dual-band (S- and X-band) GaN power amplifiers.
These patented PAs support a revolutionary shift in radar architecture for defense,
weather and commercial avionics. The QPA0007 and QPA0004 are the first commercially
available GaN PAs that can be rapidly reconfigured for operation between S- and
X-bands. This enables a single radar platform to be used across multiple applications,
offering precise long-range and short-range capabilities. This eliminates the need
for independent systems, saving size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C). Now designers
can dramatically reduce the BOM and footprint by as much as 50% while improving
overall performance...
 This 1957 Radio & Television News
magazine article purposes to set the record straight about the difference between
John A. Fleming's "thermionic
valve diode" rectifier, which did not produce signal amplification, and de Forest's
Audion tube, which did provide amplification. U.S. patent number 841387, "Device
for Amplifying Feeble Electrical Currents," was issued to Lee de Forest on January
15, 1907, a little over a year after Fleming received patent 803684 for his "Instrument
for Converting Alternating Electric Currents into Continuous Current" on November
7, 1905. Unlike the contest between pro-Wright and pro-Whitehead camps who debate
which party/parties achieved the world's first manned flight which took off under
its own power, the record is very well documented regarding invention of the electronic
amplifier...
 Dr. Ray
Ridley, president of Ridley Engineering, began a comic series entitled "Ohm
Confinement" last year (2020) in response to the ridiculous lockdown policies
due to the Wuhan Virus epidemic. His satirical themes were drawn by artist Aya Shaheen.
Now going by the title of It started as "Adventures of Ohm," the series features
power electronics engineer (like Mr. Ridley)
Georg Ohm (named after the
real Mr. Ohm) working from home with three children: Meg, Mic, and Milli. Wife
Dr. Tera Ohm is quarantined in her hospital office, so he's on his own with
the kids most of the time. As with Adams' "Dilbert" comic, "Ohm" themes came from
both personal experiences and those of fellow engineers who submit their situations.
"Adventures of Ohm" appears on multiple websites, including Electronics Design,
Microwaves & RF, and Evaluation Engineering.
 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...
 LadyBug Technologies was founded in 2004
by two microwave engineers with a passion for quality microwave test instrumentation.
Our employees offer many years experience in the design and manufacture of the worlds
best vector network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, power meters and associated components.
The management team has additional experience in optical power testing, military
radar and a variety of programming environments including LabVIEW, VEE and other
languages often used in programmatic systems. Extensive experience in a broad spectrum
of demanding measurement applications. You can be assured that our Power Sensors
are designed, built, tested and calibrated without compromise.
Sunday the 20th
 This
Science
Theme Crossword Puzzle for June 20th has many words and clues related to RF,
microwave, and mm-wave engineering, optics, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and
other technical subjects. Also, it contains a message for this special day (celebrated
in the USA and other countries). 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 18th
 Here is an unusual twist in waveform recognition
presented by Radio-Electronics' and Popular Electronics' quizmaster,
Robert Balin. If you happen to be a former analog television repairman, then you
will probably recognize the answers based on your many years of diagnosing faulty
horizontal or vertical
sweep circuits. If not, then you might need to strain the "little gray cells"
a bit, as Agatha Christie's premier sleuth Hercule Poirot might say. The instructions
say to assume that if you choose the horizontal sweep sawtooth to be the errant
signal, then assume the vertical sweep sawtooth is correct, and vice versa. Right
off the bat, waveform 8 is unique enough to easily identify the sweep that would
produce it since only one has two repeating components. Most of the others can be
readily deduced, too, by mentally following the x and y points as the "correct"
sweep...
 "An international team of researchers has
developed a
mid-infrared spectrometer smaller than the diameter of a human hair. With potential
applications that range from detecting greenhouse gases to making self-driving vehicles
safer, there has been a great deal of interest in recent years in developing compact,
on-chip spectrometers. Traditional spectrometers, which measure the spectral information
of light, are bulky and expensive. An on-chip spectrometer would greatly expand
the applications and accessibility of the technology. Toward this goal, a team of
researchers in the U.S., Israel, and Japan has developed an ultracompact mid-infrared
spectrometer. The findings were recently published in Nature Photonics. The device
incorporates black phosphorus (BP), a material..."
