|
 Cark Kohler's indefatigable and unflappable
electronics do-it-yourselfer, the lesser half of Friend Wife, is at it again in
this "Live
Wire with a Loot Locator" technodrama in a 1969 issue of Popular Electronics
magazine. His latest junk box endeavor is the Kohler Loot Locator, which, per his
ambitious claims, will unearth - literally - endless treasures buried in the sandy
beaches surrounding their humble abode. Of course the missus is typically dubious
of his success, given past brainchildren and displays of electromechanical prowess.
This time proved different, for a reason you will discover upon reading the story.
That Sonalert mentioned being part of the Loot Locator is an audible alarm product
still manufactured by...
 Experienced RF engineers, technicians, and
hobbyists employ
decibels in their writings and speech with the fluidity and familiarity of chemists
discussing pH levels, geneticists recommending DNA sequencing enzymes, astrophysicists
calculating gravitational lensing constants for massive galaxies, or vintage car
motorheads calling out ignition timing in reference to TDC (top-dead-center). This
1969 Electronics World magazine article by William Miller takes yet another
shot at helping those uninitiated in the realm of decibels to be effectively functional
until an eventual - and necessary - firm grasp of the concept is obtained. The real
solution, of course, is to just hunker...
 Transcat | Axiom Test Equipment, an electronic
test equipment rental company has published a new blog post that features the
Wavecontrol SMP3 Portable EM Field Meter. Learn about the different features
and capabilities that this unit offers when detecting and measuring electromagnetic
fields. Depending upon the field probe attached, the SMP3 can make frequency-selective
or broadband measurements of electric (E) field, magnetic (H) field and EM fields
as high as 90 GHz in frequency. The SMP3 EM field meter is a multifunction
unit, capable of broadband EM field measurements, static field measurements, and
even low-frequency Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) spectrum analysis from 1 Hz to 10 MHz...
 The newest release of RF Cafe's spreadsheet
(Excel) based engineering and science calculator is now available -
Espresso
Engineering Workbook?. Among other additions, it now has a Butterworth Bandpass
Calculator, and a Highpass Filter Calculator that does not just gain, but also
phase and group delay! Since 2002, the
original Calculator Workbook has been available as a free download. Continuing
the tradition, RF Cafe Espresso Engineering Workbook? is also
provided at no cost,
compliments of my generous sponsors. The original calculators are included, but
with a vastly expanded and improved user interface. Error-trapped user input cells
help prevent entry of invalid values. An extensive use of Visual Basic for Applications
(VBA) functions now do most of the heavy lifting with calculations, and facilitates
a wide user-selectable choice of units for voltage, frequency, speed, temperature,
power, wavelength, weight, etc. In fact, a full page of units conversion calculators
is included. A particularly handy feature is the ability to specify the the number
of significant digits to display. Drop-down menus are provided for convenience...
 Here is another in a collection of articles
on printed circuit board technology that appeared in the October 1969 edition of
Electronics World magazine. Amphenol has been making and driving the evolution
of electrical cable, sockets, and connectors since 1932. I have seen their advertisements
in many of my vintage electronics magazines, including this one that appeared in
these Radio News issues from January and October 1945. A lot of the innovation
was driven by military and aerospace quality, reliability, pin density, and weight
requirements, and as is always the case, a lot of the benefit redounded to the commercial
realm as well. Many of the
connector types appearing in this article were still being used during the years
I worked in the defense electronics business. During my time as...
 All of these
technology-related quizzes from my collection of vintage Popular Electronics
magazines were created by Robert p. Balin, and range in difficulty from relatively
easy to head scratchers (for typical test takers like myownself). Sometimes modern
readers will be stumped by references to dated drawings and/or terms like vacuum
tubes and CRTs (which are themselves vacuum tubes, of course). This Electronics
Geometry Quiz might assign a Millennial handicap on item "E" if you spaz out over
the picture because of your relative youth, but if you get the other nine correct,
you'll get all ten by default...
 The Sperry Univac 1219 computer was
one of the first transistorized mainframe computers. The 18-bit computer was used
by the military for defense radars. As was the TPX-42 IFF synthetic radar I worked
on in the USAF, the Univac 1219 consisted of chassis filled with plug-in printed
and wire-wrapped circuit boards containing thousands of integrated circuits in DIP
format. It also used magnetic core memory which handled up to 288, 18-bit words.
