I guess before I move on to “blogging” about some of my own home-brew radio projects I’d best do another quick book review. Well four books in fact. And the reason for doing this up-front is because many of my personal shack projects come from one of these publications.

I’m talking about “Radio Projects for the Amateur” available in no less than four volumes. All created by Drew Diamond VK3XU. To say Drew is prolific in publishing first class radio construction articles is probably something of an understatement.

Much of the content (but by no means all) contained in these books originally appeared in “Amateur Radio” magazine. The journal of the Wireless Institue of Australia (WIA).

For a long time certain volumes were out of print and unobtainable unless you got lucky on the second hand market. At the time of writing all volumes appear to be available from the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) Bookshop. I would happily encourage anyone interested in home-brewing to grab all four while they are still available. 100% pure gold!

I thought I’d start with a quick book review.

“CRYSTAL SETS TO SIDEBAND”, By Frank W. Harris, KØIYE has become something of a stand-out publication in the QRP and home-brew community.

This book takes the reader on a journey. Predominantly one man’s quest (the Authors) to build and operate a complete radio station comprised entirely of home-built equipment. Along the way little previous knowledge is assumed and so good coverage is given to basic electronics theory.

While not exactly intended as a set of “build this” instructions, it would none-the-less be possible to fairly accurately re-create Frank’s station from the level of detail given. But this book is more about the general science of home-brewing as an art. And the typical problems encountered along the way with solutions required to achieve a goal.

Mr. Frank Harris is a retired engineer and a superb writer. His very easy to read and often humorous style makes reading this excellent reference book a wholly enjoyable pastime.

Originally released back in 2002 the book in now in its 12th revision. You can locate the book at a great many Internet web-sites but the “Four State QRP Group” seems to have “official sanction” from the Author to host the book files. They are available for download from:- http://www.wa0itp.com/crystalsetsssb.html

Your can download either the entire book as one large file or each chapter as a separate file. All files are in Portable Document Format (PDF).

A highly recommended read for anyone interested in radio electronics and home-brewing. Even if you just wanted an “insight” into this side of the Amateur Radio hobby and never intend on building anything at all.