Review used with permission. Monitoring Times Magazine © December 2004, from ON THE HAM BANDS, by T.J. "SKIP" AREY, N2EI

Even a dyed in wool low power fanatic such as Old Uncle Skip can appreciate the elegance of a well designs RF amplifier built to any power level. Getting a radio signal to thrive and behave while increasing its power can be a tricky business. And the higher you go in frequency, the trickier things can become. So when a ham comes up with a design to make watts work I have no small amount of respect for that individual. Many excellent designs have appeared in both QST and the ARRL's technical journal QEX. RF Amplifier Classics takes the best of the best published in these magazines between 1980 and 2003 and compiles them in a single useful and instructive volume.

The book includes amplifiers for HF, MF, VHF and even microwave applications. They are authored by respected hams such as Gary Breed, K9AY; Jerry Pittenger, K8RA; Bill Sabin, W0IYH; Al Ward, W5LUA; Dave Meacham, W6EMD and others.

In this book you will find practical designs and construction details for classic tube and solid-state amplifiers at power levels from 5 W to 1.5 kW. You will also learn techniques that will help you build safe and reliable amplifiers that produce loud and clean signals.

Even if you are not a homebrewer, you will learn a great deal about how the amplification stage of your transceiver does its job. You will also see how dedicated hams can apply design techniques to find all sorts of new ways to skin the old RF cat.

And, of course, said tome of RF wisdom might be just the kind of book you might want to curl up with in front of the old Yule Log.