(Part 2) Best ham radio books according to redditors
We found 73 Reddit comments discussing the best ham radio books. We ranked the 41 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
Ignore reddit subs. There's not a lot of info out there. Incidentally I spent a good couple of years researching this and bought about 20 books on the subject in the end. Most of the textbooks are complete drivel. The books I list below are notably different. I assume you want focus on Amateur Radio as part of it so I have included only books which treat it in context to that.
Experimental Methods in RF design. Covers literally everything, relatively up to date and relevant. Expensive but fantastic book on so many levels. Comes with a copy of Solid State Design for the Radio Amateur which was a good predecessor from the 1980s on CDROM: https://www.amazon.com/dp/087259923X
Practical RF Design Manual. Covers blocks and individual system components. Nice book but old. The techniques are still valid however. Very accessible and well written: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0136937543
The Electronics of Radio. Covers a full system level engineering of a transceiver, and all electronics fundamentals. There are practicals in it and you require some half decent and therefore relatively expensive test gear. It is focused around the Norcal 40A transceiver designed by the guy who runs Elecraft now. If you want to learn in steps rather than from a reference, this book is gold: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E3URCNG
The first title can be obtained from Library Genesis if you want to trial it before buying.
Not sure what country you are in but the above are available from box73.de or amazon in EU as well.
A Transistor Radio is actually quite a complex device. And there's many different types beside the basic Superhet.
You could begin by learning how simple Radio circuits work, starting with a Crystal Set.
Best to download an old copy of "The ARRL Handbook for Radio Amateurs", and start reading.
Gotta recommend Experimental Methods in RF Design as a solid introduction to practical RF engineering. If you want to go a little further into the math behind the practice (although the EMRFD has a fair amount of that), I'd recommend Wes' other book, Introduction to RF Design
Getting a license is one of the first steps, if not THE first step. To help you pass the license exam, you can download a free version of my Technician Class license study guide from kb6nu.com/study-guides.
Next, i'd suggest finding a ham radio club in your neck of the woods. You can attend the meetings before you get your license even, and by attending the meetings you'll meet hams who can help you get started and you can learn about all the things they do.
Most seem to start out by purchasing an inexpensive handheld radio to get on the air. That's OK, but don't stop there. Check into the local nets, help out with public service events, build a better antenna for your handheld.
As far as learning radio theory, get an ARRL Handbook. Also, consider getting the ARRL's Hands-On Experiments book. It's a big hobby, and there's a lot to learn. Take your time to figure out what you'd like to do, then take it one step at a time.
ARRL and other radio-related publications talk about some of this.
I found this page for instance. This is the ARRL RFI book referenced. As the first reviewer says - it's not necessarily right for the beginning - the reason is RFI reduction is a full-time EE professional speciality (it's that challenging).
I've worked on jobs where we had a piece of test equipment that was essentially a wide-band RF receiver and that had persistent RFI problems - and it took a lot of work to address it. We had the advantage that our solution was to seal up the entire system in shielding which is the antithesis of what a shortwave radio is about (trying to receive outside signals).
i majored EE at Auburn. One of my favorite classes was Tech and Civ (freshman required history) taught by an EE who got his Ph D in history
Someone once asked "what is the difference between AM and FM radio?"
His answer was "read my book" His Book
apparently it took some time to publish? Anyway, class was cool and talked about some of the stuff above. May be worth checking out.
Ditto this.
The second edition is also available and cheaper.
Bowick has the best treatment of smith charts that I have ever read, even better than Pozar or Ludwig.
This is a good book that talks about the RF parts of a radio. They talk about using I/Q signals but they demodulate using analog parts, not digital. Since you have the digital part down, this book could help you with the RF part:
http://www.amazon.com/Experimental-Methods-Design-Amateurs-Library/dp/0872598799
> I make mental notes of who has giant amateur radio antennas on their houses, always good people to know.
Those are probably not the hams you want to know or depend on if the SHTF. In general, they're the ones into it for the sporting aspect, "chasing paper" as they say, trying to get confirmed contacts with as many stations around the World, or trying to get the biggest score in a ham radio contest.
The kind of ham you want to know is the guy like me: The one with effective, but nigh-on-invisible antennas at his home. If you were to drive by my house, you wouldn't see my antennas even though I have 4 of them. In fact, you wouldn't know I was a ham unless you saw my car in the driveway.
You want the kind of ham like me, who practices setting up his emergency set-up in the park occasionally:
https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/8emyj7/finally_managed_to_deploy_my_as2259gr_copy_and
You want to know the kind of guy who keeps a QRP radio and antennas in his "bug out bag".
You want to know someone who has a copy of this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Low-Profile-Amateur-Radio-Operating/dp/0872599744
Chances are, the guy with the big 100' tower with a bunch of Yagis on it isn't the sort of person who is going to have the ability, or knowledge, to effectively communicate in an emergency.
When I was a kid (90s), there actually was something similar in the US. It was a licensing manual, and it was done as a comic book of sorts. I can't recall the name, but the cover was turquoise or light blue, and the characters were all drawn as sort of blocky stick figures. I seem to recall that the main characters were Alpha and Zulu.
EDIT: Holy crap, I found it! Nostalgia overload!
Maybe look into the The SBE Broadcast Engineering Handbook: A Hands-on Guide to Station Design and Maintenance as a place to start.
Hello! I'm in a similar situation. I passed my exam back in '09, but am just getting into ham radio now.
For now I'm just a HT user. Here's what I do:
And in case someone wants one too for "archival purposes" Amazon has one left.
https://smile.amazon.com/Advanced-Class-License-Manual-Amateur/dp/0872593274
I have this book here: Understanding Basic Electronics And it's awesome! Maybe you could find it at the library? (It's a very large book, however). It would definitely help you.
Dan's book is comprehensive and an easy read. Only $3 on Kindle app/devices.
https://www.amazon.com/Geeks-Guide-Having-Morse-Code/dp/0692367241
For $3.90 you could go to Amazon [http://www.amazon.com/So-You-Want-be-Ham/dp/0672216000] and pick up "so you wanna be a ham?"
http://www.arrl.org/licensing-education-training
You can look up exam sessions near you and I think you can look up local amateur radio clubs, too. Just show up for a meeting, usually nice guys and gals, mostly guys.
This is the book that helped me study for my first exam: https://www.amazon.com/Now-Youre-Talking-First-License/dp/0872597970
I haven't worked a sat yet but would like to and I have this book in my shack. The ARRL Satellite Handbook 1st Edition Learned a lot from it.