Interview with Colin Mitchell from Talking Electronics

Good one Dave !!

Great interview! Colin was a bit vague on AEM (Australian Electronics Monthly), though. AEM was started by Roger Harrison and David Tilbrook as a result of the bullshit that was going on at Federal Publishing Co. at the time. FPC had bought ETI from ACP (Packer) and the editorial offices were moved from Rushcutters Bay to Waterloo. FPC then bought Electronics Australia and moved it to Waterloo. It was obvious that some sort of merger was inevitable, so Roger and David made plans for AEM and left ETI, taking draughtsman David Currie and some of the old ETI contributors as well.

Colin mentioned something about a man and his son - Roger had two sons and at least one of them (Jamye) did write for AEM.

"Yaputya"

** AFAIK - Tilbrook parted company with Harrison and ETI prior to AEM commencing.

I do not recall seeing Tilbrook's name in the editorial or owners credits.

The first issue of AEM was in July of 1985.

.... Phil

wow, he was a pioneer. really enjoyed his kits, as a teenager I did his digital electronics course.

Shame his kits are no longer in stores - ie Jaycar...

Thanks for your effort Colin!

George

. .

this youtube demonstrates Colins computer boards.. way cool

commencing.

Close, but not quite the full story.

I knew Roger and David in those days, they had plans for AEM before either of them left ETI. Roger resigned as Editor first - his last listing as Editor was Jan. 1985. In Feb. 1985 David was still listed as an Associate and Jim Rowe was filling in as Editor which he did until David Kelly was appointed Editor. (Jim had been Managing Editor (Electronics Group) at Federal Publishing since April 1984.) Tilbrook used to be listed as ETI Technical Editor, his title seemed to change to Associate sometime in late 1983.

In AEM, Roger was listed as Editor and David was Project Engineer. There were no 'owner credits' as such - the Publisher was Kedhorn Holdings P/L. However the magazine was definitely started by both Roger and David and they both put up money to kick it off. A few years later they had a falling out and David left.

"Yaputya"

** Really ?

** Hmmmmmm...........

Technical Editor = employee.

** Project engineer = employee or regular contributor. ** Did Kedhorn belong to Donald Duck?

** Really ?

** I don't think that is correct.

Tilbrook and Harrison had a major falling out over " plagiarism" much earlier.

Then Tilbrook headed North to greener climes .....

... Phil

"Yaputya"

** The falling out I recall was in April or May of 1983 and coincided with the publication of the ETI Series 5000 graphic equaliser. This project is memorable as it was clearly published without the prototype ever being completed or tested.

The installation of 1kohm resistors in series with the supply pins of each op-amp reduced the supply to those ICs to about +/- 4 volts - hence they could barely work. The unit utterly failed to meet basic specs.

It proved impossible to get Tilbrook on the phone about this to have a correction published and nobody else at the office could even see the problem or gave a hoot.

I note that Altronics are STILL selling the high power speaker protector kit that Tilbrook designed in 1982, which also does not work. I did speak with him about this and got stone walled and fed a load of bullshit over the phone - seems this was the guy's standard way of dealing with all criticism.

... Phil

=3DkXWRLNq8OCU

That was fantastic and its great to finally "meet" the guy behind TE.

I would say that his mags were an enormous help and inspiration at the time.

=3DkXWRLNq8OCU

All 5 videos of the interview are now up:

Regards Dave.