Mastering Electronics, Third Edition

Mastering electronics in one book is a tall order. When I began writing the preface to the first edition of Mastering Electronics, I set out to describe the electronics industry and the way it is growing and changing. I started to say that changes in the technology have resulted in changes in the way electronics is - and must be - taught. Then I decided to abandon that approach in favour of explaining briefly why I wrote Mastering Electronics the way I did. I want to go back to my original thought in the new preface to thisthird edition.
The electronics industry continues to grow and change, andthe newer 'consumer' products illustrate this better than anything.
Compact Disc players for example, make use of lasers, servo systemsand extraordinarily complex digital computing techniques to producesound quality that is approaching perfection; the technology used wasunheard of when the Beatles were recording.
'Camcorders', integrated video cameras and recorders (no larger thanthree copies of this book), work reliably and efftciently and costrelatively little.
Satellite TV receivers - designed to pick up faint signals directly froman artiftcial satellite almost 23000 miles out in space - are available inthe High Street stores for about the price of a good lawn-mower.Under our streets and across the sea-beds, safe and relatively inexpensiveglass ftbre-optic cables (carrying hundreds of times more telephonetrafftc than the old copper cables) are using light to revolutionise tele-communications.