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Matt Pulzer
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Louisa Pulzer
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We regret technical enquiries cannot be answered over the
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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
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We advise readers that certain items of radio transmitting and
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Practical Electronics | July | 2024
Volume 53. No. 7
July 2024
ISSN 2632 573X
Editorial
We’ve come a long way
Hobby electronics has come a long way since the days when,
nearly a century ago, constructors grappled with newly emerging
vacuum tube technology to produce home-brew radio receivers of
surprising sophistication and complexity. That was in an era when
‘wireless’ was one of the few practical hobbies available to budding
‘makers’. (Woodworking was another.) Interest in radio intensified
exponentially during the 1930s and magazine titles such as Hobbies
and Practical Wireless appeared weekly to meet an insatiable
demand for projects to challenge the hobbyist’s practical skills.
Practical Wireless would become a standalone title aimed at
the flourishing hobby radio sector while its sister magazine,
Practical Electronics, followed in the early 1960s to exploit new
semiconductor devices in a wider range of applications. The
wannabe electronics constructor has been kept busy ever since!
Our hobby has of necessity mirrored global technological trends,
and today’s constructors embrace a wholly different set of skills
compared with their forebears. Wikipedia reminds us that the
first electric soldering iron dates back to 1889: appropriate for
radio sets of yesteryear, perhaps, but some modern construction
projects regularly use ready-made modules and tiny surfacemounted devices that are much smaller than a match head – a fact
of life dictated to us by the electronics industry. Starting 25 years
ago, boards full of discrete components were swept aside by the
microcontroller, which demanded programming and coding knowhow, aided by the use of software design tools. Thanks to our design
partners at Silicon Chip, the class-leading projects found inside
every issue take advantage of these modern components along with
high-quality printed circuit boards that help ensure constructors can
accomplish their latest project successfully. One thing that hasn’t
changed over the years, though, is the inspiration and variety that
we at Practical Electronics strive to bring our readers every month,
offering constructors interesting and absorbing challenges to keep
you just as busy as ever!
What will the future bring?
From circuits using glass vacuum tubes housed in wooden
cabinets to the latest designs based on devices with a billion or
more transistors in 3D-printed enclosures, electronics has changed
beyond recognition. In fact, when it comes to electronics, change is
the one constant you can rely on. So, what will the coming decades
bring? AI, smarter sensors and faster devices seem certain, but I’m
sure there will be surprises too. And that’s all part of the fun!
Matt Pulzer
Publisher
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