 The
medical x-ray machine shown here reminds me of the "Illudium Q-36 Explosive
Space Modulator" contraption Marvin the Martian wanted to use in "Hare-Way to the
Stars" to disintegrate the Earth (because it blocks his view of Venus). Of course
our hero Bugs Bunny thwarts his plan, whereupon Marvin asks, "Where's the kaboom?"
Can you imagine being fraught with cancer and getting strapped into a chair with
that huge hypodermic-needle-looking thingy pointed at you, as shown in this 1959
issue of Popular Electronics magazine? The Caduceus sword in the pic doesn't help
matters, either. The trauma of such an experience might have been worse than the
treatment for some people. As usual the pioneers took the arrows so that we can
benefit from the treatments enjoyed today, and the equipment does not look nearly
as intimidating...
 <-- My saved search on eBay for unbuilt Heathkit equipment just turned up this
IM-5258 Harmonic Distortion Analyzer kit. The IM-5258 is in its original packaging.
A "professional grade" THD analyzer (low as 0.03%), 5 Hz to 100 kHz w/5%
full scale accuracy. Here is a
YouTube video. It originally
appeared in the 1970s, and in the
Heathkit Christmas 1979 catalog (p65) the price was $229.95 ($852.64 in 2021 money) unbuilt
and $330.00 built and tested. The auction begins at a whopping $1,648, which seems
way overpriced, but if you are interested in obtaining one of these unbuilt kits,
then keep a watch on it because the price could be lowered. If it does not sell,
chances are it will be re-listed at a lower price. BTW, I receive no compensation
for promoting this or any other items.
 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 ...
 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.
Thursday the 17th
 According to the article in a 1944 issue
of Radio News magazine,
phosphors were discovered in the 17th century by an Italian physicist. However,
they remained primarily a scientific curiosity until a practical use for them was
found in cathode ray tubes. Phosphors efficiently convert energy of various forms
(beta rays, ultraviolet rays, and others) into visible light. They are available
in a wide variety of colors and exhibit a "memory" which allows them to be used
for storing an image (or other information) for seconds, minutes, hours, or even
days. Anyone old enough to remember the old analog storage oscilloscopes is familiar
with phosphorescent memory. As with many other technologies, phosphor knowledge
gained significant advances during World War II, and the public was promised
virtually limitless new conveniences based on those technologies once the nasty
war was out of the way...
 Triad RF Systems, a leading designer and
manufacturer of innovative RF/Microwave amplifiers and integrated radio systems
for challenging environments, presents their newest Tech Brief entitled, "Key
Considerations for a Successful Custom RF Amplifier Design." To optimize the
RF amplifier section of your communications subsystem several factors must be considered
before the design process even begins. What are the unique environmental conditions,
the exact input DC Power and output RF Power requirements, and the ultimate size,
weight, power (SWaP) objectives? Are you aware of the best tradeoffs to make? What
about the compromises related to cost, design complexity, circuit stability...
 RF Superstore launched in 2017, marking
the return of Murray Pasternack, founder of Pasternack Enterprises, to the RF and
microwave Industry. Pasternack fundamentally changed the way RF components were
sold. Partner Jason Wright manages day-to-day operations, while working closely
with Mr. Pasternack to develop RF Superstore into a world class RF and
microwave
component supplier. RF coaxial connectors & adapters, coaxial cable &
cable assemblies, surge protectors, attenuators. Items added daily. Free shipping
on orders over $25. We're leading the way again!
 This is really clever. Appearing in the March
1955 edition of Popular Electronics, "The
Electronic Husband" is one wife's attempt to quantify her husband's interest
in all things electronic by adapting forms of Ohm's Law to fit observed behavior.
In the process of writing the parody, Mrs. Jeanne DeGood demonstrates a good basic
knowledge of Mr. DeGood's second passion. I think after all the articles that
Melanie has proof read for me that she probably knows a lot of these equations just
as well.
