Satellite Books

I read this book as part of a class I took on environmental chemistry. It is thorough and extensive in the subject matter it covers, and was not too difficult to read. Alas, I find the subject matter boring before reading this book, and left with my opinions unchanged.

Perhaps THE best book I've seen that provides rigorous link budget analyses, all fully tailored to ground-air propagation. Introduces the Crane (ITU-R) rainfall model, as it applies to ground-air (as opposed to ground-ground) data links. Also provides a readable and informative narrative of satellite television broadcasting, and other commercial satellite services.

This book is good for preparing for the GED in Spanish because, like the other Steck-Vaughn GED books, it has short and concise lessons, relevant exercises, and detailed answers in the back. The practice tests are also very useful.
What I and my students have trouble with is the Spanish translation and how this can cause miscommunication. This is present in all the Steck-Vaughn books. All of the readings in the Lectura book are translations from English and therefore are not representation of what one would read in Spanish. I am not sure whether this is true in the actual GED test, but take it in stride as many of the materials used in the U.S. are in a sort of "Spanglish."
The dialect and word choice is also often not understood by my Mexican students here in California. In general, we deal with these issues as part of the larger issue of Spanish in the U.S. and appreciate the clearness of the lessons and the detailed answers.

A nice book for the beginners, gives limited but still worthy information about medals and Orders of the satellite states of Germany.

this book's character is new,the technology and material in it is new.

I just don't know quite what to think of this book.

Roman Brackman spent four years in the Soviet Gulag, and he includes plenty of interesting material about the Soviets and Stalin's antisemitism. But much of it is anecdotal and I'm not sure how trustworthy it all is. I'd rather see a book focus on material that's indisputable.

There is a chapter on Jimmy Carter's presidency being a nightmare for Israel, but once again, I think a less anecdotal approach would be better. Yes, Carter did allege that Begin and Dayan had promised not to build more settlements, something that Begin denied. And it is very difficult to believe that Begin made such a promise, even as a joke. He certainly didn't do it in writing. It's fine that Brackman sides with Begin here, but we could have checked all this ourselves, without Brackman's help.

Brackman suggests that one reason Sadat wanted to make peace with Israel was a fear that Israel, tired of non-stop broken promises by Arabs, and tired of attempts to impose concessions on it (and with no indications that such concessions could produce an end to gratuitous Aran hostilities), might simply stop negotiating. That, in turn might lead to a war in which Egypt might do rather well. Unfortunately, Israel might then strike back by bombing the Aswan Dam, perhaps even with a nuclear device. Brackman speculates that Syria wanted such a war, and that it intended Egypt to be hurt, not itself. Well, I'd prefer to have more evidence for such speculations. It is true that Sadat did want a peace agreement, but that does not mean that all such speculations are in fact correct.

As Brackman says, George H. Bush, in a campaign speech in October, 1980, said that Jimmy Carter "had undermined the security of an ally by encouraging Israel's enemies." Well, once again, I'd prefer sticking to facts as opposed to campaign speeches. Carter did in fact undermine Israel in just this manner, but I'd rather stick to facts that we can all agree are accurate and relevant.

At Camp David, Arafat did say that the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in the first century AD, had never existed in Jerusalem! Brackman says that Clinton "did not tell Arafat that, as far as he knew, the Jewish Temples had indeed existed in Jerusalem." But as far as I know, Clinton did indeed tell Arafat that.

The author then says that while many Muslims claim that the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is Islam's third holiest site, "the Western Wall is not the second or third holiest place for Jews, but their first and only holy place." Well, I'm no expert on Judaism, but I would encourage you to ask a few rabbis which is holier, the Temple Mount or that wall. I suspect that at least a few, if not most or all, would reply that the Mount itself is holier than the Wall.

There is an interesting quote from Sami al-Arian, who said "Israel's prosperity and strength is a continuous reminder of the weakness of Arabs as a people, of their society and political system; as well as an indication of their impotence and the corruption of their regimes." Brackman says that this may well be the truth about the source of Arab hatred of Israel, but once again, even if he's right, this is still more of the same anecdotal approach.

The author also quotes Benny Begin (son of the former Israeli Prime Minister) who explained that "there is no group of Arabs west of the Jordan River that is distinct from other Arabs and that is eligible for self-determination." Yes, it is indeed a hoax to call the Levantine Arabs a different nation, but such claims need to be substantiated, and once again, I dislike Brackman's approach. He quotes from Israelis who say the Arabs are lying. And he quotes some Arabs who have gone way out of line, such as Arafat or Hanan Ashrawi, as if this makes his case. The whole process rubs me the wrong way.

