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KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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Book for professional engineers helps amateurs be more successful, too

Posted: 10 Nov 2021 06:08 AM PST http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kb6nu/tVpu/~3/Vmbc1ViWbFE/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email


Im going to steal an idea from my friend, Steve Leibson. He recently wrote
a book review of Designing Electronics That Work by Hunter Scott, and I
found the book so good that I thought Id write a review of my own. TL;DR:
This is a great book, and what makes it even greater is that the PDF
version is free. (Print copies are available for $39.)

As Scott says in the preface, This book is a collection of tips,
techniques, and tricks that generally take a small amount of time and
effort to implement, but have a disproportionate effect on the outcome of a design.

Heres an RF example:

High-speed and RF signals require high Q (quality factor) capacitors.
Capacitor manufacturers have specific product lines for high frequency use.
If you use a regular, non-high Q capacitor, bad things will happen: your filters won’t have the response you expect, your amplifiers will oscillate, and you’ll see very high insertion loss through your capacitors. It is critical that you choose capacitors that are rated for the frequency that you’re using. The GJM capacitor series by Murata (their high Q series) has
a self-resonant frequency of 16 GHz. Johanson is another good manufacturer
of high Q capacitors.

The book is chockfull of such examples on all phases of product design. He starts with how to set product requirements and specifications, how to
specify and buy parts, how to build prototypes, keeping a lab notebook, how
to design a schematic, how to layout a PC board, and how to test and troubleshoot designs.

Theres also a chapter on how to outfit an electronics lab. Heres an excerpt from that chapter:

A lab needs excellent lighting. Get ring lights for your microscopes and
very bright overhead lights for the lab bench. When you’re dealing with
parts that are hundredths of an inch long, you don’t want any shadows. You also want the light to be as white as possible to make discolorations of
parts easier to see.

Scott wrote this book for professional electronics design engineers, but
nearly all of the advice is applicable to amateur radio. Amateurs may not
have to be as rigorous as professional engineers, but adopting some of the practices described in this book will help hams be more successful when designing and building your own projects.

The post Book for professional engineers helps amateurs be more successful,
too appeared first on KB6NUs Ham Radio Blog.


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QSLs: KB5EBB, W2AEW

Posted: 09 Nov 2021 01:23 PM PST http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kb6nu/tVpu/~3/BDNB9SscxD8/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email


Normally, I only post QSLs from stations whose call signs spell words. Im breaking that rule today because the first card is from W2AEW, Tek
application engineer, YouTuber, and all-around ham radio celebrity. As you
can see, his QSL card shows a screen shot of a Tek scope displaying his
call sign.

He writes, Our first QSO certainly warrants a QSL card. TNX, OM!




When I first saw KB5EBBs QSL, I was puzzled about the picture on the front. Well, as it turns out, its Phils original artwork! He writes, Haha! I hadnt thought of my call as spelling a word.



The post QSLs: KB5EBB, W2AEW appeared first on KB6NUs Ham Radio Blog.

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