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Electronics in Australia Jim Rowe’s time at RTV&H and Electronics Australia In August & September 2022, Silicon Chip founder Leo Simpson covered the magazine’s history and touched on some of its predecessors: Radio, TV & Hobbies and Electronics Australia. Jamieson (Jim) Rowe was an important figure at both magazines, working on and off for them over 40-odd years before joining the Silicon Chip team. Here is his part of the story. ◀ Editor John Moyle on the front cover of the May 1948 issue of Radio & Hobbies, using a micrometer to check the thickness of a quartz crystal he was grinding. The July 1987 issue of Electronics Australia, when Jim Rowe returned to head the magazine, after Leo Simpson had departed – soon to found Silicon Chip. ◀ F irst, I will give a bit of early magazine history. The first 12-page issue of Wireless Weekly was published in Sydney on the 4th of August, 1922. It was published by W. J. Maclardy, one of the founders of Sydney radio station 2SB (later renamed 2BL), at the suggestion of Florence Violet McKenzie. Florence was Australia’s first female electrical engineer and first female radio amateur, who owned a wireless shop at that time in the Royal Arcade (where Sydney’s Hilton Hotel 44 Silicon Chip currently stands). Ms McKenzie wrote many articles for Wireless Weekly and later was awarded an OBE for her work in founding the Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps (WESC). We reviewed her biography, “Radio Girl” in the February 2022 issue (siliconchip.au/Article/15203). By the start of commercial radio broadcasting in 1923, the magazine flourished, with issues often over 64 pages. Later in 1923, the magazine was sold to Wireless Newspapers Ltd and Australia's electronics magazine continued to grow until April 1939, when it was changed into a monthly release and renamed Radio and Hobbies (R&H). Initially, the Editor of the magazine was A. G. (‘Braith) Hull, while the Technical Editor was John Moyle, who had joined Wireless Weekly in 1932 as a technical writer and record reviewer. Within 12 months, A. G. Hull had left to join rival magazine Australasian Radio World as its Editor, while John Moyle took over as Editor of R&H. siliconchip.com.au ◀ Neville Williams, who joined Radio & Hobbies as Technical Editor in 1941. He became the Editor of Radio, TV & Hobbies in 1960 and then Editor-in-Chief of Electronics Australia in March 1971. Jim Rowe pictured at his typewriter in late 1963, when he was Technical Editor of Radio, TV & Hobbies. He remained in this position when the magazine became Electronics Australia in 1965. ◀ Then, in 1941, Neville Williams joined R&H as Technical Editor. Later in 1941, John Moyle joined the RAAF to become an instructor in the then-highly-secret radar technology. He remained in the RAAF until 1946, rising to the rank of Squadron Leader and working mainly in Melbourne, where he was made responsible for the production of all radar manuals. He visited the R&H office in Sydney occasionally, where Neville Williams had taken over as Acting Editor for the duration. When John Moyle returned to R&H in 1946, he became Editor once again, and Neville Williams returned to the position of Technical Editor. They worked together very well, and the magazine flourished. They developed and published many designs for radio sets, stereo hifi amplifiers and monochrome TV receivers, the latter initially using war-surplus cathode ray tubes and other ‘bits and pieces’. Later, they published four full-scale TV receiver projects but stopped when the prices of commercial TV receivers dropped to the point where home-built sets became unattractive. In February 1955, the magazine’s name was changed from Radio and Hobbies to Radio, Television & Hobbies to better indicate its relevance to the rapidly expanding field of television. In 1956, John Moyle went on an around-the-world fact-finding tour, visiting many places in the UK, Europe and the USA and meeting many leaders of electronics research and manufacturing firms. He had been an amateur radio enthusiast for many years and served as president of the NSW Division of the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) before holding Federal office. Then, in 1959, he attended the siliconchip.com.au International Telecommunications Union (ITU) conference in Geneva, Switzerland, representing Australian radio amateurs. Originally he had planned to revisit the UK and the USA after the ITU conference, but he became quite ill in Geneva and was advised by a doctor to return home without delay for urgent treatment. He passed away in hospital on the 10th of March, 1960. He was only 52 but had achieved a great deal during that short life. This was how his passing was noted by the Institution of Radio Engineers (Australia) in their Proceedings for April 1960: He was one of the best technical journalists this country has known; his lucid thinking and enquiring mind led him along paths which few of us have travelled. His journalistic talents are forever engraved upon the technical pedestal of Australian literature. slog, but AWA was very good at giving its trainees a solid practical grounding in just about every aspect of radio and TV manufacturing. I spent a couple of months in the press shop, a couple of months in ‘mills and drills’, another couple of months in the plating shop, a month in the