There are a few points that Brackman makes which I feel are well put. He quotes a French representative at the European Union Parliament in 2004 who said that he had no hesitation "in saying that we must consider giving the Arab side a large enough force, including a large enough nuclear force, to persuade Israel that it can not do whatever it wants." Well, that is anecdotal to some extent, but it illustrates a very real problem. With those nuclear weapons and that representative's advice, Israel, the US, the rest of the West, and France itself could well be blackmailed or become the victims of rather destructive sneak attacks that might kill hundreds of thousands of people at a time and even help bring down much of Western society.

One more intriguing comment by Brackman cites George Will, who wrote about Jimmy Carter's response to the recent Hamas victory in Levantine Arab elections. According to Brackman and Will, Carter "suggested that the executive branch of the U.S. government could launder money destined for Hamas by passing it through the UN." Um, that sounds like a scary plan to me.

Brackman likes the idea of Israel disengaging from its Arab enemies. He'd like to let the Levantine Arabs "learn the consequences of their hate." Well, whether he likes it or not, I think that sooner or later, that is bound to happen. And I think we ought to be trying to mitigate the damage, not waiting for this train wreck with the intent of applauding.

It's an interesting but flawed book.

the book does not give directly the advantages and disadvantages of c band over ku band in satellite communication

First let me say that there is some good information in this book and that I use it as a reference in conjunction with other orbital mechanics books. But the level and depth of coverage varies widely. It is fairly obvious that some of the authors were under duress to produce for this book. In some cases the infomation provided is not even at the freshman physics level. Also, it seems to be a presentation of other peoples works and books rather that a novel or new approach. I have seem the same equations and the same notation elsewhere for much of the material. At least they could change it up a little. It is also not a coherent whole and excursions from what is really important or useful are frequently trumpeted. The section on the universal variable formulation is simply a rehash of what is in Bate, Mueller, and White and the reader is referred to that venerable tome for the details! The entire book is this way. Explanations of other peoples stuff followed by exhortations to go read it for details. This book is more like some kind of handbook than an exposition or textbook.

The CD which came with this book contains some errors, and will not work with all versions of Windows. An updated version of this CD may be obtained by writing to the publisher, who will forward the message to an author, who in turn will suply a free new CD.

Everett brings more than two dozen knowledgeable authors from various organizations and countries together to build an fairly comprehensive outline (28 chapters) of VSAT technology and application. The book is aimed at engineering newcomers to satellite communications at a BS/MSEE level, not academics, seasoned pros or experts. However, the depth is not shallow and many advanced concepts such as CDMA and DAMA are introduced but with modest engineering or theoretical elaboration. Breadth is wide with most aspects of VSAT covered including economics, regulatory, ground network protocols/interfaces, terminal modem, RF devices, antenna technology and satellite transponders using theoretical results and eight case studies. However, this is not a handbook and contains no compendiums of design performance or actual systems and products, in 1989 or now. It is mainly an organized survey of subtopics with considerable overlap across many chapters. The book is just current enough that an early Ka-band VSAT system is reviewed. However, the material is generally dated (in Aug 1998), being mostly no more recent than 1989. Military and commercial VSAT has advanced rapidly and has overrun the 1990 state-of-the-art particularly for the advanced Ka-band VSAT networks being planned for 2000-2005.

I give the writing 7 (in 10) on average, and a sigma of 1. The typework and graphics are very good.

Recommendation: The book is an excellent starting point for newcomers navigating the field, even in 1998; just plan to augment it with newer material. The reviewer believes a second edition is overdue and would be welcomed by the satellite networking community. Nevertheless, it remains one of the strongest books on the topic. That I rate it only three stars implies I think the time and competitive space is ripe for a "blockbuster" text or series on VSAT; will Everett direct it?

[Reviewer's notes: I own and use this book. I am a working system engineer. I am conservative in my appraisal and reserve five stars for astonishing quality, currency and relevance; four for a standout; three stars for a solid, worthwhile product; two stars is a balance of merit and flaw; one star is imbalance. In this case a four star product "in its time" sinks with shelf-life to three. I have no relationship to the editor, authors or publisher.]