FM_Laster 9/25/01 12:46 PM Page i THE BEGINNER’S HANDBOOK OF AMATEUR RADIO This page intentionally left blank. FM_Laster 9/25/01 12:46 PM Page iii THE BEGINNER’S HANDBOOK OF AMATEUR RADIO Clay Laster, W5ZPV FOURTH EDITION McGraw-Hill New York San Francisco Washington, D.C. Auckland Bogotá Caracas Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan Montreal New Delhi San Juan Singapore Sydney Tokyo Toronto McGraw-Hill abc Copyright © 2001 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. Except as per- mitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 0-07-139550-4 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: 0-07-136187-1. All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. 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DOI: 10.1036/0071395504 FM_Laster 9/25/01 12:46 PM Page v CONTENTS 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 Copyright 2001 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use. FM_Laster 9/25/01 12:46 PM Page vi 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 FM_Laster 9/25/01 12:46 PM Page vii 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, XL 123 Phase angle of inductors 123 Transformers 124 Basic transformer concepts 125 Testing inductors and transformers with a multimeter 127 FM_Laster 9/25/01 12:46 PM Page viii 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 FM_Laster 9/25/01 12:46 PM Page ix 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 FM_Laster 9/25/01 12:46 PM Page x x CONTENTS Chapter 6 Power Supplies 205 Definitions 206 Power-Supply Design Considerations 209 The power transformer 209 Rectifier circuits 210 Filter circuits 213 Electronic voltage regulators 218 A word of caution 223 Chapter 7 Electronic Circuits 227 Definitions 227 Audio- and Radio-Frequency Amplifiers 232 Basic Types of Amplifiers 234 The ideal amplifier 234 The Decibel 236 Voltage and Current Ratios in Decibels 239 Amplifier Power Levels 242 Class-A, -B, -AB, and -C Amplifiers 243 Amplifier Efficiency of Operation 244 Interstage Coupling Techniques 245 Direct coupling 245 Resistance-capacitance (RC) coupling 247 Transformer coupling 247 Impedance coupling 247 Push-Pull Operation 248 Integrated-Circuit Amplifiers 249 An IC Audio Amplifier for the Ham Shack 250 The Oscillator: An Amplifier