A Communications Course is NOT an Elective

I am updating my McGraw Hill textbook Principles of Electronic Communication Systems.  The 3rd edition was published in 2008 but a great deal has transpired in communications since then.  While the fundamentals have not changed, the circuit and systems technology seems to change daily.  The revision for the 4th edition is major.

This book is widely used in universities and community colleges for a general introductory course in wireless, networking and other communications technologies.  Yet it got me thinking why more schools do not offer a communications course.  In an informal survey of electronic technology (ET) curricula I find that the majority of community colleges and 4-year ET schools do not offer any kind of communications course.  Why?

My own view is that communications should be a basic subject in any electronic program, like digital or microcomputers.  It is a near criminal act to graduate a student without some basic communications knowledge.  Comm is everywhere today, in every product and the heart of any application.  Try to name something electronic these days that does not involve communications.  Cell phones, tablets, Wi-Fi, the Internet, Ethernet, cable TV, fiber optics, satellites, drones, radar, wireless everything.  Most electronic employees like techs and engineers work with communications everyday.

Anyway, if  your school does not have a communications course, consider adding one.  In my survey I saw that many schools had communications courses but they were inactive.  These were centered around 2-way radio and FCC licensing.  These are still valid today, of course, but the dominant communications today is cellular and Wi-Fi.  Time to update the course.

My new 4th edition will be available late this year and it even has a new lab manual.  Take a look if  you are updating a comm course or considering a new one.

Cheers.