Amateur Books

ARRL, as always, has put together a book that makes studying for upgrades easy. The General Class License Manual contains everything you need to pass your General Class written exam, and station suggestions to help you get on the air using your new HF privies.

Be aware that this is an old edition (the current is the 5th edition) and thus no longer refers to the correct question pool for licensing.

The ARRL has done a good job on this book, it teaches you everything that you need to know to pass the general class exam, though you do need to have a passion for ham radio otherwise the book gets extremely boring.

The ARRL has been writing license manuals for years, this is the only way to go. I got my Extra Class just after I passed the General test and still refer to all of the books for information.

A collection of QST articles from the past fifty years. Lots of interesting ideas. -- ws2i

This is a good book for the ham radio operator that enjoys experimenting with different types of wire antennas. WA4HGT

This is a collection of wire antenna constructions articles taken mostly from QST from the 1950ties up to 1998. Actually it is a simple compilation of copies of the articles.
I am personally missing a detailed list of the articles and some kind of Index. Otherwise it's great to read these fine articles packed with good ideas, and of cause if your target is set on a wire antenna not much has changed over the last 60 years - all solid information
Further to me it's a great thing to read original articles from G5RV and W3 DZZ - to me this is a first time
This small book is a treasure of gold in a number of different ways
Ejner Nicolaisen OZ9EU

Very good book for the novice to the extra class. If you have wire you can make an antenna. Very good graphics and instructions on how to make all kinds of wire antennas. From field day projects to the avid dxers you will enjoy this book. K4TWT

This book tells all u need to create your own recording studio, your recording sessions, making your demos and/or making or selling your own music plus creating your own label and publisher. I haven't even read it yet but ASAP I will. Just finished reading Conducting Technique by Brock McElheran and Everything You Need to Know About the Record Industry by Kashif.

So look likes to me that this may help me grow more and be familiar of w'sup in the music and entertainment industry incl. in film, video, TV and plays too.

Thank God it's truly a fantastic book to have. Highly Recommended.

...i expected the book to also weave into the "mix" the new digital world with many of these expensive machines now so cost-effectively reduced to computer programs-- BUT, it is detailed and all the basic principles and most terms still apply. it just seems so dated to be giving so much attention to what must have been quickly fading technology like 4 track tape machines even in 1996 (print date...). if you want to do it "the old fashioned way" then it seems to be a great book-

This book has it all. A wonderfully condensed introduction to recording. All the essentials, and a bit of wit to help things along. I can't reccomend it enough.

I own a copy of this book and I am a bit displeas- ed. It doesn't dwell with using compressors or any effects units. Which is most important,to the home recordist. If there are others out there who own this book,also. I would like to hear from you.

This is very useful if you are finishing your basement yourself. It walked you through all of the basics from planning and framing to finishing off molding. There is great content in this book and this was one of the heavily referenced books my husband and I used to finish our basement. I would caution you that the photos seem a bit dated, so get another book if you are shopping for ideas.

My wife brought this book and 5 others home from the library for us to review as we are just starting to finish our basement. This book is the best of the six by far. It's drawback is that it is not comprehensive - if you don't have some basic knowledge/experience and you want to do the work yourself, then you will want more detail. For the few pages that are there, however, the book does an excellent job showing the work at hand and gives some good ideas. I'll likely buy the book to have it on hand as we progress. Enjoy your project!

I am a complete home improvement dummy who is trying to build out her basement. This book was great at teaching me the basics & forcing me to think in a logical step by step manner - heating first, earthquake proofing next, etc. It also helped me understand drywalling techniques & effective insulation. Further, it helped me focus on building codes & regulations (I hadn't thought of that & as I said, i'm a home improvement dummy). Plus the pictures gave me great ideas. On the whole, a worthwhile investment. This book does assume that you'll want to *do* your own basement so there are tons of pictures showing you how to effectively insulate etc...

