|
Chapter Chatter |
Todd Robinson, Associate Editor |
"OK, So My Name is Also Todd""Never volunteer for anything" would come to mind when the sergeant was looking for volunteers. Then, I would remind myself that I wouldn't be standing there in the first place had I not volunteered. So, here I go again. I volunteered to walk in the footsteps of Todd Hubing, our new EMC Society President-elect. He's a very funny guy who has been writing Chapter Chatter for nine years! What literary skills do I have in common with Todd Hubing, "the Will Rogers of EMC?" Well, my name is also Todd. Chief thought it was a good angle, so I volunteered. My marching orders from j.n.oneil@ieee.org read, "Your first article is due in two weeks." The glory of my new position as Associate Editor faded quickly. I had to find something interesting to write about . . . fast. Something that, while not as funny as the last associate editor's poems, songs and plays, will at least keep a handful of readers amused and interested. Then, an idea came to me. Real stories. Reality entertainment is very popular these days. I won't have to make up any rhymes or sonnets! The EMC business has a host of amusing, but true stories (past and present). Did you hear about the guys who worked on their tans by moving the EMC lab to the beach? What about the RF susceptible Porsche that couldn't seem to pass the Ham equipped Volvo? Or how about a shielded room barber shop? Have you heard about the fateful triangle between the (Ham operating) engineering student, the motorcycle policeman and the attractive, young lady? With the permission of the innocent (and sometimes guilty), I can share as many of these funny (but true) stories as "Chief" permits. Tune in for funny, nonfiction EMC stories in future issues of this Newsletter. |
On May 22, a meeting was held at the Technical University of Graz, Styria. It was the second time that an Austria Chapter meeting took place in Graz. The presentation was about EMC On-Chip. Bernd Deutschmann of Austria Mikro Systeme International AG was the presenter. The presentation was followed by a very interesting discussion and by a nice social event. For information on upcoming meetings, please visit the Austria Chapter's website at https://ewh.ieee.org/r8/austria/Chapters/EMC/home.html
John M. Clarke, Chair of the Central New England Chapter (CNEC) reports that they had their 5th and final meeting for the program year 2000/2001 on Wednesday, April 11. The speaker was H. Stephen Berger of TEM Consulting (email: sberger822@aol.com / phone (512) 657-6147) who spoke on the topic: "Interoperability and Band Crowding (Bluetooth IEEE 802.11) and Home RF: How do They Play Together?" The speaker noted that the popularity and effectiveness of wireless connectivity for voice and data communication is well established. Heavy demands are being made of a relatively limited spectrum space. Increasingly sophisticated equipment with growing bandwidth demands has resulted in concerns about band crowding and the interoperability of these diverse systems. The speaker discussed interoperability and band crowding issues that are the subject of two IEEE studies currently being conducted. IEEE 802.15.2 is a task group charged with investigating the interoperability issues between IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth compliant products. The IEEE EMC Society Standards Development Committee and Spectrum Management Committee are monitoring the more general question of band crowding and what remedies may be available. The speaker reviewed the current findings of these studies, and the remedies being investigated. Mr. Berger is the current Chair of the IEEE EMC Standards Development Committee, President of AAES, and 1st Vice President of NARTE. He can be contacted for further information on this subject. The CNEC (Boston Section) Chapter Officers for 2001/2002 were previously nominated and elected at the April meeting, including Chairperson and Secretary: John Clarke, Co-Chair: John Luchini, and Vice-Chair: Boris Shusterman. The Chair may be contacted at phone (508) 362-7195 or e-mail: jclarke805@mediaone.net.