 There are plenty of trite old saying about
failure and how sometimes it is
necessary
to fail in order to ultimately succeed. After all, people will say, Thomas Edison
tried a couple thousand different alloys for his electric incandescent light bulb
(now deemed by Cancel Culture warriors to be evil and a destroyer of the Earth)
before finally arriving at tungsten. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
No pain, no gain. That sort of thing. Personally, I hate pain and have never felt
like I had more character because of having suffered pain. First pass success is
my preference on everything. If there is a parallel philosophy useful to illustrate
how dumb it is to extol any virtues that failure might have, it is a quote from
George Patton regarding
the oft-touted nobility of dying for one's country: "Now I want you to remember
that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You won it by making the
other poor dumb bastard die for his country..."
 With more than 1000
custom-built symbols, this has got to be the most comprehensive set of
Visio Symbols 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). Symbols 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...
 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.
Wednesday the 16th
 According to author David Lachenbruch - and
others writing on the state of
commercial FM broadcasting - market pundits declared the radio medium dead in
the late 1940s / early 1950s as television experienced a rapid rise in the post-war
years, especially after the FCC lifted its moratorium on issuing new TV station
licenses in 1952. AM radio had already ensconced itself as the news and music delivery
source of choice in the majority of households, businesses, and automobiles, and
there were ample transmitting stations to provide wide area coverage. Sure, static
in the AM broadcast due to man-made (QRM; e.g., sparking motor brushes) and natural
(QRN; e.g., lightning) noise was annoying, but being relieved of its usually temporary
interference was hardly worth the investment in new radios broadcasting equipment
and receivers. That belief pretty much proved true for nearly a decade, but then
as the novelty of TV began to wear off and consumers...
 "Nearly 100% of
all-carbon-based transistors are reclaimed while retaining future functionality
of the materials. There is an ever-growing pile of discarded electronic devices
that either don't work anymore or have been cast away in favor of a newer model.
Part of the problem is that electronic devices are difficult to recycle. While scraps
of copper, aluminum, and steel can be recycled, the silicon chips at the heart of
the devices cannot. Engineers now have developed a completely recyclable, fully
functional transistor made out of three carbon-based inks that can be easily printed
onto paper or other flexible, environmentally friendly surfaces. Carbon nanotubes..."
 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.
 This "Electronic
Alphabet Quiz" from a 1963 issue of Popular Electronics magazine is a bit trickier
than others because it requires you to think abstractly rather than concretely.
Quiz-maker Robert Balin presents a series of circuits and components along with
the first letters of the related topics. Your mission, should you decide to accept,
is to match the item to the letter. The example provided is matching the letter
"J" to a drawing of that type of half-wave antenna. I have to admit that my attempt
at matching all of the items and letters was taking a lot of time, so I quit before
finishing all of them; my hard head is better at concrete thinking...
 This assortment of custom-designed themes
by RF Cafe includes T-Shirts, Mouse Pads, Clocks, Tote Bags, Coffee Mugs and Steins,
Purses, Sweatshirts, and Baseball Caps. Choose from amazingly clever "We Are the World's
Matchmakers" Smith chart design or the "Engineer's Troubleshooting Flow Chart."
My "Matchmaker's" design has been ripped off by other people and used on their products,
so please be sure to purchase only official RF Cafe gear. My markup is only a paltry
50¢ per item - Cafe Press gets the rest of your purchase price. These would make
excellent gifts for husbands, wives, kids, significant others, and for handing out
at company events or as rewards for excellent service. It's a great way to help
support RF Cafe. Thanks...
 PCBONLINE supplies complex rigid and flex-rigid
printed circuit
boards (PCBs)，and one-stop production with maximum flexibility ranging from
prototype sample to mass production. Rigid-flex, HDI, multilayer, IC-loadboard,
LCP 5G optical module, ceramic, MCPCB. Materials include Rogers, Taconic, Arlon,
Isola, Bergquist, Kapton, Panasonic, and more. After more than 15 years of continuous
efforts, PCBONLINE constantly updates our equipment, improves our technology, and
serves you with the highest quality. Cost and delivery quotations online without
the need for multiple phone call and/or e-mails.