This is a great place to start with if you're a do-it-yourselfer planning to finish your basement. The only drawback I found is that it leaves you wanting more. I ended up buying more books on plumbing, flooring, and building in general. I managed to find several good used books. I'll probably end up buying a book on electrical work too (I'm still working on my basement). I also did a lot of research on the internet. Also, there's a lot of variation on local building codes, so you need to talk to your governing authority to get specifics. In the end, you might decide to do some parts of the job yourself and leave other parts for professionals. In any case, reading through this book will give you a lot of ideas to get started.

Excellent book very helpful no obvious bias.
Top section on the actual fabrication sequence.

This is the only book of it's kind that was actually written by a hands on boat builder. The easy to follow book is a must for the novice aluminum boat builder.

Steve Pollard does an excellent job of explaining how and why construction practices are recommended. And he writes with clarity and brevity.

When I first received the book, it looked like a text book. Within the first two chapters though, I was hooked. Mr. Pollard coveys a vast amount of information in a very easy reading style. I wish all "how to" books were as easy to read and understand.

Another truely sensational book!

After reading and thoroughly enjoying his last book (50 Awesome Auto Projects for the Evil Genius), this had a lot to contend with,- but the detail, friendliness, and utter genius of this guy and his projects are once again, outstanding!!! Unlike most books of this nature, there is a separate chapter for components required throughout, a great idea! Once the project is completed, you're not on your own - as the author guides you through all the setup procedures until its ready to use. I tried several off the projects in the previous book, some succeeded, some, ummm, didn't, - but I think that anyone even slightly interested in cars and / or computers would really enjoy this, whether or not you own either!

This book is full of detailed photos which really help understand some of the more complicated parts - and probably a necessity for the less technologically-minded of us!

Please don't stop writing, because I don't want to stop reading!

This book takes you through building a car PC, using the VIA EPIA Mini-ITX series of motherboards. The case for putting a PC in your car is becoming increasingly compelling with the demands of the modern driver. As well as "infotainment" applications - keeping the kids amused on long journeys, occupying passengers in traffic jams, providing music and rich media for all passengers etc, there are also a great many more "serious" applications such as navigation and route planning, avoiding traffic jams and so called - "telematics" where in-car communications and car computing are fused seamlessly into a single solution.
While the Mini-ITX solution does limit your options in relation to PCI accessories, most of the functions you could ever want are integrated into the board anyway. For example, AC'97 sound which will meet the needs of all but the most demanding users. Video-wise, the EPIA Mini-ITX motherboard's on-board video is well suited to the sort of applications that you will be running in your Car PC. Thinking about what you would like to be using in you Car PC, you might come up with a list that looks something like:
Satellite navigation
Listening to music
Watching DVD's
Watching files store on your hard disk
Surfing the net
Typing the odd document on-the fly
This book will help you make your car PC capable of all of these tasks. This book is much better than the author's other book "50 Awesome Auto Projects for the Evil Genius". This book has all of the construction details and insights that other book lacked. I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents so I do that here:
Chapter 1: Why would I want to build a Car PC?
Chapter 2: Buying your components
Chapter 3: Building Your Car PC base unit
Chapter 4: Installing the operating system, motherboard drivers and front end
Chapter 5: Connecting your Car PC to the "Real World"
Chapter 6: On-board diagnostics
Chapter 7: In-car speech recognition
Chapter 8: Killer software applications for your Car PC
Chapter 9: Getting more out of your Car PC
Chapter 10: In-Car GPS Epilogue

The book has some really good information. It goes in depth in every aspect of building a car computer. The only thing I am mad about is that on this site, it says that it shows you how to set up automated air and heating, and ultra sophisticated security system.

The book has no referance to that material at all. I was hoping to get that. Other then this it has great stuff in it.

The first thing that I thought when I saw this book was why would I want to build a car PC. Then I picked up the book and the first chapter was titled 'Why would I want to build a Car PC.'

