Nuts & Volts - February 2004

of hobby electronics today is as high as ever. The old hobby electronics magazines have been replaced by a magazine with consistently high quality projects and articles. I feel the same sense of excitement opening up the latest issue of Nuts & Volts as I did back in the 1970s when I was writing articles and columns for Popular Electronics.

The sharp decline in electronics projects at science fairs and the declining enrollment in engineering courses at colleges and universities are troubling. But hope has arrived in the form of hobby robotics. Just a few weeks ago, my daughter Sarah participated in a high school robotics competition. The students learned a great deal about basic electronics and mechanics from the experience.

The overall number of electronics hobbyists was sharply reduced by the personal computer revolution they helped bring about. Yet there remain plenty of electronics enthusiasts who still enjoy designing and building circuits even more powerful and versatile than those we built a decade ago. Many hobbyists use computers to program their projects, which these days include many highly creative robotic devices. Others have found specialized niches for their electronics pursuits. In my case, for example, I design and use various instruments that measure the ozone layer, haze, and ultraviolet. Some of my inexpensive instruments have found errors in data from four remote sensing

satellites.

So while the overall number of electronics hobbyists has declined since the 1980s, there are still plenty of fun, creative, and even scientific things that we hobbyists can do. Thanks to mail order suppliers like Digi-Key and Jameco, we can order virtually any electronic parts we need. And thanks to eBay and other web resources, we can buy high quality test equipment at only a fraction of the price we might have paid a decade ago. We can build lasers, radio-controlled electric aircraft, seis-mometers, and optical fiber communication links.

As for the future, I still remember the hundreds of excited spectators and participants who filled a large gymnasium during the recent robotic competition in which my daughter participated. These competitions are occurring all around the US, and the number of students who have built radio-controlled "robots" is probably far greater than those who built their own computers back in the 1970s.

So while hobby electronics lost many of its enthusiasts to the computer revolution it helped begin, there's still plenty to do for those of us who enjoy designing, soldering, tinkering, and programming. Just imagine the possibilities. Maybe some clever hobbyists can show the high school robotics movement how to build remotely piloted, indoor helicopters that score points by flying figure-8s and dropping plastic rings onto poles. NV

About the Author Forrest M. Mims III, an active member of the Society for Amateur Scientists ( www.sas.org), develops lab kits for RadioShack when he is not doing professional science. His electronics books have sold some 7. 5 million copies.Visit him on the web at www.forrestmims.org