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On May 15-17, hams from all over the world will make their way to the Hara Arena, located in Trotwood, Ohio for the 2009 ARRL National Convention and Dayton Hamvention®. Held annually since 1952, Hamvention is one of the largest Amateur Radio gathering in the world.

On Wednesday, April 29, President Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate Mignon L. Clyburn of South Carolina as an FCC Commissioner. If her nomination is approved by Congress, Clyburn will fill the seat of Democrat Jonathon Adelstein. Adelstein is leaving the FCC to head up the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS).

On Wednesday, April 29, Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) introduced HR 2160, the Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Enhancement Act of 2009 in the US House of Representatives. This bill, if passed, would "promote and encourage the valuable public service, disaster relief, and emergency communications provided on a volunteer basis by licensees of the Federal Communications Commission in the Amateur Radio Service, by undertaking a study of the uses of Amateur Radio for emergency and disaster relief communications, by identifying unnecessary or unreasonable impediments to the deployment of Amateur Radio emergency and disaster relief communications, and by making recommendations for relief of such unreasonable restrictions so as to expand the uses of Amateur Radio communications in Homeland Security planning and response." The bill has been referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Have you ever had a technical question that you weren’t able to figure out? Even after checking with publications such as The ARRL Handbook or the ARRL Antenna Book, you’re still stumped. Have you exhausted every resource you can think of, including your Section’s Technical Coordinator (TC)? Just when you think you’re at the end of your rope, you remember the ARRL Technical Information Service.

Registration remains open through Sunday, May 3, 2009 for these online course sessions that begin on Friday, May 15, 2009: Antenna Modeling and Radio Frequency Propagation.

Hikers take a walk on the ham radio side.

Antennas/Vertical
By Guy, de ON6MU, At VHF, both the 1/4-wavelength monopole and the 5/8-wavelength monopole antennas are widely used.

Sloper antenna plans. Homebrewing half sloper wire multiband antennas

Technical Reference/Amplifiers/HF Amplifiers
by PA0FRI, 1.8 - 30 MHz, Input 50 ohm SWR <1.2:1

Technical Reference/Amplifiers/HF Amplifiers
The amplifier described here is an update of the High Power linear amplifier described in the July, 1995 issue of the “Radiolubitel. KW i UKW” magazine in Belarus. In English, this is “Radio Amateur. HF and VHF”. by Gary Podgorny, EW1MM

Internet and Radio/Forums
A ham radio message board based in Iowa, but open to the World Wide Web. You’ll find amateur radio news and plenty of message boards for you to share ideas and opinions with your fellow hams.

Operating Modes/Morse code
Samuel morse and Invention of the Telegraph

Operating Modes/Morse code
Samul Morse page on wikipedia, inventor of morse code

Technical Reference/Duplexers
Article by Ing. Gyula Nagy, HA8ET

Antennas/Wire
A multiband inverted L antenna