The first electronics book I ever read was by Clive Sinclair, I think it was called "Ten Transistor Circuits" or similar? I was about ten years old and had no idea who he was at the time.
The ZX81 was my introduction to computing around 1980/81, just the basic unit, no expansions. It worked, did the job of getting me started on a new career in my middle 30’s. Next 30 years in IT in some form, flight sims, large databases, networks, servers etc.
We sold a few of his small televisions, never understood at the time why someone would want such a small screen and now video on phones is the norm for many. Never had any dealing with his radio/amplifiers.
Controversial at times, he certainly had many forward looking ideas.
The ZX81 was passed on to a young lad interested in computers, that was 30 odd years ago, he is now head of an IT support dept at a large university.
I know this refers to another companies approach, but its sentiment I think can be easily applied to Sir Clive.
In his own way, he was our crazy one, he dreamed, brought many of his dreams to fruition and did change our little corner of the world for many of us.
The first to capture my attention was the Sinclair Watch, at the time oh how I wished I could have had one, still do.
What I find sad is today eight of the featured, so-called UK “News” papers, only one carries the story. The rest as usual these days are far more concerned with, shall we say “Navel-Gazing”.
The first to capture my attention was the Sinclair Watch, at the time oh how I wished I could have had one, still do.
They were, I'm sad to say, truly terrible. I had a "Grey Watch" as a teenager which was a cheaper version of the "Black Watch". The first one ate batteries: the guarantee replacement had a peculiar fault in that when the second count reached 20 it then jumped to 40. At this point my godfather spoke to Sinclair himself about it and I got one that worked. I kept that for a while (and may even still have it somewhere), minus its Sinclair-embossed LED filter (it fell off and got lost) but later my godfather gave me his Tudor watch (a more affordable Rolex) for my 18th birthday and the Sinclair was put in a drawer.
Sad news about Sir Clive, I wonder if there are any like him left in Britain today. I like many had my first introduction to computers and programming with the ZX Spectrum, although mine broke and was unable to be either repaired or replaced by Sinclair so my parents had a refund and got me an Acorn Electron instead.
Later in the nineties I was repairing quite a few Spectrum computers which were being used as games consoles, I had a good stock of CPU, memory and ULA ICs and whole Spectrums in various states of repair by the early 2000s and even back then they fetched a good price on ebay.
I also had a stash of C5 parts, control boards, relays, and chargers from the factory when C5 production ceased (my father was on the decommissioning team) they also fetched astoundingly high prices when I disposed of them around the same time.
PS, Did anyone else think he was already dead ? I could have sworn I heard that he'd gone about ten years ago ?
The ZX81 was passed on to a young lad interested in computers, that was 30 odd years ago, he is now head of an IT support dept at a large university.
I'm another one whose career owes a lot to Sir Clive Sinclair. My 2nd-hand ZX Spectrum+ was the first computer I had that didn't break after a few months (Commodore Vic20 😡), and it saw me right well into 1994 until I got my first PC!
X-10 or X-20? I don't remember them it as I was only 2 at the time when it came out, but there's a good resource about them here for those that do, and for those that are intrigued.
Mention of Sinclair's Class D audio amplifier reminds me there was a proposal around that time to transmit 625-lines on VHF with PCM audio in order to restrict channel bandwidth to the same as 405-lines with conventional audio. It never got beyond the experimental stage and given the complexity and the discrete components available back then I can't see how it would ever have worked reliably in a production receiver.
