[Milsurplus] Tom Kneitel

[Hue Miller]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <carolew at bellatlantic.net>


> The Kneitel conversion manual has a lot of text and is very well-written.
> It's interesting to read even if you don't plan to do any of his
> conversions/perversions.
> 
> Is Kneitel still alive? I loved his Uncle Tom's Corner column in Electronics
> Illustrated. It was the first thing I read every month. When EI folded, I
> believe he founded Popular Communications. I think he's still on the masthead
> as Editor Emeritus.
> 
> Joe Connor

You are talking about the conversion manual about the size of a softcover
textbook. I was talking about the large format "Surplus SCHEMATICS DIGEST."
The book you are talking about was a compilation, apparently, if i recall correctly,
of articles that originally appeared in CQ magazine.  I don't think the editors wrote
anything inside it,  except maybe an introduction. Some of the circuit ideas in it, if 
i recall, are interesting and maybe useful, like the crystal filter circuits for improving 
the Super Pro.
Kneitel is a very entertaining writer, but i don't think, from what i have read, that he
had the technical skills to actually create any kind of conversion article, or even,
truthfully, to actually add informed comment on it. If you look at some other book
he had a hand in, like "103 Simple Transistor Circuits", another compilation, you'll
see from the text accompanying and describing  the circuits,  what i mean.  
The "Uncle Tom's  Corner" column in EI magazine, for my money, that was just too 
transparent a ripoff of "Ask Uncle Tom", Tom being Tom McCahill,  an automotive
advice column, which ran for years in Mechanix Illustrated magazine.  The cigarette
dangling from T.K.'s lips and the flip answers to some of the dumber questioners
were a Kneitel original, however:  the suave radio hipster. 
Digressing still: one thing i admired about Kneitel was that every month he took the
time to actually type letters of reply to some of his letter writers or critics. I wrote 
a letter to Pop Com criticizing some of their photo editting, for example, showing
M-48 ( right type ? ) tanks of the 1960s Bundeswehr in an article on Rommel's 
communications.
His reply to me stated more or less, that i didn't have the qualifications to be a photo
editor ( probably true, at least then ) and that he owned a TransAm and a boat, which
showed his success. I really wish i had kept that damn letter, would have been a nice
collectible some day - maybe even Ebay-able after i'm retired!  Back in those days i 
called Popular Communications, "Gee Whiz Communications", for the breathless 
wowie-zowie tone of some of the articles. But i do have to give him a lot of credit for 
just about single-handedly creating the magazine, which today is actually pretty darn 
good, out of basically very limited staff, money, and contributions, and making it survive
thru the lean years.  ( Or maybe Cowan, the publisher, just needed to keep alive  a venue 
to post his ads seeking rare toy trains for his collection. ) -Hue Miller