That's a good recommendation by Space Varmint on getting the ARRL Handbook.

http://www.amazon.com/ARRL-Handbook-...6505026&sr=8-1

Getting an older one is a good way of saving a few dollars, so go ahead and buy any one put out in the last five years, or even ten. Don't go too far back in time though. When I was first starting out I used the 1971 edition and back then the Handbook did a very poor job of covering the systematic design of a radio receiver. The comparison with my 2001 edition is dramatic. The more recent edition does a good job of covering Noise Figure, Intermodulation and intercept point, dynamic range, cascaded stages, mixer spurious responses, and so on. That old 1971 copy barely touched on half of these essential topics, so you couldn't sit down and design a good radio receiver with that old book, but with the new ones you can. My 1983 edition is halfway there, so perhaps anything 1990 and newer is good for the basics. The newer the better for up to date project ideas.

Its remarkable that one book can cover such a broad range of topics and take a beginner through so much territory while still remaining a useful reference book for the expert. If you are just starting out or you've only been dabbling in electronics for a short while, consider getting a used copy of this book, delivered right to your door for less than $9 if you are in the USA or Canada. Here's a good link:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sear...radio&x=61&y=7
I recommend buying from Abebooks vendors who have no less than five stars in their AbeBooks rating.

Note that the title has changed a few times over the years. Really old ones are called "The Radio Amateur's Handbook", then in the mid-80s it was changed to "The ARRL Handbook for Radio Amateur's" and then in about 2003 they changed it again to "The ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications". Get the most recent one you can afford, but if you are just starting out, save your money for project parts and just buy a ten year old copy for a few bucks. Great value.

Of similar quality and perhaps more suited to our friends in Europe is the RSGB Radio Communication Handbook
http://www.rsgbshop.org/acatalog/Onl..._s_New_26.html
(scroll down to find it)
It is also very good, but not easy to find, used, in North America.

I also like the old Radio Handbook by Bill Orr, although it may be getting a bit long in the tooth these days, plus it seems to be expensive, and its not as good, in my opinion, as the ARRL Handbook.

__________________
RadioRon

 

Hey thanks RadioRon! Cool name man! Yeah the ARRL Handbook is like the bible for radio electronics. Excellent quick reference guide as well, the way it's laid out and all. They been putting it out a few years. Quite a few. Incidentally the ARRL is our friends as far as keeping the gov't at bay from taking over all the frequencies. They have a membership you can join with their own lobby group and all. I was glad to hear about the FCC's recent ruling against Comcast concerning internet filtering. I wouldn't be surprised the ARRL had a hand in that.
I see you have a passion for "dynamic range". I love designing up a good receiver myself. Infact I got one or two I would like to run off on PC board. I have built a few PLL's and not much on Dual loop stuff. Haven't had a chance to work much with DSP. Do you have any recommendations for a good low power high resolution frequency synthesizer? I want a 3 to 30 MHz continuous no more than 1KHz step. Of course I want cheap and simple as possible and low power! I'm thinking about putting it on crank power (dynamometer).
I got one of those British handbooks your talking about laying around some where. As far as a great text book, you can't beat the Shrader "Communications" book. It has some good old stuff in it. I built an FM stereo multiplexer using the theory presented from it, all with discreet components. Everyone uses IC's these days as far as that goes.
Anyway, would really appreciate your input on the synthesizer it you got any.

 

Hi SV
Perhaps the synthesizer topic deserves its own thread, but the short answer is that I don't have anything handy in the way of a proven circuit. Since I've been working in the land mobile and cellphone industries for so long almost all the PLLs I've designed have been single loop. Quite a few years ago I did a paper study of a multi-loop for a high performance HF receiver but it didn't get built. I can suggest that these makers have good PLL integrated circuits:
Fujitsu Semiconductor
National Semiconductor
Silicon Laboratories

And there are many more makers including Analog Devices, Maxim, Freescale, NXP, ST Microelectronics, but I am less familiar with their parts.

My favorite book on this topic is:
Ulrich L. Rohde, Digital PLL Frequency Synthesizers: Theory and Design. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliff, NJ, 1983

A lot of designers try and move to Direct Digital Synthesis for sub-VHF frequencies these days, but I am still suspicious that this approach will not give the cleanest possible signal at the lowest possible power consumption. But things continue to change and perhaps DDS has cleaned up its act sufficiently. If you are doing a receiver, consider running the LO around 48 to 75 MHz and upconverting to a 45 Mhz IF (or higher if you have a filter). It is easier to get a good span from your VCO at this higher frequency while retaining very good phase noise, which is really the main problem.

__________________
RadioRon

 

FB RR,

Thanks for input. I'm with you on the DDS. Seems both of us understand that noise is the killer. All that aliasing in DDS doesn't make me feel real comfortable. Anyway take a look at this attachment if you get a chance. It has some interesting new fangled techniques.

So you work in the cell phone industry? Lucky you. Your pretty much being paid to keep up with the state of the art. Are you a ham? WA4BJO here. So we all know where cell technology got their repeater use techniques from. I remember using phone patch long before cell came around. We were privileged those days.. I am still an avid fan of HF. Have not had time to do much lately but I think there is a whole world of discovery left in it. We kind of jumped over it with all this high frequency stuff. I've been brain storming a few ideas and am anxious to try a few of them out. Of course frequency selection has been the age old quest for the cleanest and most high performance. I played around using the PIC processor's timers as a reference oscillator in a single loop PLL and got some interesting results though the step rates were kind of odd.

Perhaps you are right. Maybe we should start a new thread on the topic. I bet it would be loaded with some great information as I see there are plenty of heavy weights in this forum. Will have to do that.

Thanks again RR....Have a gooder or if ham...73's

Attached Files

scheme-FCS96.pdf (123.4 KB, 4 views)