Help learning Signal Processing/Communication Systems

[franceB]

Hello,

I have a background in Electrical Engineering (bachelors (2006) and masters (2008)).
I am currently working in IT but I don't like it and would very much like to get into engineering.

When I was in school I really enjoyed my signal processing and communications systems classes. Despite the fact that I enjoyed the material and found it very interesting and awe-inspiring, it was never intuitive to me and I found it very difficult to understand.

In fact I struggled through most of my college education. I had brief moments of mental breakthroughs when I was studying but I usually lost the understanding that I gained and found myself having to continually go back and review the basic material pretty much all the time. I had good grades while at school but I won't describe myself as the typical engineering “geek” or “nerd” - I would describe myself as trying to stay afloat most of the time.

Right now I want to do some independent study and try to teach myself signal processing and communication systems. Do you have any recommendations on where to start (books etc...). From my own experience I am not good starting with math intensive material. I know that signal processing and communication systems is math intensive though and I am willing to do what is necessary to become comfortable working in the domain.

 

[dionysian]

I think to build some intuition in the relm of signal processing i would recommend getting a copy of simulink and learning to use that. You can set up simulation of signal processing systems and learn a lot from doing that.

 

[franceB]

Thanks for the reply.
Do you know of any good books/websites/workbooks that have exercises that I can work through using simulink?

 

[dionysian]

Here is a website that has some simulink tutorials that pertain to communications systems http://www.csun.edu/~skatz/ece561/561hmk.html. They are labeled MATLAB tutorial but there mostly simulink. The have some labs that are easy to work through with the solutions posted. I don't know many books but I think the simulink user manual is pretty decent.

good luck