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Comment by prashnts | Hacker News Reader

Can anyone suggest a good textbook for Radio, Antenna theory, Ham radio in general?

I'm quite interested in learning these but most books I've come across either seem too basic, or too advanced. I am a math major so mathematics isn't a problem for me if it is supported with enough text. Thanks!

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The Radar Handbook by Merrill Skolnik often comes up as a basic reference covering some of these topics, radar and radio being intimately related. Plus the pdf is usually around: http://airspot.ru/book/file/961/radar_handbook.pdf

That looks great! Thank you.

> Plus the pdf is usually around

It's a bonus that you don't have to compensate the creator of a useful product?

Freedom does not imply free beer and vice versa.

What are you talking about? I think you might have replied to the wrong comment. The suggested book is not under a libre license.

Yes, it is a bonus. Having the pdf online also prevents me from needing to walk 500 yards to the library where I can also find it for no cost.

But seriously, I think it's safe to assume that Mr Skolnik [1] is doing just fine. Given that his publisher is likely taking the lion's share of the proceeds, and that generally speaking, writing books for academia is not a profitable enterprise, I have no problem using a found pdf or finding the book in the library. I know personally several academics who have written books and they do it to solidify their expertise and/or obtain tenure, not to make money directly from sales. Hence the movement to give books away for free [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrill_Skolnik [2] https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/About.aspx

The ARRL Handbook [1] covers all of those topics pretty comprehensively and provides a digital edition with a large collection of supplemental content. They also publish a separate antenna book, but the Handbook does a fine job of covering antenna basics. I recommend the hardcover; this is a large book and it benefits from strong covers.

[1] https://www.arrl.org/shop/ARRL-Handbook-2017-Hardcover-Editi...

For antennas, you could do worse than picking up a copy of John Kraus' "Antennas" - he starts off with the basic principles and builds on them as he introduces new concepts. Uses enough math to let you understand what is going on without getting carried away with too many nasty integrals. His writeup on an idea for a gravitational transmitter/receiver system towards the end of the book is worth the money alone. :-)

For a cookbook showing you a lot of how without bothering too much about the why, Karl Rothammel's Antennenbuch (in German) can't be beat, IMHO.

Thanks! Kraus' looks like the most complete overview. Looking forward to read it through over the holidays. :)

(Edit) Just found Kraus' recorded lecture on youtube. Very interesting! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nKRp7TzgBI

Those are pretty wildly different topics

For "radio" I'd recommend reading on Analog and Digital Signal Processing. Antenna theory is an entirely separate field which you'd want to reference specifically. Ham is more of of the culture/context surrounding ham radio, and for that I'd recommend one of the ARRL exam study books from http://www.arrl.org/shop/What-s-New though for the easier tests these are pretty light on technicals and are more about policy and good radio operator behavior

Ah, you're right -- I meant that if there's some reference covering the relevant topics that'd be great.

Thanks for the clarification! The ARRL study books look good too.

https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/wiki/index is a pretty good place to start. The ARRL has manuals that walk through the theory behind the exams for the US licences. The extra class book explains the theory of building a modern transceiver, starting with doping silicon to make semiconductors.

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