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Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Leo Simpson , B.Bus. Editor Greg Swain , B.Sc.(Hons.) Technical Staff John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Robert Flynn Darren Yates Reader Services Ann Jenkinson Sharon Macdonald Sales & Marketing Mgr. Sharon Lightner Phone (02) 979 5644 Mobile phone (018) 28 5532 Regular Contributors Brendan Akhurst Jennifer Bonnitcha, B.A. Garry Cratt, VK2YBX Marque Crozman John Hill Jim Lawler, MTETIA Bryan Maher, M.E., B.Sc. Jim Yalden, VK2YGY Bob Young Photography Stuart Bryce Editorial Advisory Panel Philip Watson, MIREE, VK2ZPW Norman Marks Steve Payor, B.Sc., B.E. SILICON CHIP is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. A.C.N. 003 205 490. All material copyright©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Printing: Magazine Printers Pty Ltd, Alexandria, NSW; Macquarie Print, Dubbo, NSW. Distribution: Network Distribution Company. Subscription rates: $42 per year in Australia. For overseas rates, see the subscription page in this issue. Liability: Devices or circuits described in SILICON CHIP may be covered by patents. SILICON CHIP disclaims any liability for the infringement of such patents by the manufacturing or selling of any such equipment. Editorial & advertising offices: Unit 1a/77-79 Bassett Street, Mona Vale, NSW 2103. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 979 5644. Fax (02) 979 6503. ISSN 1030-2662 2 SILICON CHIP PUBLISHER'S LETTER The truth about fax machines These days, virtually every business organisation has a fax machine. If you want to communicate quickly, at any hour, to virtually anywhere in the western world, the fax is unbeatable. In our office here at SILICON CHIP, the fax machine is used a great deal by our readers and advertisers. Quite a few of our readers now send their letters in by fax and that is how we then send the reply. Depending on who is in the office on any one day, we can often send a reply within an hour or so of receiving a fax. And it is a much quicker way of sending in orders, although they must be accompanied by your credit card number, expiry date and signature. But fax machines can a pest. First of all, there are junk faxes. These are faxes from organisations who seem to think that all we do is stay glued to the machine waiting for their breathless messages. Well, we don't know what other organisations do with these faxes but we have a waste paper basket right next to the fax machine. We have no use for press releases which are not related to electronics in some way and which are not accompanied by a photo. Some public relations organisations think that a thousand words is worth more than a picture. And inevitably, junk faxes are preceded by a "fax cover sheet". This is a header sheet with the company's name on it and the sender's details, telling you that the next sheet or sheets are from the named company. You would be surprised just how common this sort of nonsense is. So not only does the receiving company have to waste paper in getting the fax, there is also the waste of the "fax cover sheet". Then there are the organisations who get an error message after sending a fax which may run to as much as 10 pages or more. Most of the time such error messages (saying that the pages have not been sent) are wrong but the usual response is to send the whole 10 pages again. Wouldn't it be nice to pick up the phone instead and ask if the first fax was received? A little common sense would save a lot of fax paper. The correct way to use a fax is to grab a single sheet of paper, type or write down your message and send it. If you need to use more than one sheet of paper then your message is probably too long. As our own correspondents could testify, more than 95% of our letters in reply fit easily on one page. So if you are in the habit of sending out faxes, think about the company or organisation that you are sending it to. Do you really need to send two or more sheets when one will do? And if you are from a public relations organisation , think about your "public relations". Do they really need to receive your fax? And finally, what about those companies who use fax machines with polling facilities? These machines will dial a number as many times as it takes to get a message through. This can be a real pain to the person on the receiving end as he keeps getting "bleeped" by a fax machine with the wrong number. We have had this happen twenty or thirty times before the machine or its operator finally realises that it's dialling the wrong number. It must drive receptionists mad and the cost in phone calls to the organisations concerned must be very high. So fax machines can be a boon but they can also be a pest if they are not used sensibly. Leo Simpson