Recommended reading? Radio, telecommunications, microwave links... - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: samgab
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 07, 2012, 10:05:41 am
content: I recently got a job as a (trainee) Regional Support Engineer, dealing with Analogue and Digital Radio systems (also a bit with telephony, IP phones etc).I wonder if anyone can suggest anymust-readbooks on subjects such as:RF engineering,Telecommunications engineering,Radio system design,Antennae,Microwave links and transmission,P25 trunked systems,E1 systems,etc...Cheers!

author: kg4arn
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 07, 2012, 10:11:30 pm
content: Radio Receiver Designby Kevin McClanningClear and readable discussion of wide variety of radio RF topics including IMD, dynamic range,noise, gain distribution...check out the description on Amazon. It is very accurate as to what is in this excellent book.

author: samgab
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 08, 2012, 04:59:46 am
content: Thank you kg4arn... I'll look into obtaining a copy of that one

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 08, 2012, 07:24:05 am
content: Quote from: samgab on August 07, 2012, 10:05:41 amDare I ask what Company?*Back in the day,Telecom Aust used to have a fairly extensive library of such stuff,including back issues of the "Telecom Journal of Australia",& I assume other organisations involved in such stuff had similar information.These days,with all these places run by "Suits",all that sort of stuff may have been junked.Even though they are for Amateurs,the ARRL Handbook & Antenna Book are good value,as are the RSGB equivalents."Terman" is quite old,but may well be worth looking at.Almost anything by Glenn M Glasford--again old,but he really got into things.Some of the old Telecom Engineering Training Publications (ETPs) may still be available,or stuff from the Bell system in the USA.Some of the equipment manuals used to be pretty good.Pick the brains of more experienced EEs (& Techs).If you are onsite at one of the older places,have a stickybeak at the station library,if they had one,you may find treasures of information.(I can only go from my experience with Telecom Aust back in the day,I don't know if any of the Comms companies leave information on site anymore)Being a Trainee Engineer is gold to you,as you are actually working with the stuff,unlike many of the EE students who write into this forum.*Sorry,I didn't look close enough at the flag,& thought you were in Oz!I'm not familiar with the present set up in NZ,but I imagine the old phone /comms system was similar to Australia.

author: samgab
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 08, 2012, 09:27:00 am
content: Quote from: vk6zgo on August 08, 2012, 07:24:05 amYeah, I wasn't sure if I should say, as I don't know if anyone from my team is on this forum, and it's a fairly small team. It's with the Police here in NZ, and the system is part analogue, and part encrypted digital.Thanks for your suggestions, I'll look up some of them, and we have quite a load of old books and manuals and folders stored away back at the lab/workshop area, so that'll keep me going, plus dividing time between that and studying etc... I've got heaps to keep me occupied for the foreseeable future.Yeah, it's pretty much my dream job... I've always been interested in electronics, but I'd been working for the Police here for the last few years, but not in any tech related area, but tech/electronics is my forte, and what I'm really interested in, so it's all worked out pretty great.I'm learning heaps, but very green around the gills yet (in my second week at the time of writing this).

author: JoeAtl30319
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 10, 2012, 12:50:03 am
content: The ARRL handbook is a fantastic resource for basic information, and even advanced information.

author: Zad
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 10, 2012, 04:38:13 am
content: A couple more books you might like to look at, both published by the RSGB and might be available through the NZ equivalent:RSGB Radio Communication Handbook11th editionEdited by Mike Dennison, G3XDV and John Fielding, ZS5JFVHF/UHF HandbookEdited by: Andy Barter, G8ATDIn a job like that, I'd strongly consider training for your amateur radio "ticket". A lot of the other techs will probably be radio amateurs, and it is a good grounding in the culture of radio systems. On job applications, I have always got more comments (and interesting discussions) from my reference to being a radio amateur, than I have from my degrees or job experience.

author: KD0CAC John
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 10, 2012, 01:09:59 pm
content: I am a ham radio operator and run a number of nets , last night on a tech net , I had a thought while questions & answers were flying around .With some of the issues going around these days , non-leaded solder & whiskers , counterfeit parts / leaky caps , bad economy - keeping old gear going , etc.And from what I am hearing / reading , there is almost no-place teaching real repair , and the old techs are dyeing off [ bummer wish I could serve an apprenticeship with a couple we have lost in my area ] .The need for repair techs , seems will be a real calling in the near future .At a club meeting the other day , one of the members used to be a tech for Motorola and now is a tech for state government communications , repeated what I have heard from others , that good techs are a thing of the past , he is one of a few , they are looking for more with his skills , but as mentioned above , the schools are not teaching what he has learned and does and the older guys are retiring or passing on .Most of what I am referring to is RF techs , reading hear there seems to be a lot of good techs , but a shortage in RF .