{"id":39427,"date":"2025-05-02T15:30:37","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T14:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/?p=39427"},"modified":"2026-04-10T10:53:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T09:53:04","slug":"understanding-amateur-radio-mathematics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/blog\/publications\/books-extra\/2025\/05\/02\/understanding-amateur-radio-mathematics\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Amateur Radio Mathematics"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Michael Burnette, AF7KB
\n<\/strong>\"\"<\/a>
\nIf you find some of the maths associated with amateur radio challenging or are looking for extra support while studying for your licence, then Understanding Amateur Radio Mathematics is for you.<\/p>\n

It is estimated that 20% of people experience genuine anxiety whenever maths is mentioned. So, this book sets out to allay your fears. It tells you that amateur radio uses mostly simple maths until you get to the highest levels – it is all add, subtract, multiply and divide. You plug a couple of numbers into a simple formula, press the right keys on your calculator, and the answer falls out like magic. Even at the highest levels of the calculations covered barely touch the simplest parts of trigonometry and no algebra, no quadratic equations, no calculus, no statistics are required. The trick is in remembering what formula to use.<\/p>\n

Don’t forget there are very practical reasons for familiarising yourself with amateur radio mathematics. In electronics, ‘plug it in and see if any smoke comes out’\u009d is a perfectly valid test method, but one that can get expensive and dangerous. Doing a little calculation can save a lot of money and heartache.<\/p>\n

Divided into 24 sections Understanding Amateur Radio Mathematics covers subjects from the fundamentals of amateur radio maths including a chapter called ‘the smallest possible amount of Algebra’ which explains what algebra is and what it means to you, though the simpler laws to calculating bandwidths, ERP, EIRP, Transmissions lines, even how to make best use of a Smith chart and much more.<\/p>\n

Packed with explanations for amateur radio mathematics this book is for anyone studying for an amateur radio exam or those who want a handy reference guide. Written in a very accessible manner with the minimum of jargon Understanding Amateur Radio Mathematics is truly a book to widen your understanding.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are currently shipping an edition that is marked as First Edition 2024, Reprinted digitally 2025 onwards.\u00a0 This edition contains the corrections listed below and some other minor typographical updates.<\/p>\n

Click cover picture to buy this book online.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Corrections and updates<\/h3>\n

We are aware of the following updates to the first edition of this book:<\/p>\n

Page 62<\/strong>
\nPara 6, Line 5 \u2013 replace ‘as a single point’ with ‘as a vertical line’<\/p>\n

Page 82
\n<\/strong>Para 3, Line 1 \u2013 replace ‘LC<\/em>‘ with ‘RC<\/em>‘<\/p>\n

Page 94
\n<\/strong>Para 2, Line 1 \u2013 delete ‘also known as the secant<\/em>‘<\/p>\n

Page 102
\n<\/strong>Last Line (formula) \u2013 replace ‘j300<\/em>‘ with ‘-j300<\/em>‘<\/p>\n

Page 107
\n<\/strong>Para 10, Line 2 \u2013 replace ‘look for arctan, for arctangent.’\u00a0 with\u00a0 ‘look for cotan, for cotangent.’<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reporting errors in books<\/h3>\n

If you would like to report an error in a book that cannot be found in the links above please contact sales@rsgb.org.uk<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Michael Burnette, AF7KB If you find some of the maths associated with amateur radio challenging or are looking for extra support while studying for your licence, then Understanding Amateur Radio Mathematics is for you. It is estimated that 20% of people experience genuine anxiety whenever maths is mentioned. So, this book sets out to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-extra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39427"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46979,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39427\/revisions\/46979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsgb.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}