I recently received a set of instructional CDs from Samuel Dennis Ford of Noble Publishing Corp. (www.noblepub.com).

Having been brought up on instructional CDs from the PC industry I fully expected to yawn and roll my eyes at the presentation of the material. However, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by the presentation and content of the CDs.

In particular, the “RF Fundamentals” CDs were excellent presentations of both the background theory and practice. Randy Rhea's CDs were interesting due to the liberal use of slick graphics and presentation.

The important thing to keep in mind if you are considering purchasing the CD sets is that they appeal to two different and specific types of markets.

“RF Fundamentals I,” by Less Besser of Besser Associates (www.bessercourse.com), covers many topics beginning with the basics of complex mathematics, high frequency models of passive components and eventually ends up in more advanced topic of small signal amplifier design. In most of the lessons, the individual topics end with coverage of a real-world example. The “RF Fundamentals I” course set is followed by “RF Fundamentals II.”

The screen presentation is that of screens showing video, course navigation and notes. The upper left quadrant of the screen with a video presentation alternating between footage of Les and notes he scribbles.

The right side is a more formalized presentation of his scribbles and notes. The lower left hand side consists of the navigation menu of the course. This arrangement is highly suited for easy navigation of the topics. The CD didn't seem to mind my rather dilettante style skipping around and amicably oblige my requests with minimal skipping or hesitation.

The CDs are priced at $595 for “RF Fundamentals I,” and $595 for “RF Fundamentals II.” Obviously, the pricing needs to be considered in context of investing in engineers by an organization.

I highly recommend the set as a library item for engineers to check out in addition to initial training materials for new engineers joining an organization. I know that I would have appreciated a formal set of painless training materials to introduce me to RF concepts.

The publication I reviewed is “Basic RF and Microwave Design” series by Randy Rhea. This CD is part of a series of publications that are single servings of a particular topic. The CD I reviewed was that of “Q from A to Z.”

It covers the topic of Q, or component quality. The real value of the CD is the in the thoroughness of the examination of the topic and how it relates to topics such as the Smith chart and resonators. The clarity of definition of different types of Q and adhering to the definition is very helpful in following the course.

The presentation of the material was slicker than “RF Fundamentals.”

Although the overall appearance of the screens were rather nice, and the organization precise, the actual navigation proved to be somewhat clumsy. I don't know if it is because of my rather weak 600 MHz Intel Celeron laptop, or the processing requirements of the program, but the video skipped and there were annoying delays when navigating around the course.

The pricing of the “Q from A to Z” CD is $79. There are other CDs covering topics such as “Lumped Element Transforms” and “Filter Design by Transmission Zeros.” The CDs are single servings in depth examination of topics, so the interested market is going to be different than that of “RF Fundamentals.”

The market for “Q from A to Z” is that of an engineer that isn't quite satisfied by the information he or she gets from text books, and would like a nice presentation that covers a topic clearly and concisely.

I believe that CD series are excellent additions to a company's technical library resource. The CDs can be easily checked out and reviewed by engineers enough to justify their meager costs. When one considers that part-time engineering education can cost thousands of dollars per course at a local university, these CDs are positively bargains because they are available on demand and with limitless viewings.

Keith Vick
Technology Editor
kvick@primediabusiness.com