Chapter 1: Electrical Principles #

Everything a radio does starts with electricity. You don’t need to design your own circuits to get on the air, but a little understanding of the fundamentals makes plenty of everyday things easier — from picking the right battery to wiring up a mobile install.

Ever keyed up a mobile radio on high power and had it shut off mid-sentence, even though the car’s battery was fine? This is just one of many types of real-world problems that can be easily answered with a little “grounding” in electronics. (See what we did there?)

Nothing here requires an engineering background, and you can pass the Technician exam without memorizing a single formula. But the concepts are worth understanding — they’ll come up everywhere for the rest of the book, and for the rest of your time as a ham.