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Homepage Archive - May 2023 (page 1)

See Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | of the May 2023 homepage archives.

Sunday the 7th

Electronics Theme Crossword for May 7th

Electronics Theme Crossword Puzzle for May 7th, 2023 - RF CafeThis custom RF Cafe electronics-themed crossword puzzle for May 7th contains words and clues which pertain exclusively to the subjects of electronics, science, physics, mechanics, engineering, power distribution, astronomy, chemistry, etc. If you do see names of people or places, they are intimately related to the aforementioned areas of study. Being that "G" is the 7th letter of the alphabet, it is used as the first and/or last letter of many words in today's crossword puzzle. As always, you will find no references to numbnut movie stars or fashion designers. Need more crossword RF Cafe puzzles? A list at the bottom of the page links to hundreds of them dating back to the year 2000. Enjoy.

Get Your Custom-Designed RF Cafe Gear!

Custom-Designed RF-Themed Cups, T-Shirts, Mouse Pads, Clocks (Cafe Press) - RF CafeThis 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.

Many Thanks to San Francisco Circuits for Continued Support!

San Francisco CircuitsSF Circuits' specialty is in the complex, advanced technology of PCB fabrication and assembly, producing high quality multi-layered PCBs from elaborate layouts. With them, you receive unparalleled technical expertise at competitive prices as well as the most progressive solutions available. Their customers request PCB production that is outside the capabilities of normal circuit board providers. Please take a moment to visit San Francisco Circuits today. "Printed Circuit Fabrication & Assembly with No Limit on Technology or Quantity."

Friday the 5th

Electronics-Themed Comics

Electronics-Themed Comics, February 1967 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeTGIF; the weekend is just hours away. While you're waiting for the clock to get to quitting time, spend your final few minutes enjoying this triplet of electronics-themed comics that were in the February 1967 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine. The page 37 comic would probably be one of the last featuring a self-service vacuum tube tester as solid state TVs and radios were rapidly replacing tube types. According to Wikipedia, the first Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) went into service in June of 1967 (in the UK). That means the comic on page 92 was - most likely - an unintentional preview into a world with ATMs in nearly every entertainment venue, bank building, grocery and department store, and even government establishments. Like with telephone cell towers, surveillance cameras, and hypodermic needles on San Francisco streets, ATMs are everywhere you look nowadays. In-home television servicemen who often confronted circumstances similar to the page 93 comic must have gotten a real kick out of that one...

MEMS Microspeakers on Wafers

MEMS Microspeakers on Wafers - RF Cafe"The future of audio is silicon. That, at least, is the pitch from audio company xMEMS, which recently announced the availability of the world's 'only all silicon, solid-state fidelity micro speakers.' Designed by xMEMS and produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the speakers pair the consistency and efficiency of modern silicon fabrication with unique audio properties that, xMEMS says, traditional coil speakers can’t match. Brian Lucey, a mastering engineer with credits on nine Grammy-winning albums, is impressed. “It’s a huge, huge leap in phase accuracy that we've never heard before,” he tells IEEESpectrum. The company says the audible advantages of their silicon microspeakers are found in a technical aspect of audio quality that casual listeners rarely think about: phase distortion. This describes variation in the timing of low, mid, and high frequencies, and it’s an expected element of sound reproduction caused by limitations in traditional coil speakers. xMEMS also benefits from the excellent consistency..."

Electronics- Our Growing Industry

Electronics- Our Growing Industry, August 1958 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeToday's consumer electronics (CE) industry has an estimated value of around $980B per a Statista report, with projections going to $1,160B in 2028. In 1957, according to this article in Radio-Electronics magazine, the market value was reported to be $13.7B ($143B in 2023 dollars per the BLS inflation calculator). The world population in 1957 was 2.89B and has grown to 7.97B by 2023 (per Census.gov). That means population increased by a factor of 2.45 while the CE industry grew by a factor of 3.05. Within the margin of error of marketing expert estimates, that represents essentially flat growth. Fret not, though, because while the total spending on consumer electronics per capita might have been flat over a span of nearly 60 years, the effective cost per electronics product and the vastly improved functionality and reliability of electronics products has increased by a much larger factor (I won't even venture a guess at a number). There is also a much greater worldwide participation in the CE market now, which makes even a flat growth in constant dollars an better deal...