section where they made rotary switches, a month in the section where loudspeakers were assembled and tested, another month in the section where they made tuning gang capacitors, and a month in the section in Belmore where they ground and tested quartz crystals. It was comprehensive training, but by the end of 1958, I became restless at AWA. I was still doing tedious ‘process’ work, like assembling complex wiring looms for broadcasting transmitters or testing small Army transceivers. Some personal prehistory I (Jim Rowe) was born in 1939 (the same year that R&H began!) and grew up in South Belmore - then regarded as an outer western working-class suburb of Sydney. As a teenager, I became interested in electronics while working on Saturdays for Stan Blackmore, who ran a radio and TV sales and repair shop near Belmore station. When I left high school with my leaving certificate in March 1957, I was lucky enough to be accepted as an engineering trainee by AWA (Amalgamated Wireless Australia), then the largest radio, TV and electronics manufacturing plant in the southern hemisphere. In early 1957, I began work as a trainee at AWA’s main manufacturing facility in Ashfield and studying parttime at Sydney Technical College in Ultimo, working towards a diploma in radio engineering. It was a bit of a Australia's electronics magazine The AWA building in York Street, Sydney was their head office until the 1990s. It was also the tallest building in Australia until 1958, the same year Jim Rowe left AWA. Source: https://w.wiki/6cuL July 2023  45 At about that time, some of the engineering schools at Sydney Technical College cut their ties with the College and moved out to Kensington. They became part of the newly formed University of Technology, soon to be renamed the University of NSW. The School of Electrical Engineering was one of the schools that had moved, and although most of my lectures were still held in their Ultimo building, they had moved some of their research and teaching labs to a building on the Kensington campus. A fellow student (John Barker) who had gained a job as a lab assistant in one of the Ultimo labs told me that they were looking for lab assistants for some of the Kensington labs. The pay was not only better than that for AWA engineering trainees, but that job also gave me plenty of time to do homework and course projects. So I took a deep breath and applied for one of those positions. I was lucky enough to get a lab assistant position in the Servomechanisms and Control Labs at Kensington. It worked well, giving me time to do my course homework and teaching me quite a bit about servomechanisms. a letter arrived from Mr Williams offering me the job and inviting me to front up at the magazine in early March 1960. So began my first period of employment with the magazine, which was to last for almost 20 years. Unfortunately, when I joined the RTV&H staff, its Editor, John Moyle, was already in hospital and died the following month. So sad to say, I never even met him. Before long, Mr Williams became Editor of RTV&H. While I was working at the Kensington campus, the Uni of Technology became the Uni of NSW. At the same time, we students in the Radio Diploma course were offered the opportunity to transfer into a B. Sc. (Technology) degree course. It was with that degree that I finally graduated in early 1963 while continuing to work at RTV&H. By the way, after that, I enrolled in a part-time ‘Arts’ degree course at Sydney University. I eventually graduated with a somewhat lacklustre B. A. Introducing RTV&H About halfway through 1959, I learned that my friend John Barker had left the Ultimo labs for a job with the magazine, Radio, TV and Hobbies. John told me he was really enjoying the work at RTV&H, as it was almost “being paid to do what he would be happy to do for nothing”. Not long after that, he rang me at work and told me that another staff vacancy was becoming available at RTV&H. He suggested that I apply for the job, as he felt sure that I would enjoy the job as much as he did. I summoned the courage to apply and, in due course, fronted up at the magazine office on the 12th floor of the Sydney Morning Herald building in Jones Street, Ultimo for my interview with the acting Editor at the time, Mr W. N. Williams. I found the interview rather daunting because Mr Williams was highly respected throughout the Australian electronics industry, having worked with the famous Fritz Langford-Smith on the early editions of the world-­ renowned “Radiotron Designers Handbook”, the ‘bible’ of valve technology. “Fundamentals of Solid State” was one of the many educational series that Jim Still, just after Christmas in 1959, Rowe wrote. 