If you are a reader of both PriMedia radio franchise publications, RF Design and Mobile Radio Technology (MRT) magazines, you will notice that both magazines have new editors, and both editors, Bill McCarthy and myself, come from a magazine called Boardwatch Magazine. Boardwatch was started in 1987 as a Denver newsletter for bulletin board systems. The original editor, Jack Rickard, was an electrical engineer in the Navy, and an engineer with Martin Marietta, before starting the publication. Boardwatch was the bible of the ISP community, and grew to 50,000 subscribers before its demise in January 2003. The telecommunications and dot-bomb recessions doomed Boardwatch and many of its brethren publications.

My last position with Boardwatch was as the technology editor. I covered new technologies, new standards making their way through industry organizations, and the new products that incorporated these advances. During the my last six months with Boardwatch, I researched and wrote many feature stories and news stories on the emergence of wireless technologies, from Bluetooth to broadband backbone links up to 80 MHz.

My short time covering wireless service providers got me hooked on wireless technology. That is one reason why I joined RF Design. While the stories I will cover for RF Design will undoubtedly be more technical than those I covered for Boardwatch, many of the lessons I learned talking to service providers and equipment manufacturers will directly apply to the electronic components industry.

One aspect of the service provider industry that applies to the electronic components industry, and for that matter every industry, is good business practices. No matter what industry a business is part of, it must employ solid business practices and procedures to survive and succeed.

With that in mind, this month we present an interview with Harvey Kaylie, president and CEO of Mini-Circuits Inc., about his views on the past and future of the electronic components industry, and how basic business principles helped him build one of the largest component businesses in the industry. Kaylie is not a traditional CEO, and many of his ideas contradict established business strategies. Kaylie says that is the only reason his company survived the 2001, 2002 slump.

Don't worry, RF Design will not become a fluffy business-to-business publication with marketing drivel passed off as serious articles. RF Design is a publication for design engineers, written by design engineers, and that will not change. Not on my watch.

This month's issue also includes our cover story on securing unlicensed wireless network communications. WLAN business continues to be brisk, and many industry analysts say it will be the most successful sector of the wireless world in 2003. However, if we can't keep critical data away from unscrupulous eavesdroppers, WLANs will disappear quicker than the XFL.

I have a number of ideas for RF Design that I plan to implement in the next 12 months, but I want to do so with your input. I want to know what RF Design's readers like about the magazine, and what they dislike. What articles do you like to see more of, and what stories have you hated? Send your letters, comments and diatribes to rfdesign@primediabusiness.com, or send them to me at terickson@primediabusiness.com.

We have also relaunched the RF Design Web site and weekly newsletter. Both will feature breaking stories and new product announcements. The Web site will continue to house all of the articles from past print issues. We are in the process of redesigning the Web site to make it more user-friendly, including putting all of the past articles from the print publication on the Web site in Adobe Acrobat format to include all of the graphics.

I hope to hear from RF Design's loyal readers, and meet you at industry gatherings.

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