Wireless Device Testing Fundamentals Webinar

Wireless Device Testing Fundamentals - RF CafeThis "Wireless Device Testing Fundamentals"" webinar on May 17th introduces the many components and characteristics of a modern wireless device that need to be verified before a commercial launch. It includes an overview of the various test phases (from R&D to production), plus the types of testing challenges that occur when developing a modern wireless device. An overview of the key terminology used within the wireless device test industry, for example: Non-Signaling vs. Signaling & Callbox vs. Protocol test. In this webinar, you will learn more about: Typical test requirements from R&D to production Testing challenges for modern wireless devices Key terminology unique to the wireless device industry...

Klystron: Tube for Outer Space

Klystron: Tube for Outer Space, February 1961 Radio Electronics - RF CafeIf you have been in the RF and microwaves business for any length of time, you are probably familiar with a company named Varian. In the days before you did your parts shopping online, Varian catalogs populated the desks and bookshelves of many RF engineers who worked in the radar field, including mine. Did you know that it is named after the brothers Russell and Sigurd Varian, who started the business in 1948 to market their high power klystron tubes? Following a number of reorganizations, it was purchased by Agilent technologies in 2010. This story from a 1961 issue of Radio Electronics magazine does a real nice job explaining the workings of a klystron without getting too deep into the gory theoretical detail...

Post Your Engineer & Technician Job Openings on RF Cafe for Free

/jobs.htm">Engineering Job Board - RF CafeRF 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 /jobs.htm">job openings. HR department employees and/or managers of hiring companies are welcome to submit opportunities for posting at no charge. 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...

Thanks to Anritsu for Their Support!

Anritsu (electronics test equipment) - RF CafeAnritsu has been a global provider of innovative communications test and measurement solutions for more than 120 years. Anritsu manufactures a full line of innovative components and accessories for RF and Microwave Test and Measurement Equipment including attenuators & terminations; coaxial cables, connectors & adapters; o-scopes; power meters & sensors; signal generators; antenna, signal, spectrum, & vector network analyzers (VNAs); calibration kits; Bluetooth & WLAN testers; PIM testers; amplifiers; power dividers; antennas. "We've Got You Covered."

Thursday the 4th

Consolan - What Is It?

Consolan - What Is It?, March 1961 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeI suppose if you are in thick fog while on a boat or, more critically, in an airplane (in the air, of course), then all forms of navigational aids provide aid and comfort to a pilot. By 1961 when this article about the Consolan system was published in Radio-Electronics magazine, the most common navigational aids were radio direction finding (DF), radio direction and ranging (radar), long range navigation (Loran), VHF omnidirectional range (VOR), and dead reckoning [dead reckoning ;-)]. During World War II, the Germans developed another kind of radio directional broadcast system called "Sonne," their word for "sun," because of the radial antenna pattern it generated (see plots). English engineers created a version they called "Consol" ("by the sun"), and then the U.S. implemented a simpler version dubbed "Consolan" (i.e., Consol army/navy). All three systems required the navigator to listen for and count the number of dots and dashes during each broadcast interval, and then look up the corresponding position on a radial from the transmitter location. Here is the COLSOL and CONSOLAN excerpt from Radio Navigation Systems for Aviation and Maritime Use...

ARRL Dues Increase Survey

ARRL Dues Increase Survey - RF CafeThe American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the country's largest organization of amateur radio operators, is proposing a dues increase - the second time in 22 years. An online Due Increase Survey has been established in order to solicit input from ARRL members (you will need to sign in). Per the website: "No organization likes raising dues, but just like our personal expenses have gone up over the last few years, so too has the cost of operating ARRL. We want your input on how ARRL will handle an increase in dues. Start by reading the editorial written by ARRL CEO David A. Minster, NA2AA, in the April 2023 issue of QST magazine." Dues are now $49/year, with options of increasing to as high as $69/year. Making a print version of QST magazine an additional cost is also on the table. The survey will remain open until May 31, 2023.

Detector Circuits

Detector Circuits (Part I), August 1945, Radio-Craft - RF CafeThis is the first of a three-part series on radio detector circuits by Mr. Robert Scott. It appeared in the August 1945 issue of Radio-Craft magazine. He begins in this article with describing diode action and progresses to uses in various types of signal detectors in radio receivers. A discussion of modulation and distortion sources is included as well. The strange-looking round schematic symbols are vacuum tubes, which used metallic elements separated by space as functional elements rather than fused sand containing traces of impurities. Don't be intimidated, though; just think of them as field effect transistors (FETs) where the plate is the drain, the grid is the gate, and the cathode is the source. The next article in the series discusses hi-fidelity triode detectors; the plate rectifier, infinite-impedance detectors, grid rectification, and regenerative circuits...

