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 90 miles of wire in an average home is a
lot of wire. That includes not just the wire used for supplying 120 VAC receptacle
and light lines within the walls and ceiling, but also the wire in motors, relays,
and transformers in appliances and various subsystems (HVAC, attic fans, shop tools,
etc.). When this article appeared in Popular Science magazine in 1961,
the average size of an American home was around 1,300 square feet. In 2024, it is
around 2,600 square feet. That's a doubling in size with fewer people per household
(mine is smaller than the 1960 standard). The typical house now has more AC wiring
in it due to electrical code changes requiring ceiling lights in all rooms, more
receptacles, more feeder circuits, etc.
Adding a ground wire increases the copper in a length of Romex by 33% to 50%.
Most kitchens have more appliances on the counter, and the proliferation of cordless
tools has added significantly to the number of motors. Most houses did not have
air conditioning in 1961, so add a compressor motor...
 Here are a couple more
electronics-themed comics from 1947 issues of Radio−Craft magazine.
Artist Frank Beaven, who created a huge number of comics and advertisements (e.g.,
Eveready batteries, Zippo lighters) for technical and other types of publications
(Saturday Evening Post, New Yorker, Esquire), did both of them. Beaven must have
a fan base since many examples of his drawings are offered for sale on eBay. Most
of his comics credit reader suggestions as the basis for the subject. I have to
admit to not really "getting" the gag in the top comic. Maybe Sinatra's voice strained
the frequency response of simple tabletop radios of the day. The bottom comic is
one of a series entitled "Radio Terms Illustrated," in this case "High Potential"
(get it?)...
 "This article presents the derivation of
the radiated far fields from a
Hertzian dipole antenna above the ground plane using image theory. An electric
dipole, often referred to as a Hertzian dipole consists of a short, thin wire of
length l carrying a constant current positioned symmetrically at the origin of the
coordinate system and oriented along the z-axis. Ideally, the wire is infinitely
short; practically, a wire of the length l << λ/50 (λ = wavelength) can be
considered a Hertzian dipole. The far field of a Hertzian dipole has only a θ component
(in a spherical coordinate system) and is given by Eq. 1. In image theory, a radiating
antenna (actual source) is placed at some distance h from a perfect conducting plane..."
 The origin of the saying "Everything old
is new again" is credited to sources ranging from the Bible to Shakespeare to Mark
Twain. It might be one of the most oft-repeated phrases about life. The topic of
this editorial from a 1972 issue of Popular Electronics magazine is a prime example
of why people like me invoke the aforementioned dictum. For as long as I have been
aware of the
state of engineering and technology, opinion writers (aka "journalists") have
lamented the sorry condition of education in that it cannot motivate and produce
a qualified new crop of replacement engineers, scientists, technicians, doctors,
nurses, chemists, and other white collar workers (I can't recall ever hearing of
lawyer shortage, unfortunately). Looking back at how the "shortages" have been handled,
a large portion of the deficit was rectified by importing foreign talent rather
than...
 KR Electronics has been designing and manufacturing custom filters
for military and commercial radio, radar, medical, and communications since 1973.
KR Electronics' line of filters
includes lowpass, highpass, bandpass, bandstop, equalizer, duplexer, diplexer, and
individually synthesized filters for special applications - both commercial and
military. State of the art computer synthesis, analysis and test methods are used
to meet the most challenging specifications. All common connector types and package
form factors are available. Please visit their website today to see how they might
be of assistance. Products are designed and manufactured in the USA.
 "Remcom's
XFdtd and Wireless InSite EM simulation software packages provide a complete
solution, from system and MIMO antenna design through performance assessment in
realistic, simulated environments, and planning for deployment in 5G networks. Their
mission is to provide accurate solutions, optimized for performance to help customers
reliably predict how their systems will behave in the real world. Through active
research and development, Remcom has remained a leader in modeling and MIMO simulation
technology for 5G and advanced wireless communications. 5G is pushing the boundaries
of wireless communications and wireless device design. Significant innovations are
needed in order to accommodate increased requirements for Enhanced Mobile Broadband,
Massive Machine-Type..."
 Exodus Advanced Communications, is a multinational
RF communication equipment and engineering service company serving both commercial
and government entities and their affiliates worldwide. We are pleased to announce
the
Exodus AMP2099C, a rugged ultra-broadband SSPA designed for all applications.
