Wireless World

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Wireless World was the preeminent British magazine for radio and electronics enthusiasts. It was one of the very few "informal" journals which were tolerated as a professional expense.

It was also aimed at home constructors, publishing articles on building radio receivers and, after the BBC started regular 405-line TV programmes from Alexandra Palace in 1936, complete details on building your own TV set - including the winding of the high-voltage CRT deflector coils (not a task for the faint hearted). A similar series was published after 1945 utilising the then ubiquitous EF50 RF amplifier valve (tube).

In 1945 it published a famous article by Arthur C Clarke (then of The British Interplanetary Society) which foresaw the coming of communication satellites in synchronous orbit around the earth.

As well as being a place where many famous audio pioneers shared ideas, with articles on the 'Dinsdale Amp' and the 'Linsley Hood' power amp, it also published articles on building the famous "Williamson amplifier" by D.T.N Williamson - using a pair of triode connected KT66s in push-pull to give 15 Watts output. In 1975/6 it published a design for the decoding of broadcast TV Teletext information before the first commercial decoder became available in the marketplace.

In 1967-1968 they published a series Wireless World Digital Computer by Brian Crank which described how to build a very simple binary computer at home. Around 1979 they published a design for a "scientific computer" which was sold as the PSI Comp 80 in kit form by the company Powertran.

Contributors included M.G. Scroggie, who also had an anonymous column cleverly entitled "Unbiased" by "Free Grid". Amongst the early editors was W.T. Cocking; the last four editors were Tom Ivall, Frank Ogden, Martin Eccles, and Phil Reed. The current editor is Svetlana Josifovska.

In September 1984 the title was changed to Electronics and Wireless World. The magazine is still published, but under the title Electronics World, and is available from major magazine stores or by subscription.

A sister publication was "Wireless Engineer" which was more of a learned journal than a popular magazine, featuring high quality articles.