How to Test Cables & Antennas Together

Axiom Blog: How to Test Cables & Antennas Together in 2023 - RF CafeAxiom Test Equipment, Inc., an electronic test equipment rental and sales company has published a new blog post entitled "How to Test Cables & Antennas Together in 2023" that covers how testing antennas and cables as an integrated assembly can reveal a great deal about how they will work together within their system. A variety of measurements can help characterize antennas with cables and some of the latest test tools can deliver those measurements when and where needed. Diverse types of tests, such as frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) or time domain reflectometry (TDR) measurements, can confirm continuous impedance in a signal path formed by antennas and cables. These measurements check for reflections coming along the signal path, using continuous broadband frequency signals in FDR and pulsed signals in TDR. Test units capable of FDR and TDR measurements can isolate problems along the antenna/cable signal path, such as loose or worn connectors. Such measurements can provide information about the distance to a fault...

De Forest Radio Company Advertisement

De Forest Radio Company Advertisement, December 1931 QST - RF CafeLee de Forest, inventor of the Audion vacuum tube, created a business called De Forest Radio Company. This advertisement for his company's electron tubes appeared in the December 1931 edition of the ARRL's QST magazine. If you research Lee de Forest, you will find his name spelled in many different forms: de Forest, De Forest, deForest, DeForest, Deforest, to give a few. When in doubt, go straight to the source, which in this case is the signature that de Forest placed on his patent applications - he used "de Forest." Note that the official company name, according to the advertisement address at the bottom, is "De Forest Radio Company," (space used) yet the text of the copy uses the form "deForest" (no space), and the marking on the base of the tube says, "de Forest." Sometimes marketing companies screw up, so I went searching for a more reliable source - the name given on the company's stock certificate. Sure enough, "de Forest" was the official name...

RF & Electronics Symbols for Visio

RF Electronics Wireless Analog Block Diagrams Symbols Shapes for Visio - RF CafeWith 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...

Many Thanks for Alliance Test Equipment's Support!

Allied Test Equipment Products - RF CafeAlliance Test Equipment sells used / refurbished test equipment and offers short- and long-term rentals. They also offer repair, maintenance and calibration. Prices discounted up to 80% off list price. Agilent/HP, Tektronix, Anritsu, Fluke, R&S and other major brands. A global organization with ability to source hard to find equipment through our network of suppliers. Alliance Test will purchase your excess test equipment in large or small lots. Blog posts offer advice on application and use of a wide range of test equipment. Please visit Allied Test Equipment today to see how they can help your project.

Wednesday the 3rd

News Briefs

News Briefs, March 1963 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeLots of notable news was breaking in the March 1963 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine. It seems there were some claims of FM radio broadcast licensing Gerrymandering that caused the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to temporarily halt issuance of new licenses. An unusual report came on having set a record for "remote electronic repair." It involved figuring out why the Telstar satellite would not activate after having spent six weeks in Earth orbit. In what would become standard operational procedure (SOP) for troubleshooting remote outer space probes (both orbiting and interplanetary), engineers used a duplicate Earth-based model of the satellite during diagnosis. Read the piece to discover what was done - pretty ingenious. In other news, people were getting electrocuted in the process of installing and servicing TV antennas in the presence of high voltage electric service lines. Common sense seems to evade some people, removing them from the gene pool...

Empower RF 2241 X-Band 1 kW SSPA

Empower RF Systems 2241 X−Band 1 kW SSPA - RF CafeEmpower RF announces delivery of the model 2241, a GaN Solid State PA pulse emitter designed for new Radar applications where portability and extended range are key requirements. Across the operating band of 9 to 10 GHz, the model 2241 provides over 1000 W peak power in a compact 3U chassis. Flexible waveform handling is a key feature. The 2241 is capable of long pulses, high duty cycles, and a derated long pulse mode. The unit is controlled through the front panel touch screen, M2M SCPI, and peer/Lan connected PC and web browser with no software to install. The 2241 is suitable for pulse applications in the X-band frequency. This amplifier utilizes high power GaN on SiC devices that provide wide frequency response, high gain, high peak power capability, and low distortions. Exceptional performance, long-term reliability and high efficiency are achieved...