As reported in this 1968 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine, two Univac 1219's
powered the
airport radar system which used a 9' x 12' composite array of CRT displays to
project air traffic. Also, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) issued a policy prohibiting
companies from inflating the performance of transistorized products...
 These two
tech-themed comics from the September 1969 issue of Electronics World
magazine are pretty good. I especially like the one where the guy's wife entered
his printed circuit board layout in an art contest. PCBs were just starting to gain
momentum in production electronics as they replaced the old point-to-point wiring
method. Also popular in that era was high fidelity stereo equipment. Owning a system
with speakers that operated from 1 Hz through 30 to 40 kHz was major evidence
of an audiophile's technical savvy, even though the human ear con only detect frequencies
in the 30 Hz to 20 kHz range. Dogs can hear frequencies up into the 45 kHz
range...
 This is new? "Ubiquitous wireless technologies
like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 5G rely on radio frequency (RF) signals to send and receive
data. A new prototype of an energy harvesting module—developed by a team led by
scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) - can now convert ambient
or
'waste' RF signals into direct current (DC) voltage. This can be used to power
small electronic devices without the use of batteries. RF energy harvesting technologies,
such as this, are essential as they reduce battery dependency, extend device lifetimes,
minimize environmental impact, and enhance the feasibility of wireless sensor..."
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 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 iconoscope was an early form of television
image capturing tube. Some amateur radio operators were experimenting with
slow scan TV even back
when the technology was relatively new to the world. When this article was written
in 1944, there were still large portions of the United States that did not have
television broadcast coverage. Of course I would argue that at the time of my growing
up in the 1960s and early 1970s a lot of areas - even suburbs - were still not covered
by TV signals, based on how cruddy the reception at my parents' house was. But I
digress. The article mentions that because of the lack of TV coverage, many amateurs
did not even have television...
 The October 1969 issue of Electronics
World magazine contained no fewer than nine separate articles on the relatively
new technology of
printed circuit boards (PCBs). Through the mid 1960s, many, if not most, electronic
assemblies used all point-to-point wiring connections, or a majority of point-to-point
with a minor circuit or two on a PCB. Multilayer PCBs were being routinely manufactured
for defense and aerospace applications, but more than two or three layers was a
rarity in an AM/FM radio, television, or smart appliance (just kidding about the
last one). This "dry process" for PCBs, costing $6k ($41k in 2017 dollars), was
pitched as a low cost method for manufacturing small volume boards...
 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 stencil symbol
has been built to fit proportionally on the included A-, B-, and C-size drawing
page templates (or use your own page if preferred). Components are provided for
system block diagrams, conceptual drawings, schematics, test equipment, racks, and
more. Page templates are provided with a preset scale (changeable) for a good presentation
that can incorporate all provided symbols...
 Before there were vacuum tube and semiconductor
diodes for use as RF signal detectors, there was the
coherer. This article by Henry Davis in the May 1967 Popular Electronics
magazine discusses the invention of the coherer by Dr. Edouard Branley. Dr. Branley's
work was, as is often the case for the ultimate inventors of a new apparatus or
process, based on predecessors who over time pieced together the puzzle of electromagnetic
energy and its effects on objects located some distance from the source. Coherers
rely on relatively strong, broadband energy like that emitted from the early spark
gap transmitters in order to function; both being extremely crude methods compared
to modern techniques...
? Canada
Steps up Semiconductor Investment
? ARRL on The
Weather Channel
? GlobalWafers Gets
$400M Chips Act Subsidy
? Silicon 100:
Startups
Worth Watching in 2024
? PCs
Have 2nd Quarter of Growth
 Anritsu 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."
 Banner Ads are rotated in all locations
on the page! RF Cafe typically receives 8,000-15,000 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.
Your Banner Ads are displayed on average0,000 times per year! 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...
 Field service of electronic products like
radios, televisions, and even tape recorders/players and phonographs, was still
a common thing in 1961 when this promotion appeared in Radio-Electronics
magazine. Those assemblies had a lot of parts, most of which no two were the same.
