Can an Electronics & Radio Forum be introduced?

Clive


Not sure how many of us radio nuts are left on the planet. I was a member of the IERE which I remembered when I came across the impressive certificate when searching for another document recently.

Well, I for one would be very much in favour. I am sure that in the old style forums(fora?) there was an electronics forum that was well used. Unfortunately, like many of the others once the new format was introduced the general use was much reduced. 

Fortunately, this forum is still well used, although some of the old stalwarts seem to appear less frequently. 

So, yes, let's have a Radio and Electronics subject. 


David

If you're keen, show your support by clicking the 'like this question' in the original post  ?

Sounds A good idea to me. I`m not well versed with actual radio side of things but am (was ) better with electronics at a very amatuer level

I was also an IERE member when it was 'swallowed' by the IEE.


Would be good to start an Electronics & radio forum


Regards


Mike

Clive,


I can see why you want a forum on Electronics and Radio and I agree.  It seems to me that posts on such matters would not usually be within the scope of the "Wiring and the Regulations BS7671" forum.

I see that there are forums, (perhaps not over-utilised) in the following IET Technical Communities:

• IET RF & Microwave Technology Surely this could largely encompass any posts on RF & RF electronics, if not baseband electronics (?)

• IET Antennas & Propagation Network

• IET RADAR, SONAR and Navigation Network

• IET Satellite Network - since, as you know, all but some of the earliest artificial satellites exist to provide or at least utilise radiocommunications links.

As I glanced through the list of IET Engineering Communities just now, I did not notice any that obviously or specifically related to baseband electronics in general, as opposed to, e.g. Power Electronics, Mahines and Drives.


I suppose that the forums that are not associated with IET Technical Network communities might be more easily noticed and so more likely to be accessed by anybody that does not belong to or that does not frequently access the technical communities' forums.

I have not really used, let alone contributed much if at all to any of the above forums/fora and so I have the following question:

What is the intended functional distinction between an IET Engineering Community forum and a forum that's listed directly under 'Forums' on the IET website?


Best Regards,

well those are interesting, if well kept secrets.

The glaring weakness is that you cannot even browse them if you are not logged in, so the chances of anyone new ever seeing them and then joining up to take part must be pretty much nil.

That thought seems to be borne out by the fact that none of them seems to support enough activity to be worth checking more than once every few weeks.  I do not know how you view it, but I see one of the strengths of this wiring and regs  forum is that it can be seen by anyone, member or not, logged in or not, though to post and PM you have to register.  Given the cover of screen names I cannot see the need for a closed shop.

As a point of note, speaking personally I frequently do not log in unless I am about to post, it feels less risky than logging in and perhaps forgetting to sign out..

Hiding stuff is a sure fire way of stopping people from finding it , and seems to work!

Dear Mike,


You make very good points and also answered my question about the difference between top-level forums and those within Communities.


I hadn't appreciated the implications of needing to log-in, since I rarely visit the website - let alone log-in.  I can understand why some community forums require logged-in access*, but it obviously causes problems.

I can only agree that the activity on community forums is practically non-existent and so not worth looking at too often. (I was going to say the activity is beneath the noise floor, but that would wrongly suggest that I objected to existing posts.)


I am not involved with wiring and regulations so I don't 'need' to look at the wiring & regs forum -  but I usually do whenever I visit the IET website.

Wiring & Regulations is obviously the most active forum, it's obviously very useful and its open access is obviously a good thing that must be a big reason for its success, along with the widespread usefulness of its subject matter.


The privacy of some community forums does hide information.  So does the fact that you have to navigate to them from the IET homepage(s) indirectly via a couple of links.  I think that confidentiality and privacy are very important. However, I also think that if the forums are about the non-commercial sharing of information, then the unintended hiding of information is unhelpful .  I suppose that it must be hard to balance the matters of privacy and openness of information.

I see that at least one Community (RF & microwave) is also on LinkedIn, which will of course also need a LinkedIn membership to log-in. Whilst I suppose that most people probably are on LinkedIn, I also understand that some people avoid social media - even LinkedIn.


Best Regards

(*e.g. the previous problems with the metaphorical interference and noise of  'false users' apparently taking advantage of the forums to place spoof posts carrying links to unrelated commercial adverts for (e.g). radio-controlled model aircraft. )

Just bumping up in the hope of some additional support!


Clive