Amazing Surface Barrier Transistor

Amazing Surface Barrier Transistor, August 1957 Radio & TV News - RF CafeAccording to the Transistor Museum website, "The Philco Surface Barrier Transistor (SBT) was the 'hottest' transistor around until the late 1950s. This device performed very well at high frequencies and was used extensively in radio and computer circuits. Hobbyists were delighted to find such an inexpensive high frequency device... [Edwin] Bohr authored many well-remembered transistor construction projects in the 1950s/60s." Many of Bohr's construction articles featuring SBTs were published in Radio Electronics magazine, and this was one of them from 1957. The manufacturing process is described where jet streams of an electrolyte were shot at both sides of the germanium crystal to etch it as required - Neanderthal in nature compared to today's etching processes...

Silvertone R81 AM / Shortwave Console Radio

Silvertone Sears R81 Console Radio 1940 - RF Cafe"The Red Collection" is a pair of furniture consignment stores in Greensboro, NC, where we have bought many items over the past two decades. Nearly all have been vintage wooden furniture in need of restoration - some a little, and some a lot. Whilst perusing a few months ago, I spied this Silvertone Model R81 AM / Shortwave console radio, of 1940 vintage. Silvertone is a line of electronics produced for Sears, Roebuck & Co., for many decades in the last century. Both the wooden cabinet and the electronics chassis are in reasonable condition, and will probably take about the same amount of effort to restore as my 1941 Crosley 03CB console radio. Amazingly, the full set of radio station call sign labels for installing on the pushbutton fronts were included. So was the user manual with schematic and parts list, the original sales floor tag, and a Radio Time Table and Log. A unique feature of this Silvertone R81 console radio is the "RADIONET" Loop Aerial antenna contained within an oval cylinder inside the cabinet which can be rotated "to the position that gives clearest reception and greatest freedom from noise." There is also a shortwave antenna behind a cardboard panel on the left side of the cabinet. The original price was $160, and then each month an article goes unsold, the price drops by 10%. After a number of months items go into a clearance area with price being negotiable. After about four months the radio was still there. I got it for $35! Patience was definitely a virtue...

de Forest's Syncro-Graphic Training

de Forest's Syncro-Graphic Training Ad, September 1945, Radio-Craft - RF CafeI have never seen study-at-home audio-visual (AV) physics courses offered by Albert Einstein or AV courses on chemistry promoted by Ernest Rutherford, but I can now say I have seen study-at-home AV courses offered by electronics pioneer Lee de Forest. This full-page advertisement for the de Forest's Training, Inc., company of Chicago, Illinois, appeared in a 1945 edition of Radio-Craft magazine. The vaunted (at least by the company) "Syncro-Graphic" training was an early attempt at the paperless classroom. The student watched films reels of instruction rather than "frequent flipping of pages to refer back or ahead to illustrations mentioned in text." It would be another 50 years before useful computer-based-training (CBT) courses became available for home use, but you have to give the "Father of Radio" credit for being ahead of his time in instruction techniques...

RF & Electronics Symbols for Office™

RF & Electronics Schematic & Block Diagram Symbols for Office™ r2 - RF CafeIt 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!

Many Thanks to Reactel for Their Long-Time Support!

Reactel Filters - RF Cafe

Reactel has become one of the industry leaders in the design and manufacture of RF and microwave filters, diplexers, and sub-assemblies. They offer the generally known tubular, LC, cavity, and waveguide designs, as well as state of the art high performance suspended substrate models. Through a continuous process of research and development, they have established a full line of filters of filters of all types - lowpass, highpass, bandpass, bandstop, diplexer, and more. Established in 1979. Please contact Reactel today to see how they might help your project.

Tuesday the 2nd

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection - The Big Electronics, March 1963 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeCathodic protection is a major field of electronics and electrical distribution. It has two primary forms - galvanic and impressed-current. The goal of each is to negate the electrical current between dissimilar metals which leads to corrosion. The galvanic method typically uses a passive sacrificial metal element to dominate the electron migration. An example is the anode rod inside your hot water heater (HWH). Most people have no idea they exist and are supposed to be checked regularly and replaced as needed. It's fairly easy to do, requiring shutting off the water supply and draining the tank below the level of the top. Once a year, I also open the drain valve at the bottom of the HWH to rid it of any debris. Impressed-current cathodic protection is more sophisticated and involves injecting a counter-current in an engineered system to cancel out destructive currents. This "Cathodic Protection" article from the March 1963 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine is a good primer for the science behind it...

