Inside Frequency Control

The international space station (ISS) is traveling in orbit around our earth at about 217 Miles (350 km) above earth’s surface. That’s equal to about 1,148,294 feet (yes, over 1 MILLION feet) or 350,000 meters above you. Those are some crazy heights! The ISS and other satellite communication devices must be able to cover a ton of earth’s surface from there, right?

Maybe. Maybe not. Let’s explore...

 

Radar technology has become extremely important in today's world.

They help guide the freighters which ship the electronics, clothing, and countless other products we use every day to our shores.

They help meteorologists detect advanced weather patterns to produce the weather forecasts we see every morning on the news.

Further, radar is used for:

• Air traffic control and navigation
• Military applications
• Astronomical and meteorological study
• Law enforcement purposes. (You can thank the radars in police radar guns for that speeding ticket you may have gotten.) 
• Continually growing amounts of uses

Clearly radar is important for many reasons. Here's a deeper look into what exactly radar technology is and what makes it so effective for many applications. 

These are exciting times to be an RF engineer. With the advent of 5G, the Internet of Things, and the increasing expansion of the private sector into space, we are about to witness some extraordinary developments in radio frequency tech in the next decade.

There are a lot of engineers coming out of school who want to get in on the action. So, what are the traits that help an RF engineer succeed? What distinguishes those who advance in their careers and land the most desirable positions from those who don’t? Let’s explore this in detail and break down 3 of the most important qualities that make a successful RF engineer.

Space. One of the biggest mysteries of mankind. Are we alone? Will humans ever sustain themelves on mars or other planets? What else is is out there waiting to be explored outside of our solar system? These questions and more lead many young people to pursue a career in engineering. While human space exploration involves the minds of many different types of engineers, RF engineers are among the most important. 

More people are online than ever before. At the turn of the century, there were only around 500 million internet users in the whole world. As of 2015, 3.2 billion people had access to the internet according to an estimate by the International Telecommunications Union. Here's a graph to put that into persective. Almost increasing exponentially! 

In spite of all this incredible progress, more work needs to be done. Today around 4 billion people still lack access to the web, according to a report by the World Economic Forum. Even in developed countries like the United States, there are still some 55 million people that don’t have access to broadband internet.

When High Stability is a Must

For the first 15 years or so of their existence, cell phones were clunky devices which could only be used to make voice calls - which were frequently dropped.

Remember these GIANT things?? ...The Model T of cell phones, The 1983 Motorola Dynatac:

If you'd like to go on a quick side tangent, check out The Evolution of Cell Phones.

Anyway, these first cell phones were considered first-generation or “1G” phones. Then came 2G, which brought us the wonders of text messaging. 3G was a huge leap forward, making internet access completely mobile, and now most of us living in industrialized nations using 4G phones, which bring us the speed we’ve grown accustomed to.

There are big changes coming in the world of RF engineering in the next few years. Major breakthroughs in wireless coverage, military technologies and satellite and space-based systems will mean that radio frequency specialists will be in high demand, and only the best will land the most lucrative contracts.