46 Silicon Chip Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au degree in early 1967 [that possibly came in handy when Jim came to work for us drawing diagrams – Editor]. Still, I seemed to have ‘found my niche’ working for RTV&H, and not long after graduating in electronics, Mr Williams promoted me to the Technical Editor position. I remained in that position when the magazine was revamped and renamed to Electronics Australia (EA) in mid-1965. My early days with EA It was very satisfying and enjoyable working at RTV&H and then EA during the 1960s. Neville Williams was a very experienced, calm and intelligent Editor and leader of the team, and most of the other staff members were very techsavvy and collaborative. We produced a great many electronics projects, news features and technical articles. Sadly, my friend John Barker left the magazine at the end of 1960 to pursue greater things. I hope he achieved them; I am still very grateful that he helped me join the magazine. Early in the 1960s, Neville Williams had written a series of introductory articles for RTV&H called “Basic Radio Course”. It was so well received that some of the other staff members and I revised and updated the articles, and they were republished in the magazine between August 1963 and November 1965. The demand for back issues containing the articles was so great that we were encouraged to combine them into a single magazine-format ‘one-shot’ book called “Basic Electronics Course: An Introduction to Electronics”, published in 1966. This was also so successful that it had to be reprinted many times and sold over 55,000 copies. Then, from June 1966 to May 1967, I wrote a series of 12 articles on digital electronics called “Logic and counting circuits”, which was again so well received that they were published in 1967 as another one-shot book called “An Introduction to Digital Electronics”. In 1970, it was revised and expanded as a second edition. As with “Basic Electronics Course”, it ended up being reprinted several times, eventually selling over 50,000 copies. I recall that Leo Simpson (later to become the founder of Silicon Chip) joined the editorial staff of EA in June 1967. Starting in about 1968, I wrote a series of articles in EA titled “Fundamentals of Solid State”, introducing the basic concepts of semiconductor devices like diodes, bipolar transistors, FETs, SCRs and other thyristors – how they operate and how they are used. In 1970, the articles were published as another one-shot, which ended up being reprinted several times, selling around 50,000 copies. I could not have written the above series without help from Neville Williams and other staff members like technical draftsman Bob Flynn. In March 1971, Neville Williams was promoted to Editor in Chief of EA, and I was promoted to the position of Editor – much to the chagrin of one or two other staff members. Designing the EDUC-8 computer The early 1970s was a time of rapid developments in electronics and information technology, with major breakthroughs in integrated circuits and computers coming every other week or so. So-called ‘minicomputers’ (about the size of a refrigerator) had just appeared. As a result, the Fairfax/ Sydney Morning Herald organisation installed a couple of gleaming new Digital Equipment PDP-8 minicomputers to begin trialling them for computer typesetting. The company’s new IT manager, John Cockram, invited a few people from various departments to learn about computers and programming by attending informal lectures. We could also gain some practical experience with the minicomputers during our lunch hours. I was one of the lucky few invited to do so, and it gave me an invaluable introduction to computers, how they worked and how to program them. This led me to set myself a personal challenge: to design a small computer from scratch, based on what I had learned about their operation as a user and beginning programmer. Very few books were available at that time dealing with the nitty-gritty of internal computer operation, but somehow, I managed to meet the challenge. ◀ In the early 1970s, Jim Rowe was lucky enough to get some hands-on experience programming and using one of the first Digital Equipment PDP-8 minicomputers in Australia, like this one. It inspired him to design the EDUC-8 DIY microcomputer, published as a project in Electronics Australia (there is still interest in the design to this day). The EDUC-8 micromputer has a maximum clock rate of 500kHz, five primary registers and a top power draw of ~60W. You can still purchase the handbook for this project from our website at siliconchip.com.au/Shop/3/1816 siliconchip.com.au Australia's electronics magazine July 2023  47 A ‘humorous’ (?) sketch of a not-toohappy Jim Rowe, drawn in 1973 by Garry Lightfoot. I used readily available medium-­ scale ICs and designed a set of PCBs – drawing them the old-­ fashioned way, with pens and Indian ink. With a go-ahead from Neville Williams, I described my little “EDUC-8” DIY computer in a series of 12 articles published in EA between August 1974 and August 1975. It became the first DIY computer project to be described in Australia and only the second in the world. A bloke in the USA had described a computer based on one of the new Intel 8008 microprocessor chips in the July 1974 issue of Radio Electronics. Still, the EDUC-8 project turned out to be surprisingly popular. We turned the articles describing it into a oneshot called “EDUC-8: AN EDUCATIONAL MICROCOMPUTER”, published in 1975 and selling about 2,500 copies [still available as a scanned PDF download; siliconchip.com.au/ Shop/3/1816 – Editor]. About 400 people built one of the original EDUC-8s, and improved versions also appeared. Incidentally, all these magazine articles, projects and one-shot books were produced using old-fashioned technology. The articles were typed one paragraph at a time on A5-sized ‘copy slips’ using clunky manual typewriters, the circuit board patterns were created using stick-on tapes and circles, and all circuit diagrams were done by Bob Flynn on paper using pens and other drawing