WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?
There are some big benefits to being electronic literate. Take a look at some of them.
Satisfy Your Curiosity—Surrounded by so much electronics, you often probably wondered just how all this stuff works. For some of us, not knowing how something works nags at us until we satisfy that curiosity. If you have an interest in electronics, you tend to want to know more about it. This book will get you started in the right direction.
Enhance Your Hobby—If you dabble in a hobby that uses electronics, you obviously want and need to know more about it. Lots of hobbies involve electronics such as radio-controlled models, electric trains, amateur radio, shortwave listening, citizens or family radio, audio systems, or video. Or maybe you just like playing around with your home security sys- tem, garage door opener, or your high-speed Internet connection. A major part of any hobby is learning more about it and that is very satisfying. And don’t forget—electronics itself can be your hobby. You can spend your time learning more about it and then digging deeper into those things that you want to know more about. Amateur radio is certainly one of those electronic hobbies that will take you from one extreme to the next in the radio spectrum. Anything having to do with computers is also a great hobby.
With everything being controlled by an embedded microcomputer, spending more time learning about them is a great activity with nearly endless possibilities.
Job-Related Needs—You may actually be working in a job surrounded by electronic equipment of some sort, yet you do not know how it works. Often, just understanding some of the fundamentals will give you a better grasp of how to use that equipment or even troubleshoot and repair it. Understanding some of the concepts may actually help you to better select and purchase equipment that you may use.
Boost Your School Performance—For those of you going to a college or university to learn electronic engineering or technology, you regularly have your curiosity stimulated by the classes you take. Yet most of the classes are heavily involved with theory, physics, math, and circuit analysis. What you really don’t get in school is the perspective or big picture as to how the electronic products actually work. This book will give you the big picture and show you how it all comes together so that all those detailed classes in circuits and theory will make more sense.
Just so You Won’t Appear to Be So Dumb—With electronics every- where, people often talk about it without really knowing what they are talking about. It is amazing the ignorance of people who use the electronics but don’t have a clue as to what it does or how it does it. For instance, do you really understand what an MP3 is, or why BluRay DVDs are better, or what a 3G cell phone really is? The answers are in this book. If you want to appear a little smarter to your co-workers, friends, and relatives, this book can help out. You will be able to deal with common questions and misconceptions, such as can you get shocked by a car battery, can you really get brain cancer or pop popcorn with your cell phone, or will sitting too close to your TV set make you sterile? While this book certainly won’t make you a genius, it will indeed give you the basics so that you won’t appear to be an idiot when technical questions about electronics come up.