The Science of Radio: With MATLAB and Electronics Workbench Demonstrations, 2nd Edition

This is the book to get if you want to understand the science of radio. Along the way of learning the inner workings of radio, you'll enjoy the historical side of this fascinating subject, which is provided by the author as he weaves between theory, practice, and history. In other words, Paul Nahin keeps the subject interesting and though provoking. And it gets better - the author has made available FREE the solutions manual in a pdf version - how cool is that! It's like getting into the mind of this college-professor-turned-practical-genius as he shows you how all of this radio theory gets applied.I also own other books by this author and I love 'em all!!!

I thought the history of radio was as good as the description of how it works. I was in college in the 50's; there was a lot that I did not learn about AM radio. For me the book was excellent. Prentiss Robinson

Paul Nahin's skill as a writer brings me back to my days of the old superheterodyne in the wooden cabinet with glowing tubes illuminating my bedroom and inner sanctum at night. It also reminds me of why I became an electrical engineer and a life long student.

This is a very good book as explained by other reviewers. However, Icannot give it five stars for the following reasons1) It has what I believe is a serious error, in a crucial part. The firstequation on page 157 is the first step to explain why the spark-gaptransmitter scatter electromagnetic energy all across the spectrum.However, it does not make sense to me. Perhaps I misunderstood the explanation of the spark gap oscillator given in figure 4.3 on page 45. If I understood correctly the "spark gap" oscillators there are four times are involved. The most important is the time interval T that is mechanically given by relay r. It is the interval during which relay r , opens, closes and then opens again.This time interval is the period of the signal but should not be in theequation on page 157. If asked, I can send a PDF file of the correctequation by e-mail2)The comments about science-fiction films, scattered thru out the book,are a bit annoying. Of course, you can skip those comments easily, butthey are annoying anyway.

I have the second edition. I've never seen, nor has anyone I know, the third edition. Obviously, there are points, here and there where readers use, or used to use, MATLAB/Electronics Workbench. I haven't found a trace of the latter software, but I've tried JS1 Circuit Simulator and MacSpice. They're both just fine for me.His meticulously researched history discussion is better than any I've ever seen, and it really added to my enjoyment. He put a lot of time into the old literature.Do the problems at the end of the chapter. They will combine to make the latter chapters more valuable.

Its surprising that so few books are available covering this subject that has become so important.I enjoyed Nahin's book.It covers the history, better pre-history of radio and combines it with quite a lot of theory.But there's the rub.The book deals with a very specific part of radio history a part that has long since become of lttle other than academic interest.True Nahin does this well with plenty of wit and style.The first part of Nahin's book deals with theeory earliest radios that were esentialy TRF receivers.Such technology has not existed since the 30's of the last century.Spark transiters are an even greater curisity.He then develops much of the mathematics that underpins these ideas.A very good read for all those who love both mathematics and the theory and history of radio.However, its a pity Nahin does not continue to write a true history of radio: FM,AM superhetrodyne, Synthesizers.There a lot of material for the professor including the math he so loves. I'm waiting...

This is a great history book but not a matlab book. Yes it is interesting and well written but I am almost through the first hundred pages and I will read no more. The math I found so far is thrown out without explanation. I skimmed through the book and found only one or two matlab examples. I thought from the title, that each step along the way to the development of radio would be given an example to enter into matlab so I could understand mathematically what was going on. The introduction says that any 2nd year student could use this book as long as they have had calculus. The author assumes you already know Kirchoff's Laws and Euler's formula. I am teaching myself after a 35-year layoff from my college days. I have obtained a ham license and have started studying electronics, math, and physics on my own. Apart from revealing the scandals behind Marconi and Tesla, I see no relevance for this book. I am very disappointed.

the treatment is some how mathematical rather than techological, but the proofs and the tales in this book are splendid indeed.i particularly admired chapters 9 and 10, and the proof of Fourier series convergence I thought it is a real gem.it's a great book for pleasure reading but i'm not sure if it should be a book for a formal class.i have all the books of Prof. Nahin and i treasure them all, one part i adore mathematics and the part is the subjects that he choses to write about are simply wonderful.the New book coming soon about Integrals, i am booking my copy now as a pre-order.if I were so rich and this book imaginably costs a million dollars, I would still buy it.

Friendly study text for keen students who wants more depth than provided in most set course books.If you work through this the course will be a snip.

I'm a big fan of Nahin's other books. I am self-taught in maths and still teaching myself. This book is not quite written from the same angle as his joy-ride books such as "An imaginary Tale". This is much more a text-book than a good read. He doesn't hold your hand so much and you will need post-A-level calculus to even start reading it. His explanations of things like differentiating under the integral sign and Fourier transforms are very good but still assume quite a high level of prior knowledge (Eg. of complex numbers). You will also need at least a basic working prior knowledge of differential equations and the physics of circuit components. Unfortunately, he doesn't go into Laplace tranforms which is sad because he would probably be one of the best people to explain it.I love his approach of top-down and just-in-time. Traditionally, the subject of electronics has always had an almost un-crossable minefield of advanced, university level maths laid out before it to keep intruders out. The non-professional has always been likely to be blown up and burned out before getting anywhere near a capacitor or a transformer. Nahin, on the other hand, dives straight in with simple circuits and introduces the maths and the theory as he goes along. Where other books on the mathematics of electronics have left me wanting less, Nahin leaves me wanting more.