I enjoy reading essays, so when I saw a collection of essays from Joseph Epstein, Familiarity Breeds Content: New and Selected Essays, on the new books shelf at my local library, I checked it out. The essays were fine, although I’m not sure that I agree with David Brooks, who called the essays “funny” and full of “charming banter.” 

One essay in the book, “The Bookish Life,” did catch my eye. The essay discusses lists of books that a “well-read” person might be expected to have read. Epstein notes the difficulties with such lists and writes,

Such lists reveal a yearning for a direct route to wisdom. Brace yourself for the bad news: none is available. If one wanted to establish expertise in a restricted field—economics, say, or art history, or botany—such a  list might be useful.

I’m thinking that such a list might be useful for amateur radio, and I don’t think that I’ve ever seen such a list. So, let’s start one. 

Scanning my bookshelves, I offer the following:

• The ARRL Handbook
• The ARRL Antenna Book
• The ARRL Operating Manual
• The Art of Electronics, 3d edition. Horowitz and Hill.
• Electronic and Radio Engineering, 4th edition, Terman. 
• Antennas, 2d edition, Kraus
• Experimental Methods in RF Design, Revised Edition; Hayward, Campbell, and Larkin.

I have not actually read all of these books, so I can’t claim to be a bookish radio amateur. I have cracked them open on occasion, though. Some I’ve cracked open more than others.

I’ve never owned a copy of Experimental Methods, but every time it’s mentioned, it seems to be mentioned with a certain reverence. That’s why I’ve included it in this list. It’s no longer in print, though, which is curious. If it’s such a great book, you’d think that the ARRL would continue selling it.

Anyway, I’d like to get your nomination for the essential amateur radio book list. Please comment below or email me directly. 

Last night, on Mastodon, I came across a post that just made me say, “Wow!” It contained a link to a post by Susan Kaye Quinn, who is a speculative fiction author with a PhD in environmental engineering, who writes hopepunk climate fiction & solarpunk. The post on Quinn’s webiste includes the following video on how to make an eight-page “zine” from a single sheet of paper.

I love this idea so much that I now want to make my own ham radio zines. The first could be  something like, “Cool Things that Hams Do.” Off the top of my head, I have come up with the following eight pages:

• Title Page: Cool Things that Hams Do
• Build Radios
• Operate from parks and lighthouse and…
• Bounce signals off meteor trails
• Set up our own communications networks
• Talk to astronauts on the ISS (and other hams via satellites)
• Talk to each other using Morse Code
• Back Page – Want to get your own ham license?

Heres a start I made on the “Cool things hams do” zine, and here’s a template in Word format if you want to get started on your own.

Let’s make this a community effort

I”d love to make this a community effort. Here’s how you can help:

• If you can draw, perhaps you could make a drawing illustrating one or more points above.
• Come up with other ideas for the zine.
• Come up with ideas for other, more focused zines on particular topics.