 |
 |
|
Tom Braxton (left) and Craig Dinsmore of Lucent attended the Chicago EMC Chapter "mini-symposium" on May 22. |
Jason Lauer, Brian Mattson, Dianne Janega, and Mark Haynes (left to right) made for a strong showing from DLS Electronics at the Chicago Chapter event. |
|
 |
 |
|
Gordon Ramsey of EMSCAN Corporation was a speaker at the Chicago Chapter mini-symposium and received a certificate for his efforts. |
Jack Black of ZeCal is shown at left with Roger Swanberg of DLS Electronics. Roger was a speaker and received a certificate in recognition of his efforts. |
|
 |
 |
|
Jack Black of ZeCal is shown at left with Rick Moritz of Systems Sensor just after Rick won one of the many prizes awarded by the Chicago Chapter in the exhibit area. |
Ida and Frank Krozel of Electronic Instrument Associates Central are shown relaxing during lunch. Frank was the principal organizer of the Chicago Chapter's mini-symposium and was lucky to have one moment to sit down during the busy day! Jim Blaha of LS Compliance is shown at right clapping in approval of Frank's efforts. |
|
 |
||
Ray Klouda of Elite Electronic Engineering and Andrea Spellman of Underwriters Laboratories Inc. in Northbrook, Illinois represented two exhibitors that supported the Chicago Chapter event. Ray is also the Chicago Chapter Secretary. |
Frank Krozel reports that the Year 2001 has been an active one for the Chicago Chapter. In January, Lucent hosted the meeting which included a technical presentation by Bob Hofmann of Lucent. Bob introduced the measurement uncertainty topic and explained how it is currently impacting EMC measurements. In February, Elite Electronic Engineering hosted the meeting at their lab. Ray Klouda presented the correlation process that is in place for the EMC Automotive Program (AEMCLAP) and their experiences with achieving correlation. In March, the meeting featured a presentation by Mike Hart of Quantum Change which he entitled "You Can't Always Blame the Software." Mike candidly discussed the ups and downs of automating EMC testing. He explained how automation requires patience and perseverance. In April, Mike Windler of UL presented "Measuring Antennas above 1 GHz." The meeting was held at the UL facilities in Northbrook. He presented the latest work in the area of OATS evaluation and site attenuation measurements at frequencies above 1 GHz. In May, the chapter held its 3rd Annual Mini-Symposium at the Holiday Inn in Itasca. Over 100 people were in attendance and there were more than 20 vendor displays. We were very fortunate to have Doug Smith as the main presenter at the symposium. Other presenters included Tom Braxton of Lucent Technologies, Tom Moyer from Amplifier Research, Gordon Ramsey from EMSCAN, Claude Cesard from Schaffner, Craig Fanning from Elite Electronic Engineering, and Roger Swanberg of D.L.S. Electronics. At the awards banquet held in conjunction with the mini-symposium, presenters were given a certificate of appreciation for their contributions. This year's winners of our mystery game drawings were presented gift certificates as prizes. Members are encouraged to check our new website to keep up with the latest events planned for the chapter. The website is www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/chicago/.
Moshe Netzer, newly elected Israel IEEE EMC Chapter Chairman, reports that a seminar was held on June 27 at a lovely place called Herzelya Pitoach which is North to Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean seashore. The instructor was Mr. Mark Montrose who is a past IEEE Distinguished Lecturer. He really did a very good job. Mark presented the topic "Signal Integrity and EMC Considerations in PCB Design" from 9:00 till 17:00 and there wasn't one dull moment. Many of the attendees evaluated Mark's seminar as informative and practical. The seminar was organized by both ILTAM (Israeli User's Association) and the Israel EMC Chapter. Although admission was not free, there were 170 attendees; among them 68 were IEEE members.
The Mohawk Valley Section Joint EMC/Reliability Chapter officers held several meetings this past Spring to develop and implement plans to further revitalize the Chapter's activities and membership roster. Irina Kasperovich of ANDRO Computational Solutions in Rome, New York took over the helm as new Chapter Chair at the beginning of the year succeeding Andy Drozd who was chair for nearly three years prior to that. Under Irina's guidance, the Chapter's plans include: promoting membership development and involvement in Chapter activities targeting student members at local universities in Upstate, New York; periodically outreaching to Section and Chapter members polling them on their topics of interest; and making additional use of the EMC Distinguished Lecturer (DL) Program. Andy Drozd, EMCS VP for Member Services, is working closely with the Chapter officers to accomplish these goals. The Chapter has already scheduled a DL talk in the Fall (guest speaker is Doug Smith) and another during November by Andy Drozd. Andy will talk on the topic of computer modeling and simulation for EMC based upon his recent work published in the IEEE Press textbook "Electrical Engineering Compatibility: Principles, Measurements, Technologies, and Computer Models" by Prasad V. Kodali.