tools. This was before the advent of personal computers, after all. Late in 1976, all of the magazines in the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) magazine subsidiary Sungravure were moved from the SMH building in Jones Street to a much smaller building a few blocks away on Regent Street. The EA editorial office was moved to the ground floor of the Regent Street building, with magazines like Woman’s Day and Dolly moving to the upper floors. The Regent Street building was much closer to Central Station, which was a plus for a few of us! By 1977, we had published quite a few articles in EA about the rapidly expanding field of microprocessors. These had again been quite popular, so we put them all together as a oneshot book called “Getting into Microprocessors”. I edited the book, and staff member Greg Swain produced it [the other founder of Silicon Chip – Editor]. It was again pretty successful, selling around 10,000 copies. Moving on By the middle of 1979, I had worked on the editorial staff of EA for nearly 20 years and had been its Editor for nearly nine of those years. But I was only 40 and was beginning to feel that Dick Smith and Jim Rowe with one of the System-80 ‘business computers’, around 1980. Jim wrote the user manuals for the System-80 and also some programs for it. 48 Silicon Chip Australia's electronics magazine I would be stuck in that position for the rest of my working life. Earlier that year, I had become friendly with entrepreneur Dick Smith, whose rapidly growing retail electronics firm had become the magazine’s largest advertiser. Dick was just about to move his firm’s headquarters and warehouse to a brand new facility in North Ryde, and in July 1979, he sent me a letter inviting me to join his firm as Technical Manager/Director (a fancy name for ‘in-house technical boffin’). He made me a very generous offer of around twice the salary I was getting at EA, so I was very happy to accept. I resigned from EA and joined Dick Smith Electronics in November 1979. Although it involved a 55-minute drive to North Ryde each weekday, and the same time to drive home, I enjoyed working at DSE. Dick had assembled a dynamic team of employees, including General Manager Ike Bain, Marketing Manager Gary Johnston, Service Manager Gary Cratt (founder and director of Av-Comm) and many other good people. Dick Smith himself was a ‘human dynamo’ – working very hard and encouraging everyone else to do so. He was also very generous in sharing his enthusiasm and enjoyment with us all. Part of my job at DSE was getting samples of products from overseas that were good potential products to sell in Australia, then testing them to see if they really were suitable. In the case of minicomputer products like the Exidy Sorcerer, System 80 and VZ-200, once they were ordered, I usually set about preparing readable user and servicing manuals. I also wrote several user manuals for PC applications software: a word processor, a stock control system, a simple invoicing system and others. In 1982, I was involved in writing and publishing the book “Dick Smith’s Fun Way into Computers”, in collaboration with external writer Sue Robinson. Over 30,000 of these were sold. I also designed what became the first 300-baud direct coupled data modem to be approved by Telecom for private sale (up until then, only acoustically-­ coupled modems had been approved). Over 3000 of these low-cost ‘Dataphone’ modems were sold. It was hard work for the first three years, but very satisfying and rewarding. However, things started to change siliconchip.com.au when Dick Smith sold a 50% share of the business to retailing giant Woolworths. At first, the changes were not dramatic because Dick had to stay at the helm for a year, to ensure that the profits continued to rise. When that did happen, Woolworths bought the remaining half of the business and Dick departed. His deputy Ike Bain took the reins, but Ike didn’t have the same energy or talents as Dick. At almost the same time, Marketing Manager Gary Johnston resigned and left, to put into practice all of the knowledge and skills he had learned from Dick. He bought the almost defunct electronics retailer John Carr and Sons and soon resurrected it as Jaycar Electronics. And with Gary at the helm, it quickly grew into the very successful and profitable electronics chain it is today. When Gary passed away in March 2021, the Jaycar Group operated over 180 stores throughout Australia and New Zealand and also had quite a few ‘agencies’ selling their products. After Gary and Dick left DSE, I was foolish enough to take on Gary’s position as Marketing Manager. I soon found that I couldn’t cope with the pressure it involved. At that time, DSE had its own in-house marketing and advertising production departments. There was not only a staff of 23 people to manage (including Ross Tester, who later moved to Silicon Chip), but advertising to plan and produce each week. There was also a huge annual catalogue to plan and produce. It soon became clear to me that I had none of the talents of Dick Smith or Gary Johnston, as I ‘wilted’ under the strain and decided that I needed to depart. Above: the Dataphone is a direct connection telephone modem. It was sold by Dick Smith Electronics in the mid 1980s for $169 each. Right: Dick Smith Electronics also sold imported minicomputers such as the VZ-200 produced by VTech Laser. Jim