The recent thread regarding favorite toys when we were young got me thinking about what I actually enjoyed to do as a kid.

In my case, I loved electronics. I spent most of my time either be designing and building something electronic or reading something about electronics. I was a voracious reader, and subscribed to just about every technical magazine I could afford.

Surfing the net a couple of nights ago, I found these two links:

Radio Electronics

Elementary Electronics

These were two of my favorites, and there are others. They don't make magazines like this any more. The projects in them, even going back so many years, are still excellent today, especially for beginners.

Funny, I was looking at some of the late '70s and early '80s issues, and I couldn't believe that I had actually memorized some of the articles.

Thought I'd post this here as some fun for you old guys like me. And maybe for some of the curious youngsters.

 

popular electronics was a good one. even popular mechanics had a few electronic projects. electronics ilustrated was pretty good, also all the ham radio magazines.

 

QST is still published monthly and QEX is published 6 times per year.

 

73, ham radio, and a few others have bit the dust. not very many computer magazines left now either, 80 microcomputing, byte, and others gone. seems those with projects went first.

 

I was nurtured on Practical Wireless (UK) and later Popular Electronics (USA).
The UK publisher later added Practical Electronics to cover the non-ham side of electronics.

 

Popular Electronic was my #1 choice, but Radio Electronics was a close second. I have a very intense memory of seeing an add (probably for Polypacks of Massachusetts) for some TTL IC's. I'd been working with some terribly expensive RTL chips, maybe $2-4 for a dual NOR gate (could not afford flip flops) where they had a listing of 40 parts none more then 50 cents. WOW! Literally a life changer.

I think it was PE that published a schematic of an audio power amp. I built that thing over and over. If I just tossed it together it would work just fine, if I tried to be neat and professional it just sat there. The final version literally had a paper plate in there for isolation. I think I still have the power transformer I used.

 

73, ham radio, and a few others have bit the dust. not very many computer magazines left now either, 80 microcomputing, byte, and others gone. seems those with projects went first.

'80 Micro was *awesome*. And fat. Looked forward to it each month.

 

'80 Micro was *awesome*. And fat. Looked forward to it each month.

I had most of those computer mags from issue 1 on. unfortunatly cleaned the garage a couple of years ago.

 

A list of UK based magazines over the years

Wireless World which later became Electronics & Wireless World which later became Electronics World and then folded
Practical Wireless was still going a couple of months ago, but I haven't seen it lately
Practical Electronics originally companion to PW
Everyday Electronics a later third companion, aimed at teaching science in schools.

EE took over PE and left the publishers of PW and eventually folded.

Electronics Today International folded.

Elektor , the UK edition of a european mag - still going.

The Radio Constructor, which later became Radio and Electronics World and eventually folded.

The Radio Amateur - still going

Electronics - The Maplin Magazine

I also subscribed to the american Audio Amateur - folded

and occasionally had Popular Mechanics and/ or Poplular Electronics.

Apologies if I've missed any.

 

Some more electronics magazine archives:
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Popular-Electronics-Guide.htm
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Radio_News_Master_Page_Guide.htm
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Electronic_World_Master_Page.htm
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Radio_Electronics _Master_Page.htm
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Electronics%20_Illustrated_Master_Page.htm
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Radio_Craft_Master_Page_Guide.htm
Ken

 

Hello,

There are also over 500 magazines from 73 magazine in the internet archive:
https://archive.org/search.php?query=collection:73-magazine&sort=-publicdate

Bertus

 

Electronics Today International and Elektor were amongst my favourites as a youngster.

 

'80 Micro was *awesome*. And fat. Looked forward to it each month.

The fat one that I remember is Computer Shopper. It was done in large format (24 by 16) and had over 200 pages; I think some were even 400 pages.

 

Are there any magazines worth getting these days? I used to get EDN for free because of my work - but found that it was mostly useless for me - and generally way too deep. Not to mention they wanted me to answer 60 questions every 4 weeks to continue my subscription...

I did check out Nuts and Volts... which I thought was okay - but I couldn't understand the subscription service... do I get online access and hard copy for the same price? So I never bit the bullet.

Are there any other options?

 

I did check out Nuts and Volts... which I thought was okay - but I couldn't understand the subscription service... do I get online access and hard copy for the same price?
Are there any other options?

Yes, you get both a print version and access to the online version.
They have a sister magazine called Servo Magazine aimed at building robots.

 

A list of UK based magazines over the years

Wireless World which later became Electronics & Wireless World which later became Electronics World and then folded
Practical Wireless was still going a couple of months ago, but I haven't seen it lately
Practical Electronics originally companion to PW
Everyday Electronics a later third companion, aimed at teaching science in schools.

EE took over PE and left the publishers of PW and eventually folded.

Electronics Today International folded.

Elektor , the UK edition of a european mag - still going.

The Radio Constructor, which later became Radio and Electronics World and eventually folded.

The Radio Amateur - still going

Electronics - The Maplin Magazine

I also subscribed to the american Audio Amateur - folded

and occasionally had Popular Mechanics and/ or Poplular Electronics.

Apologies if I've missed any.

I used to subscribe to a UK magazine called Hobby Electronics

 

Not as a kid but when I actually started with all this: Electronique Pratique, Radio Plans Loisirs, Radio Electronics by subscription and buying at the stand, magazines from UK and Elektor (Spanish version).

Also buying the local version of Elektor when going to Brazil (Portuguese language) which happened quite often. Finally, Italy contributing with some from a 2-years period.

For years had the problem that my vocabulary in all this, was much richer in some other languages than in my own Spanish.

I realized that certain nationalities tended to write longer sentences usually in a more convoluted (and sometimes ridiculous) way. Not one author but lot of them.