That is the nature of analog circuits containing multiple stages of varying gains,
frequencies, and voltage / current / power levels. Stocking and carrying a kit of
replacement parts likely to be exact replacements or suitable substitutes for factory
parts was imperative for efficient and profitable business. Many component companies
were supplying kits like this one featuring coils (inductors) for TV tuners from
Standard Kollsman Industries. Similar kits existed for resistors, capacitors,
vacuum tubes, transformers, dial lamps, switches, mechanical hardware, etc...
 You might have heard of Pixie tubes and
Nixie tubes from the era preceding light emitting diodes (LED's), but how about
Elfin tubes? They were considered the next stage in the evolution of digital
display devices. This article from a 1969 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine
provides an introduction to Elfin tubes. The images above are from a listing on
eBay offering to sell MG-19B Elfin Readout tubes for $10 each, in case you want
one for a conversation piece or for a project. Elfin tubes are fairly accessible
if this guy depletes his supply. I grabbed a shot of the tube and datasheet in case
they disappear someday...
 Uh-oh, I'd better issue a sensitivity warning
before going on, because this 1969 Electronics World magazine article reports
on
electrocution data gathered via empirical testing that demonstrates a difference
between men and women, especially since men fared better. Charles Dalziel, inventor
of the ground fault interrupter (GFI) circuit, subjected men and women to increasing
electrical current levels to determine how much each could take and still be able
to release the small wire carrying the shocking current to their hands. The average
"let-go current" was found to be 16 mA for men and 10.5 mA for women.
Clearly sexism is present somewhere...
 Since 1996, ISOTEC has designed, developed
and manufactured an extensive line of RF/microwave
connectors, between-series adapters, RF components and filters for wireless
service providers including non-magnetic connectors for quantum computing and MRI
equipments etc. ISOTEC's product line includes low-PIM RF connectors components
such as power dividers and directional couplers. Off-the-shelf and customized products
up to 40 GHz and our low-PIM products can meet -160 dBc with 2 tones and
20 W test. Quick prototyping, advanced in-house testing and high-performance.
Designs that are cost effective practical and repeatable.
 Most RF Cafe visitors are familiar with
Heathkit, and maybe even Allied Radio's Knight-Kits and Lafayette Radio for build-it-yourself
(BIY) types, but how many knew that Radio Shack's Realistic line of electronic products
also included kits? I remember seeing small kits in a plastic bag hanging on the
pegboard displays, but nothing as sophisticated as an oscillator, a vacuum tube
tester, a stereo FM receiver, or an audio amplifier, as shown here in a 1961 issue
of Radio-Electronics magazine. The $149.95 FM Stereo Multiplex Tuner Kit would cost
$1,580 in 2024 money - yow! For that much dough these days you can get a 75-inch
UHD TV and high quality stereo system. A look through...
 By the time you get into the realm of microwaves,
wavelengths are so short that using discrete components for reactive elements is
impractical or impossible. That is where the "magic" of electromagnetic fields kicks
in. Prior to the advent of computer simulators, the design, construction, and adjustment
of distributed element printed circuit boards and waveguide were not for the feint
of heart. Whereas "seat-of-the-pants" tactics often resulted in a successful circuit,
guesswork was (and still is) too expensive in terms of time and materials to be
employed in the spectrum at and above microwaves (approximately 2 GHz). This article
from a 1969 issue of Electronics World magazine is one of ten in a special
section on
electrical filters...
 "Even though the certification for Wi-Fi 8,
or 802.11bn, is still several years away, vendors and standards bodies are already
formulating plans around what Wi-Fi 8 will be and what features will be included.
Many of these features remain uncertain; however, the use of millimeter wave (mmWave)
links has been proposed, which proponents say will deliver higher bandwidth and
data rates. In fact, some claim that the use of
mmWave in Wi-Fi 8 will support data rates of up to 100 Gbps. A research
paper called Wi-Fi 8: Embracing the Millimeter-Wave Era referred to the incorporation
of mmWave bands in Wi-Fi 8 is a 'natural progression,' writing that it will
enable advanced communications application..."
 This assortment of custom-designed themes
by RF Cafe includes T-Shirts, Mouse Pads, Clocks, Tote Bags, Coffee Mugs and Steins,
Purses, Sweatshirts, Baseball Caps, and more, all sporting my amazingly clever "RF Engineers - We Are the World's Matchmakers"
Smith chart design. These would make excellent gifts for husbands, wives, kids,
significant others, and for handing out at company events or as rewards for excellent
service. My graphic has been ripped off by other people and used on their products,
so please be sure to purchase only official RF Cafe gear. I only make a couple bucks
on each sale - the rest goes to Cafe Press. It's a great way to help support RF
Cafe. Thanks...
