I just took a Sales Rep job at a company that is a distributor for remote transmitter and receivers for the access control industry (garage, gates, doors, etc…). Most of our stuff is ready made for the end user market. I want to learn about the underlying technology. When I try to google it, most of what I get is for FM radio broadcasting (not really what I am looking for). I am not completely dumb. I know the difference between 318 MHz and 390 MHz transmitter is the amplitude of the signal it sends, but that is about the extent of my knowledge. I don’t know what sends it (other than it is a “transmitter”), and I couldn’t make one if I wanted to (and I want to).
Where do I start? What classes do I take at the community college? Are there online tutorials to get started with this kind of stuff?
the difference between 318 MHz and 390 MHz transmitter is the amplitude of the signal it sends
Incorrect. The difference is the frequency of the carrier. MHz = million cycles per second.
The amplitude of the RF carrier is dependent of the output power and modulation.
The only classes I can think of from a community college would be advances math (algebra and calculus) and Physics. Then you would know what a frequency and a lot more is. If they have any electronic classes these would be helpful.
In the mean time, look at the product SparkFun sells and read the data sheets. Then look up (google and Wiki) terminology in those data sheets you don’t understand.
Another place to look for info to learn about RF transmitters/receivers is Amateur radio. The ARRL Amateur Radio Handbook has almost all of the info you are looking for. Plenty of these are available used from Amazon (the year does not matter much). For example: