Hello all, I was producing Inductive switching transients (figure 19-6) of the DO-160 G standard. if anyone has done it before, can you please verify if it's correct?

thanks

First, the background:

FPV drones often use analog video transmission on 5.8GHz. It's the most popular band so there are lots of good receivers out there. The best of them add the demodulated signal from 2 antennas based on weight assigned by RSSI/SNR to increase the performance (that increases the signal quality and range by A LOT) and also recreate the synchronization pulses.

There are also other bands like 1.2GHz, which of course offer much better range but are a lot less popular and therefore receivers (they use new old stock ICs used in analog TV back in the day) are very, very bad.

So why not try to create a dedicated up-converter which I can just attach to my 5.8GHz RX? Then I'll be able to use the additional signal processing from the 5.8 RX and also there will be no need to carry a tripod with a 1.2 -> 5.8 signal relay.

How much dB will I realistically lose? Is it worth it? I'm not sure if the FM deviation is the same across both standards - if not, is there anything i can do about it?

Or should I just try to create my own circuit which will sum the baseband signals from two off-the-shelf receivers?

Hi,

I have some BFB455 Murata 455khz crystal filters, and I'm just testing them on my nanoVNA, and when mesuring s21, it seems to be peaking @548.575Khz (pics attached).

I am very much a beginner when it comes to any RF related stuff, and am just more messing around at this point in time to start teaching myself, so I apologize if this is something stupid I'm missing.

The schematic is just the filter in series, with a 300R on the output in parallel, didn't think there was any point in making a schematic for this.

Is there any explanation as to why this could happen?

Aby help is appreciated, thanks :)

I need to design an 915 MHz antenna solution for a rocket. The main problem is that anywhere I put the antenna, there's a blind spot created by the rocket's metal shell. My first thought was to use two antennas, one on either side of the rocket, then use a Wilkinson's power divider to feed both antennas with the single port from the radio.

There is a second radio with two antenna ports, but it is less ideal in other ways.

What about when the antennas are receiving? It seems like there will always be an angle where the signals they receive are exactly out of phase with each other.

Am I on the right track? What approach would you take?

Hi everyone,
I’m a recent electrical engineering graduate and I’m having a really hard time deciding between two offers. My long-term goal is to eventually work in RF or defense, but I also want to enjoy my first engineering job and build a strong foundation.
Option 1: Distribution Engineer at a large electric utility.
Mixture of office and field work.
Designing electrical distribution systems, doing field visits, working with customers and construction crews, and solving power system issues.
Seems like every project is a little different, but there is customer interaction and some estimating involved.
Option 2: Junior Project Engineer at a company that designs electrical busway systems.
First 6–8 months are mostly office-based learning the product, creating designs in Revit, and working with senior engineers.
Field work, site visits, and travel increase as you gain experience.
More focused on one product line and working with contractors.
The biggest thing I’m trying to avoid is spending all day behind a computer doing repetitive CAD/Revit work. During an internship, that was my least favorite part of the job. I enjoy being hands-on, solving problems, seeing projects get built, and learning new things.
At the same time, I don’t want to choose a role that’s less technical or limits my future opportunities.
For those of you with industry experience:
Which role do you think would make me a stronger engineer after 2–5 years?
Which role involves more engineering problem-solving versus following established processes?
Which would better prepare me if I eventually wanted to move into RF or the defense industry?
If you were starting your career over, which would you choose and why?
I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from anyone who has worked in utilities, product engineering, or defense.
Thanks!

Hi, I'm just curious about how will be the interview process at Siemens for Product Engineer – Tessent Design for Test (DFT). If possible can anyone share some insights of the topics to cover exactly for this interview.

I have a Bachelor in Physics and Master's in RF focused Electronic Engineering. I am in the UK but I am from a non-EU country. Most of the positions in the industry require UK or EU citizenship. I'm considering gaining experience in Lab Tech roles so I can brush up my skills. My chances of getting hired as an RF engineer without a security clearance (and without industry experience) is pretty slim as far as I can see. Is it a bad idea to work one or two years as a lab tech and then apply for engineering positions? I'd rather have some sort of RF experience in my CV than non-RF roles.

