Rating: 
Summary: Good coverage of a hard-to-find topics
Review: Before purchasing this book I read all the previous reviews and I was very surprised at the disparate views expressed. As I read more and more of the book, I was amazed at the topics covered. While this book may not be ideal as a textbook, it is a book that could profitably be on the bookshelf of every RF engineer. Many textbooks will not even cover such useful topics as impedance matching, hybrid transformers, baluns, and coupled-resonator filters, all of which and much more are covered here. I wish I'd had this book sooner, it would have saved a lot frustration trying to find answers to my own questions over the last four years. I think those reviewers that did not recommend this book probably were comparing it to ordinary textbooks--I think it's true utility is for the practicing engineer.
Rating: 
Summary: Confusing
Review: I use this book as the standard text of my RF course at Cornell. Honestly, this book is only for casual reading.
Though it covers many topics, but all of them lack in details. For instance, it use 10 pages to explain class A and B amplifier. After reading that 10 pages, I still didn't understand why they are named class A and B. While dealing with modulation, no mathematical details is provided (Does the author assume that we already understand that?) After all, I don't feel this book to be a textbook. The way it treats RF is like a computer magazine treats computer architecture. You learn there are CPU and RAM in a computer from the magazine, but you never learn how to build a CPU or RAM. You can't even learn how to build a full bit adder from it.
Rating: 
Summary: broad, but not deep.
Review: I used this book when I took the RF Circuit Design class at Cornell. The experience with this book was devastating. It did not give me any good detail of any single RF circuit. I am not sure what kind of background the author expected, but I am sure that this book is not a good choice for a beginner. And if you got a Ph.D. in RF design, why do you wanna read a magazine version of an RF design?
Rating:
Summary: broad, but not deep.
Review: I used this book when I took the RF Circuit Design class at Cornell. The experience with this book was devastating. It did not give me any good detail of any single RF circuit. I am not sure what kind of background the author expected, but I am sure that this book is not a good choice for a beginner. And if you got a Ph.D. in RF design, why do you wanna read a magazine version of an RF design?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reference Book
Review: I've purchased several copies of this text because is is incredibly useful as a bridge from basic theory learnt by undergraduates to practical hardware. Those who want a detailed reference for low noise amplifiers or phase lock loops will be disappointed, but those who want enough information to build and understand their *first* low noise amp or their *first* PLL or their *first* mixer, are well advised to pick up Hagen's very useful book.My only criticism is that I would have preferred the PLL or amplifier material to be contigious, rather than the "revisiting" approach selected by the author. This is a minor complaint.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!!
Review: This book is great for casual or serious self-study.
Read Art of Electronics as a prerequisite. And be prepared
to puzzle for a while over each of the RF building blocks
and design techniques presented. Radio-Frequency Electronics is made up of short, brutally
minimal chapters on topics central to RF design. This is
one of the few great practical books that the beginner can
use to learn electronic design--and not just for wireless. The book doesn't attempt to treat RF design with RF ICs,
which is of practical interest to many who are new to RF
electronics. There are also other practical omissions.
But what has been left out makes the core material even
more general and compelling. The typesetting and display mathematics are unusually
clear, high-quality, and pleasing, as are the illustrations.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!!
Review: This book is great for casual or serious self-study.
Read Art of Electronics as a prerequisite. And be prepared
to puzzle for a while over each of the RF building blocks
and design techniques presented. Radio-Frequency Electronics is made up of short, brutally
minimal chapters on topics central to RF design. This is
one of the few great practical books that the beginner can
use to learn electronic design--and not just for wireless. The book doesn't attempt to treat RF design with RF ICs,
which is of practical interest to many who are new to RF
electronics. There are also other practical omissions.
But what has been left out makes the core material even
more general and compelling. The typesetting and display mathematics are unusually
clear, high-quality, and pleasing, as are the illustrations.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reference Book
Review: This book is packed with very useful information on radio-frequency circuit design and it covers a wide array of topics: filters, power amplifiers, modulators, demodulators, waveguides, radars, as well as TV circuits and more. It's a great resource for researchers and practicing engineers. This book is primarily for experienced engineers because it assumes a lot of previous knowledge of electronics.
Rating:
Summary: The book is reviewed favorably in the July 1997 issue of QST
Review: This book received a very favorable review in the July 1997 issue of QST magazine (New Books, p. 43). QST is a monthly publication of the American Radio Relay League. The reviewer is Paul Danzer, Assistant Technical editor of the magzine. The reviewer felt that the comprehensivenes of the book made it more of a survey of its title, Radio-Frequency Electronics, as each of the 34 chapters contain between 5 and 12 pages. The reviewer praised the quality of the prose explication and the innovation and effectiveness of the illustrations. He concludes by commending the book as a good reference work, and "an attractive addition to your book shelf." The review is nearly two full columns and discusses the book in much greater detail.
Rating:
Summary: Wow, its that bad
Review: This is the second book I have ever reviewed, and only the second book I have felt the need to. You look over the reviews some good some bad, and think, hey I'll try it out. Well let me tell you don't. The book just has no real coherence. It has horrible illegible graphs, no schematics of circuits it actually talks about, and no explanations of the circuits it discusses. It is more a useful tidbit book, if you already knew everything in the book, it might give you a little extra. But man, the amount of information given is near zero if you don't know what's going on.
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