Books to Download   

“The Scientist and Engineer’s Guide to Digital Signal Processing”, by Steven W. Smith, Ph.D., is probably the most accessible and relatively non-mathematical book on DSP ever written. It does require some effort on the reader’s part though but is a FREE download from  http://www.dspguide.com/.

The late Hans Camenzind was well known for designing the ubiquitous 555 timer while working under contract to Signetics in the States. His book “Designing Analog Chips” is still available here http://www.designinganalogchips.com/.

Home Pages of Note - There are many of them but here are a few that I like.

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/index.htm - An impressive collection of older, mostly American broadcasting, radio and electronic magazines, directories and trade journals.

http://www.tinaja.com/ - “The Guru’s Lair” - Don Lancaster’s (of ‘Cookbook’ fame) home page with very many links and some ‘legacy electronics’ books to download.

http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/ - A British historical industrial guide.

http://tonnesoftware.com/ - If filters and the like are your thing then this is a page of free software ‘par excellence’.

http://www.morsemad.com/ - Morse keys, Morse keys and more Morse keys.

http://www.tatjavanvark.nl/index.html - A very difficult act to follow. Especially note the V-bomber electronics suite.

http://paillard.claude.free.fr/ - And yet another one where F2FO shows us how he makes his own vacuum tubes. Scroll down to “La Video - Fabrication d’une Lampe Triode”.

RF Technology Overviews   

http://complextoreal.com/ - Tutorials in Communications Engineering; mostly essays on topics in DSP.

http://www.microwaves101.com/ - Here the “Unknown Editor” hosts a site on all things microwave.

http://www.rfcafe.com/ - If the previous site wasn’t enough, how about RF without end ? (And I really mean it!)

http://www.sss-mag.com/index.html - As it says on the banner; an RF, Wireless and Spread Spectrum source.

Technical Blogaspheres   

http://www.eevblog.com/ - An ear-bashing, teardown, review and project site hosted by David L. Jones. If you’re into some of the latest gear, here’s where you may see their innards exposed. Be sure to check the “Episodes List” first.

http://www.ganssle.com/ - If you wish a biweekly slice of free, embedded systems news and gossip, which may be pasted or referred to on your website, try this for size by simply signing-up with Jack for “The Embedded Muse”.

Test Equipment - Some favourite sites for their manuals and related projects.

http://www.ko4bb.com/ - A top-class collection with some radio/electronic projects and technical papers.

http://www.ke5fx.com/ - A project storehouse by John Miles with the emphasis on control and frequency stability.

http://bama.edebris.com/manuals/ - BAMA: The “Boat Anchor Manual Archive” for ham radio and test equipment.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Manual_Exchange/ - The Yahoo Group for posting and fulfilling manual requests.

World War II  

http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Oral-History:MIT_Radiation_Laboratory - The oral reminisces of some of the many talented scientists and engineers who worked at the MIT Radiation Laboratory during the U.S. gestation of radar and its related technologies between 1940 and 1945. After the war some of the staff were given the monumental task of writing it all up, together with the considerable Allied contribution, in the 28-volume “Radiation Laboratory” series.

http://www.cdvandt.org/ - Not much has been written on German advances in communications, electronics and radar, etc., up to and during WWII. This well documented Dutch site, in English and German, addresses that issue to a large extent.

http://www.uboat.net/ - Both sides of the underwater war at sea (non-technical but interesting for all that). While working for Philips Electrical in the ‘60s, I came across an engineer who had been a radio operator on a U-Boat which was sunk and, although he survived, he became a POW. A that time Bletchley Park and the Enigma machine were still a secret and so I knew nothing of either but wish now that I had as a most interesting conversation might have ensued.