IAN HICKMAN'S HOME PAGE

Who am I?

   Eur. Ing.  D. I. H. May B.Sc.Hons, C.Eng., MIEE, MIEEE (also known as Ian Hickman) has been interested in electronics since the 
late 1940s, and professionally involved in it since 1954. Starting with a crystal set during my school days, my interests over the years
have covered every aspect of electronics, though mainly concentrating on analog.  I attended Latymer Upper School and later Brunel

College of Advanced Technology, receiving a London External Degree.
   In 1954 - 1956 I served in The Royal Airforce, latterly at the famous wartime fighter station near the south coast, RAF Tangmere. From 1956 
to retirement in 1991 I had a career as a design engineer in the electronics industry; both in military and civilian work, at GEC,
Hatfield Instruments and Plessey (latterly Siemens).  In the 1970s I started a career as an electronics author and worked as such full time from 1991.
  Though now retired, I was for years Consultant to the magazine "Electronics World" the longest established electronics magazine 
in the world. Founded in 1911 as "The Marconigraph", for most of the time since 1913 it was known as "Wireless World". "Electronics 
World" is published monthly by Saint John Patrick Publishers Ltd.
   I am a Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology: For more information on The IET,CLICK HERE
   I am past Chairman of the flourishing Solent Area Retired Members' Section of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. This is
probably the most successful IET RMS with typical attendances at our monthly lectures of 80 or more members and guests. To see the
current programme, CLICK HERE.
   I am a Life Member of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers: For more information on The IEEE, CLICK HERE
   For more information on IEEE Life Members, CLICK HERE

What do I do?

 

Books by Ian Hickman


In print

 
Oscilloscopes: How to Use Them, How They Work, 5th Edition 2001, ISBN 0 7506 4757 4
 
Digital storage oscilloscopes, 1997, ISBN 0 7506 2856 1 
 
Practical RF Handbook 4th Ed., 2007, ISBN 0 7506 8039 3 
 
Practical RF Handbook 3rd Edition, 2004, in Chinese, Flag Publishing Company, Taiwan.
 
Hickman's Analog and RF Circuits, 1998, ISBN 0 7506 3742 0
 
Analog Electronics, 2nd. Edn. 1999, ISBN 0 7506 4416 8 
 
Analog Circuits Cookbook, 2nd Edn.1995, ISBN 0 7506 4234 3  NOTE The last chapter of the 1st Edition, Tricks of the Trade, was omitted from the 2nd Edition,
 to make way for other new material. The "Tricks of the Trade" chapter can be viewed in its entirety by.CLICKING HERE
 Note: large files, best viewed on broadband - will be slow on dial-up connections.

Out of print, but still in many libraries


Electronic Circuits Systems and Standards (articles selected from EDN, edited by Ian Hickman), 1991, ISBN 0 7506 0068 3
The EDN Designer's Companion (articles selected from EDN, edited by IanHickman and Bill Travis), 1994, ISBN 0 7506 1721 7  
Electronics Questions and Answers 2nd Ed., 1982, ISBN 0 408 00578 5
Get More from your Personal Computer, 1982, ISBN 0 408 01131 9
Computing with the ORIC 1, 1984, ISBN 0 408 01444 X
Analog Electronics, 1st. Edn. 1990, ISBN 0 434 90723 5
Oscilloscopes: How to Use Them, How They Work, Editions 1 to 4
Practical RF Handbook, Editions 1 to 3
Analog Circuits Cookbook, 1st Edition
Analog Electronics, 1st Edition  

Click on any "in print" thumbnail above to see the cover in detail.  Use Internet Explorer's Back button to return.


Foreign translations and out-of-print (the latter still in many libraries).  Use Internet Explorer's Back button to return.





Who is Dorothy Margaret May?

  My wife Dot ("Dorothy") is a natural linguist and at Twickenham County School for Girls gained 6 "O" levels including French, and German
after only one year's study.  Her "A" levels included Latin and Classical Greek and she later obtained Royal Society of Arts Certificates
in Spanish and Italian.  Whilst working at the Banque Belge pour l'Etranger she spoke French all day, except when required to work in
Flemish or German.  In later life she acquired an B.A. in French with German, studied Modern Greek and Russian, was awarded an "O" level
in Welsh and has dabbled in Turkish, Arabic and Mandarin.  She is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists.
  Dot is a devotee of the metropolis, which she visits most weeks, where her ART FUND card comes in useful - there are very few London
exhibitions that she misses.  She is interested in most art forms, and reads extensively, both fiction and non-fiction. In music, her taste is
wide and she especially enjoys opera. 


