This book is a fantastic primer and reference guide for satellite engineers. It clearly presents concepts w/ the underlying equations for every aspect of satellite communications. It is a must for any engineer working in the satellite industry.

As a former Morgan Stanley employee, I found this report was disappointing and out of date. A more useful report on Morgan is the Vault.com 2002 Guide to Morgan Stanley

I wonder why an ex-Morgan Stanley employee would bother buying a report on the company. Could it be that this person really works for Vault? hmm. I thought this guide was really useful, especially if you don't know anyone who works there and want to know what it's really like and how to best prep for your interview.

The investment banking industry has been so hard hit that I wondered if it was a good idea to even consider it coming out of my MBA program. But Morgan Stanley among others has always had a solid reputation on the Street, and so I remain undeterred in trying to get a job either there or at another comparable firm. This guide is a good one for someone with my goals. I am feeling much more up to the job of landing an internship there. I understand better now what it's going to take and what I'm going to get out of working at MS. I really enjoyed the read. It was clear and concise. It cut through all the fat and got right to the meat of the matter in what I'd say is just the right amount of pages. I certainly don't have the time or inclination to read a tome on MS--as i've seen other company guides floating out there do. Rather, I like that this guide boils it down and tells me just what I need to know.

I bought this book blindly without seeing the contents first (what a stupid mistake!) only because it said 'the first half of the book deals with link power budgets'. So you would think that this book has a lot of details about link budget calculations right? Wrong! Most of the stuff in this book is only in introductory level. The link budget calculation that was boasted as the main feature of the book is very superficial, the kind of stuff that you would find in any satellite communications book out there. If you are looking for a good reference for link budget calculation, I recommend Tri T. Ha's. It has a Crane's rain model in there. (But in the real work, people normally use ITU model. So you will need some of the ITU's recommendation papers that have the model calculations as well. For example, P 620 - just to name one.)

In all, this book is a fairly good introduction. I would have given it more stars if it were priced at around [price]. It is simply too expensive. If you want a better introduction book in satellite communications at lower price, go for Dennis Roddy's.

This text was required for a college course in Satellite Communications. This book is one of the BEST at explaining satellite operations and space communications principles. I used the Wertz/Larson "SMAD" book in previous classes and was puzzled by its explanation of several space communications concepts such as EIRP and Power Flux Density. This book gives simple, common-sense explanations for these types of concepts. The first chapter alone gave me more of a complete understanding of communications satellite systems than anything I read in Wertz/Larson.

Many of the calculations presented in this book involve decibels and logarithms and a math review would be helpful for most people. Since most communications calculations in general are done in decibels, this math is unavoidable but easily mastered with a little high school math review.

A good complement for this text is the book "Silicon Sky" by Gary Dorsey. This is the story of Orbital Sciences Corp/Orbcomm which is attempting to build a private communications satellite system. For a "business history" book, it gets surprisingly deep into the details of communications satellite engineering and provides a good real-world context for understanding the material in "Principles of Communications Satellites".

I hesitated a bit before purchasing this book because of the price and my relative inexperience in this field. It is indeed a classic textbook because it begins every topic with a clear explanation of the underlying theory and its importance in understanding satellite communications. The authors have also provided chapter-end exercises to reinforce the key points. Though my college degree is in Chemistry and never had any class in engineering or computer science, the concepts are well understood. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a good theoretical knowledge of satellite communication technology

The book is great for those who are interested in the investment banking industry and want to get a a better idea of what J.P. Morgan is really like. The authors do a really good job of stepping away from the brochure-mentality and the information is almost as valuable as the information you would get from a close friend who works there. The fresh and candid "insider" perspective is ideal for assessing what the culture is like.