My ham radio licence has definitely rekindled my interest in electronics. While searching for some information I have come across the following forums.
http://www.electronics-lab.com/
http://www.electro-tech-online.com/
http://www.dutchforce.com/~eforum/
All of then are invaluable resource to home brewers. Electronics lab forum has some excellent howtos and construction ideas. They also have a resources forum where you can find some of the best books, provided you dont mind reading some pirated books 🙂 .
The following link has some common data sheets. I have made a local copy of this archive for easy reference.
http://www.ee.washington.edu/stores/DataSheets/