Microwave Vendors

• Radiometrics: complete radiometer systems
• EMF Systems, Chris' favorite source of oscillators
• Synergy, more oscillators
• General Electronics Devices, used by MM group
• Skyworks, PLL/synthesizer chips and eval boards
• A good (technical) summary of what I do with microwaves
• A far more comprehensive list but alphabetical by company name
• A summary of RF connector types, with links to manufacturers and distributors
• Richardson Electronics: was distributor of items interesting to me, now specializes in high power stuff, all frequencies
• Richardson RFPD: distributor of many manufacturers, products incl. cable assemblies and GPS modules
• Newark distributor
• MCM Electronics distributor, maybe not so much microwave
• Analog Devices
• Tektronics
• Vaunix's Lab Bricks: a line of USB powered/controlled microwave modules
• Scitec: Lock-in amplifier products and links to theory/applications; IR stuff, too.
• Meret: parent company of Sciteq, maker of the 1-230MHz chirper.
• G.T. Microwave: phase shifters and similar control
• AtlanTecRF: amps that operate at liquid He temps, battery powered amps... extreme stuff.
• Michael Perrott: PLL design tools
• the Electronic Bookshelf: lots of good stuff here!
• Electronic Design Magazine
• Endwave: mini YIGs, etc.
• Teledyne Microwave: YIGs, etc.
• Advanced Control Components, Inc. Makers of TMRS-3 detectors.
• Herotek: detectors, limiters, PIN diode switches
• M/A-COM
• Spacek: millimeter wave stuff, incl. W-band amp
• Farran: millimeter wave stuff, high noise figures
• Terabeam: millimeter wave stuff
• Ute: good circulators and isolators
• Murata: among other things, tiny isolators
• AVX: tiny directional couplers
• Temex: limited selection of flight HW, incl. coax and wg isolators, micro and millimeter wave
• Renaisance: broadband isolators, circulators, coax em switches; in stock are cheap!
• JQL: circulators, isolators, dividers and couplers, as well as transformers
• Dorado: wg to coax adaptors, many sizes/connectors, $125 each; 37GHz wg isolator for $50; other passive products (some, but not much below X-band)
• Cernex, Inc.: microwave and mmw stuff; lots waveguide
• QuinStar: millimeter wave stuff (is this the old Alpha Industries?)
• Amplifier Research: cheapo power amps?
• Inmet: mostly passive components; now also gain-slope equalizers. What happened to the temperature compensating attenuators?
• Integrated Microwave Corporation (aka IMC): filter supplier for STAR-Light
• K&L Microwave: filters
• Lorch: filters
• TTE: filters
• Anatech: filters
• GigOptix: MMIC, esp.
• Maury: noise components, among other things
• Micro Lambda: connectors, adaptors, custom assembly
• Marki Microwave: esp. mixers
• Microwave Filter (and RAM)
• Microwave Development Corporation (MDC): filters
• Networks International Corp: filters
• Millitech: millimeterwave
• Mini-Circuits: cheap microwave
• Locus Microwave: low noise amps
• Guerilla RF: low noise surface-mount amps
• MITEQ: good amps
• JCA Technology: amps
• RF Micro Devices: amps+
• Noise Com: noise diodes
• Noisewave: noise diodes
• Micronetics: noise diodes
• DowKey Microwave: microwave switches
• Magfusion: a little startup working on latching MEMS switches
• Peregrine: CMOS microwave parts (esp. low IL switches)
• e2v: fast ADCs in BGA, etc.
• TriQuint: can make what you want
• H. Rollet & Co.: waveguide
• Precision Tube: good coax, but lousy website
• Times Microwave: adverts SiO_2 phase stable coax
• Emerson and Cuming: absorber
• ETS-Lindgren: a full line of absorbers
• Mast Technologies: inexpensive "egg crate" absorber
• Anaren: power dividers
• Arra: power dividers
• Microwave Communications Laboratories: power dividers, circulators, couplers, switches
• Meca Electronics: power dividers
• KDI Triangle: power dividers
• AT Microwave: many good fundamental microwave products
• Seavey Antenna Engineering: good, inexpensive custom antenna house
• Southwest Antennas: has circular polarization antennas that are less than a half-wavelength in size, which could make an alias-free STAR, 'tho they don't cover a passive band; also, outdoor SMA "gooseneck" cables
• Microwave Vision Group: emc and antennas
• Hittite is now part of Analog Devices
• Channel Microwave: Juno MCS supplier of many parts
• EMS Technologies: ferrite products including ferrite switches
• Ferrite Domen: Russian company making ferrite products including ferrite switches
• EMC Technology: thermopads, Smart Loads, among other things
• ims: another manufacturer of temperature compensating attenuators
• Coilcraft: inductor manufacturer
• Florida RF Labs: has crossover chips
• Rogers: Duroid substrates, etc.
• Ramsey Electronics: very inexpensive antennas
• Colby Instruments: programmable delay lines
• Pasternack has lots of connectors/adaptors
• TestParts has NMD adaptors
• SemiGen: RF PCB fab house; PIN, limiter diodes; caps, resistors and pads
• Metalcraft: possible source of radar calibration spheres?

