passing variables without form submit

I'm trying to write what I thought would be a pretty simple script action to pass a variable from a form element without a sumbit button to subsequent pages; instead of a form button i would like any number of links to other pages to be able to pass this checkbox value: ie whether it is checked or not. Doesn't seem as easy as I thought. I tried using some crazy JavaScript / PHP thing whereby an onChange in the form element submitted the form to itself, hoping perhaps nievely that the php in the links to pages i want to recieve this variable would pick it up: ie: <A href="this.html?source=<?php echo $value;?>">this page</a> where value would be whether the checkbox was checked or not, but no go. Then I tried using Javascript to do the same onChange thing but set a cookie, that could be read by subsequent pages through php, but no luck there. Can someone tell me where i'm going wrong in my thinking about this? brent.