Gee Cogwheel I think you're being slightly harsh here. Other than avionic textbooks what other pilot material have you read this in?? I did a TAFE course and use a bit of Trevor Thom and it wasn't until I borrowed an Avionics textbook that I learnt about upper/lower sideband stuff, Amplitude Modulation, Frequency Modulation etc etc.
BTW no such this as a dumb question!!!! Better to ask now than later on!!!!