Still Useful, but not Microwave

• novotechnik: position sensors, incl. no-touch, no-wear rotary sensors
• K&J Magnetics: magnets used in class final projects
• Thinergy embeddable rechargeable batteries, suited for energy harvesting.
• Acopian power supplies
• TECA makes thermoelectric coolers that we use in radiometers
• Cooligy makes liquid cooling systems for individual chips (unexplored)
• Micropac makes the resistor-programmed ceramic heaters used on the Bistatic Facility
• Aero makes high quality non-RF connectors
• gEDA: open source PCB design SW for *nix.
• Express PCB: they mean the name, and they're inexpensive, too, if you only need 2 layers. Use their free proprietary software from start to finish.
• Sierra Proto Express PCB: really inexpensive and less restrictive than ExpressPCB, but you have to have your own layout software.
• PCB Artist: Ok, maybe this one is the happy medium of the above PCB houses. Haven't checked them out, yet.
• the former Zoom PCB: used on previous projects
• Fine Circuits: SPRL's "local" favorite, circa 2012. Haven't checked them out, yet, either.
• FLIR: infrared cameras
• Melexis: infrared devices. MLX90614 looks interesting; MLX90601 has appeared in some TMRS-3 systems.
• L-Com connectors, etc.
• Molex connectors, etc. Great for an occasional obscure sample.
• Special Hermetic Products: hermetic connectors
• Fischer Connectors: including marine, IP68 & IP69
• Magnetic Component Engineering: ring magnets, and info on materials
• Alpha Metal Finishers: our local metal finisher
• Almond Products: metal finisher with big tanks, but has phased out gold chromate finishing.
• Kano Labs: high quality penetrating oils and similar products
• Geoprobe: soil sampling tools
• Forestry Suppliers, Inc: various outdoor (and some indoor) science equipment
• History of Winter: ok, not a vendor, but describes what you need to make snow pit measurements.
• snowmetrics: snow sampling tools
• Brooks Range: snow sampling tools
• how-to on photographing snow crystals

Software Radio

• Ettus Research: open source "software radio" hardware.
• SkyWorks: single package chip transceivers.
• Nallatech: transceivers w/ 105MHz A/D and 160MHz D/A; built-in Vertex 4.
• Acqiris: receivers up to 1GHz A/D.
• Pentek: transceivers up to 105MHz A/D and 500MHz D/A. (maybe faster, now)
• SignalHound: SDR spectrum analyzers, powered by USB, options for extended temperature range. Possible WiBAR hardware.
• Copper Mountain Technologies: PC-controlled VNAs.
• ICS: makes software radio products.
• Red Hawk software defined radio.

Snow, especially

• NOHRSC's snow maps
• Campbell Scientific: go-to place for outdoor instrumentation
• DataTaker: outdoor datloggers for Ice project
• Rickly: outdoor data collection equipment made to federal standards
• Hach Hydromet: Parsivel for precip particle size, volume and intensity
• Geonor, Inc.: a laser snow depth sensor
• MaxBotix: inexpensive acoustic snow depth sensor
• AutomationDirect: industrial ultrasonic distance sensors, etc.
• NASA's SnowEx website
• Chugach National Forest Tincan Snow Study Plots
• Airborne Snow Observatories (ASO)

Time

• What time is it?
• Symmetricom has app notes and white papers on timing issues.
• Stanford Research Systems has rubidium clocks, notes on slaving them to GPS.
• Temex has low cost rubidium clocks.
• Mercury has GPS-slaved clocks.

