Download ocket Strobe - American Radio History

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Popular
o ular Electronics
Adieu Herb Friedman..
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Herb Friedman has passed away. Herb was the columnist for our computer column.
first met Herb 30 years ago when we both were new to
magazine publishing. was on the job only a week or two
when this huge man filled the frame of my office door. At
first he startled me, but spotted the smile on his face
and a project that he held in his hands. smiled, and that
began a friendship that was never shaken, never encumbered.
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began in 1968 and was ready for the CB boom he
predicted in the early seventies. Herb made it a practice
to test products for magazine reviews only; manufacturers made offers for his service but he turned them
down for fear of compromising his reputation for being
impartial.
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I'll never know how many magazines Herb wrote for, but
I can name a few:
Popular Elec-
tronics, Radio -Electronics, Electronics Illustrated, Radio -TV News,
Electronics World, Elementary
Electronics, Popular Mechanics,
Popular Science, Mechanics Illustrated, Science and Electronics,
Photography, Hi -Fi Stereo Review,
Hi -Fi Stereo Buyers Guide, and
many computer magazines.
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doubt that anyone has had more HERB FRIEDMAN
freelance articles purchased and
published than Herb.
One of Herb's greatest loves was to sit at his workbench
and produce one- and two- transistor projects that anyone can build in a single evening. As the state of the art
advanced, Herb would build single -chip projects as a
concession to current trends, but he kept the projects
simple. Herb always envisioned a "kid" (as he would call
a teenager) building one of his projects. Thus he was
concerned that the cost was low, the parts were easily
obtainable, and that the circuit was not critical -the
project had to work when powered up.
For many years Herb was in the radio and television
industry. He started out as the technician who lit the fuse
to ignite a pyrotechnic device in an ascending rocket for
the Captain Midnight show in the early fifties. He then
went to Station WNYE at Brooklyn Technical High
School where he spent most of his time at the FM station
as an engineer. Herb enjoyed the inquisitive mind of the
students at the high school, and thus began his freelance writing career so that he could reach out to the
many others who shared the hunger for electronics
project building ideas. When he retired from the radio
station, Herb went to work for Radio -Electronics, our
sister publication, as an associate editor. He was more
than what his title indicated: Herb was an inspiration to
the entire company, especially to the editors of both
magazines. He set up our photographic studio so that
project and product photos would be of the quality re-
quired for our publications.
Herb leaves behind a magnificent family. Nancy, his
wife, is a beautiful person, whose comments from time
to time contributed to the contents of his articles and this
magazine. She is blessed with an uncanny hearing
ability that assisted Herb in rating high -fidelity headphones for many years. Celia, his eldest child in an
accomplished author. Her science -fiction book is a winner. Larry is first entering the business world after an
outstanding college career. He is a superb computer
programmer and has had articles published in several
consumer magazines.
Herb acquired test equipment to build an extensive
consumer -electronics testing laboratory. He did considerable product testing in the seventies and became well
known to U.S.. European, and Japanese audio manufacturers. Many years ago when it was popular to quote
extremely small intermodulation figures, Herb ceased
doing so because he knew once the numbers fell below
a few percent, they were meaningless. The audio industry followed suit a year later.
His private testing laboratory was the first to be capable
of testing citizen -band radios for magazine reviews. He
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will miss Herb. The entire staff will miss Herb. Our
readers, especially the emerging experimenters, will
miss Herb.
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Adieu, Herb Friedman.
Julian S. Martin