Useful Links

Component suppliers

Bits and pieces - https://www.componentshop.co.uk/

Bitsbox (general small parts) - https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/

Hobbytronics - (general small parts) - https://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/

Hobbycomponents - https://hobbycomponents.com/

Switch Electronics - good range of general components - https://www.switchelectronics.co.uk/

All your enamelled copper wire etc - https://www.scientificwire.com/acatalog/Contact_Us.html

Strikalite - parts and battery pack rebuilding (used by myself) - https://www.strikalite.co.uk/

Components and hardware - http://www.esr.co.uk/shop/index.html

Furneaux Riddall (useful hardware) - https://www.furneauxriddall.com/

Co-Star (useful hardware / automotive / marine / tools - https://www.co-star.co.uk/

Cricklewood Electronics - https://www.cricklewoodelectronics.com/

RF-Microwave (lots of excellent RF parts) - https://www.rf-microwave.com/en/home/

General parts - http://brocott.co.uk/

General electrical parts - https://sinolec.co.uk/en

Useful antenna / connectors and hardware - https://www.barenco.co.uk/

Leo Bodnar, GPS disiplined oscillators etc - http://www.leobodnar.com/shop/

Spectrum Communications UK (parts and kits) - http://www.spectrumcomms.co.uk/

Spectrum Communications UK ebay shop - https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/Spectrum-Comms

M0PZT Ham Goodies, parts and stuff - https://www.hamgoodies.co.uk/index.php?route=common/home

JABDOG, useful for old traditional parts that we know and like - https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/jabdogelectroniccomponents

Xtal supplier 1 - http://andyquarz.de/quarze.html

Xtal supplier 2 - https://www.act.co.uk/crystal_lc_filters/

Xtal supplier 3 - http://www.krystaly.cz/en/Products

Xtal supplier 4 AF4K - http://www.af4k-crystals.com/


Kits

Useful dev boards US based - https://mostlydiyrf.com/

Phoenix kits - high quality general electronics / radio kits - http://phoenixkitsonline.co.uk/

QRP Labs kits (for WSPR / QRSS / CW QRP) - http://qrp-labs.com/

Kanga Products - https://www.kanga-products.co.uk/


HF propagation

Propquest propagation data - http://www.propquest.co.uk/about.php

Propagation indices - https://dx.qsl.net/propagation/

VOACAP (online HF predictions maps) - https://www.voacap.com/

Proppy (HF propagation predictions) - https://soundbytes.asia/proppy/

Fast and basic HF propagation ready reckoner - https://dr2w.de/dx-propagation/

Various data auroral, magnetometer etc - https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/30-minute-aurora-forecast

Global F layer critical frequency map - https://www.sws.bom.gov.au/


Radio news

Global Medium wave news - https://mediumwave.info/

Shortwave listings (very good and updated!) - https://www.short-wave.info/

BBC Engineering info - https://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/

IARUMS Monitoring newsletters - https://www.iaru-r1.org/spectrum/monitoring-system/iarums-r1-newsletters/

Namur Review (Belgian SPRAT style magazine) - http://www.on6nr.be/NMRJournal


General interesting

Forum for Swiss Army Tools / Gerber / Leatherman and other freaks - https://forum.multitool.org/

The Secret Life of Machines (just brilliant, see the Youtube stuff too !!) - https://www.secretlifeofmachines.com/

Secret Life of Machines Tim Hunkin) - Youtube channel.

Prince Phillip in 1957 knowing his radio stuff The Restless Sphere - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqzS7HToH2E

GPS Jam maps - https://gpsjam.org/

 

QRSS related

The best introduction to QRSS - https://swharden.com/blog/2020-10-03-new-age-of-qrss/

Scott Harden's world famous QRSS grabber compendium auto updating - https://swharden.com/qrss/plus/

PA2OHH - https://www.qsl.net/pa2ohh/index.html

Henry W6REK's animated daily QRSS compendium - http://yak.net:7899/index0.html

Andy G0FTD's You tube channel (click videos tab to see ALL videos!)  - https://www.youtube.com/user/MrRadiouser/videos

G0FTD's general file repository and QRSS grabber - https://qsl.net/g0ftd/grabber.htm

M0PWX's QRSS pages and grabbers - https://www.qsl.net/m0pwx/QRSS.htm

Long Wave Club of America - https://www.lwca.net/

W4HBK's blog - http://pensacolasnapper.blogspot.com/

New version wsprrypi (2024) - https://git.fkurz.net/dj1yfk/WsprryPi

QRSSPIG (QRSS grabber for Linux / Pi's) - https://gitlab.com/hb9fxx/qrsspig


RF and electronics calculators

RF Cafe (full of useful links) - http://www.rfcafe.com/sitemap.htm

Lots of RF calcs - https://leleivre.com/rf_lcmatch.html

Online ATU network calculator - https://home.sandiego.edu/~ekim/e194rfs01/jwmatcher/matcher2.html

L match simulator - https://www.analog.com/en/design-center/interactive-design-tools/rf-impedance-matching-calculator.html#

More useful calculators for RF - https://www.changpuak.ch/electronics/resistive_power_split.php

