Nicholas Proy's Hobbies and Technical Projects

Welcome to my hobbies and technical projects page. What began as a few individual interest pages gradually developed into a larger collection of tools, structured datasets, directories, maps, and reference resources.

Many of these projects began with the same problem I faced across a few of my different hobbies: useful technical information is often scattered across forums, incomplete, discontinued, or unnecessarily placed behind paywalls or otherwise gatekept. Rather than rely on fragmented, difficult-to-use, non-free, or otherwise restricted sources, I began building my own tools. Building my own datasets and tools meant that I wouldn't have any licensing or copyright issues, which allowed me to make this information searchable, structured, and freely accessible.

Most of these projects take the form of reference systems, directories, comparison tools, and normalized datasets, designed to make technical information easier to navigate and use in practice. They are maintained and updated over time to remain accurate and usable.

The subject areas may vary from amateur radio, analog audio, phono cartridges and stylus references, vacuum tubes, 3D printing, and electronics, but the underlying approach is consistent: organize the underlying data/information and make it accessible online for free, which turns dispersed knowledge into something practical for everyone.

Lastly, you may be wondering why all of this is hosted on my law firm's website. The answer is simpler than you might expect: I already maintain a web server for my law firm's pages, and because everything is built using static HTML, it provides a stable and flexible framework for adding, updating, and maintaining these tools over time.

This approach allows me to host all of this in a way that is self-contained and not dependent on external services or databases. Many of these projects began as solutions to fragmented or hard-to-access information, and this structure makes it possible to organize that information in a consistent, durable, and freely accessible format. For that reason, there are no paywalls, ads, or login requirements anywhere on this site.