On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:47:48 -0800, Roy Lewallen
wrote:
Jeff Liebermann wrote:
Out of curiosity, does that include the IEEE Transactions on Antennas
and Propagation and the IEEE Antenna and Propagation Magazine? I'm
currently debating the merits of re-joining the IEEE mostly to obtain
these publications. In the past, they were literally gold mines of
interesting ideas on antennas. However, like all gold mines, I had to
dig through a considerable amound of rubble and useless garbage to
find the gold. I've seen little of this stuff on university web
piles, except after publication by the IEEE. I drag myself up to UCSC
and borrow a few issues, but I prefer to have them online
(downloadable and searchable) which costs money.
Do I spend the money, or do I seach for your secret horde of free
university publications on antenna design?
A lot of universities have Transactions for most of the societies like A
& P as well as the Proceedings. IEEE members get free access to online
Proceedings and all past issues of Transactions for all societies they
belong to.
It's the ability to search and download proceedings, reports, and
articles that interest me. I do that now at the local multiversity
(UCSC) but there are problems. However, there are problems. Since
I'm not an alumnus, teacher, or employee, the annual cost is about 1/3
of an IEEE membership plus 2 IEEE society memberships. In addition,
some items of interest are not available off campus. The local
library has access, but that requires a pilgrimage to the library
every time I want something. As long as my reading requirements were
minimal, a few trips to the library or paying for individual papers
was cheaper than IEEE membership.
The current economics a
IEEE membership: $169/yr
A & P membership: $24/yr
I couldn't find the current costs of the various printed transactions
and magazines. My guess is at least $40/yr.
With only downloaded issues, that's about $200/yr or $17/month. I
value my working time at about $75/hr. If joining saves me 3 hours of
time, it's break even. That's about how much time I waste on just one
trip to the local university, so I guess membership is justified.
http://www.ieee.org/web/membership/Cost/dues.html
http://www.ict.csiro.au/aps/
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=8
What go my attention and inspired my questions was the alleged free
availability of antenna design articles from various secret university
archives. I've found a few, but nothing compared to the online IEEE
A&P collection.
For example, if you're a member of Antennas and Propagation,
you can access online any paper in any issue of the Transactions on
Antennas & Propagation. The incremental cost for joining a society is
modest -- A & P is $36.00 per year once you're an IEEE member. (I think
you can get Trans. on A & P or others without joining, but at a much
higher price.)
I haven't checked the current numbers but last time I checked, the
annual subscription price was exactly the same as joining the IEEE.
I'm sure that was planned.
I just renewed my membership and joined the Microwave
Theory & Techniques Society for only an additional $14.00. Now I'll have
online access to all the past Transactions for that group.
Hmmm.... I hadn't heard of that group. So many groups, no little
time.
Incidentally, anyone can purchase and download any individual IEEE paper
online for around $20. A lot of other organizations like the IEE (U.K.),
physics societies, etc. have a similar offer. I've gone this route a
number of times when it was worth it to me to avoid the hassle of going
downtown to the university library or waiting for an interlibrary transfer.
I'd forgotten about the wait, which requires two trips to the library.
I ordered several articles from the local library. Apparently, it's a
common thing, costs nothing, and is fairly simple. All the articles
and abstracts are easily searchable on the IEEE web pile, so obtaining
the necessary identification was trivial. What I didn't expect was
that to save the library some money, they only ordered such transfers
on Tuesdays and only delivered perhaps a week later. There was no
charge for hard copy, but an extra charge for having it delivered on a
CDROM, which methinks seems backwards. This was about 2 years ago,
and I haven't done it since.
If you're used to looking at A & P transactions from the '40s through
the '60s, you'll probably be disappointed with current issues. Research
has always concentrated on where the money is, and now it's coming from
much different industries than it was a few decades ago. Samplings from
the current issue: "Synthesized-Reference-Wave Holography for
Determining Antenna Radiation Characteristics" and "Parallel In-Core and
Out-of-Core Solution of Electrically Large Problems Using the RWG Basis
Functions". No Brown, Lewis, and Epstein papers, those! But there was an
interesting paper on putting RFID tags on explosive ordnance as a
possible way to locate it when unexploded and buried, and a short paper
on coax loss.
Sigh. Such esoteric and obscure research pays the bills and feeds the
academics, but also adds considerable clutter. My areas of interest
is probably considered equally narrow and arcane. With a suitable
search engine and filter, I can live with it.
Actually, the current issue doesn't look that horrible:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isYear=2008&isnumber=4685873&Submit3 2=Go+To+Issue
For example "Internal Coupled-Fed Shorted Monopole Antenna for
GSM850/900/1800/1900/UMTS Operation in the Laptop Computer" appears to
genuinely useful.
Incidentally, there are "delayed" RFID tags of sorts, that use long
term chemical action on the chip or PCB, to activate its operation
after a pre-determined interval. Basically, the chip arrives shorted,
and the short disappears over time. The logic is that RFID can be
used to locate unexploded mines and ordinance after the battle or war
is finished, but not during the action.
Thanks much...
Roy Lewallen, W7EL
--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060
http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558