''Electronics Australia'' or ''EA'' was Australia's longest-running general

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

magazine. It was based in

Chippendale, New South Wales Chippendale is a small inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on the southern edge of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney. Chippendale is located between Broadway to the ...

Publication history

It can claim to trace its history to 1922 when the '' Wireless Weekly'' magazine was formed. Its content was a mix of general and technical articles on the new topic of

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

. In April 1939 the magazine became monthly and was renamed ''Radio and Hobbies''. As its name suggests, it was a more technical publication for hobbyists, but it also featured articles on

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultrav ...

, music and

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot a ...

. Nonetheless its base was radio, and it contained many how-to-build projects. The first editor was John Moyle, from 1947 to 1960. With the advent of television,

was added to its title in February 1955, ''Radio Television & Hobbies'', or RTV&H. During these years numerous how-to-build articles on high fidelity audio, amateur radio and even

electronic organ An electric organ, also known as electronic organ, is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has since developed ...

s and television sets were published. The growing fields of scientific, medical,

computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, ...

and other applications of electronics necessitated a name change to ''Electronics Australia'' in April 1965 (being Volume 27, Number 1). ''Electronics Australia'' published a number of innovative computer construction projects, including the Educ-8 in 1974, the Mini Scamp, the Dream 6800 and the Super-80 - a joint venture with Dick Smith Electronics. Although many competitors came and went during the 1970s and 1980s, such as ''

Electronics Today International ''Electronics Today International'' or ETI was a magazine for electronics hobbyists and professionals. Originally started in Australia in April 1971, ''ETI'' was published in the UK in 1972. From there, it expanded to various European countrie ...

'', '' Australian Electronics Monthly'', and '' Talking Electronics'', ''Electronics Australia'' survived into the 2000s. For a couple of years, more consumer electronics items were introduced, and continued to occupy more of the magazine, while the magazine's technical material occupied the rear pages. Possibly due to this reduction in importance of technical slant, several of the magazine's staff (including the Editor, Leo Simpson) left to start the magazine that would become its main rival, ''

Silicon Chip An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...

'', in 1987. Under recently installed editor Graham Cattley, a change of name to ''Electronics Australia Today'' in April 2001 spelt the death knell. Most technical content was removed and ''EAT'' changed focus to become a fully consumer-oriented publication, although this consumer change was noticeable since April 2000, when the name was changed from ''Electronics Australia'' to simply ''EA'', with the ''Electronics Australia'' name remaining a subtitle for several issues before it was dropped entirely. This was a new fresher consumer look, with square glued binding instead of the traditional stapled binding. Many long-time readers considered the name change from ''Electronics Australia'' to ''EA'' to be the end of the traditional ''Electronics Australia'' look and brand. Original readers and advertisers finally deserted in droves when the name was changed to ''EAT'' and the magazine failed to pick up new readers (there were already many established magazines covering consumer electronics). ''EAT'' lasted only six issues before it folded. The last issue with ''Electronics Australia'' as the main title was published March 2000. There were 432 issues in all up until December 2000. The rights to ''Electronics Australia'' are now owned by ''

''. ''Silicon Chip'' have not released back issues on CD as they have done with ''Wireless Weekly'' and ''Radio TV&Hobbies'' due to not having contracts with most of the freelance article contributors over the years, who technically still own copyright on their respective articles and construction projects.

List of editors

(''incomplete'')

References

{{Reflist

External links