3 comments about Crystal Clear: Vintage American Crystal Sets, Crystal Detectors, and Crystals: Volume 2.

1. Great book.Overpriced.Vender price gouging just because availability is scarce right now.Since purchase I have found many at cheaper price.



2. ISBN: 188660603X is Volume 2 (252 pages) which describes and pictures additional radio sets not in volume 1.

   1886606013 is Volume 1 (282 pages).

   The important part is the hundreds of pictures of the actual radio sets and/or magazine adds and, when possible, also shows a couple of sentences or so of information about each particular set. The idea is to help identify the huge variety of the many makes and models of crystal sets from around 1920 to 1950, but is also a nice travel down memory lane.

   A few of the more modern crystal sets are also covered.

   Also a special section with a history of the big four companies:Wireless Specialty Apparatus Company, Radio Corporation of America (in Vol.1). And Philmore Manufacturing Company (in Vol.1 and Vol.2) and Western Manufacturing Company (in Vol.2).

   Both fully indexed.

   Also both have long tables summarizing the various makes and models of radios.

   And both have long summary tables for the spare crystals sold for use as replacements in the sets (when crystals get old they oxidize and lose power).

   Very nice presentation of all this material, highly recommended!




3. My father used to tell us children about the "old" radio days and how the family would gather around and listen to the radio shows. He would speak of his love for those old radios. I , like everyone else I suppose, have seen old radios in antique stores. However, I don't recall having ever seen a Crystal Radio. I happened to be at an antique show and saw a copy of the book. I decided to buy it for my father. When I got home I started going through the pages and was amazed by the information in the book and the amount of crystal sets there had been. The author has done so much research and I feel the wiser for it. I am glad that I happened upon this book. I have learned from it and know that my father will enjoy it whenever I finally decide to give it to him. He is bound to have many more stories to tell me about "the old radio days" but somehow I think I am going to enjoy listening to them even more.

1 comments about Official Price Guide to Movie/TV Soundtracks and Original Cast Albums: 2nd Edition (Official Price Guide to Movie/TV Sound Tracks and Original Cast Albums).

1. This guide is absolutely mandatory for anyone collecting soundtracks and cast albums. The price ranges are accurate and the lllustrations fun and informative. I have used my original copy so much that I am ordering another. A must have for serious collectors and those new to the hobby.

2 comments about Communications Receivers.

1. I pass along the review by Karl-Otto Müller in News from Rohde & Schwarz, Number 157 (1998/I):

   This book is the revised edition of a comprehensive work on receiver design that first appeared in 1988. Following a general introduction to radio reception technology and a historical review, it looks at the principles of the major parts of a receiver and gives a wealth of details about designing them. For every aspect there are examples of circuits that have already been built and tried in practice. There is also a whole section on receiving antennas that is very well worth reading.

   Revision naturally focused on those areas where there have been the biggest technical advances in recent years, in frequency synthesis and the application of digital signal processing. But a comparison of the two editions shows that the earlier one still reflects the state of the art in very many respects, especially in the case of the analog high-tech solutions presented for mixers, for instance.

   The book is divided into ten chapters, each finishing with many useful recommendations for further reading. This makes up for the fact that the book itself, because of its wide-ranging subject matter, cannot go into everything in depth. Overall the book is a valuable source of information for anyone involved in designing communications receivers.




2. Into this very interesting book, I found a lot of good data to improve my knowledge in the radio receiver design. All my new realizations now take advantage by the data, circuit comparisons and architectural design constraints contained in the book. Many thanks to Ulrich for sharing his skill !

No comments about Antique Radios: Restorations and Price Guide.

1 comments about Goldmine's Promo Record & Cd Price Guide.

1. This book is not one of Goldmine's best issues but for the most part it gets the job done. The listings are many but detailed they are not. The part that bothered me the most was the general price guidelines...for example if you look under an artist and you do not see the album listed it might say in small print the record label and a general price value. It would be more helpful to list more album titles for the artists instead of giving a general price. It was also disappointing that only NM values are given. How many records from the 1950's do you have that are NM?

   On a good note I have not seen any other promo guides so I guess it gets the job done more or less.

No comments about Bakelite Radios: A Fully Illustrated Guide For The Bakelite Radio Enthusiast.

2 comments about Radio Receiver Design (Electrical Engineering & Electronics) (Electrical and Computer Engineering).

1. Dixon's style is clear and concise, aimed at beginners in the field of telecommunications. He effectively motivates the reader by describing the major aspects of RF design instead of focusing on implementation specific details. Note that this book does not present a theoretical analysis of topics such as propagation, synchronization, filters or control loops and instead gives a qualitative overview of specific technologies.
   
   The main topics are superheterodyne receiver, amplifiers (RF and IF), local oscillators, filters, antennas and digital methods (including coding and error detection). If you're a beginner in the field of RF design this book will probably serve as a good primer.



2. The subject matter of the book is extremely attractive. Unfortunately the treatment of most topics are superficial and not sufficient for the serious RF designer.

   Receiver spurs are introduced and then the discussion is stopped with a reference to computer programs. There is no discussion of the spur frequency / amplitude map, its underlying theory, and its use.

   The classic Motorola application note on RF amplifier design dwarfs the treatment in the book.

   The treatment of the origin of amplifier noise and designing for low noise performance is non-existent. Again the Motorola application note and the reference sited therein is a much better start.

   One of the RF web sites has some freeware which calculates a receiver performance using entered characteristics of each subcomponent: input and output return loss, gain, noise figure, noise bandwidth, IP3, and various other parameters. If you want to understand this, the book is of little help.

   I was attracted by the book title and table of contents, but was seriously dissappointed in the treatment of important topics. If you desire a serious understanding of RF design, this book is not for you.

No comments about Standard Radio Communications Manual: With Instrumentation and Testing Techniques.

No comments about Classic Plastic Radios.

2 comments about The Design and Implementation of Low-Power CMOS Radio Receivers.

1. Very well organized and written. Useful equations and Figures. A Must-Have for the CMOS RFIC designer.



2. The price is high but worth it.