Surprisingly, I was the first in the world to provide PC boards stuck to the magazine that had an overlay and could be built without any reference to anything else.
I was also the first to have no advertisements in the magazine - the one thing I detest.
When I was given my first job of providing projects I was "thrown" a dummy and told to "fill in the holes."
The adverts were already positioned and I had to add the articles "around the advertisements."
The projects were the least of their concern.
I only lasted a few weeks then started my own magazine.
Their whole attitude was contempt . . . "We don't need experimenters"
Amazingly, my magazine outlasted 3 of the competitors. Then I was about to take over Poptronics, when Larry Steckler, the CEO pulled the plug.
After all, how could a magazine exist for $19.99 per year and pay the subscription-agents $7.99?
This leaves $12.00 for 12 magazines for printing, postage and contributor costs.
All magazines sell a miniscule number of copies compared to the hey-day of electronics in the '80's.
However I can say the approach I presented was successful. I have met dozens who started with the magazine and made a career of electronics.
Very few articles explain how a circuit actually works and the thought-process that went into the design. And that was my approach. To teach the fundamentals.
This is most important if you want to understand how to design things yourself.
From my item above, I doubt if I will ever see a reply from Ramesh Chopra as I have pages of faulty Electronics For You circuits on my site, and have requested replies from the Indian designers – to no avail.
The last reply I got, concerned 6 white LEDs on a 12v supply. Even the electronics Editor Sani Theo did not flinch when I said white LEDs have a characteristic voltage of about 3.2v – 3.6v.
The author of the article replied by saying he had while LEDs that “turned on” at 2.2v.
I am still waiting for a reply as to how 6 LEDs will operate on 12v.
The magazine says it has a readership of 300,000 but the number of printed copies is about 45,000. What? Six people read each issue?
[FONT="]This is one of the biggest FRAUDs perpetrated by magazines, to confound the advertiser.
Previously the fraud was 2.3:1 Now it is 6:1.
I agree, magazines are the backbone of dispersing electronics information and circuitry, but their price has made them prohibitively expensive.
One of the best magazines is Silicon Chip. It is produced in the smallest country in the world and has the best quality paper and photographs imaginable.
All its articles are now being relayed to one of the UK magazines. This will help bolster the income for SC and hopefully allow it to keep going for a long time yet.
Apart from all of this, the web is the winner.
It has made the PIC chip a complete success.
There are other microcontrollers too, that have become a huge success due to the web.
Fortunately the web is expanding at a prolific rate and all those companies that charged subscription-fees for datasheets etc etc have keeled over and now everything is free.
Almost every book and magazine is available on the web for free, you just have to look for it.
This has enabled many hobbyists to take up this interesting and challenging field.
If I did not design a new circuit or project each day, I would go mad.
Nothing requires your “alpha state of mind” like programming.
That’s why there are so few electronics engineers and programmers.
It requires such a high level of thought.
And that’s why, once you understand the fundamentals, you have a challenging career for the rest (read: remainder) of your life.
That’s why I am so annoyed when someone asks to help him with a project – to pass an exam.
We don’t want people like this entering the field AT ALL.
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