 Here is the very first episode of the "Carl &
Jerry" series that ran for many years in Popular Electronics magazine. In the manner
of The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, et al, Carl and Jerry are two teenage boys who, in
the pursuit of their electronics hobby, manage to get themselves involved in crime
scene investigations, in odd situations with friends and adults, and even while
horsing around in their basement laboratory. Every episode is an entertaining combination
of mystery, teamwork, drama, and technical discussion. Amateur radio was a key feature
of many of their adventures. John T. Frye authored every adventure as he developed
his sleuthing buddies over time to go from a frumpy Jerry...
 APC-7 (Amphenol Precision Connector - 7 mm)
coaxial connectors were standard on network analyzers by the time I entered the
microwave design and manufacturing field in the late 1980s. The test equipment we
used for maintaining the S-band airport surveillance radar in the USAF (early 1980s)
used N coax connectors, and I cannot recall what was used for the X-band precision
approach radar. SMA coax connectors were developed in the 1960s, same as the APC-7
connectors, but I don't remember seeing an SMA until I started working for General
Electric Aerospace Electronics Systems Division in Utica, New York, after graduating
from the University of Vermont in 1989...
 Prior to studying for my amateur radio license
back in 2010, I was not overly familiar with the specific way various layers of
the Earth's atmosphere affected radio signals. Terms like maximum usable frequency
(MUF) and the various ionospheric regions (D, E, F1, F2) occur regularly in discussions
of long distance communications. However,
sporadic-E (Es) was new to me. As the term implies, it refers to the irregular
conductivity properties of the E-layer of the ionosphere, which is defined as the
region between 90 and 150 km. Sporadic-E conditions exist when solar activity,
usually coinciding with the summer and winter solstices, causes excess ionization
that reflects radio waves into the VHF spectrum (30-300 MHz), beyond the normal
MUF of around 15 MHz. Lots of Hams exploit Es in order to make DX contacts
not usually possible otherwise. BTW, there is also a C region that interact with
cosmic rays, but I cannot find anything about A or B regions (anybody know?)...
 "Several cities in the United States, including
the nation's capital, have power grids particularly
vulnerable to space weather, according to new research. However, the reasons
for this susceptibility remain unclear. The British Geological Survey conducted
a study revealing that some US regions are more prone to the impacts of geomagnetic
storms. These storms are caused by solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs)
from the Sun. Solar flares and CMEs are eruptions of gas and magnetic fields that
can travel through space and induce geomagnetic storms. Such storms can harm infrastructure
on Earth and in orbit, from satellites..."
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 stencil symbol
has been built to fit proportionally on the included A-, B-, and C-size drawing
page templates (or use your own page if preferred). Components are provided for
system block diagrams, conceptual drawings, schematics, test equipment, racks, and
more. Page templates are provided with a preset scale (changeable) for a good presentation
that can incorporate all provided symbols...
|
 "Almost simultaneously as they are flashed
before the NASA officials, the signals bearing in minute detail the progress of
Apollo 11 will be broadcast internationally, allowing the entire world
to share in the drama of the manned lunar landing." Such a statement meant something
much different in 1969 than it does today when this article appeared in Electronics
World magazine. Back then, it meant news and government organizations with
the required equipment would be able to receive the information and then disseminate
it via secondary media sources like TV, radio, magazine, and newspaper. Today it
means a real-time feed is available on the Internet for anyone with a network connection
to access. This article was written in a forward-looking tone since the August issue
would...
 "Engineering colleges and universities generally
do a good job of teaching the fundamentals. On the other hand they are often lagging
in the latest technologies and practices. It is hard for colleges to keep up with
what is happening in the mainstream but most do eventually get around to updating
their courses and curriculum. However, there are some
things they never seem to teach. Here is my short list of topics I always thought
they should include but perpetually do not. Troubleshooting - If you are a real
hands-on engineer you do troubleshooting. It may involve your current project or
trying to fix something designed by another. It may be at the component level or
at the systems..."
