Books that changed your (electronic) life...??

[blearyeyes]

Favorite/Best books;

The ones that made a difference in your understanding of electronic repair and design.

also is there a dictionary of symbols used in schematics?

[52 Bill]

Favorite/Best books;

The ones that made a difference in your understanding of electronic repair and design.

also is there a dictionary of symbols used in schematics?

The Jack Darr book on guitar amps was the first time I read a direct troubleshooting approach to amps for musical instruments. It also was the first place anybody collected a group of schematics of guitar amps. I used to have at least three different editions of that book.

I also loved reading Walt Jung's Op Amp book for audio applications. It will explain nearly every design for audio op amp circuits that you will see in amps and fx pedals, etc.

[Enzo]

I started in electronics in 1954, and probably THE most influential book for me was the Radio Amateur's Handbook from the ARRL. It is updated and reissued every year - or was then. Still around though not much about tubes anymore.

The RAH covered electronics from electrons, through magnets and light bulbs on up to radio receivers and transmitters. Power supply and audio. it serves as a basic text. NO hand-holding, it goes matter of fact through the material. I learned my electronics from that. I was reading late 1950s issues, and I think my 1962 was the one I wore out the most. You can find them used. Old ones like that are mostly tubes. Current issues focus on modern electronics. To learn about tube circuits I think I'd look for 1965 or older. But even a brand new one covers general electronics and will teach the basics.

The other book was the RCA tube manual. You can buy reprints of RCA RC-30, the last issue of their tube manual. Worth every penny. It is a LOT more than pages of tube data. There are tutorial chapters on how tubes operate, along with sample and explanatory circuits. And a lot of other good stuff. That used to come out each year until I think 1973. I bought those every year and wore them out. I couldn't imagine a shop that worked on tube amps without a copy of the RCA book. There is also reissues of the much older RC-10 issue. Don't get that one. It is fine as far as it goes, but does not have many of the more modern tubes we use every day.


ANy book about electronics should have symbols. But here, download this:

http://136.159.225.44/AlliedData.pdf

There is one book I have read many times, and each time I learn something new. It is Troubleshooting Analog Circuits, by Bob Pease. It is not intended for beginners, it assumes general knowledge of electronics, but it is one of my favorites.

[Mick Bailey]

The Radio Amateur's Handbook was the one for me, too. I used to get it on permanent loan from the library, as nobody else wanted it. I got in lots of bother with home-built transmitters causing interference to TV. Walkie-talkies were banned here and I wanted a pair just like in 'Forest Rangers'.

Nice that Jack Darr gets a mention - don't see his name much these days.

In England there were a lot of F.J Camm books and magazines. I still have a few of these highly practical and detailed books - mainly radio. That man should have a monument built - he influenced so many to go into electronics. But the ones I got most out of for music were the Penfold and Babani books. I Built many, many circuits from those and thumbed them until they fell apart. They gave a really good insight into circuit function.

The one I'm looking forward to most of all is Enzo's book. Now, that would be something.....

[g1]

Walkie-talkies were banned here and I wanted a pair just like in 'Forest Rangers'.

"XNY556, B for Bob" Sorry to get off topic here but I didn't realize this show was seen outside of Canada. Now I see it was a CDN/UK co-production and seen in over 40 countries!
Here you go Mick: Forest Rangers TV Show - YouTube

I'll also endorse the Darr book, one of the best for plain old practical trouble-shooting.

The one I'm looking forward to most of all is Enzo's book. Now, that would be something.....

Many of us are patiently awaiting this. I wonder of some paid pre-orders would grease the wheels a little?

[Jazz P Bass]

And lest we forget, nobody wrote about electronics applications quite like the incomparable Forest Mims!
Here is the tables & basic circuits one.
http://www.rollanet.org/~n0klu/Ham_R...ircuits%20.pdf

[52 Bill]

The one I'm looking forward to most of all is Enzo's book. Now, that would be something.....

Enzo's book is right here for free. All you have to do is read through some of his posts and absorb the information. Then apply his techniques to whatever you're working on.

