Interview: Ask Forrest Mims About Rockets, Electronics, and Engineering

With his popular Getting Started in Electronics, and Engineer's Mini-Notebook series and a number of different electronics kits sold at Radio Shack, Forrest Mims inspired countless scientists and engineers. Even though he received no formal academic training in science, Forrest has appeared in 70 magazines and scientific journals. He has worked as a consultant for the National Geographic Society, the National Science Teachers Association, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Today, Mims works on many scientific projects including climate change research. He's agreed to answer all your questions about science and engineering. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one question per post.

Comments

Re:Past vs present

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, of course, so you make foxhole radios from locally-sourced blue steel and galena crystals you mine from your own garden? Perhaps you build your own carbon-arc transmitters or make your own vacuum tubes? The problem with "doing things the hard way" is there's almost no end to how hard you can make it. So are you more interested in the destination or the journey? If it's the journey, read this:

http://tinyurl.com/oaaktbc

That links to an awesome PDF.

Of course you can still buy Varicaps. When did you check?

http://www.digikey.ca/product-search/en?x=0&y=0&lang=en&site=ca&KeyWords=varicap

Maybe it's time to re-think your approach??