 According to common advertisements seen
in electronics and mechanics type magazines in the 1940s, '50s, '60s, the two best
ways to get the woman of your dreams is by ordering a Charles Atlas body building
course, or, at least according to these
Precision Apparatus Company promos, becoming an electronics technician. Whether
it be Hogarth in a World War II Echophone ad or Pete in this Precision Apparatus
Company ad, it seems techies get the girls. It appeared in a 1962 issue of Radio-Electronics
magazine. I don't know at what point nerds began being shunned by the babes rather
than being wowed by them. Here's another Precision Apparatus Company advertisement
asserting the same message. Maybe at some point the tables will turn again...
 "UK scientists and engineers have successfully
fired a
high powered laser energy weapon from a British Army combat vehicle for the
first time. The ground-breaking test was conducted at Dstl's (Defence Science and
Technology Laboratory) range in Porton Down. The laser weapon neutralised targets
at distances in excess of 1km. As part of MoD's Land Laser Directed Energy Weapon
(LDEW) Demonstrator programme, the laser was mounted on a British Army Wolfhound
armoured vehicle for the tests. The technology is intended to be a low-cost, precise
and powerful defence against aerial threats, such as drones..."
 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+ 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...
 RF Cafe website visitor and frequent contributor
Bob Davis just sent me a photo of an amazingly
nice fixture he made for conveniently holding a radio chassis while being worked
on. When I asked him if I could post it on the website, he prepared the construction
info and additional photos shown below. He even provided links for purchasing the
components! The first inhabitant of Bob's new radio chassis work fixture was his
Zenith Model 6S511 superheterodyne, 6-tube AM broadcast / shortwave radio. It came
out in 1941, which means it was one of the last new radio models manufactured until
the end of World War II (1945), since radio companies were required to dedicate
facilities for...
 In 1960 when this article appeared in
Popular Electronics magazine, futurists were predicting that within 10
years it would be possible to beam television signals between continents and directly
into homes. It was the eve of
Project Echo, which boosted a 100-foot-diameter inflatable metallized plastic
ball into low Earth orbit to reflect signals efficiently back through the atmosphere.
Engineers and scientists were already planning the next best thing - a satellite
that not only reflected, but also amplified, possibly frequency converted, and would
even steer signals that impinge upon it. Envisioned in this article is hundreds
of satellites being available for relaying signals between all regions of the Earth
on then-standard VHF channels. We now have successful...
 Unijunction transistors (UJT) were relatively
new semiconductor devices in 1968 when this article appeared in Radio-Electronics
magazine. Of course for that matter most semiconductor devices were still relatively
new then. Some commercial products were still being made with vacuum tubes. The
"transistor" part of the name is somewhat of a misnomer due to its physical construction,
in that there is no rectifying PN junction between the two bases, only a single
PN junction (emitter) embedded part-way into the channel between the device's two
"base" connections. There is no collector. The UJT is sometimes referred to as a
double-based diode, although there is no PN junction separating the two base connections.
It usefulness lies primarily in a negative resistance region...
 "école Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
(EPFL) in Switzerland claims the first demonstration of direct growth of gallium
nitride (GaN) at high temperature on silicon (Si) substrates simply by using a trimethyl-aluminium
(TMAl) preflow, without any intentional AlN buffer. Among the benefits of the process
could be the realization of 'more efficient fully
vertical GaN-on-Si devices, in which the silicon substrate may become a functional
part of the device, as well as novel devices that require effective current conduction
to the substrate,' according to the team. Vertical current flow diode/transistor
devices are particularly sought for power electronics, and the GaN/Si combination..."
 Axiom Test Equipment, a Transcat company,
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
- and don't miss the blog articles!
 Wind down your workweek with this triplet
of
electronics-related comics from a 1960 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine.
There are still plenty of us around who understand the page 78 comic. We are the
generation(s) who sometimes needed to reach around to the back of the TV set and
twist the vertical hold potentiometer to get the picture to stop climbing up or
down the screen. The incredible feature of the comic is that the frame split appears
to show the upper half of a man and the lower half of a woman in the same frame.
Because of the structure and processing of the video signal signal, it would not
have been due to parts of two noncontiguous frames or two separate channels. If
you don't understand what I'm saying, it's because you weren't "there." Out of morbid
curiosity...