Tuesday the 15th
 Heap many moons ago I was in the
electrical service business. Prior to enlisting in the USAF as an air traffic
control radar technician, I worked for electrical contractors wiring houses and
buildings. After a couple years of doing that, I started with a different company
where most of my tasks were doing troubleshooting and what is called "old work."
Old work is trade lingo for where you install circuits in preexisting residences
and buildings. In fact, if you go to Lowes or Home Depot and ask the attendant for
an old work box, he will direct you to the electrical boxes that are designed to
be inserted into a hole cut in a wall or ceiling to install a new receptacle, switch,
light fixtures, etc. ...but I digress. For the vast majority of service calls I
made, the customers were very friendly and glad to have me (or anyone able to help)
there fixing what was broken or making a good situation better. Occasionally, however,
the person would be a real pain in the donkey...
 "A team led by Carnegie's Thomas Shiell
and Timothy Strobel developed a new method for synthesizing a
novel crystalline form of silicon with a hexagonal structure that could potentially
be used to create next-generation electronic and energy devices with enhanced properties
that exceed those of the 'normal' cubic form of silicon used today. Their work is
published in Physical Review Letters. Silicon plays an outsized role in human life.
It is the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust. When mixed with other
elements, it is essential for many construction and infrastructure projects. And
in pure elemental form, it is crucial enough..."
 Antenova Ltd, UK-based manufacturer of antennas
and RF antenna modules for M2M and the IoT, is announcing a new flexible embedded
antenna for the next generation of small monitoring devices on North America's 915 MHz
ISM and LoRaWAN networks. This antenna, named
Fera, part no SRFI068, is a flexible printed circuit (FPC) antenna measuring
33 x 13 x 0.15 mm. FPC antennas do not require a ground plane to function,
which is an advantage in small designs where space is tight, as no empty space is
needed around the antenna on the PCB. This antenna is an FPC which can be bent or
curled and inserted precisely into a design and fixed in place by a self-adhesive
patch. This makes the integration of the antenna simpler and is practical for low
to medium manufacturing volumes. Fera is available in two shapes - horizontal and
vertical orientation, so there are two options for integrating it into a design.
It comes with an integral UFL IPEX connector in a choice of two standard cable lengths...
 That John T. Frye was a great short
story writer is evidenced by his decades-long production of the "Carl & Jerry"
series in Popular Electronics, and "Mac's Radio Service Shop" series in Radio &
Television News and Electronics-World magazines. Mr. Frye also wrote many other
short tech-oriented stories. It is easy to look over the fact that he also had artistic
skills as well as evidenced by the pencil drawings that accompanied each installment.
In this episode, our two teenaged electronics hobbyists build a resistor anemometer
to measure wind speed from within their basement workshop. In the usually storyline
style, one boy gives a lesson in circuit design while the other (also you, the reader)
is the attentive student...
 It was a lot of work, but I finally finished
a version of the "RF & Electronics Schematic & Block Diagram Symbols" that
works well with Microsoft Office™ programs Word™, Excel™, and Power Point™.
This is an equivalent of the extensive set of amplifier, mixer, filter, switch,
connector, waveguide, digital, analog, antenna, and other commonly used symbols
for system block diagrams and schematics created for Visio™. Each of the 1,000 or
so symbols was exported individually from Visio in the EMF file format, then imported
into Word on a Drawing Canvas. The EMF format allows an image to be scaled up or
down without becoming pixelated, so all the shapes can be resized in a document
and still look good. The imported symbols can also be UnGrouped into their original
constituent parts for editing. Check them out!
 Nova Microwave is a leader in technically
differentiated electronic and radio frequency Ferrite
Circulators
and Isolators that connect, protect and control critical commercial and military
wireless telecommunications systems. Our staff is dedicated to research and development
of standard and custom design quality Ferrite Circulators and Isolators from 380 MHz
to 26.5 GHz. Available in single or multi-junction topographies, the Nova Microwave
product line of is specifically designed for use in varied environmental and temperature
extremes.
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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