The Altair 8800 computer kit (January 1975)

Popular Electronics was a magazine started by Ziff-Davis Publishing in October 1954 for hobbyist and experimenters in electronics. It soon became the "World's Largest-Selling Electronics Magazine". The circulation was 240,151 in April 1957 and 400,000 by 1963.^[1] Ziff-Davis published Popular Electronics until April 1985. Gernsback Publications acquired the title in 1988 and renamed their Hands-On Electronics. That version of Popular Electronics was published until December 1999. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (660x880, 140 KB) Summary Popular Electronics, January 1975. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (660x880, 140 KB) Summary Popular Electronics, January 1975. ... Ziff Davis Inc. ...

A cover story on Popular Electronics could launch a new product or company. The most famous issue, January 1975, had the Altair 8800 computer on the cover and this ignited the home computer revolution. Paul Allen showed that issue to Bill Gates. They wrote a BASIC interpreter for the Altair computer and started Microsoft.^[2] Altair 8800 Computer with 8 inch floppy disk system The MITS Altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975, based on the Intel 8080 CPU. Sold as a kit through Popular Electronics magazine, the designers intended to sell only a few hundred to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold... For other persons named Paul Allen, see Paul Allen (disambiguation). ... For other persons named Bill Gates, see Bill Gates (disambiguation). ... This article is about the programming language. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ...

How it started

The cover of the premiere issue of Popular Electronics magazine

Radio & Television News was a magazine for professionals and the editors wanted to create a magazine just for hobbyist. Ziff-Davis had started Popular Aviation in 1927 and Popular Photography in 1934 but found that Gernsback Publications had the trademark on Popular Electronics. It was a used in Radio-Craft^[3] from 1943 until 1948. Ziff-Davis bought the trademark and started Popular Electronics with the October 1954 issue. Image File history File links Cover of the premier issue of Popular Electronics magazine. ... Image File history File links Cover of the premier issue of Popular Electronics magazine. ... ...

Many of the editors and authors worked for both Ziff-Davis magazines. Initially Oliver Read was the editor of both Radio & Television News and Popular Electronics. Read was promoted to Publisher in June 1956.^[4] Oliver Perry Ferrell took over as editor of Popular Electronics and William A. Stocklin became editor of Radio & Television News. In Radio & TV News John T. Frye wrote a column on a fictional repair shop where the proprietor, Mac, would interact with other technicians and customers. The reader would learn repair techniques for servicing radios and TVs. In Popular Electronics his column was about two high school boys, Carl and Jerry. Each month the boys would have an adventure that would teach the reader about electronics.

By 1954 building audio and radio kits was a growing pastime. Heathkit and many others offered kits that included all of the parts with detailed instructions. The premier cover shows the assembly of a Heathkit A-7B audio amplifier. Popular Electronics would offer projects that were built from scratch, that is the individual parts were purchased a local electronics store or by mail order. The early issues often showed these as father and son projects. Heathkits were products of the Heath Company, Benton Harbor, Michigan. ...

Most of the early project used vacuum tubes; transistors had just become available to hobbyist. The Raytheon CK722 was $3.50 in the December 1954 issue; a 12AX7 dual triode tube was only $0.61. Lou Garner wrote the feature story for the first issue, a battery powered tube radio that could be used on a bicycle. Later he was given a column called Transistor Topics (June 1956). Transistors soon cost less than a dollar and transistor project became common in every issue of Popular Electronics. The column was renamed to Solid State in 1965 and ran under his byline until December 1978. In electronics, a vacuum tube (American English) or (thermionic) valve (British English) is a device generally used to amplify a signal. ... Photo of transistor types (tape measure marked in centimeters) Transistor in the SMD form factor The transistor is a solid state semiconductor device used for amplification and switching. ... The CK722 was the first low cost junction transistor available to the general public. ... 12AX7 is a miniature dual triode vacuum tube of high gain. ...

