This book is the work of Berkeley Nucleonics, a company that has built precision electronic instrumentation since 1963, and of David A. Brown, who leads it. The pages that follow describe the company behind the series, the author behind this volume, and the place this book holds in the larger "Nuts and Bolts" reference set.
Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation, known as BNC, was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in San Rafael, California. The company maintains additional offices across the United States and an international network of representatives.
BNC manufactures precision electronic instrumentation for test, measurement, and nuclear research. That work spans the RF and microwave instruments at the center of this book and the radiation detection heritage that gave the company its name. The questions engineers ask before they buy and while they build shape the products BNC designs, and they shaped this book as well.
David A. Brown is President of Berkeley Nucleonics. He has spent more than three decades with the company, with a professional focus on strategic growth.
He is a graduate of San Francisco State University's Lam College of Business, and he lives in Northern California.
The Nuts and Bolts of Radio Frequency is part of the Berkeley Nucleonics "Nuts and Bolts" technical reference series. Each volume takes one corner of RF, microwave, and measurement and treats it in practical depth, written for engineers and technicians who need to get a measurement right rather than for a classroom alone.
Readers who want to go further will find companion learning resources at academy.berkeleynucleonics.com, where the written material is paired with courses and reference tools. Where this book refers to a specific Berkeley Nucleonics instrument or capability, treat the reference as generic and verify against the current datasheet before relying on it.
The series exists for one reason. RF measurement is a field where the physics is stable but the practice keeps moving, and a good reference earns its place on the bench by staying close to the work.