Modern Electronic Test and Measuring Instruments

Abstract

In contrast to the book reviewed above, which was very much concerned with the theory and philosophy of instrumentation, this work is devoted exclusively to the electronic instruments themselves. With a broad field to be covered the author has little choice but to present a catalogue of electronic instrument types and techniques. The pitfalls are fairly obvious; new techniques emerge overnight and render `state of the art' descriptions obsolete; much detailed information is proprietary and is not made public by an instrument manufacturer; the field is so broad that authors often resort to reproducing manufacturers' literature. Also, in catalogues, each item of information tends to be given equal weight. It would not be appropriate in this review to describe the book chapter by chapter; in essence they are all rather similar in approach. Each chapter is devoted to a particular class of instrument e.g. oscilloscopes, counters, signal sources, logic analysers, or fields of application e.g. transmission measurements. The contents of each chapter are then largely qualitative descriptions of the techniques used in that class, based mainly on manufacturers' literature or on articles in the electronics press (EDN and the like). As a compendium of instrument techniques assembled together in one place, the book could be quite useful until it is rendered out-of-date by new developments. It could provide a useful reference source for the young electronic engineer at the start of a professional career; it is not the sort of book this reviewer would have recommended as an electronic engineering degree course textbook: operational principles are not presented in sufficient depth to be understood by those who have not already gained some background in the field. Also lacking is that element of decision making: why choose that particular type of instrument for a particular measurement? There is also, as mentioned above, the bias towards a qualitative rather than quantitative treatment. It will possibly be found useful on training courses to impart an appreciation of the field of electronic measuring instruments.