It supports a frequency band of 500 MHz to 6.0 GHz, with 150 W minimum
power and 53 dB of gain. Excellent power/gain flatness as compared to other
amplifiers. Forward/Reflected power monitoring, VSWR, voltage/current/temperature
sensing for superb reliability and ruggedness. The nominal weight is 23 kg
in a compact 4U chassis 7"H x 19"W x 22"D...
 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 average 280,000 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...
 Not everyone who visits websites such as
RF Cafe is a seasoned electronics veteran. While I and most likely you, too, can
do series and parallel circuit analysis (and series/parallel for that matter, possibly
using Fourier or La Place transforms for reactive AC circuits) in our sleep,
many are recently getting into the wonderful world of electronics who are just coming
of age or have suddenly at a later point in life developed a passion for the science.
Accordingly, this article from a 1932 issue of Radio News magazine provides yet
another tutorial on the fundamentals of series and parallel circuit analysis. Only
resistors and basic Ohms law are covered. Don't let the vacuum tube schematic symbols
deter you.
 When
LEGO blocks were
first introduced in their current form in Denmark in the late1940s, founder Godfred
Kirk Christiansen could not have imagined how wildly popular his "toy" would become
with sculptors. That generations of kids would while away hours at a time building
original and predesigned structures per printed instructions were his realized dream,
Godfred would be in awe over how his creation has been applied from professional
and amateur artists. By the way, LEGO is a contraction conceived of by Christiansen
from the Danish phrase "leg godt," meaning "play well." The June 2012 issue of
Scientific American magazine has an article titled "Fusion's Missing Pieces"
on the current state of nuclear fusion, and with it is a photo of a cut-away view
of a tokomak...
 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...
 You've seen photos of
airplane
boneyards in the desert where retired commercial and military planes are stored
for use in cannibalization of replacement parts. A desert environment is idea because
corrosion from water is minimal. Did you know there are also
wind turbine graveyards? One of the largest is located in Sweetwater, Texas.
Most of what is stored there are the fiberglass and carbon fiber blades, cut into
pieces for easier handling. Unlike the airplanes whose wing parts in time may server
a purpose, these wind turbine "wings" (that's what they are) will likely remain
there forever. Some companies promise to recycle expired blades, but few ever do.
EV battery pack boneyards probably also exist, but you'll never see a picture of
one because political concerns will assure they are well hidden from public view
(probably in a 3rd world country where child labor is used to process them).
 Radio control (R/C) of a model doesn't get
much simpler than the transmitter and receiver circuits shown in the schematics
of Figure 2. Of course the cleanness of the transmitted signal and the selectivity
of the receiver of that signal leaves a lot to be desired. In 1952 when this article
appeared in Radio & Television News magazine, the airwaves weren't cluttered
with wireless communications devices, but given that these radio systems were sharing
the electromagnetic spectrum with Citizens Band (CB) radio, the chances of getting
"shot down" from nearby operators was pretty high if you lived within a few miles
of where CB'ers were communicating. More sophisticated R/C equipment was available
from commercial manufacturers, but this system targeted the do-it-yourself types
and those with limited hobby budgets. A lot of airplane models which consumed many
hours and dollars of a flyer's resources met with their demise as the result of
a stray signal blocking...
 Dig those crazy curved pistons, man. They
are righteous! That was the sort of hip lingo just beginning to hit the scene in
1961 when this "Rotary
Engine Fires Like a Six-Shooter" article appeared in Popular Science
magazine. It was not a Wankel type rotary engine in that it still used pistons and
connecting rods like a traditional internal combustion engine (ICE). Looking as
surreal as the watches in Salvador Dali's "The Persistence of Memory" painting,
the pistons' shape conforms to the arched cylinder in which it reciprocates a few
thousand times per minute. How someone thinks up a scheme like this is beyond me.
It took a couple readings to truly get a grasp on the operation. The writer is a
bit misleading when asserting that the pistons are not really reciprocating in the
cylinders, but in fact they are; they are just not driven by the traditional crankshaft.
The engine's configuration reminds me of a modern brushless motor where the armature
remains fixed and the field...
