"Brian - KB9BVN" ) writes:
Hi there

Grab a copy of the ARRL Radio Handbook from the library or buy one from the
ARRL site. Lots of projects and SSB info in there.

73

Actually, I'd rate the handbook as less and less about useful projects.
I'd recommend everyone have one, at least one, but it seems less about
building these days. I'm not sure if it's because they are including
fewer construction pieces, or if the theory has gotten larger so it
dwarfs the projects.

The ARRL has books that are much more about construction articles,
as they've always had. They used to have a slew of books about
specific categories (ssb, mobile, VHF, etc), that were only reprints
of QST articles, and the focus was on building. They phased those
out years ago, but in recent years they've come back. Things like
W1FB's "Notebooks", and "QRP Power", little of it is theory so
rather than selecting one sample of a transmitter and a receiver, etc,
you get pages of it. If you don't have a good selection of QSTs,
then these books are a great source, and they've kept relatively low
prices compared to the Handbook. (I paid $4.50 for my first Handbook,
back in 1971, and all the other ARRL books were the same or less. The
Handbook has ballooned to fifty dollars or so (at least here in Canada),
but you can get many of the other ARRL books for ten or twenty dollars.)

I finally got a copy of the relatively new ARRL book, "Experimental Methods
in RF Design" in December, and it is so much more filling than the last
Handbook I bought, a few years back. Just as "SOlid State Design for
the Radio Amateur" from 1977, the focus is on building, but also about
topics that often aren't covered in the Handbook.

Michael VE2BVW