Ultra-Thin Ferroelectric Film

Nanotech Breakthrough: Ultra-Thin Ferroelectric Film - RF Cafe"Nagoya University researchers have synthesized the thinnest-ever BaTiO3 nanosheets at 1.8 nm, overcoming the 'size effect' issue and retaining ferroelectric properties. This breakthrough enables the miniaturization of devices and could lead to new properties and applications. Researchers at the Institute for Future Materials and Systems at Nagoya University in Japan have successfully synthesized barium titanate (BaTiO3) nanosheets with a thickness of 1.8 nm, the thinnest thickness ever created for a free-standing film. Given that thickness is related to functionality, their findings open the door to smaller, more efficient devices. The research was published in the journal Advanced Electronic Materials. The development of ever-thinner materials with new electronic functions is a highly competitive area of research. Such devices are especially important in ferroelectrics..."

Sally, the Service Maid: The Case of the Dual Volume Control

Sally, the Service Maid: The Case of the Dual Volume Control, August 1944, Radio-Craft - RF CafeBy 1944, the United States and its Allied partners were occupied full-time beating back the forces of Communism, Fascism, Socialism, and many other "isms." A vast majority of active service members were men who were either training on domestic soil or fighting on foreign soil. That left sisters, mothers, and grandmothers to conduct a lot of the business and work production jobs that historically had been the near sole purview of men. Rosie the Riveter was a very familiar symbol of that new paradigm, while less known and celebrated were the women who handled building and servicing electronics products. I have posted many articles that appeared in magazines during World War II showing the various scenarios in which women contributed mightily to the war effort, even without being in the trenches and carrying guns. Radio-Craft magazine ran a series of articles featuring electro-heroine Sally Mason, who applied her technical and creative prowess in battling tough troubleshooting and repair problems on military and consumer electronics. The unavailability of replacement parts required a lot of "suitable substitutes" and jury rigging. At the bottom of the page is a short feature on a real-world version of "Sally, the Service Maid..."

Anatech Intros 3 Filter Models for April 2023

Anatech Electronics Intros 3 Filter Models for April 2023 - RF CafeAnatech Electronics offers the industry's largest portfolio of high-performance standard and customized RF and microwave filters and filter-related products for military, commercial, aerospace and defense, and industrial applications up to 40 GHz. Three new filter models have been introduced - a 2300 to 2900 MHz cavity bandpass filter (1.0 dB maximum inband insertion loss) with SMA connectors, a 2580 to 2590 MHz cavity bandpass filter with N connectors, and a 2140 MHz cavity notch filter with SMA connectors. Custom RF power filter and directional couplers designs can be designed and produced with required connector types when a standard cannot be found, or the requirements are such that a custom approach is necessary...

A Radial-Beam Tube

A Radial-Beam Tube, August 1944, Radio-Craft - RF CafeSignal multiplexing was originally performed using a rotating mechanical device with commutator contacts. Such a contraption suffered from a number of limitations including contact wear, noise, speed, size and weight. Probably the most limiting were contact wear and switching speed. Bulk could be accommodated because back then everything was bulky. Standard vacuum tube switches were eventually used to build multiple (n) input / multiple (m) output switching circuits, but the space needed to contain them grew exponentially with the n x m matrix. Bell Telephone Systems, which played a huge part in the advancement of primarily wired communications systems, developed a "radial-beam tube" that used a magnetic field to steer the electron flow between opposing sets of anodes and cathodes. Steering circuits controlled the position of the electron beam within the tube. Since there were no moving parts, many of the drawbacks of mechanical systems were eliminated...

RF Cascade Workbook

RF Cascade Workbook - RF Cafe RF Cascade Workbook 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...

Many Thanks to Aegis Power Systems for Their Continued Support!

Aegis Power Systems - RF CafeAegis Power Systems is a leading supplier of AC-DC and DC-DC power supplies for custom and special applications. Aegis has been designing and building highly reliable custom power supplies since 1995. They offer a complete line of switch mode power supplies and power converters for a variety of markets including defense, industrial, aircraft, VME, and telecom. Supports military, aircraft, EV, telecom, and embedded computing applications. Design and manufacture of custom power supply solutions to meet each customer's exacting specifications. Please visit Aegis Power Systems today. Manufactured in the USA.

Monday the 1st

TV Frequency & Marker Chart

TV Frequency & Marker Chart, March 1963 Radio-Electronics - RF CafeYour search is finally over. That "TV Frequency & Marker Chart" you've been having such a hard time finding is right here in black and white. That's right, now while you are tuning that VHF / UHF television for the best possible reception of both audio and video, simply cross reference the channel number with the corresponding audio carrier and video carrier frequencies and you're good to go. Be sure to have your test probe at the proper "looker point" in the circuit, or you might be tuning for the wrong waveform. Thank Radio-Electronics magazine for the favor. Of course I'm kidding; almost nobody needs this kind of information anymore. But, there are still a few hobbyists who restore and service those old sets. By the way, I don't ever recall hearing of the term "looker point" when referring to a test point. You?

