Signals & Systems For Dummies®

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Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013934418

ISBN 978-1-118-47581-2 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-47566-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-47582-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-47583-6 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Author

Mark Wickert is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Colorado. His teaching focus is signals and systems with an emphasis in communications and signal processing. Mark was previously a board-level designer at Motorola Government Electronics, now a division of General Dynamics.

Mark also works as an industry consultant in digital communications and signal processing for Amergint Technologies LLC. He’s worked with Real Time Logic and developed algorithms for a ZIGBEE radio chip at Atmel Corporation as well.

Mark earned BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from Michigan Technological University and PhD from Missouri University of Science and Technology (then UMR). He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Dedication

To Becki, David, and Paul — my family.

To God be the glory!

Author’s Acknowledgments

This project started with an invitation from my agent, Matt, and a strong dose of encouragement from my wife, Becki, who endured a lot of changes that came with my focus on developing material for this book. My sons, David and Paul, had to accept seeing less of me, too, especially during our summer vacation. Thank you all for your support and encouragement throughout this process.

Thanks, too, to my faculty peers — Greg, Kalkur, and Charlie — for all your encouragement. And I appreciate that Amergint Technologies allowed me do some of the writing at its offices and provided an environment that let me explore the capabilities of Python. Thanks Jeff, Sean, Mark, and Mark.

The staff at Wiley was also very encouraging along the way. I especially want to thank my project editor, Jenny Brown, and my acquisitions editor, Erin Mooney. I know I was stubborn at times, and I am thankful you kept me going. Thanks, too, to copy editor Jennette ElNaggar for making sure my t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted.

Great appreciation goes to Christopher L. Felton, electrical engineer at the Mayo Clinic, for providing the technical review to ensure that the information provided in this book is valuable to the people for whom it’s written. I am also grateful for the help provided by PhD student McKenna Lovejoy, who was willing to jump onboard and provide a fresh eye on this material during the final phases of editing.

To veteran book author, dissertation advisor, fellow faculty member prior to retirement, and still close friend, Rodger Ziemer, thank you for your invaluable support.

Finally, to my dad. Thanks for encouraging my middle-school interest in building electronic gadgets. You spurred my lifelong love for building hardware, software, and countless other things — I’ll always be grateful.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We're proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Vertical Websites

Project Editor: Jenny Larner Brown

Acquisitions Editor: Erin Calligan Mooney

Copy Editor: Jennette ElNaggar

Assistant Editor: David Lutton

Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen

Technical Editors: Christopher L. Felton

Editorial Manager: Christine Meloy Beck

Editorial Assistant: Alexa Koschier

Cover Photos: © agsandrew/iStockphoto.com

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Patrick Redmond

Layout and Graphics: Carrie A. Cesavice, Brent Savage, Christin Swinford, Erin Zeltner

Proofreaders: John Greenough, Lauren Mandelbaum, Wordsmith Editorial

Indexer: Steve Rath

Illustrations courtesy of Mark Wickert, PhD

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Kathleen Nebenhaus, Vice President and Executive Publisher

David Palmer, Associate Publisher

Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services