Professor Jun-Fa Mao was the presiding officer of the Najing Chapter's meeting on June 11. The speaker was Professor Cam Nguyen of Texas A&M University who spoke on the topic "Some Recent Developments of Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Integrated Circuits and Systems for Sensing, Imaging, and Communication." 36 people attended this meeting. Najing Chapter Chair Professor Wen Xun Zhang presided over the June 18 meeting where speaker Professor Cam Nguyen repeated his previous presentation. Some 45 people attended this meeting. On June 22, Nai-Heng Yang presided at a chapter meeting featuring speaker Jia-Heng Qiu and Bing-Fa He of the Nanjing Research Institute of Electronic Technology. This was a workshop on "Space-Fed Multibeam Phased Array Antenna" attended by 43 people.
 |
 |
|
Dave Britton of Hewlett Packard enjoyed the lunch buffet at the historic Governor Hotel in downtown Portland. Dave is the Oregon and SW Washington Chapter's Membership Chair and he also handled the program for the June 4 EMC event. |
Carol and Clayton Paul enjoyed their first ever visit to Portland. Clayton was the keynote speaker at the Chapter's one-day EMC event and spent the weekend exploring the city with his wife. |
|
 |
 |
|
Roxanne and Bob Dockey (he's with Hewlett Packard) enjoyed the "pre-party" on June 3 before the Oregon and SW Washington Chapter's one-day EMC event. |
Crab season officially opened in the Pacific Northwest in early June as was evident by this visitor on top of the Governor Hotel in downtown Portland, site of the Oregon and SW Washington Chapter's colloquium and exhibition on Product Design and Compliance. |
|
 |
 |
|
Oregon and SW Washington Chapter Chairman Henry Benitez of Hewlett Packard took a break from the action during the Chapter's Colloquium and Exhibition on June 4. Elisabeth Satzger of Rohde & Schwarz kept him good company. |
The busy registration desk was ably manned by Ann and Charlie Tohlen (he's with Textronix), Ed Blankenship of Hewlett Packard and Dan Arnold of Underwriters Laboratories (from left to right). Dan was later nominated by the chapter to receive their first ever "Ironman" award for his tremendous efforts with the one-day event. |
|
 |
 |
|
Taking a break during the technical sessions at the June 4 EMC event were (from left) Gary Town, Sidney Chan, and Curry Moore of Hewlett Packard in Vancouver, Washington. |
Carol and Clayton Paul also visited with the Oregon and SW Washington Chapter officers, members and event organizers at the "pre-party" dinner. Dr. Paul was a speaker at the colloquium on June 4. |
|
 |
||
Vendors supporting the Oregon and SW Washington Chapter's exhibition on June 4 included Rohde & Schwarz. Manning their booth is Achim Gerstner of R&S (center) with visitors Robert Hughes (left) and Wilson Cui of Intel. |
The Chapter concluded its technical program for the 2000/2001 year with an all-star event on Monday, June 4 at the Governor Hotel in downtown Portland. Some 100 people attended the technical presentations or exhibited with a tabletop display. The title of the event was "EMC 2001: Product Design and Compliance." Speakers included Clayton R. Paul of Mercer University in Georgia for the morning session on "The Fundamentals of EMC." In the afternoon, there were parallel sessions; one was devoted to several EMC topics such as "Design for Signal Integrity" by Scott McMorrow of Siqual and the other was devoted to Product Safety, also with several topics such as "Overview of the US System of Codes and Standards" by Jim Pierce of ETL SEMKO. The event organizers included Henry Benitez of Hewlett Packard who is also the Chapter Chairman, Charles Tohlen of Tektronix, Ali Elmi of Xerox, David Britton of Hewlett Packard, Ed Blakenship of Hewlett Packard, Janet O'Neil of ETS-Lindgren, and Dan Arnold of Underwriters Laboratories. Chapter members and friends who attended appreciated the nice venue for the displays and technical presentations, the fine program presented, and the up to date information offered by the exhibitors of EMC related products and services.