 According to Electronics magazine
editor Lewis Young in mid-1964, the industry was entering into a
slump in business opportunities. The boom times provided during the war years
of WWII and Korea had resulted in, according to Mr. Young, a lax attitude toward
operational strategy that led to wasteful spending and poor accountability for project
results. It wasn't just the defense contractors' fault because government bureaucrats
- from relatively low ranking military personnel to elected lawmakers - had (have)
a habit of making sudden changes to contract requirements. Maintaining the resources
needed to keep up with ever-evolving demands necessitated a lot of the excess. Fortunately,
the military-industrial complex, as President Dwight D. Eisenhower dubbed it,
was on the verge of being thrown another huge monetary bone - the Vietnam War. President
Kennedy was already pumping lots of equipment and manpower into it, and LBJ would
follow suit with vigor. The money pipeline was filling up quickly; the electronics
industry...
 I'm old enough to remember the
1973 Oil Crisis era (the subject of Mac McGregor's and Barney's discussion)
that resulted from an oil embargo instituted by Arab oil producing nations during
the Yom Kippur War where Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel. I
didn't get my driver's license until Fall of 1974 (turned 16 on August 18th), so
the worst of it was pretty much over by then. However, I clearly remember sitting
in long lines at the gas station with my father, and then being limited in the amount
that could be purchased (i.e., no fill-ups). Gas prices jumped from a national average
of 38.5¢/gallon in May 1973 to 55.1¢/gallon in June 1974 (43% increase in a year).
According to the BLS' Inflation Calculator, that is the equivalent of about $3.52/gallon
in 2024 money. That's about what gas is costing right now, so today we're paying
oil embargo era rates (thank you Brandon). If you were fortunate enough to own a
boat during those times...
 Empower RF Systems is the technological
leader in RF & microwave power amplifier solutions for EW, Radar, Satcom, Threat
Simulation, Communications, and Product Testing. Our air and liquid cooled amplifiers
incorporate the latest semiconductor and power combining technologies and with a
patented architecture we build the most sophisticated and flexible COTS system amplifiers
in the world. Solutions range from tens of watts to hundreds of kilowatts and includes
basic PA modules to scalable rack systems.
 British engineer John Sargrove was to the
production of radios what Henry Ford was to automobiles. At the time this "Robot
Makes Radios" article appeared in a 1947 issue of Radio-Craft magazine,
Sargrove had recently put his
Electronic Circuit Making Equipment (ECME) fully automated assembly line into
operation. Applying knowledge from two decades of developing methods of creating
inductors, capacitors, resistors, and interconnecting conductors using controlled
deposition of various materials on flat substrates, he was able to build 2-tube
AC/DC radios at a rate of up to three per minute, with only two ECME operators -
one at the input and one at the output. The only manual assembly required was the
installation of a potentiometer-switch, a transformer, speaker, and a power cord,
plus joining the two fabricated Bakelite plates together. You will be amazed at
what Mr. Sargrove's machine did. Unfortunately, raw material shortages after
a grueling war...
 Transistor basics have not changed since
they were first introduced to the market around 1953, when this issue of QST
magazine reported on them. The first available transistors used germanium substrates,
and then in 1954 Texas Instruments introduced the first commercial silicon transistor.
The hybrid pi equivalent circuit for a PN junction transistor used in modern circuit
simulators has many more "virtual" components in it that allow for high frequency
and nonlinear operation modeling, but for audio and AM type that operates entirely
within the linear region, the equivalent circuit presented in Figure 1 will
still get the job done. Common−(aka grounded−) emitter, common−base, and common−collector
circuits are discussed. I remember in college in the mid 1980s running SPICE simulations
on an IBM XT computer where the transistor model...
 "Do it with <fill in the blank>,"
was a popular form of saying back in the 1960s and 70s. It is a form of double entendre,
so people thought it was clever. I never did. This "Do It With Diodes" article from
a 1961 issue of Radio Electronics magazine is an example. The term "diode"
was not new to the electronics field at the time, as vacuum tube diodes and selenium
rectifiers had been around for half a century. However, the newfangled semiconductor
form of diodes were just coming on the scene. Germanium and silicon were the compounds
available for commercial devices. More exotic materials were still in research laboratories.
Author Donald Stoner provides a layman's level introduction to semiconductor diode
fabrication and operation. Voltage, current, and power handling capacity was still
fairly low. Prices for common diode types had dropped to a point that were making
them competitive options...
 Good, clean humor has always been a welcome
addition to my day whether it comes in the form of a printed comic strip, a TV show,
or someone's mouth. My father's side of the family was populated with many jokesters
who could be counted on to deliver an ad hoc pun or zinger at the appropriate moment.
