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Man, is there any design work still going on in the US? - RF Cafe Forums

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biff44
 Post subject: Man, is there any design work still going on in the US?
Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2010 3:37 pm 
 
Colonel

Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2009 11:07 am
Posts: 33
I troll the message boards every once in a while when bored, and most of the RF boards are only getting a couple posts a month! Is the economy really that bad that there is NOBODY out there doing new RF work?

The few message boards that are getting posts typically are international ones with EU, Chinca, Mid East, India, etc engineers on them.

Anyone out there?

_________________
Rich
Maguffin Microwave Consulting
www.MaguffinMicrowave.com


 
   
 
Kirt Blattenberger
 Post subject: Re: Man, is there any design work still going on in the US?
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:15 pm 
 
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2003 2:02 pm
Posts: 308
Location: Erie, PA
Greetings biff44:

Unfortunately, there really does not appear to be a lot of new design work being done in the U.S. or Europe anymore. Some niche areas like defense and RFIC are still designing new products here, but we've been pretty fully sold out to China and India. There's not much technology that has not been transferred there at this point.

For two decades I have railed against the idea that we can remain prosperous merely by being a consumer economy. A few weeks ago, I posted a Cool Pic showing a world map of pollution levels. Note that the worst areas correspond with where all the manufacturing is occurring. Note that accordingly, the U.S. is dead.

Politicians creating laws to benefit their contributors have killed the country, while insulating themselves from harm through ultimate levels of health care, income potential, pensions, and exclusion from many of the laws that the rest of us must obey.

Image

_________________
- Kirt Blattenberger :smt024
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster


 
   
 
biff44
 Post subject: Re: Man, is there any design work still going on in the US?
Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 9:39 am 
 
Colonel

Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2009 11:07 am
Posts: 33
Yep, that is what I am seeing too. Designing nowadays is like strolling into a wild west ghost town, and seeing some tumbleweeds roll by.

There still are some small niche technical gigs out there, but they are in more obscure areas.

I wonder exactly what the US military is going to do when they can no longer find anyone in the country that is capable of designing replacement microwave components for their EW/ECM/Radar systems (a point that they are now at on some programs)! Or what would they do if they needed a technological advantage for some newmilitary system in 2020, but found all the GaAs foundries to reside in China?

A very short sighted thing they did--actively force all high tech manufacturing jobs out of the country!

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Rich
Maguffin Microwave Consulting
www.MaguffinMicrowave.com


 
   
 
wb9jtk
 Post subject: Re: Man, is there any design work still going on in the US?
Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 3:36 pm 
 
Captain
User avatar

Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2006 5:39 pm
Posts: 10
Quote:
I wonder exactly what the US military is going to do when they can no longer find anyone in the country that is capable of designing .....


Refusing to hire anyone over 50 is just going to make it worse.

I am sickened by the many Federal jobs out there that read like my resume but they cannot hire you after age 35.


 
   
 
biff44
 Post subject: Re: Man, is there any design work still going on in the US?
Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 5:53 pm 
 
Colonel

Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2009 11:07 am
Posts: 33
In the "duh" category, I see that Defense Secretary Gates today is now concerned that Chinese Stealth Fighter technology is way ahead of where he thought they would be, questioning our military posture in the Pacific rim. Arghhh!

I sometimes feel relegated to crafting s.o.a. electronics using "stone knives and bearskins", as a famous future technologist once said.

_________________
Rich
Maguffin Microwave Consulting
www.MaguffinMicrowave.com


 
   
 
wb9jtk
 
 Post subject: Re: Man, is there any design work still going on in the US?
Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 9:49 am 
 
Captain
User avatar

Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2006 5:39 pm
Posts: 10
My "new year resolution" is probably going to be changed this weekend.

I am going to practice saying "you want fries with that?" :smt102





Posted  11/12/2012

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