I rarely delve into the philosophical here, but I’ve just run across a couple of articles that I find interesting. I think it’s appropriate to comment on them here because amateur radio is a technical hobby
The first article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, ran in the July/August 2008 issue of The Atlantic. It’s not aimed [...]

Now that the ballots are in the mail for the Great Lakes Division election, I’ve been sending out e-mails to ARRL members in the division. I’ve had some interesting replies, including this one from Joe, N8ATB:
Hi Dan,
A very thoughtful email. I wish you the best of luck in theelection.
Amateur radio has been an incredible hobby [...]

Grant, KC0VTY, posted this to the ARRL Public Relations mailing list, but since we’re in the process of setting up our station/display at the Hands-On Museum, this struck a chord with me:
While this marketing professional’s tips about display booths don’t apply to a club’s budget, there are good points made. But you say you’re visual-design-challenged? [...]

This was a great weekend for ham radio!
First thing Saturday morning, ARROW held their monthly breakfast at the Old Country Buffet. We once again had a couple dozen members show up, and we talked about all kinds of things, including aviation, the upcoming presidential election, and even some ham radio.
Afterwards, I was supposed to head [...]

Well, it’s not free beer, but it is a free membership to the Croatian Telegraphy Club (CTC). The CTC invites all telegraphy enthusiasts to become members. If you apply by e-mail—just send your name and callsign to ctc@hamradio.hr—and membership is free. If you apply by mail—and I have no idea why you’d do that, especially [...]

Got these two links from the latest Electronics Development e-mail newsletter:Tips & Tricks for Digital Logic Circuit Design
Digital logic circuits are widely used today, from simple circuits consisting of just a few logic gates to complicated microprocessor based systems. Get some hints and tips on designing and using digital logic [...]

TechOnline presents a basic tutorial on FM with descriptions of multiplex (MPX) signaling and noise improvement techniques, such as stereo-mono blending and soft mute. This paper was written by Lawrence Der, an engineer with Silicon Laboratories. Accordingly, it also introduces Silicon Laboratories’ Si4700/01 FM Tuner ICs.

Monday evening, I did something I’d never done before. I gave a talk to more than 400 people. And, I did it from the comfort of my home office.
This was a very cool thing. Bill Edgar, N3LLR, the director from the Atlantic Division, has a webinar account with citrixonline.com that allows him to produce an [...]

MI Assistant Section Manager Simon, KC8DYZ, has published the first Youth Radio in Michigan newsletter. Included in this issue are articles by out SM Dale, WA8EFK; Corey, KD8BOQ; and Simon himself.
Another interesting part of the newsletter is a proposal for creating a website just for kids in ham radio. I like this idea a lot. [...]

Want to know how a MOSFET works? The online textbook, Principles of Semiconductor Devices, covers that and more:

Review of Modern Physics
Semiconductor Fundamentals
Metal-Semiconductor Junctions
p-n Junctions
Bipolar Transistors
MOS Capacitors
MOS Field-Effect-Transistors

One interesting feature of the book is that it includes several short videos that visually illustrate various principles. That’s kind of cool.