Antennas Tuned to Latest Communications Tech

Antennas Tuned to the Latest Communications Tech - RF Cafe"Today's world relies heavily on communication technologies, with nearly every industry sector, economy, and daily operations embracing wireless and mobile devices. From banking to agriculture to transportation and healthcare, telecom and communications play a vital role in keeping everything and everyone connected. It's been 15 years since the introduction of LTE, which became a staple of wireless communication around the globe. It's helped pave the way for next-gen communications standards such as 5G and Wi-Fi 6/E. None of the fast data throughputs would be possible if antenna technologies didn't evolve alongside the mobile devices we rely on daily. The latest antennas can take advantage of the higher frequency ranges required for 4G/LTE, 5G, and even the 6G standard expected to launch by 2030..."

Microwaves for the "Ham"

Microwaves for the "Ham", August 1952 Radio & Television News - RF CafeWhile this article is directed at amateur radio operators who want to explore working in the microwave bands, it is good fodder for anyone who wants a fundamental introduction to waveguides, resonant cavities, distributed elements, and atmospheric propagation. If that describes you, and particularly if you have formulaphobia, then start reading. Even though the article appeared in a 1952 issue of Radio & Television News, the list of frequency band allocations are not much different than today so the information is useful. Unknown to many is that in the early part of the last century Amateurs pioneered the use of microwave bands when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocated the spectrum to them since many "experts" considered it unusable...

Lumped Elements for RF and Microwave Circuits

Artech House: Lumped Elements for RF and Microwave Circuits - RF CafeDr. Inder J. Bahl's latest book from Artech House, "Lumped Elements for RF and Microwave Circuits," is fully updated and including entirely new chapters, this Second Edition provides in-depth coverage of the different types of RF and microwave circuit elements, including inductors, capacitors, resistors, transformers, via holes, air bridges, and crossovers. Featuring extensive formulas for lumped elements, design trade-offs, and an updated and current list of references, the book helps you understand the value and usefulness of lumped elements in the design of RF, microwave and millimeter wave components and circuits. You'll find a balanced treatment between standalone lumped elements and their circuits using MICs, MMICs and RFICs technologies. You'll also find detailed information on a broader range RFICs that was not available when the popular first edition was published. The book captures - in one consolidated volume - the fundamentals, equations, modeling, examples, references and overall procedures to design, test and produce microwave components that are indispensable in industry and academia today...

Quiz on AC Circuit Theory

Quiz on AC Circuit Theory, December 1970 Popular Electronics - RF CafeHere is a fairly simple quiz on AC circuit analysis that appeared in the December 1970 issue of Popular Electronics magazine. If you are not already comfortable with adding series and parallel circuits containing resistors, capacitors, and inductors, you will appreciate the simple formula presented that will keep the sweat level down ;-) . An even simpler form that solves explicitly for the four variables are as follows:
VTotal = √ [(VL - VC)2 + VR2]
VR = √ [(VT)2 - (VL - VC)2]
VL = VC + √ [VT2 - VR2]
VC = VL - √ [VT2 - VR2]
 OK, pick up your pencils and begin ... now.

Promote Your Company on RF Cafe

Sponsor RF Cafe for as Little as $40 per Month - RF CafeNew Scheme rotates all Banners in all locations on the page! RF Cafe typically receives 8,000-15,000 website visits each weekday. RF Cafe is a favorite of engineers, technicians, hobbyists, and students all over the world. With more than 17,000 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. If you need your company news to be seen, RF Cafe is the place to be.

Many Thanks to Berkeley Nucleonics for Continued Support!

Berkeley Nucleonics Corp - RF CafeBerkeley Nucleonics Corporation (BNC) is a leading manufacturer of precision electronic instrumentation for test, measurement, and nuclear research. Founded in 1963, BNC initially developed custom pulse generators. We became known for meeting the most stringent requirements for high precision and stability, and for producing instruments of unsurpassed reliability and performance. We continue to maintain a leadership position as a developer of custom pulse, signal, light, and function generators. Our designs incorporate the latest innovations in software and hardware engineering, surface mount production, and automated testing procedures.

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