 ""The University of Western Australia's
TeraNet, a network of optical ground stations specializing in high-speed space communications,
has successfully received laser signals from a German satellite in low Earth orbit.
This breakthrough paves the way for a
1,000-fold increase in communication bandwidth between space and Earth. TeraNet's
laser communication test with OSIRISv1 marks a step towards replacing outdated radio
systems with high-speed lasers for space communications in Western Australia..."
 The April 1969 issue of Electronics World
magazine included a large number of articles on the topic of filter design and use.
Included were titles such as "LC Filters," "Practical Operating Limits for Filters,"
"Filters for Microwave," "Crystal Filters," and others which were contributed by
experts in the field from industry and academia. Check the table of contents to
see which ones have been posted here. This piece on the use of
ferrite beads for blocking RF signals is more of a sidebar note than an article,
but it's still worthy of inclusion. Ferrite beads and toroids are still widely employed
for stopping radio frequency interference (RFI) on everything from AC...
 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.
 Werbel Microwave's WMRD02-7.2-S is a
2-way resistive power splitter / combiner that covers from DC to 7.2 GHz
with ultra-wide bandwidth. This unique design accomplishes extremely flat frequency
response in a small radial package. Our unique design approach provides higher than
expected isolation between outputs at far ports than would be achieved in a typical
star topology. It has applications in markets such as CATV, test and measurement,
and military radio. Its small size makes it easy to integrate into compact systems.
Designed, assembled, and tested in the USA.
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 stencil symbol
has been built to fit proportionally on the included A-, B-, and C-size drawing
page templates (or use your own page if preferred). Components are provided for
system block diagrams, conceptual drawings, schematics, test equipment, racks, and
more. Page templates are provided with a preset scale (changeable) for a good presentation
that can incorporate all provided symbols...
 Sam Benzacar, of Anatech Electronics, an
RF and microwave filter company, has published his July 2024 newsletter that, along
with timely news items, features his short op-ed entitled "Is
DOCSIS 4.0 Too Little, Too Late for Cable?" In it, he discusses how the amount
of fiber optic cable and fixed wireless access (FWA) already installed, with major
ongoing upgrades and new service areas in process and planning, could reduce the
impact or desirability of super high speed coaxial cable service. About six months
ago, I replaced my Spectrum cable service with Verizon's wireless service using
5G FWA, which is broadcast from a local tower. Spectrum provided about 500 Mbps
download and 30 Mbps upload speeds...
 Some things are obvious to even the casual
observer, especially if you have seen
The Matrix.
Clearly, the über smart scientists and engineers who work at CRIM Lab, Scuola Superiore
Sant'Anna, in Pisa, Italy must have had Mr. Smith's bug from The Matrix in
mind when they developed this 12-legged, wireless human intestine explorer. Then
again, it could equally likely have been inspired from torture implements employed
during the The Inquisition era, intimately familiar to inhabitants of that
geographical region. Imagine being told you need to swallow this thing so that doctors
can wirelessly guide the beast through your intestines...
 Don't feel too bad if you bomb out on any
of these three "What's
Your EQ?" challenges. The first one with the tornado waveform on the oscilloscope
is something only a person very familiar with television circuit troubleshooting
would be able to figure out. In 1961 when it appeared in Radio-Electronics magazine,
the readership included many such savvy guys, but not so much now, especially since
almost nobody deals with CRT deflection circuits. With the "Simple Impedance Problem,"
the first thing I did was re-draw the circuit to reflect the four parallel branches
in an easier-to-conceptualize format. I admit to not observing the component value
relationship pointed out in the answer. I'm a bit dubious of the creator's claim
regarding what makes it simple to analyze. If I had the time, I'd plug the circuit
into a simulator and see if he's right. Any comments?...
 "In March of 2020, a team of U.S. Air Force
pilots took to sunny skies over California to conduct a unique experiment, exploring
a possible countermeasure if the plane's GPS system, which determines the plane's
position so that it can be transmitted to ground controllers, were suddenly cut
off. On board the plane, a completely novel backup
navigation system that utilized
cellphone signals was put to the test. The experiment proved to be a huge success,
pointing to a new and much-needed potential backup for GPS. Amazingly, the novel
navigation system could track the plane for more than a hundred kilometers, and
at various altitudes, with precision in the single-digit meters. The results are
described in a study published 20 June in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation
Systems..."
