"Michael St. Angelo" ) writes:
Dave,

I great book. Check hamfests. I got a copy for $1.

Mike N2MS


I haven't seen the new book, but I can't quite imagine that buying it
would negate the old one completely. I have a selection of handbooks
going back 40 years, and even the incremental changes between years when
I did buy them every year (much of the seventies) is enough for me
to keep them. I don't think much of the 1979 edition, but it has
the chapter on NBVM, "Narrow Band Voice Modulation", that made such
a splash that year and then completely faded out, with no later mention
of it.

I love Solid State Design, there's a very good mix of construction to
theory, and obviously it did cover territory that the Handbook didn't
at the time. My copy, bought when it first came out, has stood up
better than some books I have from the same time period, but I'd be
disappointed if it fell apart and I couldn't get a replacement.

Old books often do have value, even if later books are more up to
date. The early ARRL SSB manuals, and the CQ SSB Handbook for tht
matter, tend to be more in depth about the basics than material written
years later, because by then "everyone knows all the details".

And sometimes even the historical perspective is of value. If a low
frequency crystal and a string of multipliers was the norm for years,
as seen in the ARRL VHF Manual (which hasn't been published in at least
thirty years), then sometimes it still can be the proper choice. But
if people don't see those "historical documents" they may be puzzling over
how to do something except with the latest whizband schemes.

Besides, the old books are what I grew up with. Some of them were new
at the time, some of them were bought used and were already old at
the time. But I read them, and reread them, and if nothing else,
they are a remder of that past. When I got interested in them, I
got rid of my comic books and my Tom Corbette and Tom Swift books,
and years later I regretted not being able to reread them. I did
not make the mistake with radio and electronic books.

Michael VE2BVW