IAN HICKMAN'S HOME PAGE

I have had numerous articles published in ELECTRONICS WORLD, many republished in book form, see below.
In addition, I occasionally write for other magazines, under the same or other pen names:-  Ian March,
Ben Sullivan, Point Contact, Hot Electron, Alf. A. Particle.   I also write books on electronics, all (except
as stated) published by Newnes/Butterworth-Heinemann, part of Elsevier Limited, and a list of these is shown
below.
   I have prepared PowerPoint presentations on various topics.  Those presently available include 
"Wrest Park", "London's transport in the 1930s", "The Organ, from Archimedes to modern times" for general
audiences, and for technical audiences, "Frequency" and "The Admiralty Handbooks of WT and other historic
textbooks". Other presentations include "The Queen Anne Fifty Churches Act" and "Jenner and the death of
smallpox". 
  To see  LIST, a wide range of further interesting pages, some technical, many not, CLICK HERE
  
  I also have a collection of CDs encompassing a varied range of classical music, some pieces very well known some, others less so and
  some quite eclectic.  To see the catalogue, CLICK HERE
 
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 

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 Ian Hickman 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 comprised French, German, 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 a 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 an associate 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.
On a recent trip to Nuremberg we visited Bayreuth and Dot hobnobbed with the master himself.
Our home


We haven't seen our house covered in snow like this
- see below - for the best part of ten years.
The lack of sun in 2012 did not stunt the growth of sunflowers!!
015 and 2016 have also brought disappointing summers -
we haven't a barbecue now for several years.  

 On the 30th November the minimum temperature overnight fell to -0.5°C measured under the carport sandwiched between the south wall  of the house and thick woodland!  One can only speculate what it must have been out in the open!


In summer - 2017 - we  had some hot dry weather, almost a drought, but late July brought some much needed rain. The winter dragged on and spring 2018 was cold, wet and late.  This is the flowering plum in the front garden in April - it usually flowers in February and is over by early March.
What will 2018 bring?  Only time will tell.

?
 

What else do I do?

I am a member of The National Trust, and was Treasurer and then Chairman of The Portsmouth and District Centre
of The National Trust for twelve years, and of which my wife Dot was Secretary for a similar length of time.
For more information on The National Trust, CLICK HERE   For more information on Portsmouth and District Centre navigate via
"Join & get involved" to "Supporter Groups" and click on "Search our supporter group directory". Select "Hampshire" and
"Search" will take you to contact details of the Portsmouth and District Centre.

Dot and I are members of the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies, and of our local NADFAS group,
The Portsdown Decorative and Fine Arts Society which meets monthly (except August and September) in
St. Nicholas Church Centre, Bedhampton, Hants. For more information on NADFAS,  CLICK HERE .

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

Dot and I are members of the Elgar Society, and of the Southern Branch, which meets in "The Spring"
(Havant Arts Centre) 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.

To read about a REMARKABLE SERIES OF CONCIDENCES 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.

   I have recently been added to the list of DISTINGUISHED LATYMERIANS, in company with a
couple of members of the House of Lords, several Judges, a number of actors including Hugh Grant,
 and literally scores of Professors.
  
  For three 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 whilst I was in the Sixth form
 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 me to 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.  This instrument  used to be on display in its glass case, on the wall near the main hall of the Imperial War Museum,
 but may be currently in conservation.
 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 ENG.D.May@ieee.org

Please report any broken links to the above.


Ian Hickman Partners have maintained the following websites, among others:-




www.portsmouthnadfas.co.uk * 

www.ntportsmouth.org.uk * 

www.theberliozsociety.uk

   www.park-wood.org
 ( * site subsequently renamed ) and currently maintain www.artsinresidence.co.uk,

The Music Club of London and the Southern Branch page of The Elgar Society



This site last updated  1st November 2018

This page prepared and maintained by Ian Hickman Partners (Eur. Ing. D.I. H. May BSc.Hons, C.Eng, MIEE, MIEEE, and D. M. May B.A.Hons, A.C.I.L.)