1) Go to the bookstore (www.powells.portland.or.us) (www.amazon.com)
2) Buy "The Art of Electronics, 2nd ed.", by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill.
3) Read the first few chapters, surf the rest. Keep it by your
   desk for the rest of your natural existence.

The Art of Electronics, 2nd ed.
ISBN 0-521-37095-7
TK78155.H67 1989
621.381-dc19
Cambridge University Press
about $60.00

Winfield Hill has an email address; hill@rowland.org

This is the best single text on real electronics I've ever seen. It
covers those topics that experimenters, hobbyists and working engineers
really need, without the morass of mathematics so loved by ivory-tower
engineering professors. This was written by guys who actually needed to
get something done, not just spout off in front of a blackboard. Buy it.

Mark G. Forbes, R & D Engineer  |  Acres Gaming, Inc.    (541) 766-2515
KC7LZD                          |  815 NW 9th Street     (541) 753-7524 fax
forbesm@peak.org                |  Corvallis, OR 97330
http://www.peak.org/~forbesm
mforbes@hq.acresgaming.com

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing
about."
---Anomalous