Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles
from Popular Electronics,
published October 1954 - April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.
Here are a few tech-themed
comics from the April 1967 edition of Popular Electronics magazine depicting
the perception of techies during the era. I took the liberty of colorizing them. As mentioned before, stereo equipment
was a big deal in the era, back before most people listened to music through ear
buds attached to smartphones. When in the USAF in the early 1980s, a sure sign of
hipness was to have 19" equipment rack in your barracks room, stuffed full with
a reel-to-reel tape deck, a high end AM/FM receiver ("tuner," to the audiophile),
power amplifier that could deliver at least 200 W per channel, a dual cassette
deck, turntable (referring to it as a "phonograph" revealed your squareness). Of
course no self-respecting stereo aficionado would be caught dead with an 8-track
tape deck in the rack. Things really haven't changed much when it comes to serious
audiophiles, except now a CD/DVD player will be included. Popular Electronics
was published from October 1954 through April 1985 - a 31 year run. In January 1972,
Electronics World magazine was combined with Popular
Electronics.
The Hobbyist ...as seen by Walt Miller
"Come on, Ed, I'll show you how to make an oscilloscope out of
your TV set."
" ... and two 36-inch tweeters."
"It was a real buy ... 29 cents a pound."
"I'm getting closer to the trouble ... I've got it playing three
minutes before the fuse blows.
"
These Technically-Themed Comics Appeared in Vintage Electronics Magazines. I
personally scanned and posted every one from copies I own (and even colorized some).
256 pages as of 4/18/2025.
RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling
2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed
formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit
design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at
the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps
while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail"
when a new message arrived...
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