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THE BEGINNER’S
HANDBOOK OF
AMATEUR RADIO
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THE BEGINNER’S
HANDBOOK OF
AMATEUR RADIO
Clay Laster, W5ZPV
FOURTH EDITION
McGraw-Hill
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DOI: 10.1036/0071395504
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C O N T E N T S
Preface xv
Introduction xvii
Acknowledgments xix
Chapter 1 Introduction to Amateur Radio 1
Who Can Become a Ham Radio Operator? 1
New Avenues into Amateur Radio 2
About Amateur Radio 2
A History of Amateur Radio 3
Early pioneers 3
Beginning of amateur radio 5
First licenses for amateur radio operators 7
The death knell for amateur radio 8
The golden age of amateur radio 9
Amateur Radio—A Scientific Hobby 11
Amateur Radio Public Service 12
The Path into Amateur Radio—The Technician
Class License 15
Chapter 2 How to Prepare for the FCC Technician Class
Examination 19
The Federal Communications Commission 21
The FCC Volunteer Examiner Program 22
FCC Amateur Radio Operating Classes 22
The Amateur Radio Frequency Spectrum 23
v
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vi CONTENTS
FCC Rules and Regulations 25
Part 97: Amateur Radio Service 25
Amateur Call-Sign Allocations 55
How to Learn International Morse Code 58
What is Morse Code? 58
How code is transmitted 59
Who can learn Morse code? 61
The FCC Written Examinations 67
The VEC question pool 67
Scheduling the examination 69
Taking the examination 69
Chapter 3 Radio Communications Theory 71
Definitions 71
The Radio Circuit—Transmitter to Receiver 73
The Electromagnetic Spectrum 74
Frequency and wavelength 76
The radio frequency spectrum 78
Wave propagation 80
Types of Propagation 80
The Effects of the Ionosphere on Radio
Communications 82
Ionospheric layers 83
Sunspots affect the ionosphere 83
High sunspot activity 84
Propagation characteristics of the ionosphere 85
Nighttime propagation conditions 87
Chapter 4 Principles of Electricity and Magnetism 89
Definitions 89
Fundamentals of Electricity 91
Atoms and matter 92
Negative and positive charges 93
Electricity—the flow of electrons 93
Units of voltage and current 94
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CONTENTS vii
Conductors and insulators 95
Resistance and resistors 95
Some Basic Electrical Laws 98
Ohm’s law 99
Resistors in series 100
Resistors in parallel 100
Series-parallel combinations 101
Current flow in series dc circuits 101
IR voltage drops 104
Current flow in parallel dc circuits 105
Magnetism 106
The magnetic field 106
Temporary and permanent magnets 107
Electromagnetism 107
Magnetomotive force (MMF) 108
Electromagnetic induction 109
Alternating current and voltage 109
The ac sine wave 109
ac circuits 111
Capacitors and Capacitance 112
How capacitors work 114
Capacitor voltage ratings 115
Connecting capacitors in parallel 115
Connecting capacitors in series 116
Capacitive reactance 116
Phase angle of capacitors 118
Testing capacitors 118
Inductors and Inductance 119
Inductance 119
Series inductors 121
Parallel inductors 121
Inductive reactance, X 123
L
Phase angle of inductors 123
Transformers 124
Basic transformer concepts 125
Testing inductors and transformers with
a multimeter 127
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viii CONTENTS
ac Circuit Analysis 128
Impedance and phase angles 128
Resonance and tuned circuits 129
The Q of resonant circuits 131
Power Relationships 131
Power in a dc circuit 132
Power in an ac circuit 132
Maximum power transfer 134
Chapter 5 Tubes and Semiconductors 135
Definitions 137
Vacuum Tubes 139
Thermionic Emission 139
General Types of Vacuum Tubes 141
Diodes 141
The diode as an ac rectifier 143
Triodes 144
How triodes work 145
Triode amplification action 147
Limitations of triodes 148
Tetrodes and Pentodes 149
The tetrode 149
Limitations of the tetrode 150
The pentode 151
The pentode as an amplifier 152
Beam-power tubes 153
Gas-filled tubes 153
Cathode-ray tubes 154
Diodes, Transistors, and Other Semiconductor
Devices 154
n-type semiconductor 156
p-type semiconductor 156
How semiconductor devices are made 156
The pn junction 157
How diodes work 160
Reverse bias 161
Diode circuits 162
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CONTENTS ix
Special-Purpose Diodes 164
The zener diode 165
The varactor diode 166
Transistors 166
Bipolar transistor construction 169
npn transistor operation 169
pnp transistor operation 171
Common-base amplifying circuits 171
Common-emitter amplifier circuits 174
Common-emitter design considerations 176
Variations in transistor characteristics 179
Voltage gain of common-emitter amplifier
circuits 180
Frequency limitations of transistors 181
The common-collector configuration 182
Summary of transistor characteristics 184
Transistor testing 184
Transistor testing with ohmmeters 185
Field-Effect Transistors 187
The junction field-effect transistor 188
Characteristics of junction field-effect transistors 189
JFET circuit configurations 190
Insulated-gate field-effect transistors 192
Depletion-mode IGFET operation 192
Enhancement-mode insulated-gate field-effect
transistors 194
Care and handling of insulated-gate
semiconductor devices 196
Optoelectronic Devices 197
Photodiodes 198
Light-emitting diodes 199
LCD displays 199
Integrated Circuits 200
Types of integrated circuits 200
A typical IC—the 555 timer 202
Packaging of integrated circuits 202
Linear and digital integrated circuits 202
