3 ms·
RF/Microwave hardware isn't work, it's sorcery. You just enjoy being a wizard.
by jotux 11y ago
RF/Microwave hardware isn't work, it's sorcery. You just enjoy being a wizard.
- madengr 11y agoAll those professors in undergrad brushed it off as "black magic". All really boils down to problem solving and intellectual stimulation. I suppose any job that has that is good.
- jjoonathan 11y agoAnd expensive equipment :-) You said "state of the art," too, so I fully expect that the price is well into "call us" territory. Speaking of which, I need to go enter my name into today's Agilent drawing...
- madengr 11y agoSpherical near field antenna scanner, mm wave equipment, Keysight 50 GHz PNA with pulsed X-parameters, Keysight UXA spectrum analyzer, load pull tuners, etc; all good stuff.
- jacquesm 11y agoIf you experience a burglary in the next couple of days it wasn't me.
- justinjlynn 11y agoYou have just described what is easily fifty thousand USD worth of equipment.
- zendotech 11y agoI think you mean 500K$ usd, used.
- justinjlynn 11y agoAt that point, there isn't much difference in terms of affordability for your average person.
- jjoonathan 11y agoI think you underestimate how much those of us struck RF fever (a lifelong affliction with no cure) are willing to spend on the hobby. Some common price points I've seen in home labs: $15k oscilloscopes, $10k signal generators, $6k logic analyzers, etc. $50k would be a high-end home lab, but home-lab territory nonetheless. It's affordable on an engineer's salary -- many of us semi-regularly spend more on things like nice cars and "living in SF." $500k, OTOH, isn't, unless you're particularly well off for an engineer. So you need to find an employer to purchase the toys for you. Looks like madengr has done well on that front :-)
- justinjlynn 11y agoFair enough. Just sour grapes I suppose. Heh. I would love to have such a well equipped lab... as is I have to make do with simulation.
- Animats 11y agoIf you're too good at that, DoD gets annoyed. One of the great suppressed inventions: Airadar.[1] A phased array radar with a conformal antenna for light aircraft. In 1973. Worked fine, and was reviewed in Flying magazine. The USAF was very unhappy, because it was better and much smaller than military radars of the period, which were still "dish in the nose" mechanically scanned devices. [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=NWzlTqj0gQ4C&pg=PA66&lpg=PA66&dq=airadar+flying&source=bl&ots=OInipFis7e&sig=KIHYa8PFOzRrmL7DeAQj4WD3GZU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjhmLHjgr3LAhVU72MKHYWzDGMQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=airadar%20flying&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=NWzlTqj0gQ4C&pg=PA66&lpg=P...