To The Editor:
First of all, I would like to thank you for sending me your publication. I have been a reader of Microwaves & RF since it changed its name from "MicroWaves" and have usually found at least one article of interest in each issue, and often something that was of value to me professionally in my work as a radar systems designer. I have noticed in several of your recent issues, notably in June, that you have included a section called "Defense Electronics" on military electronics. Not that I am complaining, but isn't military electronics a large part of the markets served by the microwave industry and something that Microwaves & RF (and MicroWaves) have already covered all these years? Why run this material as a separate section of the magazine if you are already covering it in the regular magazine?
And one more question. I have noticed in the stories in the "Defense Electronics" section that many of them have nothing to do with RF or microwave technology. What gives? Why are you including stories about such technologies as lasers and power supplies, or even the story about the OpenVPX/VITA 65 standard, which has absolutely nothing to do with microwave design, in a magazine devoted to microwave engineering? I am confused, but still a loyal reader, since most of the material in the section was still about good old RF and microwave topics, and nicely focused on military and aerospace markets and applications.
Dr. Walter Bishop
Director of Engineering
Configuration Analysis Management
Yonkers, NY
Editor's Note:
Thank you for your continued loyalty, even as we "digress" from our traditional role of serving purely RF and microwave topics. As you noticed, we have started including a supplemental section called "Defense Electronics" in selected issues of Microwaves & RF, including in this September 2010 issue. The section is also included in a limited run of issues from sister publications, Electronic Design and Power Electronics Technology, whose readers are more interested in embedded computing and power technologies. Thus, the non-traditional mix of topics devoted to markets and applications in military and aerospace areas. We understand this section can't be everything to everyone, but we are trying to serve the educational needs of electronic engineers faced with projects for military customers and their contractors. We plan at least four issues for 2011.
Microwaves & RF welcomes mail from its readers. Letters must include the writer's name and address. Please write to:
Jack Browne, Technical Director
jack.browne@penton.com
Microwaves & RF Penton Media, Inc.
249 W. 17th St. New York, NY 10011