Traditional frequency modulation has long been used in broadcast applications, but modern digital communication schemes use various digital versions of FM. Communication parameters for digital communication techniques differ somewhat from those for their analog counterparts. It can be useful to review some of these changes. Perhaps the most basic is communication receiver sensitivity. For purposes […]
Test and Measurement Tips
Students and researchers depend on test equipment
In a video interview with Wilson Lee of Tektronix, EE World shows how COVID-19 brought about remote learning, and with it, remote operation of lab equipment at universities.
TAA-compliant waveguide horn antennas support 1.7 GHz to 40 GHz frequency range
A new series of standard gain waveguide horn antennas address a wide range of R&D, test and measurement, government/military, wireless communication and microwave radio systems applications. Pasternack’s new waveguide horn antennas can be used in a broad variety of applications due to their high power handling capability, low loss, high directivity and near constant electrical […]
RF/microwave PIN-diode switches target high-power broadband uses
A new series of high-power broadband RF and microwave PIN diode coaxial packaged switches are candidates for aerospace and defense, microwave radio, military and commercial communications, VSAT, SATCOM, test and measurement, wireless infrastructure and fiber optics applications. Fairview Microwave’s new high-power RF and microwave PIN diode switches utilize GaN semiconductor technology. In the manufacturing process, […]
Single-sideband modulation and its measurement
The most basic form of amplitude modulation is known as double-sideband AM, so called because mirror-image sidebands are produced above and below the carrier frequency. Early researchers found that they could use simple band-pass filters to eliminate one of the sidebands and even the carrier signal, improving the ratio of information-bearing power to total transmitted […]
High-power RF/microwave PIN diode coaxial packaged switches offer < 50 nsec switching speed
A new series of high-power RF and microwave PIN diode coaxial packaged switches are candidates for commercial and military radar, jamming systems, medical imaging, communications and electronic warfare. Pasternack’s new high-power RF and microwave PIN diode switches utilize GaN semiconductor technology. GaN and chip & wire technology in the manufacturing process ensures state-of-the-art power performance […]
Microwaves and the Havana Syndrome
Leland Teschler • Executive editor The National Academy of Sciences recently released its conclusions about what sickened dozens of American Embassy diplomats in Cuba, a phenomenon dubbed the Havana Syndrome. Though the panel reached no definitive conclusion, it found pulsed RF (a.k.a. directed microwave energy) was the most likely cause. Panel members could not rule […]
Looking for ghostly goings-on with a milligauss meter
Tune in to TV shows that are purportedly about ghost hunting and you’ll often see people wandering around in the dark with an instrument called a milligauss meter. A milligauss meter detects changing magnetic fields. (It won’t detect static fields as from a bar magnet.) When a milligauss meter shows a reading during a ghosting […]
USB scope features low noise, four channels, 1 GSa/sec signal acquisition
The Handyscope HS6 is a USB 3.0 oscilloscope is available in models with 200 MSa/sec up to 1 GSa/sec sampling rate. The Handyscope HS6 has a flexible resolution that can be set from 8 bit to 16 bit, allowing high-resolution measurements. With its high accuracy (0.25 %) and low noise (240 μVRMS), measured signals are […]
Tools: Galileo and the sector
Galileo was born the same year as William Shakespeare. He was a builder or instruments and used them to measure earthly and extraterrestrial phenomena. He published his findings, only to become embroiled in disputes with the religious authorities. In a trial before the Inquisition, he was compelled to recant his views and he spent his […]
