Practical
Electronics
Editorial offices
Practical Electronics
Electron Publishing Limited
1 Buckingham Road
Brighton
East Sussex BN1 3RA
Tel
01273 777619
Mob 07973 518682
Fax 01202 843233
Email pe<at>electronpublishing.com
Web www.electronpublishing.com
Advertisement offices
Practical Electronics Adverts Tel
01273 777619
1 Buckingham Road
Mob 07973 518682
Brighton
Email pe<at>electronpublishing.com
East Sussex BN1 3RA
Editor
Matt Pulzer
General Manager
Louisa Pulzer
Digital subscriptions Stewart Kearn Tel 01202 880299
Online Editor
Alan Winstanley
Web Systems
Kris Thain
Publisher
Matt Pulzer
Print subscriptions
Practical Electronics Subscriptions
PO Box 6337
Bournemouth BH1 9EH
Tel
01202 087631
United Kingdom
Email pesubs<at>selectps.com
Technical enquiries
We regret technical enquiries cannot be answered over the
telephone. We are unable to offer any advice on the use, purchase,
re air or odification o co
ercial e ui ent or the incor oration
or odification o designs u lished in the aga ine. e cannot
provide data or answer queries on articles or projects that are
ore than five years old.
Questions about articles or projects should be sent to the editor
by email: pe<at>electronpublishing.com
Projects and circuits
All reasonable precautions are taken to ensure that the advice and
data given to readers is reliable. We cannot, however, guarantee
it and we cannot accept legal responsibility for it.
A number of projects and circuits published in Practical Electronics
employ voltages that can be lethal. You should not build, test,
modify or renovate any item of mains-powered equipment unless
you fully understand the safety aspects involved and you use an
RCD (GFCI) adaptor.
Component supplies
We do not supply electronic components or kits for building the
projects featured, these can be supplied by advertisers. We
advise readers to check that all parts are still available before
commencing any project in a back-dated issue.
Advertisements
Although the proprietors and staff of Practical Electronics take
reasonable precautions to protect the interests of readers by
ensuring as ar as ractica le that advertise ents are ona fide
the magazine and its publishers cannot give any undertakings
in respect of statements or claims made by advertisers, whether
these advertisements are printed as part of the magazine, or in
inserts. The Publishers regret that under no circumstances will
the magazine accept liability for non-receipt of goods ordered, or
for late delivery, or for faults in manufacture.
Transmitters/bugs/telephone equipment
We advise readers that certain items of radio transmitting and
telephone equipment which may be advertised in our pages
cannot be legally used in the UK. Readers should check the law
e ore uying any trans itting or tele hone e ui ent as a fine
confiscation o e ui ent and or i rison ent can result ro
illegal use or ownership. The laws vary from country to country;
readers should check local laws.
Practical Electronics | April | 2021
Volume 50. No. 4
April 2021
ISSN 2632 573X
Editorial
PE readers are a diverse bunch!
If they like something they are generous with their praise,
but if not, then they aren’t shy about, shall we say, suggesting
improvements. That’s a good thing, but I can’t help feeling
sometimes that you can please some of the people some of the
time… well, you know how this continues.
Probably the most long-lived fault line dividing readers into
two often-irreconcilable camps is analogue versus digital. On
the one hand, I receive emails and letters from the digital tribe,
wanting to know when we will cover FPGAs, a new PIC or
wanting information on a recent microcontroller upgrade. They
tend to be not very interested in Hi-Fi amplifiers, op amps or
indeed anything that doesn’t run strictly at 3.3/5V. On the other
hand, there are adherents to the analogue cause, who tend to
view digital electronics as some kind of jumped-up Lego. They
also like to point out that digital is really only a special case of
analogue. Some of them would really rather we didn’t use PCBs
and I suspect the truly diehard members of this tribe view ICs or
possibly even transistors as the start of a hobby-destroying rot
that is ruining ‘real’ electronics – bring back valves (tubes) they
undoubtedly mutter under their breath.
The answer to all of the above is of course, ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Yes, we
appreciate your comments and your commitment to your area of
electronics, and ‘no’ we can’t ignore the ‘other side’. The beauty,
elegance and fun of electronics is that it really is a broad church.
From point-to-point-wired triode-based headphone amplifiers to
32-bit-PIC digital controller projects there is room for everyone.
Perhaps more to the point, we need all our readers, and if we
started to ignore and lose a big chunk of subscribers then I doubt
we’d last very long. We do try very hard to find something for
everyone, and while it sometimes takes a little while to cover a
particular niche interest, usually we do get there.
This month
And that brings me to this month, which in typical PE fashion
really does straddle a huge range of technologies, techniques and
ideas. We have the concluding part of Jake Rothman’s wonderful
resurrection of the Ladybird Books Transistor Radio – complete
with germanium PNP transistors and what can only be called real
breadboard construction techniques! Plus, we have a really clever
digital PID controller to enable you to convert a cheap electric
oven into a sophisticated PCB solder reflow machine.
That’s just a snapshot of all the great content lined up in this issue.
We hope – whatever your preferences – you’ll find something to
inspire you to pick up your soldering iron.
Keep well everyone
Matt Pulzer
Publisher
7
