Mobile antenna systems handbook second edition [Book Review]

Two weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure to visit some of my colleagues from the UK and Germany, but had to fly (quite inconveniently) several hours in an over-crowded SAS MD-82 with my knees almost touching my teeth and having the feeling of my stomach being wrapped around itself. Unable to concentrate on anything sensible or to eat that alien food in front of me (green, wet, and no taste at all very likely fully synthetic), I just looked through the airline’s passenger magazine you know, those not too intelligent booklets, full of advertisements when I suddenly saw a slogan “The dotcom will never load your truck.” That was it!!! It is indeed fine when we have all those talented people creating new amazing sets of software for a multitude of tasks, but there are (and will always be) devices and functions which cannot work without real touchable elements also within the mobile communication business. One of the last remaining physical components of a radio transceiver may well be its air interface or the antenna besides the battery and the enclosure, of course. Much of what used to be in the hands of brave RF engineers, like voltage controlled oscillators, detectors, mixers, modulators, and demodulators, has all gone into the deep caves of embedded software and digital signal processing, whereby many fascinating features have become possible; for the expanding cellular networks, and a lot of manual tuning effort has become obsolete. Even the antennas, themselves, are seeing the digital invasion in the form of beam-forming electronics and algorithms; but, still, the final few inches have to meet Maxwell’s frontier and, thus, can obviously not rely on pure software. However, where antennas used to be independent elements which could be added to a construction ‘‘later,’’ they have now become an integral part of the host entity which means that a systems approach is more appropriate. This change in thinking is reflected in the new, totally revised (original from 1994), version of Mobile Antenna Systems Handbook which is edited by two very experienced gentlemen; emeritus professor K. Fujimoto (University of Tsukuba, Japan) and emeritus professor J. James (Royal Military College of Science, UK); and is published by Artech House. As the editors say “ . . . we set out to produce a rather different book about antenna systems where applications are brought to the forefront in a typical top-down approach. ” Where marly of the known handbooks have a treatment based on a selection of antenna types (say, yagi, loop, or horn) we really start by defining the specific system into which the solution is looked. In its ten chapters and about 700 pages, the book discusses: wave propagation aspects (Chapters 2 and 3); fixed or base station antennas (Chapters 4 and 5); mobile antennas fcir handsets and pagers and safety issues (Chapters 6 and 7); applications for cars and trains (Chapter 8); and, finally, devices for satellite and airborne systems (Chapters 9 and IO). Additionally, the book has two comprehensive appendix-type sets of tabulated data on antenna types and mobile communic,ition systems, a list of acronyms and authors, and an index of about 1500 words for topic-oriented search. References are listed after each individual chapter which seems to have be:en the only possible solution, but has apparently caused some multiple inputs as well, and does limit the general usability OF this data set as a search tool. A total of 24 individual scientists including the editors have contributed to the contents as authors or co-authors. Ten come from Japan, six from the USA, and the rest from the UK, Germany, and Sweden. Eight authors have an industrial affiliation, a couple are private consultants, and the remaining (marginal) majority works in the university field. Interestingly, five of the contributing specialists have a direct connection to the defence sector. As such, the list looks impressive and authoritative. Most individual chapters are the results of the co-operation of several authors; thus, the reader may anticipate a multi-purpose, objective view on each vital topic. Still, a more suspicious reader might wonder if the choice of authors has been slightly over-influenced by national effects or friendship through organisational similarities. At least a number of rather well-known and internationally recognized research institutions and commercial enterprises have not been involved in the compilation process, which could bias the audience, too. In terms of included topics the, Mobile Antenna Systems Handbook is comprehensive, even massive. The editors have attempted to give a good treatment to a very diversified set of problems and have put both illustrative and relatively theoretical material into this volume. Where sub-chapters 7.1.3