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Current Feature Articles   Nov 20 The Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzler   Nov 20 Adventure in the Arctic: VO2A Expedition to Labrador   Nov 20 Surfin': More Radio Piracy on the High Seas   Nov 16 Youth@HamRadio.Fun: Fall Magic   Nov 13 Surfin': The Real Pirate Radio   Nov 06 Surfin': Homebrewing Today   Nov 05 DX the Hard Way   Nov 02 ARRL In Action: What Have We Been Up to Lately?   Nov 01 It Seems to Us: It Doesn't Just Happen   Oct 30 Surfin': Mapping Up ARRL Products: History/Adventure (More) The Story of the Queen Mary and W6RO -- DVD. A story about W6RO and its impact on the Amateur Radio Service through its operation aboard the Queen Mary. World War II Radio Heroes: Letters of Compassion -- A story about ham radio operators and others who helped ease worries during a time of war. TEN-TEC: The First 40 Years 1968-2008 -- An exciting glimpse of Ten-Tec's first 40 years in the world of communications. Don C. Wallace: W6AM, Amateur Radio's Pioneer -- This book traces the life of Don Wallace and with it the early history of Amateur Radio. The Secret Wireless War -- The Story of MI6 Communications--1939-1945 (World War II). This is an extraordinary story that includes hams among those patriots that undoubtedly helped the allied war effort. Softcover.

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This week, check out Web browser Firefox and learn how to modify it for Amateur Radio.

N0HR.com offers a radio propagation plug-in for Firefox, the Surfin' Web browser du jour.

If you have not done so already, download Firefox and give it a try-out as your Web browser. I did many moons ago and after using it for a few days, I have never considered going back to the Web browsers I used in the past.

Firefox is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux i686 operating systems in over 40 different languages, so you should be able to find a version that suits your computer and your native tongue. Its features are numerous (you can read all about them on the Firefox home page) and they all seem to work really well.

The "Customize Firefox" feature is just like those old AMT 3-in-1 car model kits that allowed you to build a stock, hot rod, or custom version of an automobile. You can customize Firefox and install extensions to add new features so that it is more suited for your needs.

Harv Nelson, AI9NL, alerted me to ham radio add-ons for Firefox.

• Propfire is a Web browser extension that allows you to view HF propagation conditions on the Firefox status bar (the S, A, and K indices from NOAA). If you right-click on the Propfire values, a menu appears that allows you to display the latest full WWV report. You can download Propfire from the N0HR Web site.

• Firefox has a built-in search bar with a pull-down menu. You can add new search engines to this search bar including the AE7Q and QRZ.COM ham radio call sign look-up search engines. To add one or both call sign search engines to the Firefox search bar, go to the AE7Q Web site and scroll down to the bottom of the Web page to the "Install a browser callsign lookup tool!" links.

Messing around, one thing led to another and I also found Firefox plug-ins for the ARRL call sign look-up engine from Mark Petrovic, AE6RT, and the APRS findu.com search engine from Ben Mills, KG4QVP.

Until next time, keep on surfin'.

Editor's note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, tries out lots of Web browsers while attempting to find that perfect Web site. To discuss Web browsers, plug-ins, and more, e-mail Stan or add comments to his blog.

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