Typical 1962 issue

The July 1962 issue had 112 pages, the editor was Olivier P. Ferrell and the monthly circulation was 400,000. The magazine had a full page of electronics news that was called "POP'tronics News Scope." In January 2000 a successor magazine was renamed Poptronics. In the 1960s Fawcett Publications had a competing magazine, Electronics Illustrated. Fawcett Publications was an American publishing company founded in 1919 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota by Wilford Hamilton Captain Billy Fawcett (1883-1940). ...

The cover showed a 15 inch black and white TV kit by Conar that cost $135. The feature construction story was a "Radiation Fallout Monitor" for "keeping track of the radiation level in your neighborhood." (The Cuban Missile Crisis was that October.) Other construction projects included "The Fish Finder", an underwater temperature probe; the "Transistorized Tremolo" for an electric guitar; and a one tube VHF receiver to listen to aircraft. For the video game based on the possible outcomes of this event, see Cuban Missile Crisis: The Aftermath. ... Very high frequency (VHF) is the radio frequency range from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. ...

There were regular columns for Citizens Band (CB), amateur radio and shortwave listening (SWL). These would show a reader with his radio equipment each month. (Almost all of the readers were male.)^[5] Lou Garner's Transistor Topics covers the new transistorized FM stereo receivers and several readers' circuits. John T. Frye's fictional characters, Carl and Jerry, use a PH meter to locate the source of pollution in a river. A typical CB base station. ... Amateur radio station with modern solid-state transceiver featuring LCD and DSP capabilities Amateur radio, often called ham radio, is both a hobby and a service that uses various types of radio communications equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for public service, recreation and self-training. ... Shortwaves can be heard using a cheap world band receiver. ...

Authors and Kits

A Popular Electronics project designed by Don Lancaster and sold by Daniel Meyer's Southwest Technical Products Corp.

As Editor, Olivier Ferrell built a stable of authors who contributed interesting construction projects. These projects established the style of Popular Electronics for years to come. Two of the most prolific authors were Daniel Meyer and Don Lancaster.

Daniel Meyer graduated from Southwest Texas State (1957) and became an engineer at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. He soon started writing hobbyist articles. The first was in Electronics World (May 1960) and latter he had a 2 part cover feature for Radio Electronics (October, November 1962). The March 1963 issue of Popular Electronics featured his ultrasonic listening device on the cover. Daniel Meyer (b. ... Texas State University–San Marcos is a doctoral degree granting university located in San Marcos, Texas. ... Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is an independent, nonprofit applied research and development organization. ... ... Radio electronics is the sub-field of electrical engineering concerning itself with the class of electronic circuits which receive or transmit radio signals. ...

Don Lancaster graduated from Lafayette College (1961) and Arizona State University (1966). A 1960s fad was to have colored lights synchronized with music. This psychedelic lighting was made economical by the development of the silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR). Don's first published article was "Solid-State 3-Channel Color Organ" in the April 1963 issue of Electronics World. He was paid $150 for the story.^[6] Don Lancaster is an author, inventor, and microcomputer pioneer, best known for his magazine columns. ... Lafayette College is a private coeducational liberal arts and engineering college located in Easton, Pennsylvania, USA. The school, founded in 1826 by citizens of Easton, first began holding classes in 1832. ... Arizona State University (ASU) is a public research institution of higher education and research with campuses located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. ... For psychedelics, see psychedelic drug. ... SCR schematic symbol A silicon-controlled rectifier (or semiconductor-controlled rectifier) is a 4-layer solid state device that controls current flow. ...

The projects in Popular Electronics changed from vacuum tube to solid state in the early 1960s. Tube circuits used a metal chassis with sockets, transistor circuits worked best on a printed circuit board. They would often contain components that were not available at the local electronics parts store. Part of a 1983 Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer board. ...