Banner Ads are rotated in all locations
on the page! RF Cafe typically receives 8,000-15,000 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.
Your Banner Ads are displayed on average0,000 times per year! 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...
 This
Air-King Radio-Camera Model A410 might be the world's first production camera-phone.
This feature appeared in a 1947 issue of Radio-Craft magazine. The primary
purpose for developing the unit could have been for wartime field correspondents
or forward reconnaissance. I found two examples on the Internet. Take a look at
the Digital Trends story on the history of modern camera-phones (which are in essence
radio-phones). There is evidently a debate about whether Samsung (SCH-V200, June
2000) or Sharp (J-SH04, November 2000) sold the first camera-phone commercially.
The first camera-phone in the U.S. was the Sanyo SCP-5300 (November 2002)...
 As with restorers of vintage radio equipment,
there are avid restorers of vintage computers, vintage televisions, vintage kitchen
appliances, and
vintage tape recorders / players. In 1969 when this article appeared in
Electronics World magazine, magnetic tape was a big deal. Reel-to-reel was
the domain of true audio aficionados - the most expensive type of equipment - while
the rest of us settled for cassette and 8-track tapes. Cassette tape people generally
regarded 8-trackers as audio Neanderthals, Philistines, bumpkins, non-sophisticates.
I was - and still am - an 8-track guy. In fact, not that long ago I did a minor
restoration of the Readers' Digest Model 800-XR stereo system that I bought originally
in the mid 1970s while in high school...
 Innovative Power Products has been designing
and manufacturing RF and Microwave passive components since 2005. We use the latest
design tools available to build our baluns, 90-degree couplers, directional couplers,
combiners/dividers, single-ended transformers, resistors, terminations, and custom
products. Applications in military, medical, industrial, and commercial markets
are serviced around the world. Products listed on the website link to detailed mechanical
drawings, electrical specifications, and performance data. If you cannot find a
product that meets your requirements on our website, contact us to speak with one
of our experienced design engineers about your project.
 It has been a while since I posted a
Carl and Jerry high-tech saga. John T. Frye created the duo of teenage
sleuths in 1954 for the very first issue of Popular Electronics magazine.
More than 100 adventures carried Carl and Jerry from high school through college.
Their practical jokes, crime solving, and mystery investigations incorporated microphones,
timers, cameras, Ham radio, transformers, metal detectors, remote controllers, home
brew circuits, photodetectors, and a host of other gadgets that could be pulled
from a stash of parts in Carl's or Jerry's basement workshop, or borrowed from a
friend. In this story, Carl and Jerry, now students at Parvoo University in Indiana,
have an unexpected confrontation with a radio operator while...
? FCC Lowering
Cellphone Call/Video Rates for Prisoners
?
CrowdStrike Glitch Largely Spares Radio
?
Radio's Digital Wake-up Call
? Romania
Beats Germany and Austria in Fiber Penetration
? 5G
Improving Due to Midband Deployments
Innovative Power Products has been designing
and manufacturing RF and Microwave passive components since 2005. We use the latest
design tools available to build our baluns, 90-degree couplers, directional couplers,
combiners/dividers, single-ended transformers, resistors, terminations, and custom
products. Applications in military, medical, industrial, and commercial markets
are serviced around the world. Products listed on the website link to detailed mechanical
drawings, electrical specifications, and performance data. If you cannot find a
product that meets your requirements on our website, contact us to speak with one
of our experienced design engineers about your project.
 The November 1961 issue of Radio-Electronics
magazine contained a couple articles on long-distance wireless communications by
exploiting the reflective properties of the Earth's upper atmosphere. "Nature's
Invisible Radio Mirror" is one of the others. This "Pacific
Scatter Communications System" (PSCS) article describes a series of transmit
/ receive stations located on eight Pacific islands used to pass voice and teleprinter
messages from areas around the Philippines and Okinawa to Hawaii. At the time, it
was the longest of such systems, with expansion sites being constructed to Taiwan
and beyond. Both ionospheric (34-55 MHz, 40-60 kW) and tropospheric (800 MHz,
1 kW) scatter / reflection were exploited. Prior to the PSCS, communications
were often broken and/or filled with heavy interference...
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