[Discuss-gnuradio] book/video (MIT courseware, whatever) recommendations?

[Brett L. Trotter]

Is there one or two books that give a pretty comprehensive, yet low base
communications/DSP knowledge requirement that would be a guided
walkthrough of waves and fields, various forms of modulation, carriers,
filters, sidebands, etc? I'm really looking for something that's either
not a textbook, or not written like one- most textbooks are very dry and
hard to understand without someone guiding the experience and asking the
right questions. I realize the material is fairly dry, so I understand
that it's not going to be a crichton novel, but the less crazy math and
algorithm intensive it is, the better.

Long story short, what's a good way to get a more solid grasp of how
driving a DAC can create electromagnetic waves, and what can one do with
those waves. I'd really really like to walk away understanding how
complex numbers turn into constellations are really formed as an
electromagnetic wave, etc, and the real guts of some basic things like
FM and DSSS.

-Brett