Secrets of Rf Circuit Design [Paperback]

Joseph J. Carr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1997

From one of today's most respected electronics authors comes this pragmatic, intermediate-level guide to designing, building, and testing all types of radio frequency circuits. Filled with functional projects that demonstrate the principles of RE circuits, this revision of a bestseller also provides a handy parts list and sources of components.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Take the fastest route to high-quality radio frequency circuits... SECRETS OF RF CIRCUIT DESIGN, Second Edition follow up on the best-selling first Edition, this revised and updated guide gives you the best ways to design, build, and test today's radio frequency (RF) circuits. It's filled with projects and experiments that make it easy to apply RF principles to real-life applications. Popular electronics writer Joe Carr takes you step by step through functional projects in this intermediate-level handbook. He also provides parts lists and component sources for every project, in chapters that cover how to: Design and build radio receiver circuits, Rf bridges, amplifiers, receiver preselectors, simplified spectrum analyzers, and time domain reflectometers.; Select, use, maintain, and repair variable capacitors.; Design and wind inductor coils for radio circuits.; Construct and ground simple wire antennas. You'll find detailed coverage of simple radio frequency insturments, as well as UHF and microwave components. Included is a money-saving coupon for a companion diskette that contains a Windows-executable program for calculating RF circuit component values, coil-winding parameters, and more.

About the Author

Joseph J. Carr is a leading electronics author who has written scores of well-reviewed books and technical articles. An electrical engineer and experienced electronics bench technician with CET and CCE certifications, Carr is a former winner of ISCET's Technician of the Year award. Also a columnist for several prestigious publications, including Nuts ‘n’ Volts, Carr's other best-selling books include DC Power Supplies: A Technician's Guide; Practical Antenna Handbook, Second Edition; Mastering IC Electronics; and Old Time Radios! --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 568 pages
• Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill; 2 edition (January 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0070116733
• ISBN-13: 978-0070116733
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.7 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,163,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A waste of paper, January 4, 2004

By 

Mr A S Robertson (Girvan, Scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secrets of RF Circuit Design (Hardcover)

"Secrets of RF Circuit Design" contains no secrets and precious little design. Commencing with some RF basics, but not a lot, the book progresses through a hotchpotch of largely redundant information referencing to obsolete devices, interspersed with occasional tiresome moralising anecdotes. Such is the unevenness that one is informed along the way that pi is a letter in the Greek alphabet but the introduction of complex numbers receives no explanation. RF essentials such as transistor cascode, Miller effect, common base etc. are barely mentioned. Likewise recent (or even past) developments in RF communication, Lecher bars, stripline, or in fact anything of consequence receive at most cursory comment. But one is guided in the repair of IF coils. How useful. How appropriate. Pity that essential note upon the solubility of thin copper wires in solder was omitted. Duh.

Many basic circuits are mentioned, though detail is simply glossed over. Almost nothing is explained to a level which is useful. The descriptions of IMPATT, TRAPITT and BARITT and other obscure devices serve only to confuse potential designers as to what they might expect to find in industry, or even what they might find in catalogues. Warning of the danger of carbon tet might be relevant, were it actually available. And so it goes, irrelevancies and misdirection.

Then there are the mistakes, factual, diagrammatic, typo and dubious opinion. Laced with so many errors the text cannot ever be taken as authoritative. I certainly didn't know that "The nautical mile is 1/360 of the Earth's circumference at the equator, more or less." This is the third edition and it is simply gross ineptitude which lets rubbish like this slip through.

With its annoying "Radio Shack" demeanour, the obtrusive, extraneous in-text references and addresses serve only to distend the already bloated text. Writing is painfully wordy, imprecise and begs severe red pen editing. Large heading font, wide margins and huge simplistic diagrams also serve to fill over five hundred pages which if decently constructed would make a book a third of the size.

...I feel cheated. It was a waste of money. Almost uniquely amongst my purchases, this book is destined for the bucket. Unmitigated dross.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A strange mix, September 17, 2004

By 

JR (Sutton, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secrets of RF Circuit Design (Paperback)

First a disclaimer: I have the previous version of this book, but I flipped through the new one and it's essentially the same book.

As a newbie to RF electronics, this book appeared to be the holy grail of radio knowledge when I first saw it in the book store.

I actually read the entire thing cover to cover. Then I reread chapters over and over and over again, trying to make SOME sense of it, all the time thinking that it was my lack of experience that was making it difficult to get certain concepts down.

Now with a little hind sight I see what an awful place this book was to start.

It has is a real strange mix of totally glossing over important information, but then spending countless pages explaining the most inane topics

For example there's a whole section on how to repair an antique bobbin type coil, yet it's painfully short on how you'd actually design your own.

Furthermore, throughout the book it's as if Carr drifts between assuming the reader has no knowledge of rf concepts, and assuming the reader is a full blown rf engineer.

It's SO frustrating.

Not to mention, even I as a newbie picked up on SEVERAL errors in calculations, images, and text. (in fairness, these could very well have been corrected in the newer edition)

Also while I'm being fair, I don't think Carr claims that the book is meant for inexperienced readers. But I really feel the book misses all audiences. It covers the basics while assuming you know all the magic "secrets" that connect the dots he lays out. And if you know those, you should already know the basics.

Maybe they should just rename it to "Joseph Carr's Thoughts on RF Design" that might be more appropriate.

Despite my lengthy criticism, the book is not totally without value, I did learn a few things. So I recommend it ONLY if you can find it used and CHEAP.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars not pleased, July 5, 2000

By 

Steven G. Robalino "ECU robalino" (Austin, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secrets of Rf Circuit Design (Paperback)

This book is more for the RF hacker than for an RF designer . It provides very little design info and theory of operation - it is mostly an RF 'cookbook' for people that want to design by trial and error or just experiment for fun.