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Page 1: Things are finally looking up

• T H E I N S I D E E D G E •

THINGS ARE FINALLY LOOKING UP With the launching of

NASA' s incredible Hubble Space Telescope

and the massive celebration of Earth Day

this spring, one has to reflect that America has

apparently pointed its collective scientific mind

in the right direction.., up.

Advanced technologists in America are focusing skyward in the hope of

solving a myriad of earthly problems, from

environmental monitoring to individual

corporate profitability. A bright future for many revolves around satellite

communications. The DBS business looks

especially promising, thanks to two recent

announcements, that of Hughes Satellite Communications

pre-HDTV Sky Cable DBS consortium, and

General Electric' s American

Communications' DBS joint venture, called K-1

Prime.

T he competition is confusing ........... 'K-1 Prime" sounds more

like a dog food, and GE's NBC is a partner in the com- petitive Hughes pro- gram...typically USA.

Whichever way it sorts it~ selfout, AmericanDBSlooks good on the drawing boards, especially Hughes' promise of initially delivering 108 channel capability (via three footprint satellites) to non- cabled rural dwellers like myseff. The 30 cm dishes should cost only $300 and be able to accommodate HDTV sets when the FCC (Federal Communications Com- mission) gets its act together on the future of HDTV in America.

But there's more...much more...and it's all looking up. VSATs (very small aperture terminals) are catching on fast. American commerce is becoming increasingly and vitally interlinked through VSATs for everything from quick credit verification to inventory updates. Mobile satellite communication Ku- band networks, at 12 to 15 GHz, are linking all kinds of things on the move--mainly trucks--and the appetite for cellular phones seems insa- tiable.

Global positioning satel- lites (GPS) in L-band at 1.5 GHz is further in the future, but destined for extremely large volume use of MMICs. The best commercial oppor- tunities are in cars, trucks, and boats for instantaneous one-way navigational infor- mation. The largest pro- jected volume application appears to be wristwatch pa- gers. Despite what they say, most Americans hate being lost and love being paged. It should be a perfect match of technology with need.

At the more esoteric end, the most exciting aspect of American satellite progress is NAS~s Mission to Planet Earth program, or EOS

(Earth Observing System), chartered to monitor global environmental problems. Stay tuned for details on NAS~s progress in the months to follow, but in the spirit of Earth Day, give the future of the environment special consideration this spring. Your grandchildren and mine will thank us.

A c c o l a d e s to

A N A D I G I C S

In case you haven't no- ticed, American companies have collectively been feeling a bit down in recent months. The economy looked bad, everyone had their hand in our pockets in the name of democracy, and in our field, especially, Japan seemed to have more than an edge. Then the Japanese stock market took a dive, and just when we started to fear the talent and tenacity of Ger- many, the autobahn to Ger- man reunification started hitting a few potholes and curves. Compared to the rest of the world, we didn't seem to be in such bad shape ai~r all.

Then came the catalyst event for microwaves we'd all been waiting for. An American merchant MMIC foundry, Anadigics, scored a big sale in England, becom- ing a hero and role model for leading edge entrepreneurs everywhere. Anadigics broke the discrete/hybrid stalemate by scoring an $8M order for low-noise con- verter MMICs, priced at under $10 each to Con- tinental Microwave for use in British Satellite Broad- castings DBS systems. They did it because they were smart, aggressive, interna- tional in vision, and flexible. They also hung on tight through the rough times, and went out lookingfor both backing and applications

rather than waiting for someone to come knocking on their door.

All it takes to get Ameri- cans going is to tell them theyre not Number 1. "The strength of America is in its diversity" says Norm Schu- maker, who is featured in this issues America's Best interview. I believe Norm sums us up pretty well. Diversity... and resilience.

America is still the incu- bator for democracy. Ethnic clashes get test-tubed here in the "melting pot" long in ad- vance of unrest in other countries. Yet, somehow, we manage to eventually get along with one another. When peace breaks out to the point where we can start to rachet down our military markets, we shift gears and rise to greater heights than before, like outer space.

Yes, things are looking up. Thanks to leaders like An- adigics, large volume com- mercial applications might actually prove viable for those who aggressively apply common sense to real world problems. But in this new time of renewed oppor- tunities, applications that truly help the world progress must be the driver, above and beyond short term profits. It may still take a little longer, but the spring of 1990 promises a respectable crop. Waiting shouldn't be hard, for high performance companies definitely have patience...and it's been a long time since they've seen any profits.

Jo Ann McDonald

Euro III-Vs Review V3NII 13