Gentlemen,
Has anyone got both the first *and* second editions of this book? Were all the errors in the first edition fixed in the second? Is there any new content in the second which would make it worth the bother to order?
CD
I don't know. The first and 2nd edition are 23 and 13 years old respectively. Methinks you might do better with something more recent (unless you're doing antique radios).
Free PDF download:
Microwave and RF Design (3rd Edition) Fundamentals of Microwave and RF Design Microwave and RF Design: Radio Systems, Volume 1 Microwave and RF Design: Transmission Lines, Volume 2 Microwave and RF Design: Networks, Volume 3 Microwave and RF Design: Modules, Volume 4 Microwave and RF Design: Amplifiers and Oscillators, Volume 5
There are questions at the end of each chapter to see if you've been paying attention. I haven't read every book cover to cover, but have been selectively picking out bits and pieces as I need them. If the books are too advanced for you, kindly disclose what problem you're trying to solve and I'll try to find something more appropriate.
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Well, Smith charts are pretty old too. ;)
Cheers
Phil Hobbs
-- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com
I click on the links but I doesn't get no downloads.
The Radiotron Designers Handbook (4th edition) is an excellent starter. I first mentioned it here in 2006. It is available at:
The Art of Electronics is another popular book. Available on Amazon.
LTspice is an extremely valuable tool. Most people run the updated version, I stayed on IV. Available at:
"
There are many useful tutorials on the web.
The Yahoo LTspice group has been active for many years. It was transferred to groups.io when Yahoo decided to terminate the forums.
Helmut has run the group since inception. He is a very experienced designer for LTspice models. You will find it very hard to find flaws in his work.
In addition, Andy, analogspiceman and Bordodynov are also very skilled experts in LTspice. You can learn a great deal from their work.
You can find their posts in groups.io:
-- Science teaches us to trust. - sw
Was, unfortunately. He died last June. :(
Cheers
Phil Hobbs
-- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com
That's why he has been so quiet lately.
What about winfield hill? Haven't heard from him either.
-- Science teaches us to trust. - sw
I swapped an e-mail with him a month or so ago. Covid-19 seems have been chewing into his neighbours back then, and he may be distracted, or worse.
-- Bill Sloman, Sydney
That was stupid. I should have said his posts in groups.io and here in SED are extremely valuable.
-- Science teaches us to trust. - sw
Great books ! Don't think I'd seen that collection before.
Yeahbut the physics hasn't changed one iota, Jeff. The thing about Bowick's book was he covered all the essentials in commendable detail and didn't wander off on a tangent or go into unnecessary depth like some other authors. For such a slim volume he packed in all the stuff I wanted to know. Just a shame there were so many errors in it. Thanks for the links, though; I'll check 'em out.
cut works fine for me.
Adding a vote for Lee's "Planar Microwave Engineering" Not comprehensive, but topics covered are covered well. And it certainly covers quite a bit more than the title suggests.
The DOI links don't work. Scroll further down the page to the links under "Files in this item". They all work. Click on the PDF's to download.
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
That's because they were recently published in Sept 2019. Fame and fortune take some time to arrive. They're also college text books, which don't get much general publicity by the publishers. However, this might be an exception. The six books are available in paperback: Approximately $14 in paperback for each book.
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Physics, RF Design, components, materials, structures, devices, tools and computah modeling and simulation have changed a great deal in the past 23 years. Certainly, the fundamentals of RF design haven't changed much making the older books still quite useful. However, it doesn't hurt to start with something up to date instead of something that has a 23 year old black hole in current advances.
Ok. So, skim or read the fundamentals book I listed and ignore the rest for now: If it's not what you want, kindly provide some clues as to what you are looking for.
I like books with lots of examples. Generally, that means 3 examples per major point. One simple example to illustrate the basic concepts. One practical example to show it can be useful. One messy example to show the power of what can be done. When shrinking a book, the examples are usually the first to disappear. The fundamentals book has only 59 examples, which is marginal for a 245 page book. However, for college text books, 11 chapters, with 24 exercises per chapter, substitutes for the missing examples. Learn by doing the examples.
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Paper Smith Charts are fairly old, but online versions are fairly new. It's much more interesting to use an interactive computer program to see what happens on the Smith Chart when components and transmission lines are added or changed. For example: etc... a 13 or 23 year old book will likely not have any mention of using a computah version of the Smith Chart.
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Not bad ! My problem is space... space... space......
I do buy books online sometimes too in PDF form as well as printed sometimes though.
Trying to downsize. I can't throw away or recycle good material that I "might" need to look at some day :)
That's not so much of an issue for me as I've always been more interested in the theory side of the subject, and the theory was pretty much nailed down 100 years ago. Consequently, all the books I have in my collection here are (to my mind anyway) "up to date" in a manner of speaking. :-)
Not at all, Jeffrey. I've downloaded *all* the links you kindly provided and there is *much* on first inspection that is right up my street in those books. Good steer!
+1 Yes, I fully agree. My only reservation is I do prefer physical *books* rather than PDFs on a screen. But I have to be realistic and the benefits of the virtual sources outweigh the drawbacks by orders of magnitude. Thanks again for your help here.
Try this exercise. Pick an "important" book at random from your shelf and search the interknot for a free scanned or PDF version of the book. If you can't find those, search for an eBook version in one of the more common formats. My guess(tm) is that I can find about 75% of what is on my bookshelf. The nice thing about the electronic versions is that I can usually search the text for buzzwords. For printed books, I have to use an index or table of contents. The problem with scanned books is that the pictures and graphs all look like garbage.
Like everyone else who has spent a lifetime collecting reference books, recycling them is painful. I've tried to donate them to worthy organizations, give them away on Freecycle.org, sell them for the cost of shipping on eBay and Craigs List, and donate them to the local charities. Nobody want old technical books. So far, I've had the best luck leaving them in a "free" box in front of my office door to be grabbed by the homeless and possibly university students.
I'm also trying to downsize. I look online for the book to buy or downloads. After I determine that the downloaded book is adequate, the original book disappears from my shelves.
Incidentally, I used to collect technical books from between the start of WWI and the end of WWII. It's not a huge collection, but it does make interesting reading. Many of the de facto standards used in today's electronics were established during this time. These will be the last books to be purged from my shelves.
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
I think you'll find it difficult finding anything in a 23 year old book that includes RF applications for MEMS devices, SAW filters, phased arrays, digital broadcasting, 3rd and 4th generation cellular, characteristics of modern plastic materials, Wi-Fi, SiC and GaN high temp devices, GHz switching devices, software define radio, computerized RF test equipment, 77 GHz automotive radar, all digital AM/FM/SW/TV receivers, high density data transmission, etc. All these has some connection to the distant past, but you'll have some difficulty finding that connection.
Actually, some (actually most) of the math went over my head.
Oops. That should be "Learn by doing the exercises".
Yep. The ability to do keyword searches is a big plus for PDF's and eBooks. The downside is that since electronic media bypasses all of the obstacles of producing a printed book, it's so much easier for anyone to self publish an electronic book. Of course, everyone is doing exactly that. As a result, I'm now faced with a hard disk full of documents, instead of a wall of books (or a giant pile of bankers boxes full of books). Too many books is as bad as too few books.
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
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