The first reasons that he gives have to do with entertainment: replace your radio with satellite or audio jutebox, add television and a DVD player. Well, the last time I turned on my radio, which is AM/FM and maybe cassette (I forget), it worked. But that was several years ago. I don't like the noise. So far, no sale. Other people, perhaps yourself, will want an improved entertainment center, so this might be important for them.

Then I got to Chapter 6. Here he is talking about On-board Diagnostics. Your car (unless it is really old) has built in diagnostics. This electronic system monitors all kinds of stuff that's going on in the engine. Now this is something that I can care about. When the stupid 'CHECK ENGINE' light comes on I'd like to know if it is something serious like no oil pressure (i.e. pull over quick) or if it's something like the car has been X miles and it's time for regular service.

Then in Chapter 10 he goes into GPS and map software. That stuff is expensive if you buy it from the car company and it goes out of date quickly. If you do your own you can upgrade it as often as you like.

All in all, maybe it does make sense to build a car PC.

I received this book in just a few days. It has been very helpful in my process of subcontracting my own home. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to save money by building their own home.

This book is excellent because it shows a simple home building method that breaks down the many steps of home building into small, manageable pieces. The monthly and weekly schedule forms were easy to use and to fill out; all you had to do was follow the examples in the book. This book has given me the confidence to go forward and start building my home, and I know I can save about $90,000 by doing it myself. I highly recommend this book to anyone that is thinking about building their own home.

I haven't read the entire book yet. it's not as long as i had anticipated but a lot of building a house is territorial and would have to be written by a local author. i've liked it so far.

If you're interested in being the contractor to build your own home using subs, this book is for you. The book has great examples, tips and tricks, pitfalls, and even templates are included. It's a quick read yet it's very comprehensive.

I AM FROM MALAYSIA, GOOD TECHNICAL BOOKS ON COMPUTERS AND ELECTRONICS ARE CONSIDER RARE IF NOT NONE. I PICK THIS BOOKS FROM SINGAPORE FOR SS45.49 AND I STRONGLY FEEL ITS MONEY WORTH, THE SAD PART IS I HAD TO TYPE SOURCE PROGRAM MYSELF, I DO NOT MIND PAYING FOR THE COMPANION DISK. I HOPE THE AUTHOR WILL HAVE WEB SITE WHERE I CAN JUST DOWNLOAD FOR A FEE.

There are much better books out there. I bought this book because it discusses both the parallel port and the serial port. Many of the other books give you several projects to use for experiments. This book only has one project. I wish more pages had been used to cover interfacing the PC with other ADC/DAC chips. Ciruits that are easy for the novice understand and assemble. The source code is not include on disk or CD, and all of the source is in Pascal. Perhaps using Basic or C would be better. Ideally, source and executables would be great. In general, I did not learn much from this book.

Although robotic sensors do not interest as many people as they probably should - this book explains their importance (and how to create them at low cost) with a finese rarely seen within the electrical engineering library canon. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the topic at all. A real cornerstone in basic sensor construction!

I'm not an Electronics Engineer, but I feel very comfortable with this book. I learned my electronics over 30 years ago. So my knowledge is weak, dated, to say the least. However, I've tried to keep an interest in electronics. I come from an industrial background. I'm accustomed to building power plants, refineries, etc. Then came PC's. Well I waited until the 486 came out. Anything less was a joke. Now I want to connect everything to my PC. This book is just right for me. I took refresher courses at the local college to "bone_up" a bit on my antiquated electronics. I'm not a PROGRAMMER either, but the programming in this book is done already. I think it could be scanned....Whoops!

When I first started brewing fifteen years ago, I was urged by a home brewing buddy to buy this book and read it before I even start. I did and still refer to this book from time to time. It has everything in it one will ever need to know about homebrewing. It is written in a clear, concise and logical manner. I'll never get rid of my copy of this book as long as I am still brewing my own beer.

This book is great for beginner and experienced homebrewers alike. The basics are there and a lot of the in-depth details can be skipped over until one reaches that point in their brewing career.