Dan Meyer saw the business opportunity in providing circuit boards and parts for the Popular Electronics projects. In January 1964 he left Southwest Research Institute to start an electronics kit company. He continued to write articles and ran the mail order kit business from his home in San Antonio, Texas. By 1965 he was providing the kits for other authors such as Lou Garner. In 1967 he sold a kit for Don Lancaster's "IC-67 Metal Locator". In early 1967 Meyer moved his growing business from his home to a new building on a 3 acre site in San Antonio. The Daniel E. Meyer Company (DEMCO) became Southwest Technical Products Corporation (SWTPC) that fall. The U.S. company SWTPC started in 1964 as DEMCO (Daniel E. Meyer Company). ...

In 1967, Popular Electronics had 6 articles by Dan Meyer and 4 by Don Lancaster. Seven of that year's cover stories featured kits sold by SWTPC. In the years 1966 to 1971 SWTPC's authors wrote 64 articles and had 25 cover stories in Popular Electronics. (Don Lancaster alone had 23 articles and 10 were cover stories.) The San Antonio Express-News did a feature story on Southwest Technical Products in November 1972. "Meyer built his mail-order business from scratch to more than $1 million in sales in six years." The company was shipping 100 kits a day from 18,000 square feet of buildings.^[7] The San Antonio Express-News is the daily newspaper of San Antonio, Texas. ...

Others noticed SWTPC success. Forrest Mims, a founder of MITS (Altair 8800), tells about his "Light-Emitting Diodes" cover story (Popular Electronics, November 1970) in an interview with Creative Computing.^[8] Forrest M. Mims III is the author of the Engineers Mini-Notebook–series of instructional books sold in Radio Shack and Tandy electronics stores. ... Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) was an Albuquerque, New Mexico company founded in 1968 by Ed Roberts. ... Red, pure green, and blue LEDs. ... Creative Computing was one of the earliest magazines covering the personal computer revolution. ...

In March, I sold my first article to Popular Electronics magazine, a feature about light-emitting diodes. At one of our midnight meetings I suggested that we emulate Southwest Technical Products and develop a project article for Popular Electronics. The article would give us free advertising for the kit version of the project, and the magazine would even pay us for the privilege of printing it!

The November 1970 issue also has an article by Forrest M. Mims and Henry E. Roberts titled "Assemble an LED Communicator - The Opticon."^[9] A kit of parts could be ordered from MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Popular Electronics paid $400 for the article. Ed Roberts (born 1942) was the founder and president of Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) which built the Altair 8800, one of the very first hobbyist personal computers. ...

Merger with Electronics World

Popular Electronics had a major update starting in 1971 including merging with Electronics World.

Radio & Television News became Electronics World in 1959 and in January 1972 was merged into Popular Electronics. The process started in the summer of 1971 with a new editor, Milton S. Snitzer, replacing the long time editor, Oliver P. Ferrell. The publishers decided to focus on topics with prosperous advertisers, such as CB Radio and audio equipment. Construction projects were no longer the feature articles. They were replaced by new product reviews.^[10] The change in editorial direction upset many authors. Dan Meyer wrote a letter in his SWTPC catalog referring to the magazine, Popular Electronics with Electronics World, as "PEEW". He urged his customers to switch to Radio Electronics.

Don Lancaster, Daniel Meyer, Forrest Mims, Ed Roberts, John Simonton and other authors switched to Radio Electronics. Even Solid State columnist Lou Garner moved to Radio Electronics for a year.^[11] In 1972 and 1973 some of the best projects appeared in Radio Electronics as the new Popular Electronics digested the merger. The upcoming personal computer benefited from this competition between Radio Electronics and Popular Electronics. Don Lancaster is an author, inventor, and microcomputer pioneer, best known for his magazine columns. ... Daniel Meyer (b. ... Forrest M. Mims III is the author of the Engineers Mini-Notebook–series of instructional books sold in Radio Shack and Tandy electronics stores. ... Henry Edward Roberts (born 1942) was the founder and president of Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) which built the Altair 8800, one of the very first hobbyist personal computers. ... John Stayton Simonton Jr. ...