Resistor calculator - https://ohmslawcalculator.com/voltage-divider-calculator

Useful electronics data - https://www.smps.us/references.html

AVR fuse bits calculator - https://www.engbedded.com/fusecalc

RF filter designer - https://rf-tools.com/lc-filter/

Basic RF power measurements - https://www.ab4oj.com/test/pwrmeas.html

Smoothing capacitors  simulator 1 - https://www.changpuak.ch/electronics/power_supply_design.php

Smoothing capacitors simulator 2 - https://www.falstad.com/circuit/e-fullrectf.html

LM317/338 regulator calculator - https://circuitdigest.com/calculators/lm317-resistor-voltage-calculator

Toroid inductance calculator - http://www.toroids.info/


General radio

KA7OEI  useful stuff from an active ham - http://www.ka7oei.com/

Tiny SA (spectrum analyzers at ham prices) - https://tinysa.org/wiki/pmwiki.php

G8JNJ Tech info - https://www.g8jnj.net/

SM0VPO homebrew projects -http://sm0vpo.altervista.org/

PY2OHH homebrew projects - https://www.qsl.net/py2ohh/

HF beacon lists - https://www.qsl.net/wj5o/bcn.htm 

HF beacons general forum - https://www.freelists.org/archive/hfbeacons/

IARU list of worldwide beacons - https://iaruhfbeacons.wordpress.com/hf-beacons-2/

50Mhz beacon list - https://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/por/50.htm

Signal Wiki (identify weird signals on HF) - https://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/Category:Military

Twente SDR receiver - http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

Useful web receivers from Utah - http://www.sdrutah.org/

G8JNJ SDR- https://g8jnj.net/web-sdrs

Nano VNA software  - https://github.com/NanoVNA-Saver/nanovna-saver/releases/

Vintage radio and electronics books online - https://worldradiohistory.com/

Vintage radio and electronics books online  (server often down) - www.electronicsandbooks.com

Russian vintage radio magazines - http://retrolib.narod.ru/magazin.html

Reverse beacon for CW *beacons* - http://beta.reversebeacon.net/main.php

Meteor newsletter - https://www.meteornews.net/

DX TV old school from analogue signals B low and high VHF etc - http://francoisfrappe.blogspot.com/

G3SEK useful stuff - http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek/in-prac/index.htm

OTHR radar sounds bank - https://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/Category:Radar

G4ZFQ's useful stuff Qrp Labs kits, RTL dongles and more - https://sites.google.com/site/g4zfqradio/home

Ben PA2ST's massive site, Linux and QRP Labs kits - https://wiki.polaire.nl/doku.php?id=qrp_labs_qcx_firmware

General inspiration  from G0UPL - http://www.hanssummers.com/

WSPR and WSJT downloads - https://wsjt.sourceforge.io/wsjtx.html

US Dept of Commerce book on Ionospheric Propagation - https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-C13-fb3928334c2e900ed6a1cc1312e7db64/pdf/GOVPUB-C13-fb3928334c2e900ed6a1cc1312e7db64.pdf


Raspberry Pi misc and OS links

Raspbian OS wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi_OS

Lite images: https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian_lite/images/

With desktop: https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/images/

With desktop & recommended software: https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian_full/images/

Raspbian images for normal PC use and replace Windows - https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/rpd_x86/images/

Alternative Pi OS links - https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/operating-systems/#raspberry-pi-desktop

Screen driver for those mini HAT type TFT displays - https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-2-2-pitft-hat-320-240-primary-display-for-raspberry-pi/easy-install

Raspberry Pi official forum - https://forums.raspberrypi.com/

Linux and Ubuntu tips - https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/p/1.html

Linux Mint mirror service  - http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/www.linuxmint.com/pub/linuxmint.com/stable/


RTL Dongles

Osmocom (command line utils to operate RTL etc dongles. - https://osmocom.org/projects/rtl-sdr/wiki/Rtl-sdr/175

RTL-SDR official site - https://www.rtl-sdr.com/


Chinese HT's and other.

General info repository - http://www.miklor.com/

Chinese HF receivers and parts (used by myself) - https://www.anon-co.com/


Component data

Mini Circuits MAR amps - https://qsl.net/g0ftd/other/misc/mini-circuits-mar-amp-devices-mmics.pdf

Mitsubishi RF power FETs (impedance data !) - https://qsl.net/g0ftd/other/misc/mitsubishi-rf-fets-26-june-2020.zip


Import taxes.

Latest news after Brexit - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notice-143-a-guide-for-international-post-users/notice-143-a-guide-for-international-post-users

Update April 2021 - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-and-overseas-goods-sold-to-customers-in-the-uk-using-online-marketplaces?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_source=25307129-0ae4-44d7-93e5-7023f3dc8709&utm_content=daily


COVID-19. [You MUST check daily since adjustments are often made to clarify / delete a lot of daft things !]

Official UK Govt rules - https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

Fishing in COVID times / lockdown - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-55587460

More fishing info - https://anglingtrust.net/covid-19/


UK Law

Jury Equity - https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-jury-equity-304290

SARAH Act (Social Action, Responsibility & Heroism) - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/3/contents/enacted

Protection from Harassment - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1997/40/contents

Civil Enforcement Agency,don't get scammed by fakes - https://www.civea.co.uk/

Free Speech Union UK based - https://freespeechunion.org/


Internet.

12ft wall, bypass paywalls - https://12ft.io/