I urge anybody considering brewing beer to get a copy of this book and to not let go of it.

Today I am brewing beer, because eight yaers ago I read Dave's book. This tome got me started quickly and successfully into the fine art of brewing. In reading only the first two chapters, I had begun my first batch, and I have refered to it ever since. I have read many books on brewing, but I always rely on this one when I need to go back to the basics or cure a problem. Whether you have brewed a thousand batches, or are contemplating your first, I highly recommend this book.

~Miller has written a book that covers ALOT of info about brewing and the science thereof. For anyone weaned on Pappazian's books, this is the next logical step. Every aspect of the science of brewing beer is covered.~ sometimes funny style, but that doesn't detract from the excellent layout of this book, which leads from simple partial-mash brewing to all-grain mashing via a logical and step-by step progression of ideas and metho

I own four beer brewing books. Three of them are inadequate, inaccurate and cater to brewers who take the short-cut of extract brewing - one would actually be better off without them. Dave Miller's book is the fourth and indispensable one. It describes in detail the equipment, ingredients, science, procedures and recipes. Although Dave Miller prefers, as he should, to take the brewer down the path of mashing, the extract brewer can by-pass these steps and still follow a sub-set of the book's directions and recipes. There is enough theory which can either be read in detail or in conclusion to make the home brewer understand what he/she is doing or should have been doing. The recipes are more than enough for a life-time of brewing and cater to both ale and lager lovers, English ale addicts or German beer buffs. And if 55 recipes are not enough, then the book provides base information and calculation tables for recipe development without having to shoot in the dark.
There may be other good brewing books available, but if you were to have only one beer brewing book, this could be the one. It takes you from being a mere amateur to being a real microbrewer.

I was looking for a book on how to build a brick mailbox. This did'nt help much. Thanks anyway.

I bought Sunset's "Complete Masonry" because I am thinking about using concrete for my next kitchen counter top. I had heard on a radio home improvement program that concrete kitchen counters are popular in some other countries. Complete Masonry has one chapter on concrete counter tops, but the example they give is an outdoor barbecue, not a kitchen. The techniques can be adapted to a kitchen, but it's not the same as having illustrations of specifically what I want to do.

Other than that, Complete Masonry has lots of information for the home gardener or handy person. You get pictures and details for laying out and construction of walks, stairs, patios, walls, ponds, rock gardens and all kinds of decorative and imaginative masonry work around the home. It's aimed at the home improvement market, not for the professional mason, although a professional might get some creative ideas from it's illustrations. Complete Masonry starts with very basic teaching such as "what is a shovel" and works up to include all the details you would need to construct the projects in the book. Like a lot of Sunset books it's full of ideas and examples of very elaborate projects, though the projects appear to have been done by skilled professionals. Even so, with a little practice you could probably finish any of the projects if you have a little construction skill and are willing to do the work. It's a good idea book, and a practical how-to home improvement book.

Sunset has published several books on this subject, 3 of them called "Complete Masonry" with different subtitles and a basic one, possibly others. This is the only one that I've actually gone through cover to cover and it is superb. I have the Black and Decker flavor of Complete Masonry too and this one is far better at 1/2 the price.

The projects described are quite a bit more appealing than the B&D's plain cookie cutter boring wall and walkway offerings. More importantly this book offers better techniques of design that can be applied to your own unique design.

Another of my favorites on the subject of concrete that is also applicable to walls, walkways, flooring or whatever else you wish to conjure is a book called "Concrete Countertops: Design, Form, and Finishes for the New Kitchen and Bath" It actually offers much more than what the title leads you to believe and suggests concrete as a very versitle replacement for standard brick and tile uses of the past.

This is a very well done book, and I enjoyed it very much. It has nice projetcs that you really can do by yourself. The pictures are wonderfull, and full of great ideas and details. The instructions are so clear, so anybody can understand easly.