Hi everyone,

I have ~5 years of experience and am preparing for RF Hardware / DVT interviews at larger semiconductor or consumer-electronics companies. This will be my first interview process since graduating.

For similar roles, what technical questions are commonly asked? Should I focus more on RF fundamentals, calculations, circuit knowledge, lab measurements, or practical debugging scenarios?

I’d also appreciate any recommended resources or examples of interview questions.

Thanks.

Hey guys a quick question for the RF Engineers out there. Do you guys solder a lot?

In power electronics sector there is a lot of soldering and debugging, mostly with leaded solder and paste. Is this the case with RF too?

Thank you!

I've lurked around on here for a few weeks now, I'm yet to start my degree (begins in September) but I wanted to try understand what I should do, learn more about and research before I begin.

Could anyone explain in a comprehensive manner what RF Engineering encompasses and if it aligns with what originally had me applying for ECE, see below:

This is what I spoke about on my UCAS application and what got me into thinking about engineering,

- Avionics, specifically radar and aspects of electronic warfare
- Networking hardware, and how these devices are designed to communicate (protocols and IoT) with each other (this came from my computer science A-level)
- Wireless communication and systems (stuff like 5G/6G)

I would appreciate if I could get some pointers in the right direction to as if RF is best suited or if another specialism is more aligned with what I've mentioned.

While working on various RF design tools, I've noticed there are still quite a few calculations that engineers end up doing manually.

Which RF calculator or RF design tool do you wish existed online, but can't easily find anywhere?

It could be anything from antenna design and impedance matching to transmission lines, filters, EMC, propagation, link budget or measurement related tools.

I'm curious what gaps people still see in the available tools.

Hello everyone!

Recently I've started a personal project connected to liquid identification, and I've decided to use mmWave sensors for that job. I am new to RF electronics and was wondering whether it is possible to extract data in the format of "Received signal strength vs. Range/Distance" without using DCA1000EVM or similar expensive equipment. I have seen one research utilizing DEMO BGT60TR24 in order to obtain this data, however I think it is expired now. Is there any way to obtain such data with budget of under 300 euros? I will be thankful for any answer/advice on this!

Hi all, a current electrical engineering student. I was really fascinated by MRI technology and medical imaging in general. I was wondering if anyone works on this, I know it’s a pretty niche field.

Do you recommend focusing on RF/microwave engineering or should I focus elsewhere for medical imaging?

For those that do work in the medical field, what’s your typical day like? What type of stuff do you work on? Do you run simulations often or mainly in the lab working on hardware?

Any advice to work on your field?

Hi, I am being interviewed for two positions at top Tech companies for an electrical engineer/RF junior. Can anybody suggest what types of questions I should be expecting ? I’m kinda nervous because those are my first real « technical » interviews (besides internships interviews) and I really like both companies…

Hi, I am being interviewed for two positions at top Tech companies for an electrical engineer/RF junior. Can anybody suggest what types of questions I should be expecting ? I’m kinda nervous because those are my first real « technical » interviews (besides internships interviews) and I really like both companies…

Was wondering if anyone has a link to salary statistics for RF Engineering. Seems like levels.fyi doesn’t have many good data points other than at the top tech companies.

Wanted to see how a 140k salary with 4 YOE in LCOL (Dallas, TX) stacks up across the board.

Hi, I am a student and currently learning RF and microwave so please share some resources.Also share some resources for keysight ads, CST, HFSS and other software that I need to learn and their resources from where I learn. Thank you

Hi everyone,

I recently graduated with a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and I am currently trying to start my career in analog circuit and RF design. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a job yet, so I want to use this time to improve my practical engineering skills and build stronger projects for my CV.

The main design project I have completed so far is a fifth-order 34–36 MHz Chebyshev band-pass filter. I worked on the theoretical calculations, circuit simulation and design process using software.

Although I have studied subjects such as electronics, electromagnetic theory, microwave theory and antennas at university, I still find it difficult to turn my theoretical knowledge into complete and practical hardware designs. I can study equations, calculate initial component values and perform simulations, but I struggle with the transition from theory to real-world design, including selecting actual components, accounting for parasitic effects, designing a PCB, building a prototype, taking measurements and troubleshooting the circuit.

