Alan Wilcox's ESR Meter? – Permission to use his design in my T & M book - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

Chris55000 · 15th Aug 2020, 1:48 pm

Hi!

Is Alan Wilcox who did the two very good ESR Meters a Member?

I would like to feature his ESR Meter Design from 1999 in my T & M Theory & Repair Book as the subject for Chapter 32 in Part 5 – "Build a Simple Analogue ESR Meter" – in the event of me not being able to contact him, does anyone see any objection to this?

As usual the diagrams will be redrawn to my standard book diagram format and a PCB will be independently designed for me for the project, and an acknowledgement of source and author on the chapter's front cover.

(Projects requiring design files, e.g., PCB layouts, code, Arduino sketches, hex., etc., will be posted together with the chapter that references them)

Chris Williams

camallison · 15th Aug 2020, 2:01 pm

Alan passed away in 2013 I think, but there is further discussion about the Mk2 version here https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=93523

I am sure a reference to him would be the best thing to do.

Colin

emeritus · 15th Aug 2020, 2:56 pm

Unless previously assigned to a third party, a deceased person's copyright will be part of their estate and so will be the property of the person's heirs.

Copyright in the items that have been published in a journal might belong to the publisher of the journal. Many of the learned societies insist on having copyright assigned to them as a condition of acceptance of contributions for publication. I don't know what "Television" 's policy was, or who might now own their assets now that publication has ceased. When I was with Marconi, they used to receive a few pounds of royalties each year from the official scheme under which part of the photocopy charge made by public and other libraries is given to the owner of the copyright in the original. The documents in question had been published many years previously by a long-defunct division. Marconi wasn't really bothered, and as a matter of policy was normally happy for others to reproduce their old stuff without charge as long as acknowledgement was given.

Chris55000 · 15th Aug 2020, 2:58 pm

Hi!

That's no problem – each chapter has been made with a pre–formatted front page containing provision for special warnings, where relevant, and an acknowledgement box!

Chris Williams

John KC0G · 15th Aug 2020, 11:35 pm

The articles for the Mk 2 have been posted online at www.alan-willcox.co.uk/ Apparently Trevor Matthews got permission from Alan's daughter to post them. I don't know if this is the same Trevor Matthews who runs or ran Rushden Electronics ?

Whether or not the family owns the rights is another question. See post #3 from emeritus. The purchase of Highbury House Communications by Ergo Science, the owners of Nexus Media Communications (http://www.nexusmedia.co.uk), was announced in April 2005. Nexus then became the publisher. The magazine ceased publication after the January 2007 issue. It was relaunched with the January 2008 issue and finally ceased after the June 2008 issue. See https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...=142047&page=3 I don't know who published the relaunch.

Finding out what has happened to Nexus is not easy. See the web archive for www.nexusmediacom.com That web site possibly morphed into https://nextintech.net/

Terry_VK5TM · 16th Aug 2020, 12:39 am

The alan-willcox link above is no longer active (went to a holding page this morning).

The ESR project has also been posted here http://www.coventryradio.org.uk/reso...-projects.html

chriswood1900 · 16th Aug 2020, 10:26 am

Chris
I would have thought given that the original articles are already widely available on the web the appropriate acknowledgement of Alan's prior work would suffice. You could perhaps check with the Coventry Amateur Radio Society which republished it how they got permission or seek to use their update.

dsergeant · 16th Aug 2020, 5:53 pm

The final issues of Television (January to June 2008) were published by Tony Greville - his email address is at televisionmagazine.co.uk which clearly won't work now. Acorn Media Communications Ltd is also mentioned. I have all the issues of Television scanned on usb stick - including of course Alan's articles.

John KC0G · 16th Aug 2020, 6:10 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terry_VK5TM

The alan-willcox link above is no longer active (went to a holding page this morning).

Let me retrace my steps:
A Google search for "Alan Willcox articles" brought up "www.alan-willcox.co.uk › Articles" McAfee advised me not to go there. The Google web cache did get me there, and that page had a link to a very good pdf (much better than americanradiohistory.com) of the 2004 / 2005 Television magazine articles. It also had two links to the Coventry ARS material.

Via www.archive.org, I could get to the home page, but it appeared that the articles had not been archived there.

This looks like shifting sands. If you cannot find the articles, please PM me.

Chris55000 · 16th Aug 2020, 7:09 pm

Hi!

The PDF linked from Google's Cache is of far superior quality to the W.R.H. Version, altho' W.R.H. do point out that they had to publish the articles/magazines in low quality deliberately to avoid the wrath of whoever currently has Practical Wireless - I've seen enough of Mr. Gleason's work to know they can upload far better quality than in this particular case!

However, if anyone uses the Coventry Amateur Radio Society's artwork, please note some of the PCB holes haven't been shown on it!

Chris Williams

Terry_VK5TM · 17th Aug 2020, 12:47 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by John KC0G

Let me retrace my steps:.......