The environment instilled a great appreciation for such entertainment, so these
electronics-themed comics that appeared in editions of trade and hobby magazines
like Radio-Electronics, Popular Electronics, et al, are a refreshing
distraction from the workaday world. An old saying claims "laughter is the best
medicine*," and while it cannot cure cancer, a good dose of humor often helps ease
the pain...
 Here in one short editorial article, Hugo
Gernsback outlines the application of shortwaves in "the next war" to maintain
wireless surveillance of the airspace over towns and cities via what is essentially
radar, to detonate explosive devices by means of a powerful "special combination
impulse," and long-distance wireless communications via radios "so small that one
man can easily carry it." This might seem rather moot in today's world, but in 1935
when this issue of Short Wave Craft magazine went to press, it required
a certain amount of knowledge of wireless communications and a vision regarding
its potential. In my readings of a great many early- to mid-20th-century technical
articles on electronics, aeronautics, physics, etc., it is interesting to notice
how authors of the pre-WWII era referred to what we now call "World War I"
as simply "the World War..."
 Big plans were being made for solid state
electronics by the time this "How
They'll Grow TV Sets Like Tomatoes" article appeared in a 1961 issue of
Popular Science magazine. The weird title alludes to "growing" integrated circuits
(ICs) from crystals. Fairchild Electronics' Robert Noyce had demonstrated the world's
first monolithic IC two years earlier, and rightly so, futurists were creating fantastic
schemes for not just limited functionality IC like amplifiers and logic gates, but
entire systems comprised of mixed signals (digital and analog) ranging in frequency
from DC to light. Dr. Noyce died in 1990, so he had plenty of time to watch
the explosive grown of the technology he co−invented. Unfortunately, he missed the
smartphone and cellular telephony system build−out, the Internet, and millimeter
wave / optical wavelength ICs, micro electro-mechanical systems(MEMS), integrated
fluidic circuits, and much more in the ensuing two and a half decades. Interestingly,
gallium arsenide (GaAs) is featured at a time when germanium and silicon were the
majorly dominant semiconductors.
 Early
masers (microwave amplification by simulated emission of radiation), as with
lasers (light amplification by simulated emission of radiation), began life with
the requirement of a rare earth-based mineral composing its core. In the case of
this article in a 1960 Popular Electronics magazine article, it was a ruby. Early
applications of the maser were primarily concentrated on radar systems. At the time,
high amplification and high power was beyond the capability of common semiconductors
like Si, GaAs, or GaN. Required substrate impurities, gate widths, and thermal control
were well beyond the state of the art of the day. As always, the early pioneers
like Dr. Charles H. Townes, inventor of the maser, accomplished incredible feats
with rudimentary tools, including the venerable slide rule for calculations...
 This is part 9 in a series published
by Radio News and the Short-Wave magazine in the early 1930s. As with most
topics pertaining to electronics, the theory is still relevant and applicable to
many modern circuits and systems.
Piezoelectric principles are introduced for determining the frequency of oscillators.
I have to admit to not having heard of the "pyroelectric" effect. A pyroelectric
crystal when heated or cooled develops charges on the extremities of its hemihedral
(another new word for me, meaning "exhibiting only half the faces required for complete
symmetry") axes. Types other than the familiar quartz include tourmaline, boracite,
topaz, Rochelle salts, and even sugar. Another new term for me here is magnetostriction,
which is when a material changes its shape or dimensions during the process of magnetization.
BTW, this was erroneously labeled as Part 8, but that appeared in the May issue...
 In today's age of massive computing power
everywhere, it is difficult to imagine needing to manually search through a three
million record database of document topics as part of a
patent application process. That daunting task faced patent application examiners
in 1961 when a Popular Science reporter interviewed the commissioner of the USPTO.
Yes, computers existed which could perform the task, but no effort had been initiated
to generate punch cards and/or magnetic tapes encoded with titles, grantees, dates,
key words, status, and a host of other data for use in an exhaustive search. That
was the first step in the difficult but necessary task that faced the organization.