Rowe would normally go about testing the products and producing user & servicing manuals. Moving to Federal Publishing In late 1984, quite by chance, I met Leigh Emery, who was at the time General Manager of a company called Federal Publishing. It was owned by siliconchip.com.au The February 1985 editorial of ETI was written by Jim Rowe, as the previous Managing Editor, Collyn Rivers, had recently departed. Australia's electronics magazine July 2023  49 a trio of companies: Eastern Suburbs Newspapers (owned by the Hannan family), Consolidated Press (owned by the Packer family) and Fairfax/SMH. Among various other magazines, Federal had acquired EA’s chief competitor, Electronics Today International (ETI), its sister magazine Your Computer and Sonics, a magazine for the pop music and recording industry. When Leigh realised that I was out of my depth at DSE, he asked me to think about joining Federal as managing editor of those three technical magazines. The Managing Editor of ETI, Collyn Rivers, had departed, and they were already having problems with the new Editor of ETI, Roger Harrison. Rather foolishly (with the benefit of hindsight), I decided to take up his offer and began working at Federal/ ESN in April 1984, at their facility in Rosebery. I soon realised that things would not be easy: I would not be working for the very reasonable Leigh Emery, because shortly before I arrived, he was fired following a disagreement with Michael Hannan, the Managing Director. Instead, I would be answering to a pair of accountants. It was all pretty much downhill from there, although things did look up when Geoff Baggett joined Federal as the new General Manager. While I was there, though, two quite significant things happened. One was that both Fairfax and Consolidated Press sold their shares in Federal to the Hannans, so Federal became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eastern Suburbs Newspapers. The other thing was that Fairfax sold Electronics Australia to Federal Publishing. I think this was because Neville Williams had retired, and Fairfax management had difficulty dealing with the Editor who had taken my place at the magazine: Leo Simpson. I was given the responsibility of moving my old magazine and its staff to the Federal Publishing campus in Joynton Avenue, Rosebery, and then managing it and the other three technical magazines. I found it easy to get on with Leo and the other EA staff members, with whom I was already familiar, but it wasn’t so easy dealing with the problems concerning the other three magazines. In fact, the situation soon became just as fraught as the one I 50 Silicon Chip had left at DSE. By October 1985, I was fired/asked to resign from Federal Publishing, which was a relief because the situation had become so difficult. And on to MicroBee After spending about a month unemployed at home, licking my wounds and doing some much-postponed jobs around the house, I was invited to join the home-grown Australian personal computer company MicroBee Systems, by its Chairman and Managing Director, Owen Hill. The company had just been floated on the stock exchange, and Owen wanted me to join as Publishing Manager to look after the writing, printing and publication of their hardware and software manuals. He even flew me up to their bustling West Gosford factory to show me around and convince me that the offer was genuine. Since I was currently without a job and we had a large mortgage and a family to feed, I took the job at MicroBee. But things began to deteriorate not long after I started work at the MicroBee office and warehouse complex in North Ryde (just down the road from DSE). The Marketing Manager departed after a disagreement with Owen Hill, and as a result, I became Communications Manager – responsible for marketing and advertising as well as publishing manuals. Soon after that, the company began having serious problems, especially in developing the new computer models necessary to ensure its future success. This seemed to be at least partly due to Owen Hill frequently revising the specifications for the new models, forcing the design people to ‘go back to the drawing board’ over and over again. In the meantime, the marketing people and I were having a harder and harder battle to achieve sales of the somewhat dated computer models the factory was still producing. Gradually, staff numbers had to be reduced to lower overheads, and the company’s link with its advertising agency had to be terminated. So I had to write, lay out and book the company’s ads myself. The North Ryde warehouse and office also had to be closed, and the remaining staff and myself were moved to the rear of MicroBee’s store in Waitara. But things continued to get worse, and before long, the board brought in a ‘company doctor’ (Mr Ron Bunt) to try and save the company from oblivion. When I had my interview with Mr Bunt, he told me that the company was probably “doomed” and suggested that I look elsewhere. So I took his advice and did so. Luckily, a colleague from the early days at EA, Dick Levine (who had been Editor of the short-lived EA offshoot Modern World), was by then Editor of the electronics trade publication Electronics News. It was part of the IPC Business Press stable. When I told Dick I needed to jump from the sinking MicroBee ship, he offered me a job as a technical journalist for his magazine. It didn’t pay