Software-defined radio doesn't have to cost a fortune. I picked up an RTL-SDR dongle for under $30 and spent a weekend turning it into a capable wideband receiver — scanning everything from weather satellites to aircraft transponders. Here's the full build log.

Most 3D-printed project boxes are ugly. They don't have to be. I've spent a lot of time iterating on a design philosophy that hides the seams, improves ventilation, and still looks good sitting on a shelf. Parametric templates included.

Enterprise gear hits eBay for pennies on the dollar once it's a generation or two behind. I picked up a pair of decommissioned rack servers and turned them into a proper home lab with virtualisation, a separate VLAN for experiments, and a UPS that actually fits under my desk.

I bought a no-name bench PSU off an auction site. The specs were too good to be true — and they were. This post documents the teardown, the lies on the label, what was actually inside, and how I modified it into something I'd actually trust on my workbench.

An honest year-in-review: five projects completed, three stalled out, one destroyed in a spectacular capacitor-related incident. Lessons learned, tools acquired, and the one project I'm carrying forward into 2026.