Followed your steps John and ended with the same result as you

Bookman · 17th Aug 2020, 7:19 am

I would like to expand slightly upon the last aspect of the sentence provided by Emeritus, namely; “as long as acknowledgement was given”.
In this the syntax associated with the latter would normally be expected to support a “theoretical” or “conceptual” reference as to the need for its inclusion at the point of its inclusion rather than an “acknowledgement box”.

Diabolical Artificer · 17th Aug 2020, 8:13 am

www.alan-willcox.co.uk/ this link comes up with a warning from FF as a potential risk.

Andy.

emeritus · 17th Aug 2020, 10:53 am

Acknowledgment practice varies. At one extreme is AFAIR some graphs in a 1970's edition of the ITT Reference Data for Radio Engineers, where a full acknowledgment was given in the caption to each graph. On the other hand, when I supplied the writer of an article for a television lighting journal with a copy of the booklet that Marconi had published about their 1954 405 line NTSC colour TV demonstration, a simple acknowledgement at the end of the article sufficed. In that case the only item that was actually reproduced was a colour slide of the screen of one of the monitors, but it would have made no difference to Marconi if the entire booklet had been reproduced.

Bookman · 17th Aug 2020, 1:49 pm

It may be a personal thing but I find that any separate acknowledgement especially at the end of a given paragraph or article is somewhat dangerous.

In the first instance one has to remember to do it and secondly one has to consider the potential for the consideration of plagiarism. For example I will refer to the use of work by other authors but only in so far that their work may be limited by the variables under consideration and/or the boundary definition criterion associated with those same or similar variables in my work.

The omnipresent use of epistemology of reasoning associated with one's own work and that of others; especially where technology has an association is usually considered as conceptual or theoretical.
It is interesting to note that there is no common accepted universal definition of "Technology". However, one still has to be specific about the intended definition for their work and state the reasons rather than allude to its reference elsewhere.
Apologies for going on a bit.
Joe

15th Aug 2020, 1:48 pm	#1
Chris55000 Nonode Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Walsall Wood, Aldridge, Walsall, UK. Posts: 2,867	Alan Wilcox's ESR Meter? – Permission to use his design in my T & M book Hi! Is Alan Wilcox who did the two very good ESR Meters a Member? I would like to feature his ESR Meter Design from 1999 in my T & M Theory & Repair Book as the subject for Chapter 32 in Part 5 – "Build a Simple Analogue ESR Meter" – in the event of me not being able to contact him, does anyone see any objection to this? As usual the diagrams will be redrawn to my standard book diagram format and a PCB will be independently designed for me for the project, and an acknowledgement of source and author on the chapter's front cover. (Projects requiring design files, e.g., PCB layouts, code, Arduino sketches, hex., etc., will be posted together with the chapter that references them) Chris Williams __________________ It's an enigma, that's what it is! This thing's not fixed because it doesn't want to be fixed!

15th Aug 2020, 2:01 pm	#2
camallison Heptode Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Yarm, North Yorkshire, UK. Posts: 535	Re: Alan Wilcox's ESR Meter? – Permission to use his design in my T & M book Alan passed away in 2013 I think, but there is further discussion about the Mk2 version here https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=93523 I am sure a reference to him would be the best thing to do. Colin

15th Aug 2020, 2:58 pm	#4
Chris55000 Nonode Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Walsall Wood, Aldridge, Walsall, UK. Posts: 2,867	Re: Alan Wilcox's ESR Meter? – Permission to use his design in my T & M book Hi! That's no problem – each chapter has been made with a pre–formatted front page containing provision for special warnings, where relevant, and an acknowledgement box! Chris Williams __________________ It's an enigma, that's what it is! This thing's not fixed because it doesn't want to be fixed!

15th Aug 2020, 11:35 pm	#5
John KC0G Hexode Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Posts: 278	Re: Alan Wilcox's ESR Meter? – Permission to use his design in my T & M book The articles for the Mk 2 have been posted online at www.alan-willcox.co.uk/ Apparently Trevor Matthews got permission from Alan's daughter to post them. I don't know if this is the same Trevor Matthews who runs or ran Rushden Electronics ? Whether or not the family owns the rights is another question. See post #3 from emeritus. The purchase of Highbury House Communications by Ergo Science, the owners of Nexus Media Communications (http://www.nexusmedia.co.uk), was announced in April 2005. Nexus then became the publisher. The magazine ceased publication after the January 2007 issue. It was relaunched with the January 2008 issue and finally ceased after the June 2008 issue. See https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...=142047&page=3 I don't know who published the relaunch. Finding out what has happened to Nexus is not easy. See the web archive for www.nexusmediacom.com That web site possibly morphed into https://nextintech.net/

16th Aug 2020, 12:39 am	#6
Terry_VK5TM Nonode Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Tintinara, South Australia, Australia Posts: 2,339	Re: Alan Wilcox's ESR Meter? – Permission to use his design in my T & M book The alan-willcox link above is no longer active (went to a holding page this morning). The ESR project has also been posted here http://www.coventryradio.org.uk/reso...-projects.html __________________ Terry VK5TM https://www.vk5tm.com/

15th Aug 2020, 2:56 pm	#3
emeritus Dekatron Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK. Posts: 5,337	Re: Alan Wilcox's ESR Meter? – Permission to use his design in my T & M book Unless previously assigned to a third party, a deceased person's copyright will be part of their estate and so will be the property of the person's heirs. Copyright in the items that have been published in a journal might belong to the publisher of the journal. Many of the learned societies insist on having copyright assigned to them as a condition of acceptance of contributions for publication. I don't know what "Television" 's policy was, or who might now own their assets now that publication has ceased. When I was with Marconi, they used to receive a few pounds of royalties each year from the official scheme under which part of the photocopy charge made by public and other libraries is given to the owner of the copyright in the original. The documents in question had been published many years previously by a long-defunct division. Marconi wasn't really bothered, and as a matter of policy was normally happy for others to reproduce their old stuff without charge as long as acknowledgement was given. Last edited by emeritus; 15th Aug 2020 at 3:22 pm.

16th Aug 2020, 10:26 am	#7
chriswood1900 Octode Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Dorridge, West Midlands, UK. Posts: 1,479	Re: Alan Wilcox's ESR Meter? – Permission to use his design in my T & M book Chris I would have thought given that the original articles are already widely available on the web the appropriate acknowledgement of Alan's prior work would suffice. You could perhaps check with the Coventry Amateur Radio Society which republished it how they got permission or seek to use their update. __________________ Chris Wood BVWS Member

16th Aug 2020, 5:53 pm	#8
dsergeant Octode Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Bracknell, Berkshire,UK. Posts: 1,172	Re: Alan Wilcox's ESR Meter? – Permission to use his design in my T & M book The final issues of Television (January to June 2008) were published by Tony Greville - his email address is at televisionmagazine.co.uk which clearly won't work now. Acorn Media Communications Ltd is also mentioned. I have all the issues of Television scanned on usb stick - including of course Alan's articles.

16th Aug 2020, 7:09 pm	#10
Chris55000 Nonode Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Walsall Wood, Aldridge, Walsall, UK. Posts: 2,867	Re: Alan Wilcox's ESR Meter? – Permission to use his design in my T & M book Hi! The PDF linked from Google's Cache is of far superior quality to the W.R.H. Version, altho' W.R.H. do point out that they had to publish the articles/magazines in low quality deliberately to avoid the wrath of whoever currently has Practical Wireless - I've seen enough of Mr. Gleason's work to know they can upload far better quality than in this particular case! However, if anyone uses the Coventry Amateur Radio Society's artwork, please note some of the PCB holes haven't been shown on it! Chris Williams __________________ It's an enigma, that's what it is! This thing's not fixed because it doesn't want to be fixed!

17th Aug 2020, 7:19 am	#12
Bookman Hexode Join Date: Aug 2017 Location: Taunton, Somerset, UK. Posts: 318	Re: Alan Wilcox's ESR Meter? – Permission to use his design in my T & M book I would like to expand slightly upon the last aspect of the sentence provided by Emeritus, namely; “as long as acknowledgement was given”. In this the syntax associated with the latter would normally be expected to support a “theoretical” or “conceptual” reference as to the need for its inclusion at the point of its inclusion rather than an “acknowledgement box”.

17th Aug 2020, 8:13 am	#13
Diabolical Artificer Dekatron Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Sleaford, Lincs. UK. Posts: 7,657	Re: Alan Wilcox's ESR Meter? – Permission to use his design in my T & M book www.alan-willcox.co.uk/ this link comes up with a warning from FF as a potential risk. Andy. __________________ Curiosity hasn't killed this cat...so far.

17th Aug 2020, 10:53 am	#14
emeritus Dekatron Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK. Posts: 5,337	Re: Alan Wilcox's ESR Meter? – Permission to use his design in my T & M book Acknowledgment practice varies. At one extreme is AFAIR some graphs in a 1970's edition of the ITT Reference Data for Radio Engineers, where a full acknowledgment was given in the caption to each graph. On the other hand, when I supplied the writer of an article for a television lighting journal with a copy of the booklet that Marconi had published about their 1954 405 line NTSC colour TV demonstration, a simple acknowledgement at the end of the article sufficed. In that case the only item that was actually reproduced was a colour slide of the screen of one of the monitors, but it would have made no difference to Marconi if the entire booklet had been reproduced.

17th Aug 2020, 1:49 pm	#15
Bookman Hexode Join Date: Aug 2017 Location: Taunton, Somerset, UK. Posts: 318	Re: Alan Wilcox's ESR Meter? – Permission to use his design in my T & M book It may be a personal thing but I find that any separate acknowledgement especially at the end of a given paragraph or article is somewhat dangerous. In the first instance one has to remember to do it and secondly one has to consider the potential for the consideration of plagiarism. For example I will refer to the use of work by other authors but only in so far that their work may be limited by the variables under consideration and/or the boundary definition criterion associated with those same or similar variables in my work. The omnipresent use of epistemology of reasoning associated with one's own work and that of others; especially where technology has an association is usually considered as conceptual or theoretical. It is interesting to note that there is no common accepted universal definition of "Technology". However, one still has to be specific about the intended definition for their work and state the reasons rather than allude to its reference elsewhere. Apologies for going on a bit. Joe