Product Description

This is an exciting revision of John Kraus' classic book Antennas, which has been long known as the "Antenna Bible". A new co-author, Ronald Marhefka has joined the author team for this revison. Many new, modern applications have been added-thus the title change to Antennas with All Applications. As well, the references have been updated to include recent additons to the literature.

Additionally, the book has been reorganized to make it more user-friendly for both students and professionals. The book now covers the fundamentals of various antennas and concepts in the first half of the book and then gets into more details on those same topics later in the book. This allows a one-semester course to just cover the fundamentals if desired, and a professional to focus on advanced topics if he or she wants.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1293755 in Books
• Published on: 2001-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 960 pages

From the Publisher
Many new modern applications of antennas have been added. Todays wireless world has brought forth many new ways to use antennas, and Kraus/Marhefka discuss many new and modern applications. These applications make the material relevant and fun.
The references have been updated to include many recent additions to the literature. The many references throughout this book make this a book students and professional can use to help them navigate throught the important literature available on antennas.
The book has been reorganized to cover the fundamental concepts and antennas in the first half and then goes on to revisit these topics in more detail in the second half. This makes it easier for instructors to focus on the fundamentals and professionals can jump right to the advanced material if they want.
The visual approach of the book has been enhanced with new figures, as well as bigger display figures. This promotes visual, intuitive learning.
Many boxed examples are found throughout the book that give students an opportunity to see how problems can be worked out.

Customer Reviews

Bright, fresh and appealing.
The first edition of Antennas, dated 1950, was 553 pages long. This third edition has 938 pages, so it is clear that a considerable amount of material has been added. Also the primary author has had an additional 50 years of experience to add to the presentation and quality of the material.

Physically the book is very attractive. The modern, crisp layout, utilising plenty of white space on the page, is very easy and pleasant to read. The diagrams and illustrations are all of a high standard. Anyone picking this book up in a bookstore would be impressed by the format of the text. I am perhaps a bit less impressed by the physical quality of the binding. On my copy (paperback) there is a witness line of adhesive on the first page after the cover and I have concerns about the longevity of the binding. One could compare this book with Balanis, Antenna theory, for example, which must be a rival publication for this market. Balanis is a robust hardback with an equal number of pages and yet costs less!

The new title, Antennas for all Applications, demonstrates that the scope of the text has expanded since the original editions. Indeed there are 5 additional authors for individual small sections, in addition to the new main co-author Prof. Marhefka. Throughout, the book is minimally mathematical but highly descriptive and graphically represented. All these factors combine to make this an attractive text for undergraduates. There are also collections of formula to make reference easier.

I was particularly pleased with some little sections of personal discoveries by Prof. Kraus. In these sections he shows the human side of discovery, where these factors were new and strange. So often, nowadays, electromagnetics is presented as "obvious" and "intuitive", whereas in fact this subject can be one of the most confusing and mysterious areas to explore. I think it is important for students to realise that new theories do not just "pop up" fully fledged and working; sometimes one has to work at them quite a bit until they make sense and are self-consistent.

I would say that the main weakness of this book is its description of the fundamental reason for, and cause of, electromagnetic radiation. This subject is glossed over so glibly that only the sharpest of students would even realise that they had been swindled. The "basic radiation equation" given is simply equating a changing current times a length to a charge accelerating. I suppose this means that university lecturers will have to earn their keep, rather than just handing out these textbooks. It has to be said that Balanis is even worse in this respect of explaining electromagnetic radiation; thus if recommending a single text book on antennas, I would still go for Kraus instead of Balanis.

In summary, this new edition of Antennas by Kraus is bright, fresh and appealing. It is authored by acknowledged experts in the field and will be deservedly popular.

Leslie Green CEng MIEE