At the time, a thousand new patents were being granted every week. There are currently
nearly twelve million patents on record. Factoid: Per the USPTO's 2023 Annual Report,
the duration of protection for a patent is only 20 years - from the date of filing,
not granting, while that of a copyright is 70 years after the death...
|
 When designing filters, be they lowpass
(LP), highpass (HP, bandpass (BP), or bandstop (BS), you begin with prototype values
of capacitors and inductors using an impedance of 1±0j Ω and a
frequency of 1 rad/s. From there, you need to
scale
the components for whatever impedance and frequency you need. Most filters we
use are 50±0j Ω and then scaling frequency is the cutoff for LP and HP,
and the fencer frequency for BP and BS. Of course these days nearly everyone uses
software to do the heave lifting, but if you're old school or are in school and
need to do it manually,
Espresso
Engineering Workbook (free download) now have a page to do that for you...
 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...
 Mr. E.D. Clark added these three circuit
posers to his increasingly large number of "What's
Your EQ?" series of columns, this one appearing in the June 1962 issue of
Radio-Electronics magazine. While many can be real head-scratchers, the
first problem is not too much of a challenge. The resistor and capacitive reactance
circuit should also be a piece of cake for even a first-year student. It's a standard
voltage divider except you need to account for the phase shift (-90°) of the capacitor,
which requires using the magnitude of the series combination. I had to admit that
the author's solution to the 1 μs pulse from a 2 μs using only a simple
passive device eluded me. I was thinking in terms of an RC differentiating circuit
of some sort with phase delays, but a much simpler method is possible. You'll need
to think "out of the box" - the spare parts box, that is...
 You've heard of the World's Fairs, the most
familiar probably being the 1933 Chicago World's Fair where the theme was "A
Century of Progress." World's Fairs have been held in various cities worldwide
since the late 1790s. In 1929, the World's Fair was held in the United Kingdom,
but the "Radio World's Fair," which began its annual run in 1924 (click on stamps
thumbnail), was held in New York City. Surprisingly little exists on the Internet
about the events. It was more of a trade show to introduce new products than it
was a fair, as can be seen from the photos. Radios with decorative wooden cabinets
were becoming popular as the number of commercial broadcast stations was growing
rapidly. Remote control in the day meant a handheld unit with a cable attached to
the main system. Crosley introduced its first gendered radio model - the Monotrad
(see photo).
 When you read a lot of tutorials about introductory
electronics on the Internet, most are the same format where stoic, scholarly presentations
of the facts are given. Those of you who don't have enough fingers and toes to count
all of the college textbooks like that which you have read know of what I speak.
When hobby articles are written in a similar fashion, it can quickly discourage
the neophyte tinkerer or maybe even a future Bob Pease. The American Radio Relay
League's (ARRL's) QST magazine has printed a plethora of articles over
the years that are more of a story than just a presentation of the facts. My guess
is the reason is because often the authors are not university professors who have
forgotten how to speak to beginners. This 1944 article on basic calculations for
AC series and parallel circuits is a prime example; everything still holds true
today.
 Centric RF is a company offering from stock
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as custom cables and adapters, to fit your needs. Centric RF is currently seeking
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 In his spare time, when not developing world-changing
concepts of information theory, Claude Shannon designed this
Minivac 601 programmable computer for students and hobbyists. It had 6
bits of data storage, implemented with electromechanical relays. Its output consisted
of six incandescent lamps. Marketed by Scientific Development Corporation, advertisements
for it appeared in magazines like Popular Science in the early 1960s. $85 in 1961
is the equivalent of around $885 today per the BLS CPI calculator, which is about
what high end smartphones cost today. Since this ad is pitching a computer, let
us perform a few simple calculations. Inflation from 1961 through 2024 represents
a factor of 10.4 in 63 years, an average of 0.165x per year. Four short years ago
the equivalent price was $731, representing a factor of 8.6 in 59 years, an average
of 0.146x per year. Continuing, 0.165/yr ÷ 0.146/yr = 1.12, or a 12% increase
in the last four years...
 "5G communications technology has been overhyped
but
6G may live up to the revolutionary promise that its predecessor did not, a
British expert told a leading tech conference in China. Jiangzhou Wang, a professor
at the University of Kent’s school of engineering, told a technology conference
in Beijing on Friday that 5G had yet to result in a killer app. 'I am objectively
disappointed with 5G,' Shanghai-based financial news site Yicai quoted Wang as saying
at the Sohu Annual Sci-Tech Conference. 'In the 5G era, we have not seen a blockbuster
application for ordinary consumers, nor has it been widely applied in vertical industries.'
Future 6G technology might be revolutionary rather than incremental. '5G has been
overhyped, as if it can do everything..."