Aviation

• UM Flyers
• The Aviat Husky
• Direct User Access Terminal
• Aviation Weather Center
• Aviation Digital Data Service (ADDS)
• NavAid identifications
• Unisys weather
• Intellicast weather
• a workshop on high altitude balloons (unexplored)
• Airfoils

Motorcycles

• BMW K-bike email list
• Tony Foale's experiments with rake and trail
• the races at Mid-Ohio
• a fairing vendor
• A Schuberth helmet vendor
• Rick Mayer Saddles, carrying on the Bill Mayer tradition

Funding

• FedBizOps for NASA
• NASA RFPs (SYSEFUS)
• NASA RFPs (NSPIRES)
• NSF RFPs
• NSF Fastlane
• NSF recent awards
• SBIR/STTR
• National Earth Science Teachers Association wants to help with broader impacts (unexplored)

Finance

• Federal Tax Forms
• State Tax Forms
• Michigan Tax Forms
• Financial Aid Need Estimator for higher education
• a Currency Converter
• The New York Fed: various financial calculators and Treasury Direct
• a Treasury Direct document that includes the bank addresses
• The United States Securities and Exchange Commission
• NASDAQ
• IBC's Money Fund Report
• Mutual Fund Education Alliance
• Money Magazine
• TIAA-CREF
• Vanguard Mutual Funds

Airlines

• American Airlines
• Continental
• USAir
• Northwest Airlines
• USA Today
• Lovejoy-Tiffany Travel
• Conlin Travel

Books

• MIL-Specs: RF connectors are in MIL-STD-348
• Integrated Publishing: more mil-specs
• CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
• Numerical Recipes online
• Abramowitz and Stegun's Handbook of Mathematical Functions
• Gradshteyn and Ryzhik isn't online, but an errata and links to proofs are online.

Publishers

First, an archive of Beall's List of questionable open-access journal publishers.

Cabells has both a whitelist and blacklist of journal publishers. (but it looks like one must subscribe to it)

Ok, now, some real publishers of quality science:

• IEEE
• Artech House
• Addison-Wesley

Maps

• MapBlast for getting roadmaps (a real memory hog?).
• MapQuest for getting roadmaps, and not crashing Netscape 3.01.
• MapTech for free online topos.
• TopoZone for more free online topos.
• Ohio DOT: info on road construction by district
• Ohio DOT: road construction by route
• Florida DOT: info on road construction by district
• Tennessee DOT: interstate road construction by route
• UCAR's GIS site for integrating atmospheric data with GIS

Code

• IEEE GRSS's Remote Sensing Code Library
• a list (without links) to genetic and evolutionary code repositories
• a Fortran checker
• a numerical routines repository
• Formal Methods: State of the Art and Future Directions
• Praxis technical articles on software formal methods
• QuickField: easy-to-use FEM w/ free student version (to be explored)
• Earth System modelling with STELLA

Services

Also useful to me is

• a phone directory.
• AAA Michigan: airline and car rental reservations.
• the New River Gorge, including a water level report.
• military standards, including MIL-STD-348A Radio Frequency Connector Interfaces

EE resources

• my own GPIB resources
• Watkins-Johnson Tech Notes
• Enhanced and Evaluated Virtual Library
• Reed-Elsevier electronics publications
• EE Times electronics publications
• EqWorld
• Planet Math
• MathWorld, from the makers of Mathematica
• Math Archives (unexplored)
• The National Curve Bank (unexplored)
• Arduino microcontrollers (used in my instrumentation class)
• Oscium makes instrument add-ons for iPods and iPads
• CRC calculator, with Verlog and C source
• Bent Water Designs, Inc., a links to free PCB resources
• Lead acid battery info, including freezing points.