He preaches logic, observation, open mindedness and Ohm's Law here on a daily basis. Oh yeah, and the ever popular Enzo Whack.

Even if I don't need to know the details of a problem with an Ampeg SVT whatever, I can learn from Enzo's thinking process in what he suggests. If it does this, then look for why it does that. Don't look at something else because you read online somewhere that this part always fails.

Simple cause and effect.

[Mick Bailey]

Say, that forest rangers clip brings back some memories. Wonderful.

[Mick Bailey]

Enzo's book is right here for free.

18,000+ posts!

I'd love to see it all together in a 1960s Bernie Nicholson 'Modern Motorcycle Mechanics' style. There are lots of parallels between the two.

[bbsailor]

Let's not forget the "Radiotron Designers Handbook" Radio Designers Handbook : F. Langford-Smith : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive for those of us who cut our teeth in electronics by making tube amplifiers.

Enjoy this classic work!

Joseph Rogowski

[Steve A.]

I started in electronics in 1954, and probably THE most influential book for me was the Radio Amateur's Handbook from the ARRL. It is updated and reissued every year - or was then.

Me, too! I worked in the central parts dept at Pacific Stereo in Emeryville in the mid-70's (we sent parts out to 63+ stores in California and Chicago) and the head of the service dept handed me a copy of the 1973 Radio Amateur's Handbook and told me to read the chapters on basic electronics. Yes, there will be a test. I scored higher than many of the service techs who learned their trade in the Navy (the ones who ordered a LOT of Freeze Mist because that was their main troubleshooting tool.)

And then there were the Craig Anderton books on guitar effects and recording- I built all of the FX and an 8 channel mixer which would have been a lot better if not for the noisy RC4739 chips. Is there a quieter drop-in replacement? I made patterns for the pcbs from clear acetate sheets, punching holes for the copper pads from the full-sized drawings in his books. After marking the holes I drew the traces with etch resist pens. I tried the photo sensitive boards but did not have much luck with them- I even built a box with a UV flood lamp which is still up in my attic.

And then in the mid-90's I got the Dan Torres guitar amp book along with his collection of articles from Vintage Guitars. Although sometimes his electronics theory is off he did come up with a lot of good ideas (usually borrowed from other sources.) That was before I found AMPAGE in a Yahoo search and learned that there was an even better source of information than Dan. Holy shit, Batman- these guys know amps!

Steve Ahola

[Wittgenstein]

The one I'm looking forward to most of all is Enzo's book. Now, that would be something.....

I second that!

[Leo_Gnardo]

"How To Service Your Own Tube Amp" by Tom Mitchell. I've been asked a lot, why don't you write your own book. Because Tom already did. Takes you from sub atomic particles to overdriven heavy metal monsters. Lots of good simple mods.


"The Tube Amp Book" from Groove Tubes has a ton of schematics & a series of articles & advice (some good some not so much) but it does include Ken Fischer's "The Trainwreck Pages" worth their weight in gold for amp fixers tinkerers & builders.


All those other books are good to have too.

[Steve A.]

Enzo's book is right here for free. All you have to do is read through some of his posts and absorb the information. Then apply his techniques to whatever you're working on.

You can also cut'n'paste (or drag'n'paste) individual posts here to a good word processor like Microsoft Word 2003; the text and a good portion of the graphics are copied flawlessly. Wordpad (included with Windows) will copy the text but not the graphics.

I used to be able to paste URL's into Adobe Acrobat and it would generate PDF files but I'm still using version 7 (can't afford to upgrade it and I don't like the newer versions anyway) and it doesn't handle modern webpages with Flash and Java very well. It works better for me to copy(or drag)'n'paste with Word 2003 (I do NOT like the ribbon on the newer versions!)

It might take a little time to create your own "Enzo articles" but I think that they are well worth the effort.

Steve Ahola

[tim]

ARRL Amateur Radio handbook ( I have one for every year since 1956) and the Art of Electronics by Horowitz. Amazing book. It's like an $80 book...I found one back about 10 years ago for $10 on a sale rack at a Barnes and Nobles