One of the most confusing topics for my General Class students is the dB. I can understand why they’re confused. First of all, it’s an expression of a ratio, not an absolute unit. Second, it’s logarithmic, not linear. Third, there are a number of different units that are called dB: dB, dBm, dBV, etc.
AudioDesignLine.Com has [...]

From today’s ARRL Letter:
William Cross, W3TN, a staff member in the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, and Riley Hollingsworth, Special Counsel for the Spectrum Enforcement Division of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, spoke at the FCC Forum on Saturday afternoon at the 2008 Dayton Hamvention. Cross opened by explaining just where Amateur Radio falls in the FCC’s [...]

This webinar is being presented by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). I am a member, but it looks like you can sign up even if you’re not an IEEE member. Here’s the info:
2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT / 18:00 GMT (Duration: 1 hour)
This presentation will cover the wireless [...]

Here are a couple of items from the NIST Tech Beat, an e-mail newsletter of the National Institute of Science and Technology. The first could really be important in an emergency situation. The second is still more in the realm of research, but the speed at which some of these things become products, I wouldn’t [...]

I got this via e-mail yesterday:
If You MAKE It, They Will Come–O’Reilly Media Alert:
Maker Faire attracts an incredible 65,000 attendees
Sebastopol, CA—Earlier this month, an astonishing 65,000 people from all across the country (and beyond) came to the San Francisco Bay Area to celebrate the world’s premier event for DIY (Do It Yourself) creativity—Maker Faire! Organized [...]

The U.K.’s Guardian reports on a study by British media regulator Ofcom that eventually everyone will be living in a wire-free world of sensors and high-tech car. The study, “Tomorrow’s Wireless World,” highlights several areas in health and transportation where wireless technology could have a significant impact.
The report suggests, for example, that body-area networks [...]

Well, I got back from three days at the Dayton Hamvention last night, and as usual, it was a real blast.
As I did two years ago, I started this year’s event with QRP-Amateur Radio Club International’s Four Days in May seminars. This series of seminars lasts from 8:30 until about 4:00 pm and are [...]

I don’t usually mention special event stations—unless it’s one I’m operating—but since this one is from a museum station, I thought I’d give them a plug……..Dan
The HF and 2-meter Amateur Radio station at Colorado’s Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum is operational, and we just got approval to operate a special event station [...]

We held our second One-Day Tech Class yesterday, and I think I can claim success. Twelve folks signed up for the class, and eleven of them passed. This included current member Lisa Manthey and Candy Justyna, XYL of Ig, N0EFT.
Quite a few of the folks that passed learned about it via our local SkyWarn [...]

On qrp-l.org, there’s been a discussion of the J-Pole antenna. There were various short, incomplete explanations of how it works, some comparing it to a Zepp antenna. I can see the similarity to a Zepp, but must also admit that my understanding of how it works is incomplete.
Fortunately, Ed, K9EW, posted a link to [...]