 If subjects pertaining to electronics -
particularly vacuum tubes - are like music to your ears, then this poem entitled
"What Is It?," from the
February 1943 edition of QST magazine, should suit you just fine. The rhyming
words are supplied by author Frank Judd; you just need to supply the harmony. You
might recognize paraphrasing of other familiar works such as Longfellow's "Paul
Revere's Ride." Poems like this one were actually quite common back in the day.
In fact if you look through the list of articles that I have posted from vintage
QSTs, you will find about a dozen...
 Maybe the term "time
domain reflectometery" had not been coined when this Bell Telephone Laboratories
(Bell Labs) advertisement appeared in a 1948 issue of Popular Science magazine.
Or, maybe the creators figured Popular Science readers, while generally a more technically-oriented
group, might not possess the depth of understanding needed to appreciate the phrase.
At the time, use of coaxial cable transmission lines for carrying telephone calls
was fairly new, although Bell began using some coaxial cable in 1927. A decade earlier,
prior to great advances in high frequency communications during World War II,
twisted pairs of solid conductors were sufficient to handle traffic. They did a
good job, but each twisted pair carried only a single circuit operating at audio
frequencies. That is why telephone cables were so large in diameter - they could
be holding hundreds of twisted pairs. Coaxial cable signals can handle hundred or
thousands of channels by modulating across a very wide bandwidth...
 It's probably a safe bet that most people,
even at the
dawn of color television, knew of the competition which occurred for the adoption
of three different methods of implementation. Two of them - line-sequential by Color
Television, Inc. (CTI), and dot-sequential by Radio Corporation of America (RCA)
- were fully electronic while the third system by the Columbia Broadcast System
(CBS) used a kludge of a spinning color wheel placed in front of a black and white
display. The CBS field-sequential design used a synchronization component of the
composite transmitted signal to position the correct color screen (red, yellow,
or blue) in front of the screen as the electron gun scanned the CRT - analogous
to how World War I airplane machine guns were synchronized with the engine
to fire between propeller blades. Of course an out-of-synch scenario in the color
wheel was not as serious as with the machine gun...
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...
 As the general election approaches here
in the U.S., more attention is being paid to voting legitimacy, particularly by
non-citizens. This was very recently brought to light:
18 U.S. Code § 611
- Voting by aliens --- "(a) It shall be unlawful for any alien to vote
in any election held solely or in part for the purpose of electing a candidate for
the office of President, Vice President, ... Member of the Senate, Member of the
House of Representatives, ... unless ---
(c) Subsection (a) does not apply to an alien if --- (3)
the alien reasonably believed at the time of voting
in violation of such subsection that he or she was a citizen of the United States."
Undoubtedly the millions who have crossed into the U.S. have been instructed to
claim such an exemption. Your vote can be nullified by an illegal alien with this.
 Every once in a while having your own website
pays off by having someone offer hard- or difficult-to-find information. Back in
2016 when I originally posted the Radio Service Data Sheet (RSDS) for the Columbia
Screen-Grid 8 (SG−8) Receiver, no photo could be found online. Notice hugeness of
the components on top of the electronics chassis - the vacuum tubes, the metal shields,
the transformers, the coils, etc. I always put in a fair amount of effort to find
actual pictures of the radios. An image search usually does the job, but sometimes
there is nothing to be found. This RSDS appeared in the October 1930 issue of
Radio-Craft magazine. Typical of the era is a very ornate wooden chassis,
and note the tiny tuning window in the center - no round dial or linear frequency
scale...
 "The
Radio
Access Network (RAN) market is "still struggling," according to the latest report
from telecom analysts Dell'Oro Group. The first quarter of 2024 saw exceptionally
weak results, with a decline of 15-30% in the overall global RAN market - the steepest
decline since Dell'Oro started covering this market in 2000, according to Stefan
Pongratz, Dell'Oro VP and analyst. Dell'Oro measures the sector by both revenue
and units sold, but "the focus is on revenue," Pongratz said. Huawei, Ericsson,
Nokia, ZTE and Samsung are the top five RAN suppliers, based on worldwide revenues.
The vendors' positions remained stable but 'there have been shifts in vendor shares,'
Dell'Oro said in an email. 'Huawei's 4QT revenue share improved relative to 2023,
while Nokia lost ground over the same period.' So, we can look forward to dour first-quarter
results from our Nordic friends at Nokia and Ericsson, following disappointing fourth-quarter
results. Ericsson said that it would cut 1,200 Swedish staff in March 2024. This
follows planned cuts of 8,500 people worldwide..."
