Book Review: Secrets of RF Circuit Design

This article reviews the book:

Secrets Of RF Circuit Design

Third edition

Written by Joseph J Carr

Published by McGraw-Hill

ISBN 0-07-137067-6

This book is intended for both those who are looking for a better understanding of RF circuits and those do-it-yourself hobbyists who are looking for help with RF design. I personally think that the title is luring and yet does not really tell the reader how beneficial this book will be. My advice to anyone who finds this book on a bookshelf or on the Internet is: Don't just pass it by. Take a closer look. Browse through the book. You will find that the title is a lot more than the sum of it's parts.

The word in the title that attracted my attention was the word '˜secrets.' I had encountered several analog circuits that I did not fully understand. Since my job title was test engineering and I had little or no exposure to analog circuits for over 21 years, I needed a book that would bring me up to date quickly.

The Secrets Of RF Design explains the principles of RF Design in a manner that will help any anybody with a working knowledge of electronics. The book focuses of practical design and does not bury the reader in complex mathematical equations nor in the derivation of those equations. But the book does provide the mathematical formulas relevant to the topics of discussion.

This book is both a thorough tutorial on RF design and a source of affordable circuits to help the hobbyist avoid the high cost of test equipment. It explains RF circuits, problems encountered with RF circuits and offers inexpensive solutions for the hands-on electronics hobbyists. One example is the explanation of how to prevent an oscillator output frequency from being affected by it's load.

The book explains how to build IF amplifiers, signal generators, oscillators, VLF radio receivers and much more. The book covers topics like how to avoid introducing stray capacitances into your circuit, electrical interference, electromagnetic interference, impedance matching, inductor and capacitor measurements and balun transformers.

In conclusion, this book helped me a great deal in my quest to understand RF circuits and the problems associated with RF circuits. It provides affordable solutions and an explanation of those solutions. I recommend this book for anyone looking for a better understanding of RF circuits.