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Current Feature Articles   Aug 27 The Amateur Amateur: Doing It in the Street   Aug 25 Ohio State Parks on the Air   Aug 22 Surfin': Batten Down the Hatches   Aug 20 Antenna Go-kits   Aug 15 Surfin': Conferencing in the Center of the USA   Aug 15 The Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzler   Aug 08 Surfin': Dig Up Dead Web Sites   Aug 05 Teach-in   Aug 05 N9GL's RF Safety Column: Hijacking Science   Aug 02 "Turn About" Is Fair Play ARRL Products: Technical, Electronics, and Communications Reference (More) Power Supply Handbook -- Gain the knowledge and confidence you need to build and use power supplies. A must have for your bookshelf! Basic Radio - Understanding the Key Building Blocks -- FINALLY--an introduction to radio FOR EVERYONE!--what it does and how it does it. QEX -- Forum for Communications Experimenters -- Provides a platform for exchanging the latest technical ideas and information. Published by ARRL. Subscribe Today... The ARRL Antenna Book -- The ultimate reference for Amateur Radio antennas, transmission lines and propagation. Fully-searchable CD-ROM included. 21st edition. The ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications -- THE standard in applied electronics and communications.

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Folks still like to build stuff, so this week, we visit more Web sites that facilitate the homebrewers.

Fox Delta Amateur Radio Projects & Kits documents the various homebrew projects of VU2FD.

In response to the previous installment of Surfin', I received additional information about Web sites related to homebrewing that I will share with you this week.

Dinesh Gajjar, VU2FD, wrote, "Recent news on the ARRL Web site regarding `homebrewing is back' is very interesting. I am a homebrewer and have made many projects and give PCBs and kits to amateurs worldwide. Kindly visit my homebrewing Web site, Fox Delta Amateur Radio Projects & Kits."

I visited Dinesh's Web site and found a wide variety of projects, from an LCD RF power meter based on a PIC to a crystal radio built by Dinesh's daughter, Nina. Each project is well documented with schematics, parts lists, PCB layouts, downloadable software and such.

Paul Laing, VK2YIL, e-mailed, "I was looking for free PCB making software and found, to my surprise, two very good looking General Public License (GPL) versions: FreePCB and Kicad." Add Paul's finds to the PCB software I wrote about here in 2004, specifically on August 27, September 10 and September 24.

Dan Brown, N8YSZ, wrote, "This isn't directly ham radio related, but seems very much in the spirit of homebrewing: Instructables: step-by-step collaboration. Surely the ham radio community has plenty of projects which could be added!"

Instructables is brought to you by squid-labs.com, which makes a lot of stuff for business and pleasure. For a long time they looked for a convenient system for documenting their how-to projects and the things they make, but it didn't exist. So, they developed their own system and the Instructables Web site is the result of their work.

Until next time, keep on surfin'.

Editor's note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, dedicates this installment of Surfin' to his mother, Loris E. Horzepa, the person most responsible for getting him into the writing business. To communicate with Stan, send e-mail or add comments to his blog.

Previous: The Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzler

Next: The K7RA Solar Update