Ok, well, with those thoughts in consideration.. I'm still a bit lost
on where to start. I know a local guy who has a SDR-1000 and I read
his blog on blogspot. Very interesting. I did all the "googling" on
it with a program called WebFerret. There is also GNUradio, and a few
other projects going on in SDR it seems.

While tubes are cool, and I am sure very nice low tube count receivers/
transmitters/transceivers could be built as they did ages ago.

Yes, I agree we live in a digital age.. and there are still many
analog circuits around. Speaking of which, from just having purchased
a copy of the 1985 ARRL Handbook today and having glanced through it.
(I like old books to begin with).

Quote: "I don't know much about the book in question and the radio it
builds,
but the parts you name are all computer parts, not radio parts. My
gut
advice would be that you not build a computer but a radio :-)"

Well, thats what I intend to do. Well, half and half. Someone has to
start somewhere.

I just wish I could rember everything my grandfather tried to teach me
at a very young age.
For reference, I'm just about to turn 30. And, I started getting into
this sort of thing around 1986.

As someone somewheres else suggested I have limited information, and
well, I just need to fill in the gaps.. not nessisarily start all
over. I barely know what to do with the probes of a DMM.. in my case
a Fluke 8050A..

Well, yes I probably could put together a kit and learn that way. In
other words, "I'm just a mentor short of a college thesis."

Oh yea, and I won't attempt to become a RF Engineer / Designer, well..
just yet anyhow. LoL.

Greg