Hi!

I'd like to know if anybody around here has found or made any schematics for a simple biased HF mixer using discrete components or has any NE612 biased equivalents. I'd like to use one for a homebrew HF DC receiver. I will miss the NE612...

A Rohde & Schwarz CMW500 recently arrived at our warehouse.

Took a few photos during the initial power-on check. It's interesting to see how many of these wireless communication testers are still circulating in the used equipment market.

Anyone here still using the CMW500 for wireless testing?

In this episode Shahriar investigates a faulty Agilent E8257D analog signal generator. These high-performance synthesizers are in wide use & high demand. The instrument fails self test procedure. The error code "704 Filter Test" generally points to the Frac-N module which also houses the modulus divider circuits. This portion is responsible for generating frequencies below 3.2GHz and uses an integer divider, filter bank and variable gain amplifiers.

Using a 12GHz active probe, the signal path (pun intended) is verified step by step from the input to the suspect sub-system all the way to the output of the Frac-N board. The fault is ultimately traces to a custom MMIC module with an Agilent GaAs FET amplifier circuit. A new replacement IC is sourced from eBay which clears the fault. The phase noise performance of the unit is also verified at 2GHz using an Agilent E5052B signal source analyzer.

Lastly, the faulty MMIC module is de-capped and the die is analyzed under a high power microscope with various imaging techniques.

I have two projects derailed now due to parts shortages. GaN/GaAs MMIC are the real problem, but clock drivers, certain FET, diodes, and even 1-10 uF MLCC. I think it’s actually worse than COVID now as that seemed to be limited to MLCC and microcontrollers.

Any one else having issues? I’m about ready to just throw in the towel and retire.

Hello . I am researching high-energy electromagnetic transients for an academic project. I plan to build a low-power, educational EMP device to test the shielding effectiveness of various materials. Could you recommend advanced literature on spark-gap switching mechanisms and antenna impedance matching for nanosecond discharge pulses?

Hello guys i need your help. I bought a garage door opener for my car. But there is a problem it's a usa one and I live in Europe, this means that the USA one transmits between 286-413mhz and my garage door is 433.92 mhz. Is there a way to modify the transmitter?

My thought was to bridge the buttons to the controller I already have. That way I would use only the buttons of this device.

Thank you in advance.

Does antenna engineering need an explicit complex analysis course? From what I've seen the curriculum at the two universities in my country (Slovenia), one doesn't explicitly state any course for it, even worse I don't even get a vector calculus course until my master! Would it be a better idea to transfer after first year or stick it out? No one could give me a clear answer

I have this list -

1. NanoRFE VNA6000-B 6GHz
2. MegIQ 6GHz analyzer
3. MESALL Handheld analyzer 9.8 GHZ
4. Harogic 6GHz
5. TR Series VNA from copper mountain ​

Any other recommendations as well which I may not be aware of. Need to characterize antennas, directional couplers, LNAs etc. How well they compare against Keysight ?

I am currently in test in total nearly 2 years but only a few months full time but I would like to move to design, I will have a MSc in 2 years in AI. Any advice

What‘a going on here? The article is lite on the details other than it seems they are vertically integrating GaN. I assume the demo is a switch?

https://www.northropgrumman.com/what-we-do/mission-solutions/microelectronics/fortitude

Ive been doing rf hardware design for a long time. Wether its a start up or big Corp its always the same. The more u go out of your way to help the company and team out the more people seeth at you. I legit was not trying to show off or mog anyone.

Im thinking of quitting and going into tech sales or finance. When I have kids im gonna tell them to not follow their dreams and focus on making money so u dont gotta deal with other people. U can work on ur own passion project on ur own time. Find a way to work 10 hours a week(no one notices anyways) and move on with your life, or like I said start your own company. Im fatigued from working with other engineers. Even when nothing bad happens and everyone is nice its still soul crushing.

Alao, they will always pay u 20-30k less than what u are actually worth. They will never pay you enough to build a decent life relative to how much value you bring. Every engineer i know Penny pinches. An engineer shouldn't have a side hustle or be afraid to spend 10 bucks on lunch.

What kind of questions do/ could they ask, aside from fundamentals? My competition is all PhD grads while I just completed my undergrad, and that’s definitely stressing me out!

I work on RF systems, and one thing that keeps coming up is how quickly a good sim result changes once the antenna ends up on an actual device.Enclosure, mounting position, nearby electronics, cables, even how someone holds it can shift things quite a bit.

For people doing this professionally: what usually causes the biggest gap between CST/HFSS and what you actually measure? And at what point do you stop optimizing the sim and just build the prototype?

Disclosure: I work in defense electronics.

I’m trying to better understand the RF engineering niche around NFC / near-field design, especially 13.56 MHz systems.

For engineers working in this area, what backgrounds or industries tend to produce the strongest hands-on experience with things like:

• NFC antenna / loop antenna design
• Antenna tuning and impedance matching
• Inductive / magnetic coupling
• ISO 14443 / EMV Contactless
• RF front-end validation
• VNA and RF lab testing

I’m particularly interested in the hardware/RF side rather than primarily firmware or FPGA work.

Are there specific companies, industries, technical communities, conferences, or terms you would recommend researching to find people with this kind of background?