Dave ("Ian Hickman") and Dot May

	
visit the Royal Institution, and

	
Dot hobnobs with F. D. R. and W. S. C.




	

Later, Dot visits London     

	
 

	
 to see the lights.

Our home

Despite global warming, both of the two winters 2009/10 and 2010/11 were, here where we live near the couth coast, unusually severe.
We got used to seeing our house looking like this, not since 1963 had we seen so much snow in this area of the country - south-east Hants.
By contrast, this winter we have seen no snow at all - at least, so far!

What else do I do?


I am a member of The National Trust, and Chairman of ThePortsmouth and District Centre of The National Trust,
of which my wife Dot is Secretary. For more information on The National Trust, CLICK HERE
For more information on Portsmouth and District Centre, CLICK HERE .

Dot and I are members of the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies, and of our local NADFAS group,
of which I am the webmaster. The Portsea Island Decorative and Fine Arts Society meets monthly (except August and September) in
The Victory Bar, Fratton Park, Frogmore Road, Portsmouth, Hants, PO4 8RA. For more information on NADFAS,  CLICK HERE .

For more information on Portsea Island Decorative and Fine Arts Society, CLICK HERE .

Dot and I are members of the Elgar Society, and of the Southern Branch, which meets in Havant, Hampshire.
For more details, CLICK HERE.

I am a member of the "Mayflower Club", an informal association of employees and ex-employees of GEC/Marconi group companies.
The club organises monthly rambles, holidays, golf matches, dinners and other events. There is no annual subscription.
For more information, email me at the email address below.

Dot and I enjoy the musical appreciation/gastronomic weekends arranged by the Arts in Residence organisation.
For more details, CLICK HERE

I am a long-standing member of the ELECTRONIC ORGAN CONSTRUCTORS' SOCIETY.
For more information on the EOCS, CLICK HERE.

We are also Friends of Park Wood, an area of 3.2 hectares (7.9 acres), being a remnant of the ancient Forest of Bere,
in the care of The Woodland Trust. For more information about Park Wood, CLICK HERE.

I used at one time to suffer chronic low back pain and acute supra-spinatus tendonitis, but not now.
For more details, CLICK HERE

To read about the RIPON HORNBLOWER, CLICK HERE.


  I attended Latymer Upper School and am an Old Latymerian.   For more details on Old Latymerians, visit
www.latymer-upper.org and click on the Former pupils link. For two years in the early 1950s I was leader of
the school orchestra and I believe that I am the originator of the captive mute now used almost universally
by string players. I never got around to taking Grade VI, due to the intervention of National Service and
then earning a living, but in the Sixth form during 1952/53 the school orchestra was coached by a certain Ken
Popplewell, an old boy of the school and a violinist in the BBCSO. I found the mute, of the traditional heavy
metal variety with prongs to clip on the bridge, a great inconvenience. It needed to be kept handy, but on the
music stand it got in the way when turning the page, and I had no handy waistcoat pocket for it.  So I
fashioned myself a small block of wood with a groove along each side and a step at the front, nicely varnished
to match my instrument, to fit between the D and A strings. Normally kept adjacent to the tailpiece, in use it
was slid forward with the stepped end pressing down on the bridge - it proved most effective. Ken Popplewell
was intrigued, tried it in use on my instrument (which was never so well played!), was impressed and asked if I
would make him one, which I did. He was in fact an excellent woodworker, and doubtless made himself a better
one in hardwood - probably for other members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra as well, and now a captive mute
is universally used. He also made a violin from wood he collected on the battlefields of The Great War. You can see this instrument , in its glass
case, on the wall near the main hall of the Imperial War Museum.
  It is taken out and played on Remembrance Sunday and again on November 11th, each year. I saw Ken from time to time throughout the fifties
and sixties, but then lost touch, although I know he died some time ago, so the violin is also a memorial to him.

I can be contacted at robertsbone@live.co.uk


Please report any broken links to the above.