Page 73: of Marine Technology Magazine (March 2017)

LinkQuest

The new FlowQuest 600 Micro acous- tic current pro? ler operates at 600 KHz.

It is similar to the standard FlowQuest 600 acoustic current pro? ler in terms of functions and performance, but is much smaller and lighter. The FlowQuest 600

Micro current pro? ler is 13 cm in diam- eter and 21.0 cm in length, and weighs

Image: Birns less than 1.6 kgs in water. It will mainly be used for inland discharge measure-

Oxnard, Calif. based BIRNS, Inc. nectors, BIRNS’ production and in- ments but will also be useful for ocean- opened in 1954, and has been serving spection technicians are J-STD-001 ographic applications when smaller the global marine industry ever since Class 3 and WHMA-A-620-A Class size and lighter weight are bene? cial.

with high performance lighting and 3 certi? ed. For example, extreme care

LinkQuest manufactures high-speed, connector products.The technologi- must be taken to install, solder or pol- power-ef? cient and robust 38,400 baud cal advancements in the ? eld of cable ish each contact without interfering underwater acoustic modems and ro- assembly development have been with surrounding ones during the in- bust, accurate and cost-effective Track- rapid and exciting in the last decade tricate task of terminating a connector

Link USBL acoustic tracking systems in particular. BIRNS has been creat- with a face of only approximately 2 utilizing advanced Broadband Acoustic ing new connectivity solutions that inches diameter, but with several 50O

Spread Spectrum (BASS) technology. provide immense performance char- RF contacts, multiple delicate opti-

LinkQuest’s FlowQuest acoustic cur- acteristics in relatively small packag- cal ? bers and more than 60 electri- rent pro? lers, FlowScout acoustic ? ow es. In its ? agship connector line, the cal contacts the work becomes even meters and NavQuest Doppler velocity

BIRNS Millennium series, BIRNS more challenging. WHMA-A-620-A logs provide highly competitive solu- customers are able to rely on a 6km and similar standards do not always tions for current pro? ling, discharge open face rated assemblies that com- address the types of cutting-edge as- measurement, wave measurement or bine high and low voltage electrical semblies which BIRNS produces, so precision underwater navigation appli- contacts, ? ber optics and coax all in for these types of complex hybrid pin cations. LinkQuest also manufactures one connector. These compact con- con? gurations, BIRNS has developed

EchoSweep 300 Multibeam Echo- nectors offer exceptionally high den- new termination methodologies, in- sounder, PinPoint LBL acoustic posi- sity pin con? gurations, even in highly cluding electro-opto-coaxial Progres- tioning systems and Precision Marine complex combinations of contacts in sive Sequencing. Without the use of geodetic systems used for tsunami and close proximity to one another. To such innovative termination methods, earthquake monitoring and prediction.

add more ? exibility and performance there would be a high risk of melting www.link-quest.com in RF connectivity, BIRNS recently the insulation or breaking the ? bers. introduced a breakthrough technology When it comes to testing, BIRNS in coax contacts, which provide open has been exploring new, elegant faced pressure resistance, a maximum methods to ensure that these minute insertion loss of 0.7 dB at signal fre- but powerful assemblies are ready to quencies to 3GHz, with an associated perform as expected in some of the maximum SWR of 1.7:1. The new most demanding environments on the

Image: LinkQuest design also provides incredible ease planet. Testing methodologies and of assembly and connects directly to equipment BIRNS has been utilizing a standard MIL-STD-348 SMA con- include RF testing using an ENA Se- nector. For the requisite advanced ries Network Analyzer, which can test termination and testing of these state- coax contacts from 100kHz to 18GHz. of-the-art, high density hybrid con- www.birns.com www.marinetechnologynews.com

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