"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" wrote in message
...
William Sommerwerck wrote:
The decline of electronics magazines seems to have been caused by the
falling interest in electronics as a hobby, and by the decline of the US
as
a major manufacturer of electronic products. The fact that most
electronic
products have become so complex (and cheap to manufacture overseas) that
you
can no longer buy kits (Heath, Allied, Lafayette) doesn't help, either.

The thing that made Heathkit possible was the large surplus of WWII
electronic components that were obsolete by the time of the Korean war,
but still very useable. Vaccum tube technology lasted in general
electronics well into the 1970's, and discrete components well into
the 1990s.

Now if you want to build something that is not SMT, you have to find old
components, many of which are no longer useable, or have them made for
you because the companies that make current production electronics don't
use them.

Occasionaly I see a copy of Elektor Magazine, which used to be published
in Holland, and is now published in the U.K. The last magazine I saw
was pretty interesting, but all the projects were solder chips on a board
type of project. The days when radios were litterally made on a breadboard
and coils were bell wire wound on lollipop sticks are long gone.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM

Not so. I subscribe to Elektor, which is still published in Holland, as well
as the UK and several other countries as well. It has many subscribers from
the U.S. and also has very active help and discussion forums associated with
a website that is core to the whole magazine. Although a lot of the projects
use s.m. technology for their construction, this is a necessity because of
the cutting edge nature of the projects. Printed circuits are often made
available where component level construction is considered a viable option,
and ready made boards or sub assemblies, are usually made available by the
publishers, at very reasonable cost, when it's not.

Many of the projects that are published, however, are still built with
discrete through-hole components, and are often still all, or at least
partially, analogue. If you are looking for a good electronics magazine for
construction, news, cutting edge technology articles, and a world-wide
following and web community, then I would highly recommend Elektor. Go have
a look at their website

www.elektor.com

which will give you an idea what it's like.

Arfa