Datasets

• First, a link to definitions of data processing levels
• Climate Data Guide at UCAR: "An insider's view of data strengths and limitations"
• Climate data at Columbia University, including maps of trends
• In-Situ Soil Moisture Network
• List of plants that grow in Michigan
• Global Climate Change Viewer
• CALM: Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring
• National Snow and Ice Data Center
• NASA's Climate Model Data Service
• Project EDDIE: some modules for using datasets in a classroom

Technical Fun

mostly culled from NetWatch or RandomSamples page of Science

• NASA's Science Explorer: samples of what satellites are seeing (animations don't seem to work ?)
• NASA's Eyes on the Earth: more of what some climate satellites are seeing
• Molecular Workbench: molecular physics tutorials in Java (useful for '105 and '100?)
• 4-degrees: a Google Earth layer showing impacts of 4C global warming
• Climate Prediction: use your computer's spare capacity to help quantify climate variability
• In The Air: air pollution visualization tool for Madrid
• Danish Wind Industry Association
• Aeronautics Resources by NASA Glenn Research Center
• Geology Animations and Songs from U-Ky.
• Smithsonian Institution (unexplored)
• Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Firenze
• Heavens Above: Calculator for existing satelite orbits
• Astronomy Education Resourses from University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Textbook Revolution: Online Textbooks
• Animations of Physical Principles
• PaleoMap: maps of the world thru the ages.
• American Museum of Natural History: slick!
• PLANTS: the USDA's online encyclopedia of plants
• How to Tie Balloons to demonstrate molecular structures (unexplored)
• Carcinogen Database (unexplored)
• FusEdWeb, nuclear fusion resources (unexplored)
• Stromboli, and other volcanoes (unexplored)
• Engine Animations
• Climate Change 101
• Wavelet tutorial
• NASA's Earth Science acronyms defined
• NOAA's Earth Science tools
• JunkCharts (unexplored): for my next tech writing class?
• National Virtual Observatory (unexplored): home of astronomy tools, archives, more links, and catalogs.
• NVO Services (unexplored): more tools
• an interactive Periodic Table
• Videos of the Periodic Table
• Fear of Physics
• Univeristy of Colorado's Physics 2000: great animations
• Univeristy of Colorado's PhET: great animations, but not for a Mac
• Math and Science Demos
• Engineering with wood, including gear templates
• Windows to the Universe: physics education, incl. climate
• monthly updated Mauna Loa carbon dioxide concentration data
• Polar Portal: Denmark's daily view of the climate state of the Arctic
• Sustainable Futures North: short films of NW AK culture in face of development and climate change, and data of population and weather
• Planetary Science Nuggets
• U-Michigan's own Saturday Morning Physics (taped past lectures )

The Shoulders of Giants

• NASA/NOAA Cold Lands Hydrology Working Group Home: Don Cline's domain
• NASA Surface Hydrology Home: Chip Laymon's domain

Educational Resources

• Climate Interactive: Games for my class?
• CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network
• NASA wavelength
• National Academy of Sciences' America's Climate Choices
• National Association of Geoscience Teachers
• Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
• Understanding Evolution
• Understanding Science
• Science Buddies: lining up scientist consultants with science projects
• American Museum of Natural History: a museum in your browser
• The Math You Need When You Need It for geosciences: great explanation of density, for example
• Climate Denial Crock of the Week

The U

• The University of Michigan's Media Union Groundworks.
• Mirlyn
• ITS service status
• M+Box website
• U-Mich Academic Calendar
• U-Mich Schedule of Classes
• Teaching Evaluations, incl. calendar
• Crappy Scheduler, but is much better than the Registrar's
• eResearch Portal
• Data Management Plan resources
• What is that Shortcode?
• Wolverine Access
• U-Mich Directory
• Virtual Sites
• CAEN's Virtual Sites
• Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program
• Property Dispo
• Chemical, Equipment and Material Reuse Program
• Environment, Health and Safety, incl. safety training sites
• Tech Shop; formerly, the Computer Showcase
• Logistics, Transportation and Parking, incl. various kinds of campus maps
• MClassrooms, the gorey details of what's in each U-M classroom
• logos

If you ever need to contact me for any reason, the best by far is email.