Updated August 3, 2008

Before we get into "fun links", here is a short list of web sites that have good microwave engineering content on them.

Microwave-related links

Here's a microwave-related web site started by a student at Purdue. It contains a compilation of links to other sites which have been categorized to help you find what you need:

http://www.rfmwdesign.com/

Matweb is a great resource for material properties, check it out!

For those of you interested in frequencies higher than microwaves, check out Timbercon's glossary of fiber optic terms. Currently this site defines over 1,300 items. They have an education section and fiber optic tools as well if you poke around a bit.

http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm will teach you some semiconductor physics, accompanied by glamour shots of Britney. It is an interesting combination, and it shouldn't get you in too much trouble with the Thought Police at work. The person that created this web site might someday need ankle bracelets, but not you, you're just learning about semiconductors, right? Thanks to Terry!

http://www.odyseus.nildram.co.uk is an excellent on-line content about microwave design, not a collection of links.

WJ Communications (check out their app notes, they might be 20 years old but they are still great!)

Circuitsage.com offers some Mathcad tools, and a lot of miscellaneous links to other people's notes, even some links that aren't broken!

Barry Brown's VNAhelp.com has some good notes on vector network analyzers bit it's been moved, you can find it on this new site, which has eliminated non-Agilent information (October 2, 2005).

Designersguide.org is run by a couple of ex-Cadence guys. It offers a forum for asking questions on modeling just about anything to do with integrated circuits.

The bad news is that this link no longer works... the "ELECTRONIC WARFARE AND RADAR SYSTEMS ENGINEERING HANDBOOK" is available for your use, courtesy of the US Navy. It has plenty o'stuff of interest to microwave engineers, and you don't have to be an Old Crow to appreciate it. Great stuff on radar. Thanks for the tip, Terry of Oklahoma City! The good news is that we have the document on its own page now!

Cornell Drentea has written some great articles on some microwave-related stuff, you'll see them if you check out his web site! Way back in the 1980s he wrote an equally great book on receivers, if you're lucky you can find a used copy on Ebay.

RFCafe.com is more politically-correct effort than the priceless gem that is Microwaves101.com. RF Cafe's material is mostly linked from other sites on the worldwide web, with an extremely busy web page design that boasts millions of page views. Kirt Blattenberger is the proprietor of this web site, and we hereby offer to arm wrestle him any day for a pint of beer, that is, if he is a real person and not a corporate creation such as Betty Crocker. RFCafe has a fair number of calculators up there, but most don't run in Mozilla Firefox, which really sucks because many of us despise Microsoft Internet Explorer, the proven way to infect your computer with spyware.

Who The Microwave Man?

Speaking of Mozilla Firefox (the official browser of Microwaves101), why not download it right now, for free? Stop supporting Bill Gates, and let someone else have a turn as the world's richest man!

robertcoats.net is the personal web site of Robert Coats, a man with over 50 years experience in microwaves, and a contributor to Microwaves101.com. Excellent site, great pictures, check it out!!!

Daycounter, Inc. has a calculator that analyzes transistor stability and maximum gain, and suggests a suitable conjugate L-matching network for a given load and source impedance of the circuit to which the transistor will be connected. But it analyzes just one frequency at a time, and you have to type in the data. They should have done this as an Excel download. Good luck!

ViPEC is a free linear analysis program with a GUI interface. Sourceforge.net claims that ViPEC analyzes lumped elements as well as physical elements including microstrip and stripline. We haven't had time to try this out yet. Thanks to Don for sharing this link!

Express PC is home of the $51 circuit board, and they'll give you free software for doing the layout. Probably not the best way to build a microwave-quality board, but quite useful for all the ancillary stuff that goes with microwave engineering, such as regulators and control circuits.

Other useful links

Hey, that was a short list! Here's some other links you might find useful, Mr. Big Microwave Guy:

A cool site for engineers on the history of various stuff. http://tingilinde.typepad.com/starstuff/history_of_technology/index.html

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is the U.S. agency devoted to measurements and standards. They have a comprehensive listing of physical constants, searchable at http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Constants/index.html.

Go to http://www.bpn.gov/ccrinq/scripts/search.asp to look up CAGE codes (commercial and government entity) for businesses, Uncle Sam's way of keeping track of everybody. Search on 3MLV7 to find out more about the company that owns Microwaves101.com... yes, they've got it right, this is all about REUPHOLSTERY AND FURNITURE REPAIR! At least they haven't compromised the Unknown Editor's secret identity.

Check out military specifications at this site put up by the U.S. D.A.P.S and D.S.P (the government people who control documents). They call it ASSIST for "acquisition streamlining and standardization information system". Thanks to Chris C. we have the correct link now!

A very cool history-of-physics site: http://www.aip.org/history/esva/

Here's two other very cool history sites that have to do with strange technology:

http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/museum.htm

http://tingilinde.typepad.com/starstuff/history_of_technology/index.html

Here's the American Institute of Physics very cool web site on the history of physics.

Be like Gilligan and give them each a Three Hour Tour!

Think you've got a new idea? Check to see if someone else had it first by looking on the U.S. Patent Office web site. It seems like every month we get a request to put a link to someone's patent download site. We have one word for all of you would-be entrepreneurial parasites: Google. No one is going to join your web site and get spammed now that they can download pdfs of patents including images on Google. Game over, Dudes! Maybe instead you should buy a Carvel franchise. Fat people always gotta eat!

Want to track an overnight shipment on any carrier? Check out:
http://shipping.langenberg.com/

Like a little light reading? Most military specs are available here:
http://www.dscc.dla.mil/Programs/MilSpec/DocSearch.asp

Fun links (no possible microwave use whatsoever!!!)

For a great account of how to get rid of pesky telephone salepeople, check out this web site! OK, you have to click the flag to translate it to English... just keep repeating, 'we do not use... (insert product name)".

Here's a link that will tell you what info web sites such as Microwaves101 can pull from your browser when you "anonymously" surf our pages: http://www.internetfrog.com/. You can also check your uplink and downlink speeds and see if you are getting your money's worth on that new DSL connection!

Remember when Nasa promised us "faster, cheaper, better" stuff? Here is a Canadian video about Lockheed's satellites, which are more accurately described as "Dumb and Dumber!

It is possible to generate a random "corporate-speak" memo using a lava lamp? Click here and try it out!

Do you hate the "successories" posters that executives hang in the conference room, with banal claptrap such as "Success is formed when principles are hammered and forged on the anvil of excellence?" This stuff makes real engineers puke. Funny thing, the successories web site has a "clearance rack" for stuff they produced that was less than successful... It's good to know that parodies of these posters are available at Dispair.com! For example, "if you want to get to the top, prepare to kiss a lot at the bottom".

If you work at a big company, your motto might be "towards man's capacity for maximum effort to achieve minimal gain". Check out Rube Goldberg's site!

Like the Unknown Editor, are you interested in obscure bits of history? How about a book about the Ninth Air Force? Many books describe the Eight Air Force strategic bombing runs, the Ninth was the tactical air command that supported our troops on the ground using Mustangs, Marauders, Lightnings and Black Widows! Check out well-known travel author Harry A. Franck's long-lost book describing his Winter Journey following the U. S. airmen as they pounded the crap out of Nazi Germany in 1945!

Handsome Harry

KNON 89.3 FM North Texas radio's web site has some awesome Texas R&B, Texas blues and Texas dancehall music that you can download for free, or you can connect to their internet radio station! Be a sport and pledge a few bucks to buy one of their CDs. Power to the people!

KNON's White House