In September 1973 Radio Electronics published Don Lancaster's TV Typewriter, a low cost video display. In July 1974 Radio Electronics published the Mark-8 Personal Minicomputer based on the Intel 8008 processor. The publishers noted the success of Radio Electronics and Arthur P. Salsberg took over as Editor in 1974. Salsberg and Technical Editor, Leslie Solomon, brought back the featured construction projects. Popular Electronics needed a computer project so they selected Ed Robert's Altair 8800^[12] computer based on the improved Intel 8080 processor. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics had the Altair computer on the cover and this launched the home computer revolution. The TV Typewriter (TVT) was an early computer kit, introduced by Don Lancaster in 1973. ... Mark 8 is the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. ... Intel 8008 The Intel 8008 was an early microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel and introduced in April, 1972. ... Altair 8800 Computer with 8 inch floppy disk system The MITS Altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975, based on the Intel 8080 CPU. Sold as a kit through Popular Electronics magazine, the designers intended to sell only a few hundred to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold... AMD clone NEC 8080AF (2nd-source). ...

In the 1960s the covers featured a large image of the feature story, usually a construction project. When Snitzer was editor (1971-1974) the large photos were gone, replaced by a textual list of articles. The magazine title also changed to an underlined serif font. The magazine changed from digest size to letter size in August 1974.

Personal Computers

There is debate about what machine was the first personal computer, the Altair 8800 (1975), the Mark-8 (1974), or even back to Kenbak-1 (1971). The computer in the January 1975 issue of captured the attention of the 400,000 or so readers of Popular Electronics. Before then, home computers were lucky to sell a hundred units. The Altair sold thousands in the first year. By the end of 1975 there were a dozen companies producing computer kits and peripherals. The Kenbak-1 is considered by the Computer History Museum to be the worlds first ever personal computer (however, the Datapoint 2200 may have been invented first, sold first, or both; the exact dates have not been established). ...

The February 1975 issue featured an 'All Solid-State TV Camera"^[13] by three Stanford University students; Terry Walker, Harry Garland and Roger Melen. While the camera kit was designed to use an oscilloscope the article mentions it could be connected to the Altair computer. It soon was, the authors got one of the first Altair computers and designed an interface for the camera. They also designed a full color video display for the Altair, "The TV Dazzler",^[14] that appeared on the cover of the February 1976 issue. This was the start of Cromemco, a computer company that grew to over 500 employees by 1983.^[15] Stanford redirects here. ... Cromemco was a Mountain View, California microcomputer company that began as a partnership in 1974 between Harry Garland and Roger Melen, two Stanford PhD students. ...

The internet did not exist in 1975 but time-sharing computers did. With a computer terminal and a modem a user could dial into a large multi-user computer. Lee Felsenstein wanted make low cost versions of modems and terminals available to hobbyist. The March 1976 issue had the "Pennywhistle Modem"^[16] and the July 1976 issue had the "SOL Intelligent Terminal"^[17] The SOL, built by Processor Technology, was really an Altair compatible computer and became one of the most successful personal computers at that time. Alternate uses: see Timesharing Time-sharing is an approach to interactive computing in which a single computer is used to provide apparently simultaneous interactive general-purpose computing to multiple users by sharing processor time. ... A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that is used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a computer or a computing system. ... For other uses, see Modem (disambiguation). ... Lee Felsenstein (born 1945 in Philadelphia) is a computer engineer who was the designer of the Osborne 1, the first portable computer. ... Processor Technology Corporation was a microcomputer company founded in the mid-1970s. ...

Popular Electronics had many other computer projects such as the Altair 680, the Speechlab voice recognition board and the COSMAC ELF. They did not have the field to themselves. A dedicated computer magazine, Byte, was started in September 1975. It was soon followed by other new magazines. By the end of 1977, fully assembled computers such as Apple II, Radio Shack TRS-80, and the Commodore PET were on the market. Building computer kits was soon replaced by plugging in assembled boards. The COSMAC ELF was a very early personal computer. ... Byte magazine was an influential microcomputer magazine in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, because of its wide-ranging editorial coverage. ... The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ... For the Chicago-based electronica group, see TRS-80 (group). ... The PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) was a home-/personal computer produced by Commodore starting in the late 1970s. ...

