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Reviews For: Propagation and Radio Science

Category: Books/Manuals/Videos/Pod-WebCasts on ham radio

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Review Summary For : Propagation and Radio Science
Reviews: 5MSRP:
Description:
ARRL Publication - 2015 by Eric Nichols, KL7AJ
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.arrl.org
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0054.8
VE3WGO Rating: 2017-12-29
It Makes Propagation Interesting! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Eric Nichols is an excellent writer, and explains radiowave propagation in a very interesting and understandable way in this book. Everything is covered from the Low Bands to HF DX to Satellites and Moonbounce. NVIS, groundwaves, antenna polarization, band openings, and how the Ionosphere works... it's all described in a clear and useful way.

Topic chapters are each started in an approachable way, and then the explanations go deeper, often including real world measurements and analysis to make things even clearer. This really helps the reader understand what matters, and how it works.

Now the biggest surprise is the introduction that Nichols wrote covering the HF+6 bands, mainly to encourage Technical class hams to get interested in exploring the behaviours and DX opportunities of those bands. It's probably one of the best written and most motivating pieces of prose explaining the HF bands that I have ever seen anywhere, and ARRL would be wise to reuse it mostly intact, in their other books.

Before I bought this book, I wondered why I would even want a book on Propagation. But I can tell you that I'm now glad I bought it, because I understand the whole topic a lot better now that's I've read through it. It is a very good book, and I recommend it for every ham.
VE3WBE Rating: 2015-08-31
Well done book Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This book does an excellent job of discussing and explaining propagation in an understandable fashion. The theory is well explained and the interplay between theory and reality is well handled. He also points out areas that we do not understand and items that we should be paying attention to as they could allow new directions for our hobby.
W6LBV Rating: 2015-08-18
A Promising Start Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I am currently reading this book in its Kindle edition. CAUTION: In this digital edition, the drawings and graphs are almost unusable on the small screen (a Kindle Paperwhite). If you need the drawings to aid learning, the paperback edition would probably be more effective.

There is nothing “wrong” with the book, but it could also be made even more “right.” A revised and reorganized second edition would probably be a good future direction to take it.
N7WE Rating: 2015-08-14
Kindle Fire Edition - Great! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Bought this in the Kindle Fire edition from Amazon for $9.99. ARRL wants $24.95 for it in paperback. Best $10 I ever spent on a Ham publication. I have always liked Eric's writing style and have followed his articles in various journals for years. This is a tour-de-force and THE new gold standard on propagation. Eminently understandable by people of all levels of technical knowledge. Buy it and read. You won't be disappointed no matter if you are a new Tech to an old timer Extra!
KY6R Rating: 2015-05-28
Excellent Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
While I love the Ian Poole, G3YWX book on RSGB - "Radio Propagation and Principles", I'm finding that Eric Nichols dives a bit deeper into the mechanics and physics, and in a very readable way that makes it very hard to put down. A lot of important information that I did not know before is presented, and I am learning a lot.

Some texts on propagation can be pretty dry, but not this book - it is "lively" - like watching a really entertaining and interesting presentation by a master presenter.

Highly recommended.