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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: Low Power/QRP (More) W1FB's QRP Notebook -- Projects for low power operators! ARRL's Wire Antenna Classics -- An entire book devoted to wire antennas, from the simple to the complex. MFJ 20-meter CW Cub Transceiver Kit -- Now Shipping! -- Enjoy countless hours operating this tiny high performance QRP Transceiver. Low Power Scrapbook -- A compilation of the best QRP articles from recent years. Amateur Radio on the Move -- Take your radio with you! Here's expert advice for operating your radio from your car or RV, boat, airplane, motorcycle or backpack.

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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