nearly as much as my jobs at DSE, Federal Publishing, or even MicroBee, but it would allow us to eat and pay the mortgage – just! It was quite pleasant working with Dick Levine and his crew on Electronics News, and I was able to ‘lick my wounds’ once again and more or less recover my self-confidence after the MicroBee ordeal. However, that didn’t last very long because there had apparently been a series of confrontations at Federal Publishing between MD Michael Hannan, The MicroBee ‘Computer-in-a-book’ system was one of the products developed by MicroBee in the 1980s. Source: https://w.wiki/6cue Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au his bullying General Manager Bernie McGeorge and Leo Simpson – who had been promoted to my old position after my departure. Leo had then departed with some acrimony to plan the startup of Silicon Chip, and many of the remaining staff of EA were planning to join him when it began publication. As a result, I was approached first by the General Manager of FPC, Geoff Baggett, then by his very amiable personal assistant Cassie Bailey, both of whom tried to talk me into returning to Federal to save EA from extinction. Leo had told them, as he departed, that I was probably the one person who could do this, although he didn’t think they would be able to convince me to return after my previous very unhappy time there. Leo was right – I didn’t want to return, and told them so, despite the financial strain we were experiencing trying to live on my modest earnings at Electronics News. However, after a week or two, I received a phone call from MD Michael Hannan himself, asking if he might call into our home in Arncliffe that night, to try to talk me into returning. I warned him that I was unlikely to be convinced, but he was free to try if he wished. He did visit at about 7pm, and we had a ‘full and frank’ discussion for about three hours. I found out later that he had not been home for his evening meal. The result was that we finally agreed I would go back and try my best to keep EA going. Returning to Federal Publishing Around the middle of June 1987, I returned to ESN/Federal Publishing, then located at Bourke Road, Alexandria, next to the large ESN printing works. I then began rebuilding EA – finding new staff and working with them for long hours to keep EA coming out every month and hopefully to increase its reader appeal as well. We must have been reasonably successful because we managed to keep EA profitable for the next 12 years or so, despite several major challenges. One of these was a disastrous fire in mid-1988 that destroyed half of the Federal Publishing building and caused a lot of water and smoke damage to the EA offices and lab. We had to keep working while they rebuilt everything. siliconchip.com.au But the main and ongoing challenge was the very strong competition from Silicon Chip, which Leo Simpson had started publishing in November 1987 with most of the former EA staff. By the middle of 1999, the situation had become more difficult. Advertising revenue was falling along with drooping readership, despite our best efforts. As I had just turned 60, Federal management decided I should ‘retire’ from full-time work on the magazine and be replaced by one of the younger staff members. So Graham Cattley inherited the role of Editor, but I kept writing and working for EA as a ‘Contributing Editor’. This situation continued for the next year or so, with muggins still doing almost as much work as before but doing it from home. However, with me ‘out of the loop’, the magazine was redesigned to supposedly make it more appealing to a broader and less technical readership. Unfortunately, this revamp didn’t work, and the magazine closed down in early 2001, after a run of around 62 years as a monthly publication. So I was out of a job once more, along with Graham Cattley, Technical Editor Rob Evans and others. Luckily for me, I was able to keep earning a modest living by working for Gary Johnston’s firm, Jaycar Electronics – mainly writing ‘how-to’ technical booklets. Before long, Leo Simpson asked me to draw circuit schematics and other diagrams for Silicon Chip. As time passed, I was also able to design electronic projects, write them up and have them published in Silicon Chip. I have continued drawing diagrams, Jim Rowe pictured at his desk at Federal Publishing in late 1989, when Electronics Australia had moved into a new building after the disastrous fire in 1988. You can see the employee car park under construction through the window. but my article contributions for the magazine have transitioned mainly to reviews and technology feature articles. This ‘working from home’ arrangement has worked well for around 21 years and will hopefully let me keep earning a living for the next year or two. Thanks to the internet, there’s no need to commute to the Silicon Chip office at Brookvale, as everything can be moved back and forth via emails and FTP. So there’s much less stress than before, and as a bonus, I get to have morning coffee, lunch and afternoon tea almost every day with my dear life partner Laraine. What more could SC you ask? The “Low Cost 1GHz Frequency Counter” project was published in the April 1993 issue of Electronics Australia. It was developed by Jim Rowe and was meant as the ‘big brother’ to EA’s 50MHz Frequency Counter. Australia's electronics magazine July 2023  51