Need advice about obtaining more RF experience
I'll be happy to hear your advice about this one:
I am an experienced EM-designer with a lot of experience in antenna/passive RF elements design.
I am looking into gaining also theory/design and hands-on experience with RF & microwave active circuits.
If I can plan 2-3 or even 4 projects to be involved in, what would be a good start in your opinion?
(I was thinking of designing an Rx chain as no.1 and Tx as no.2 but I need something more specific to cover the essential complexities)
Looking fwd to your replies,
K.
I recommend you to work on RF TX systems because there is Power Amplifier in this chain and you can lot of things in designing of this block.It will really be interesting for you..
I suppose a lot depends on the facilities and test equipment you have access to.
Its all changed so dramatically over the last few decades since I was a student.
Its no longer possible to just tinker around, and doing it seriously requires some very sophisticated and expensive test equipment.
I suppose the first step might be to try and find an employer that is involved in the particular area you are interested in. There you might find a well equipped lab and a mentor.
I would recommend book of David M.Pozar "Microwave Engineering" for theory. Other than that you can get some connectorized amplifiers, mixers,attenuators.(they are generally matched to 50 ohms so not much in designing but you can do measurments and calculation by hand and see if the measurements are close to theory) etc and try to connect them to make a working system in decided spec range.
If you want construction and community, there are many ham radio microwave transverters to build, and talk to people on them. There is quite a good community of people there modifying things and building new things there.