Last week in the story about the solar-powered ham radio station in The Bush of Australia, I mentioned how I would like to get off the grid real soon now. By that I meant that I would like to generate enough electricity (one way or another) to run the ham shack and everything else in the house and sever our umbilical cord to Connecticut Light & Power.

I am sure many of you would like to do the same and say sayonara to your local power provider. So I began researching the subject in order to learn the fundamentals and I will share the resources I found online with you. And if I missed anything significant, please let me know and I will pass it on in a future installment of Surfin'.

Home Power Magazine is a print and online magazine that is considered the bible for anyone interested in getting off the grid. There are some good articles online that describe the fundamentals (look under "The Basics" menu) and there is a link to download a sample issue of the print edition of the magazine.

Treehugger answers the question "Is living off the grid right for you?" and is another source of basic articles on the subject including a piece that describes the four best ways of generating off-grid power.

HowStuffWorks describes how living off the grid works.

Off The Grid Living claims to take "it to the next level with discussions on new technology, what works and what does not," but it also has good articles about the basics, for example, Off the Grid 101.

The Web sites I mentioned above will allow you to get your feet wet and provide you with enough information to decide whether to take the next step to get off the grid.

Until next time, keep on surfin'!

Editor's note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, would like to get off the grid real soon now. To contact Stan, send him e-mail or add comments to his blog. By the way, every installment of Surfin' is indexed here, so go look it up.

Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor