I have a copy of AoE, but the other tome I hear recommended often is an ARRL Handbook. I know they pump a new edition out every year, but research shows that major changes to the material only happen every 5 years or so. Do we know what years they made the changes on?
I'm a fan of used books and used book stores, and I see them occasionally. I'm sure I could learn a lot from any edition that I would pick up, but how many years back does the 'current' set of major changes go? Are any years better than others?
1990 or shortly before. They gutted the homebrew stuff after that.
Cheers
Phil Hobbs
--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net
Calling CQ, Bosom of Abraham, CQ, dah dit dah dit dah dah dit dah....
Cheers
Phil Hobbs
--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net
No, the changes are glacial, not much from year to year but over time it adds up.
It also depends on what you want. Each year new projects are published in the Handbook (and older ones removed), though only some of those projects are new (they may have already been in QST). But old remain. So if you buy two Handbooks of consecutive years, you will see very little change.
Back when the cover price was 4.50, even I as a 13 year old didn't fuss over the fact that the 1972 edition wasn't that different from the 1971 edition. As it got more expensive, it mattered a whole lot more. So I have a bunch from the seventies, then 1986, then about 1991, and I guess
2004, no specific reason, it just seemed like enough time had gone by since I'd last bought one, and there likely was some project that seemed especially interesting. I might get the 2014 edition since this year marks the 100th anniversary of the ARRL that publishes it (the Handbook came a bit later, and missed some years in the early days). I know enough would have changed over ten years or so that I won't be disappointed.
But what you are interested in also matters. An older edition is obviously better if you're interested in tubes. It often took a long time for the Handbook to reflect big changes, like DSP. Or, the phasing method of generating SSB was constant, but often not a lot of detail, then wham, interesting things were being done with it and suddenly coverage was boosted.
If you want a specific project, then that reflects the edition you want, keeping in mind that it's not likely to disappear the next year (though that does happen, "narrow band voice modulation" was a big thing in the
1979 edition, then disappeared completely, and except for some QST articles at the time, that 1979 Handbook is The Source of information for the failed technique). If you're interests are recent, then you want a recent edition.
A lot of the theory changed very slowly, but on the other hand, once it changed you had plenty of years afterwards where the theory remained the same (or with minor changes). So it doesn't matter about specific years, just don't buy them close together.
How much are they going for? I've never come across enough editions away from Hamfests that I had to be picky. They are uncommon at used book sales here, only a handful seen in decades, but then never more than a dollar. Though that also means no recent editions.
The 2014 edition was $51 Canadian at Amazon yesterday when I happened to check for my own reasons (ie before this thread). So if I saw a recent edition for ten dollars, I'd grab it, unless I saw enough recent editions that buying them all was not an option.
If you have no editions, and aren't finding them used, buy the latest, taht's the way it always used to go. Since you have nothing to cmopare it with, it becomes the starting point.
When it was 4.50 or so, one could afford to buy an edition to have something around "for that radio stuff". The chapters on shop and test equipment were useful for many beyond those interested in radio, and for the price, it was a good way to get information. That lessens as the price goes up.
That said, the ARRL puts out other books. If you have some specific interest, those more narrow coverage books may be a better choice. If you were specially interested in SSB, then the ARRL's SSB Handbook or Manual was a better choice. They had multiple editions but I think the last one was in the seventies. The older the better, because the tutorial type articles cover the basics better than later, when the topic has become "routine". That applies to anything, any early book is often more useful in the basics than what comes later. "Experimental Methods in RF Design" is more limited in what it covers, but is a much better book than the more general ARRL Handbook (but only if what it covers is what you are interested in, it's not going to be very useful to the general hobbyist, too RF specific). Over the years, they've had books about small radio projects, more useful if you are interested in projects than theory. And so on.
That Pete Millet site, I forget the URL but he has scans of out of copyright technical books, he has scans of some 1930s through 1950s ARRL Handbooks, as well as the Radio Handbook from the west coast, originally called the Frank Jones Radio Handbook, but better known in later years because Bill Orr was the editor. For someone interested in tubes, handbooks from that era can be quite useful, and the scans are obviously cheaper and eaiser to get than the real books. He even has scans of the
3rd and 4th editions of the Radiotron Designer's Handbook.
I am interested in tubes actually, but not for radio. I would use any tube knowledge gleaned from that in the realm of guitar amplifiers instead. The info in ARRL might not be optimal for that case, but I'm sure the theory would still apply with some adjustments.
As for radio, I'm most interested in things like radio control and using radio to send/receive data. Voice/audio is secondary, but I think it's neat too. My overall knowledge of radio theory and operation isn't a lot, so I'll start at the ground-level fundamentals.
I just missed the local annual Hamfest, which is too bad. As far as used copies of the Handbook, I most recently saw a 2000 edition in a bookstore for ~$20. That seems to be the going rate online for used copies that are 10+ years old.
Since I have no editions, I nearly bought the 2000 edition, but I thought I'd ask here first. Phil's comment that they 'gutted homebrew stuff after 1990 or so' tells me that I would prefer older editions. I've also noticed your point about how older editions of technical manuals are more in-depth, and manuals in general have watered down some over the years.
It might be that to cover tubes, get some solid theory, and such up through modern stuff like spread-spectrum encrypted data links, I will need more than one edition of the Handbook, or other ARRL offerings.
Have worked in the two way field my entire adult life. Since being diagnose d with ESRD and becoming unemployable have since moved on to repairing main ly keyboards and music related devices (amps, lighting devices, smoke gener ators, etc.) In my own shop. Unfortunately my interest in RF has diminished quite a bit. Shame too as when I was fully engaged in it as a field servic e tech for Motorola Arlington Service Center in the DC area I had the oppor tunity to visit so many cool places. Not many can say they drove their van up the sidewalk to the Washington monument or into the Pentagon or onto the tarmac at Washington National airport. Used to service the Smithsonian's s ystem. Now that was a great customer to visit. Walking the back hallways an d seeing a lot of the stuff that is stored and not viewable by the general public. Worked with an old guy at the Motorola FTC that used to work on ele ctron microscopes for Siemens and he had a picture of himself holding the H ope diamond. Ahhhh the memories. I got stuck at 1452 ft. up a broadcast tow er (channel 40) outside of Broadway, NC once when the elevator dropped 6 ft . and locked. Then had to climb down that big bitch. Took 2 1/2 hours. Kiss ed the ground when I got down too. Stress is defined as when you have to re move you underwear with a pair of tweezers. Guy who was with me never went up another one. Like I said. Ahhh the memories.
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