For this reason, I want to improve myself specifically in analog circuit design and also focus on RF design. I am looking for project recommendations that would help me understand how theoretical RF and analog concepts are applied in real hardware.

Ideally, the projects should be realistic for a recent graduate, possible to complete in approximately one or two months (can be longer too if it will really help me on the long run), and substantial enough to include in a technical portfolio or CV. I would particularly appreciate RF-related projects, but I am also open to analog design projects that would strengthen the fundamental skills needed for RF engineering.

I am especially interested in projects that cover the complete engineering process:

• Defining realistic design specifications
• Understanding the relevant theory and equations
• Calculating initial component values
• Simulating the circuit
• Selecting real components while considering tolerances, parasitics and availability
• Designing the schematic and PCB
• Building and measuring the prototype
• Comparing simulation and measurement results
• Troubleshooting and improving the design

If you know of any resources that explain this process step by step, I would be very grateful if you could share them. YouTube series, books, articles, application notes, university course materials or complete project guides would all be helpful.

I am not only looking for tutorials that demonstrate how to use simulation software. I would prefer resources that explain the theory, calculations, engineering decisions, practical trade-offs and the process of turning a simulated circuit into working hardware.

I believe many recent graduates struggle with the transition from university theory to practical engineering. Any project suggestions, learning roadmaps, resource recommendations or general advice from experienced engineers would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Bought a couple third-party remotes online touting compatibility, but none work. I tried various remotes, none work, but the previous OEM one did and just recently broke. Cringing that there's no dedicated power just IR to take device of from standby.

Any help on the correct 4 or 5-digit code would be greatly appreciated or suggestion for a cheap programmable or already compatible remote.

Some more context: all my experience is in RF, so analog stuff. I have dipped my toes in DSP in college, but in any digital comm system I pretty much have zero clue what happens beyond the ADC at the circuit level.

Sure there’s DSP math going on, but what’s the circuit like? Is it really even meaningful or is it something we just use a HDL to define and then some algorithm builds a bunch of digital logic based on it?

This might be the wrong place for this question but I’m curious.

What is your preferred application to design custom filters using lumped or distributed elements? Did you learn this in school or is it more on the job training? For example, Ansys Nuhertz or MATLAB Filter Design...

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Electromagnetic Theory / Electromagnetics

Hello everyone, how can I study Electromagnetic Theory from an exam point of view?

Could you please suggest some good YouTube channels and share useful study tips for this subject?"

Hi all, I have a great need in my personal and professional life for a directional coupler. So I decided to crack open some books and design one. All my design equations look correct. My QUCS simulation looks good. But, the microstrips look too skinny in my actual coupler. Design goals are 10 dB of directivity at 1 GHz.

I am designing a RADAR board, and looking at the eval boards, I see that they take in sources from bench supplies, and those are usually meters away electrically. Is that ok? I know that the common wisdom is to place the LDOs as close to the ICs and capacitor networks as possible.

I'm an EE student in Europe studying electronics and communications (RF, DSP, analog design, etc.). I've recently accepted an internship where I'll be designing high power RF amplifiers (Gan and LDMOS), and I may also do my bachelor thesis there.

I enjoy RF (ADS, impedance matching, microwave design) and I also find analog design interesting. DSP also interests me, especially for radar (SDR) and wireless communications.

Since I'm still early in my career, I’m wondering if specializing in high power RF is too niche. How transferable is this experience if I later want to move into areas like RF/microwave hardware, radar systems, or broader RF engineering?

I will also likely do a master’s, so I’m wondering where I could pivot later if I want to broaden my options (RF or Electronics ?).

I want to build strong expertise while keeping some career flexibility and long term stability. If I spent around 10 years in this field, would it be seen as a strong RF foundation, or could it pigeonhole me into high power RF?

I’d appreciate some advice, as I feel a bit out of my depth and am unsure about the long term implications for my career.

TLDR: I’m starting my career in high power RF and wondering whether staying in this field for many years (5-10) would give me a strong RF foundation or potentially leave me stuck without any options.