And now for something you’ll REALLY like:
Parts and Supplies
General Parts
- McMaster-Carr: https://www.mcmaster.com/ So many parts, materials, fasteners industrial supplies, etc.
- Grainger: https://www.grainger.com/ Sort of similar to McMaster-Carr, but I think more aimed towards industrial maintenance and repair, rather than manufacturing. Tons of great tools and supplies. Excellent products, eye-watering prices.
- The Electronic Goldmine: https://theelectronicgoldmine.com/ Quirky site for surplus parts and supplies. Anything from NOS LEDs, nixie tubes, water pumps, geiger counters, party favors, radioactive chemicals, etc. etc. Aptly named, you might dig for ages and come up empty handed, or you might (literally?) find a gold nugget.
- Parco: https://www.parcoinc.com/products/o-rings/o-ring-size-chart/ Manufacturer of O-rings, you can’t buy retail from them, but they have really useful reference materials on their website.
Fun Stuff
- American Science and Surplus: https://www.sciplus.com/ Really quirky supplier for science supplies, toys and games, and all kinds of weird surplus stuff. I’m not sure if Trader Joe’s stole their catalog format from these guys or vise-versa.
Publications
- Nuts and Volts: https://www.nutsvolts.com/
- Radio Electronics Magazine: https://archive.org/details/radioelectronicsmagazine This was one of my favorites as a kid. Unfortunately, this magazine is defunct, but is still with us thanks to the Internet Archive!
- Make Magazine: https://makezine.com/
Radio
There’s this cool web-controlled software defined radio in The Netherlands that can be controlled by multiple users simultaneously, each one listening to their own signal. (Currently 352 online!) You can tune it in to receive any radio signals from 1 kHz to 30 mHz, although the receiver sensitivity seems to drop off around 15 mHz.
Right now, I’m listening to some music from Germany, and I was listening to a broadcast from Hong Kong earlier.
Try it: http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/
Theremins
Urs Gaudenz’ Open Theremin: http://www.gaudi.ch/OpenTheremin/index.php/opentheremin-v3 A truly excellent theremin for those on a budget, it outperforms a lot of more expensive commercial products in range, stability, and overall playability. Also, it’s fun to put together.