By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
ARRL Contributing Editor
March 26, 2010

This week, the denizens of the Surfin' visit blogs intended for ham radio hackers and makers.

The Garage Shoppe is Pete Goodmann's, NI9N, blog that bills itself as "dedicated to sharing ideas and techniques for designing, building, and using do-it-yourself electronics projects on a small scale using affordable tools without compromising quality and professionalism."

NI9N's writing is informative and entertaining. He has no trouble using plain language to explain complicated matters like Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology, for example. And he also writes with a sense of humor: His story about some feline friends who assisted him in raising a portable antenna still brings a smile to my face. And you've got to love the "Radioville" (Indiana) road sign.

One link leads to another on the Internet, and my browser jumped from The Garage Shoppe to the Amateur Radio on it's (sic) Edge blog of Tobias Wellnitz, DH1TW.

Like NI9N, Tobias is tackling the edgier bits of ham radio in the 21st century, like Linux, SDR, building computers and DSP (Digital Signal Processing). And like NI9N, Tobias writes in an entertaining and easy-to-understand manner that will not leave you wondering, "Huh?"

Coincidentally, I just received an e-mail from Bill Larsen, KC9AWA, alerting me to a video now online at the Make blog featuring the ham radio makers attending the Massachusetts QRP Convention. The description of the video says it all, "QRP operators are the makers of the ham world. Since they work with such low power, many QRP operators make and modify their equipment to get the perfect performance. Every little bit counts."

Until next time, keep on surfin'!

Editor's note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, has never met a "hacker" he didn't like. To contact Stan, send him e-mail or add comments to his blog.