Free and cheap ham radio projects list by WA5VJB
http://www.wa5vjb.com/references.html
Thanks for that. As has been pointed out to me, I will also need to find a good antenna to match with transceiver and the bands (10 meter for now), and I am starting from scratch on this as well. I live in a rural area, but I do have neighbors and I suspect I wont be able to erect a permanent tower, so I need to find antenna solutions that are either low profile or fast/easy to deploy and stow.