Electronics Illustrated

 Electronics Illustrated 

 Electronics Illustrated was an American-based magazine founded in 1958 by Fawcett Publications, which were also the publishers of Mechanix Illustrated. From 1959 the magazine was published on a monthly basis until 1961 then bi-monthly until November 1972. Charles Tepfer was the first editor and he was succeeded by Robert Beason who was the editor for the rest of the magazine's run. The magazine’s headquarters was in Greenwich, Connecticut. Electronics Illustrated targeted hobbyist and do-it-yourself audience for electronics, radio, and later on, introduced amateur rocketry. Amateur rocketry started off in their second issue with the cover of the magazine featuring a rocket being built at a basement workshop. The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, avid promotion of amateur rocketry by the US army with articles and covers on the same, and formation of Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) to sell instrumentation to rocket hobbyists in 1960s led to many hobbyists into amateur rocketry and gave the magazine an audience of amateur rocketry. However, that venture quickly crumpled and the magazine diverted to computer kits that sparked the home computer revolution.

The construction projects in the magazine were assembled and scrutinized by the editors and the articles had clear instructions on how to go about constructions including picture details. The projects were not as complex as those in other magazines they mainly appealed to the beginner with introductory theory articles in every issue.

The radio focus of the magazine covered areas such as the Citizens Band (CB), Amateur Radio, and Short Wave Listening (SWL), and Robert Hertzberg began an amateur radio column, The Ham Shack, in April 1961 which was taken over by Wayne Greene in 1970.

In the final years of the magazine, there arose similarities in articles in the magazine and Mechanix Illustrated. The magazine was discontinued in 1972 and some of the content was continued in Mechanix Illustrated with a shrinking market for electronics magazines, and wanting to focus on Mechanix Illustrated highlighted as reasons for closure.