Computers & Electronics

Popular Electronics becomes Computers & Electronics. (November 1982)

Popular Electronics continued with a full range of construction projects using the newest technologies such as microprocessors and other programmable devices. In November 1982 the magazine became Computers & Electronics. There were more equipment reviews and fewer construction projects. One of the last major projects was a bidirectional Analog to Digital converter for the Apple II computer published in July and August of 1983. Art Salsberg left at the end of 1983 and Seth R. Alpert became editor. The magazine dropped all project articles and just reviewed hardware and software. The circulation was almost 600,000 in January 1985 when Forrest Mims wrote about the tenth anniversary of the Altair 8800 computer.

In October 1984 Art Salsberg started a competing magazine, Modern Electronics. Editor Alexander W. Burawa and contributors Forrest Mims, Len Feldman, and Glenn Hauser moved to Modern Electronics. Here is how Art Salsberg described the new magazine.^[18]

Directed to enthusiasts like yourselves, who savor learning more about the latest developments in electronics and computer hardware, Modern Electronics shows you what's new in the world of electronics/computers, how this equipment works, how to use them, and construction plans for useful electronic devices.

Many of you probably know of me from my decade-long stewardship of Popular Electronics magazine, which changed its name and editorial philosophy last year to distance itself from active electronics enthusiasts who move fluidly across electronics and computer product areas. In a sense, then, Modern Electronics is the successor to the original concept of Popular Electronics …

The last issue of Computers & Electronics was April 1985. Editor Seth R. Alpert was missing from the masthead. The magazine's demise was due the intense competition in computer magazines, the defection of the magazine staff, and major changes in Ziff-Davis Publishing. A masthead is a list, usually found on the editorial page of a newspaper, of the members of the newspapers editorial board. ...

Ziff-Davis asset sale

In 1953, William B. Ziff, Jr. (age 23) was thrust into the publishing business when his father died of a heart attack. In 1982, Ziff was diagnosed with prostate cancer so he asked his three sons (ages 14 to 20) if they wanted to run a publishing empire. They did not. Ziff wanted to simplify the estate by selling some of the magazines. In November 1984, CBS bought the consumer group for $362.5 million and Rupert Murdoch bought the business group for $350 million. William B. Ziff, Jr. ... This article is about the broadcast network. ... Keith Rupert Murdoch AC, KCSG (born 11 March 1931) is an Australian born United States citizen who is a global media executive and is the controlling shareholder, chairman and managing director of News Corporation, based in New York. ...

This left Ziff-Davis with the computer group and the database publisher (Information Access Company.) These groups were not profitable. Ziff took time off to successfully battle the prostate cancer. (He lived until 2006.) When he returned he focused on magazines like PC Magazine and MacUser to rebuild Ziff-Davis. In 1994 he and his sons sold Ziff-Davis for $1.4 billon. PC Magazine (or PC Mag) is a computer magazine published biweekly (except in January and July) both in print and online. ... MacUser, 27 May 2005 MacUser is a fortnightly computer magazine published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. ...

Gernsback Publications

The title Popular Electronics was sold to Gernsback Publications and their Hands-On Electronics magazine was renamed to Popular Electronics in February 1989. This version was published until it was merged with Electronics Now to become Poptronics in January 2000. In late 2002 Gernsback Publications went out of business and the January 2003 Poptronics was the last issue.

See also

• WGU-20

WGU-20, also known as the last radio station, was a radio station operated by the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency (now the Federal Emergency Management Agency) in the mid to late 1970s. ...

References

Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 108th day of the year (109th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Don Lancaster is an author, inventor, and microcomputer pioneer, best known for his magazine columns. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 76th day of the year (77th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 323rd day of the year (324th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 76th day of the year (77th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Forrest M. Mims III is the author of the Engineers Mini-Notebook–series of instructional books sold in Radio Shack and Tandy electronics stores. ...

External links

• Online scans of selected Popular Electronics issues

• Index of all of John T. Frye's Carl and Jerry stories

• STARTUP: Albuquerque and the Personal Computer Revolution