 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...
 From the 1940s through the 1980s,
National Radio Institute (NRI) ran full-page and multi-page advertisements in
many electronics and technology magazines, including Popular Mechanics,
Radio News, and here in this 1947 issue of Popular Science. I
don't recall exactly how/where I learned of the NRI when I enrolled in their "Electronic
Design Technology" course, circa 1987. At the time I was working as an electronics
technician for Simmonds Precision Instruments in Vergennes, Vermont. That was immediately
preceding my completing a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering at
the University of Vermont. My formal training in electronics began in the U.S. Air
Force while attending technical school at Keesler AFB, Mississippi, for being an
Air Traffic Control Radar Repairman. NRI president J. E. (James Ernest) Smith,
whose face appeared regularly in the ads...
 "Whether its lobbying in favor in the industry
it represents, ensuring that public policies are promoting innovation or helping
to unite all players in the space, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA)
works tirelessly to support the U.S. semiconductor industry. The group also has
its finger on the pulse of the domestic chip manufacturing sector, which it now
says is on track to
triple in size by 2032. In their new Emerging Resilience in the Semiconductor
Supply Chain report, SIA and Boston Consulting Group paint the picture of a sector
that’s shaken off the negative impacts of the global pandemic and great chip shortage,
and that’s well positioned to thrive and expand over the next eight years. Government
funding will play a key role in that expansion. The US CHIPS Act, signed into law
in August 2022, committed $39 billion in grants and loans for semiconductor manufacturing..."
Centric RF is a company offering from stock
various RF and Microwave coaxial
components, including attenuators, adapters, cable assemblies, terminations,
power dividers, and more. We believe in offering high performance parts from stock
at a reasonable cost. Frequency ranges of 0-110 GHz at power levels from 0.5-500
watts are available off the shelf. We have >500,000 RF and Microwave passive
components we can ship you today! We offer Quality Precision Parts, Competitive
Pricing, Easy Shopping, Fast Delivery. We're happy to provide custom parts, such
as custom cables and adapters, to fit your needs. Centric RF is currently seeking
distributors, so please contact us if interested. Visit Centric RF today.
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 average 280,000 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...
 Anatech 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
filters have been announced for May 2024 - a 5520 to 5540 MHz cavity bandpass
filter with a passband insertion loss of 1.75 dB and ripple of <0.2 dB,
a 4755 to 5000 MHz cavity bandpass filter with a minimum passband return loss
of 15 dB, and a 4395 to 4955 MHz cavity bandpass filter with a minimum
rejection of 35 dB at 4295 MHz and 80 dB at 5250 MHz. Custom
RF power filter and directional couplers designs can be designed and produced...
 "A recent Bluetooth connection between a
device on Earth and a satellite in orbit signals a potential new space race - this
time, for global location-tracking networks. Seattle-based startup Hubble Network
announced today that it had a letter of understanding with San Francisco-based startup
Life360 to develop a global, satellite-based Internet of Things (IoT) tracking system.
The announcement follows on the heels of a 29 April announcement from Hubble Network
that it had established the first
Bluetooth connection between
a device on Earth and a satellite. The pair of announcements sets the stage
for an IoT tracking system that aims to rival Apple's AirTags, Samsung's Galaxy
SmartTag2, and the Cube GPS Tracker. Bluetooth, the wireless technology that connects
home speakers..."
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...
 TotalTemp Technologies offers advanced and
innovative methods for meeting and
optimizing your thermal testing requirements. We specialize in benchtop thermal
testing because small batches are typically the most cost- effective approach. We
offer heat transfer by conduction with thermal platforms, forced convection as in
traditional temperature chambers, combined systems, and thermal vacuum for Space
Simulation. The advanced Synergy Nano controller has many time saving features that
make the job easier: Dual or Multi Zone control. Advanced control by reading DUT
temperatures. Capable logging features including Network Plotting / Printing and
multi sensor readings. Local and remote control/monitoring with RS-232, Ethernet,
GPIB option and more. Ramp and dwell, inputs and conditional outputs, configurable
including text and email alarms. Cloud storage capable We offer refrigerated platforms
for applications where expendable cryogenic cooling is not possible...
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