What electronics MAGAZINES are good?

Circuit Cellar is fantastic for embedded stuff:

If you are into hobby level stuff then there is Silicon Chip from Australia:

Dave.

It's more like "what electronic magazines exist today?"

SOmeone mentioned Circuit Cellar, but it's a far cry from Popular Electronics. It's more focused on microprocessors and I've never found it interesting enough to want to buy many issues. It just seems less "hobby" than what I'd want.

The other US magazine that still exists is Nuts & Volts.

And there's now a quarterly from O'Reilly (that publishes all kinds of computer books) called "Make" that is sort of a hobby electronic magazine, but it seems more than just electronics.

With so few, you should just go to a newsstand, maybe at this point you may have to hunt for them, and look them over or buy a copy of each. You won't lose much by buying a sample copy, and really, I suspect "good" is a reflection of what you yourself is looking for.

When I was a kid, I bought all the magazines, at least initially, though that's when they were fifty cents an issue. I barely buy any magazines these days, the cost has gone so far up and the content you get is limited.

After that, you have to look overseas for electronic magazines. Elektor, Practical Everyday Electronics I no longer know what else. I've not seen a copy of the magazine that used to be Wireless World (I can never remember the exact title it changed itself to) in a long time. I'm assuming they still publish, but just aren't carried here.

Michael

Are you familiar with Elektor ?

Graham

Make up a company name and subscribe to the professional mags: EDN, Electronics Design, Microwaves&RF, Electronic Products, Microwave Journal. All free.

John

Wow, you were not kidding!

Free, forever? Or is it a trial subscription?

Wow... thanks! I just subscribed. (I actually do have a side business:

I happened to be in the bookstore last night, getting some space/ planet books for the kids, when I thought, maybe I'll look for Circuit Cellar... this particular Borders Bookstore doesn't carry CC, but has Make. Was looking through it, I couldn't find anything that justified the $14.99 price tag (potato and pumpkin missile launchers don't cut it, sorry). There was a nifty little diy EKG project, but the article mentioned the ADC it needs costs about $50... never mind...

Michael

They'll make you renew annually, by email, which takes about a minute, but otherwise free forever.

There are lots more, hundreds maybe, but these are the main electronics ones. There are some software-oriented mags too, RTC and Embedded Systems and such.

EE Times is great, but more biz than technology. I don't recall if that's free, too.

John

John Larkin wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Thank you guys for all the suggestions. Just as I imagined, there are few "hobby electronics" magazines available as such (the kind with projects, etc) but as I get reacquainted with electronics I am discovering programs such as Mutltisim and some PCB design tools (anybody recommend any?) that I never got to use way back when. There'll be plenty to keep me occupied. Thanks.

Correct, Circuit Cellar is more of a professional level journal targeting embedded designers. it's not really a hobby mag.

Dave.

I used to love reading Electronics Design until they stopped giving free subs outside the US.

Pease's Porridge is available online though :)

Dave.

Multisim is crap. Use LT Spice, which is better and free.

John

ED isn't very good lately, and their byline "The Authority on Emerging Technologies for Design Solutions" is pompous and absurd.

Pease hasn't done anything original in years.

There's a Brit site that's good:

John

Hmmm, I've been looking for something a step up from CC because my "hobby" has gotten to that point.

Maybe it depends on what aspect of electronics one chooses to focus on. CC does tend to be heavy on the digital, and light on the analog, but if digital is your hobby, CC isn't that high level.

Nuts&volts is still available. Now days, the availability of thousands of circuits and schematics on line makes magazines somewhat dated.

Huh? Finding circuits and information is not nearly the same thing as waiting for the new issue of a magazine to arrive. And since the magazines had to try to address a large readership, the contents varied. I never would have stuck with the magazines when I found them at age 11 if all the contents had been technical. I could read the letter column, I could read the amateur radio column, even read the reviews, and that gave reason to keep reading while I grasped the schematics and the technical stuff. There were also lots of things I wasn't interested in but learned about anyway because they were clustered with the things I was interested in, and other things I actually got interested in because I read about them.

Give up the magazine format, and it's way too easy to narrowcast. Sure, likely people can find a website that has "1001 wireless microphones" and another that has "101 single transistor sirens" but that implies that information is all that counts.

I'm starving for magazines. I miss going to the newsstand to see if the latest issue is out. I miss sitting down with it to read it cover to cover, maybe even setting it aside to spread it out or to read it when I can curl up with it. I miss rereading them.

But the magazines aren't what they used to. Maybe it's because it's 36 years since I first noticed there were hobby electronic magazines, and so it has all gone stale. I suspect it's more that the price has risen so much, and I won't get that much reading time out of it.

Michael

John Larkin wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I will give that a try. Thanks.

Multisim is intuitive and easy to use. LT Spice isn't.

Graham

That's why the mushrooms do so well in his stall.