Hi all,
I agree with what is being said.
The K4AMG MARC works with you in a VO TECH center Broadcast Radio
Class -WFOS FM 88.7, for over 10 years now. You can Google the station 24/7
and listen to live stream. When the students are in class they are on the
air. We are also in the early stages of assisting with an electronics
class in the Chesapeake, VA Public Schools.
We see teens all of the time. Today most of the teens we see kind of know
what a screw driver and a pair of pliers are, but never heard of a ratchet
and socket.
Case in point:
Last May we gave the teens assembly instructions and tools so they could
assemble our YAGI antennas for OSCAR communications, and install the rotor -
in general get the antennas ready for a OSCAR pass.
We had to show them how to use the tools! Walk them through each step of
the instructions as they texted to their friends this NOVEL experience.
You might had heard us on FO 29, W4FOS, the schools club station.
We have also worked with "BOE BOT" robot in the school. It requires
moderate assembly. Assembly was a problem for them - programming went
fairly well (circles. squares etc).
On a good note a few years ago we bought RAMSEY FM Radio receiver kits and
as class projects we taught them how to solder and in less then 3 classes 2
hours 6 hours they put the radios together, and with less then,, and hour
they used a scope and debugged the one radio that did not work, so they can
do hands on when they want to.
What I am finding is shops (hand on stuff) is disappearing and to work in
trades, the teens are now required to take 2 year JR. College to be
certified.
Back to class, for many years we have put the students on HF during School
Club Roundup, and they get insulted and jammed by older hams that own HF
frequencies. We tried to place them on "IRLP" and around here any way some
of the old guys are so bitter they are using bad language and distasteful
conversations, not that the teens don't know and use this language, but not
in the class room, so we don't go there.
Even one of our largest clubs in the area don't want to work with teens.
This year we will try to introduce ISS data and SSTV to the class. By the
way we can not go SSTV on HF, most of the pictures are not suitable for the
class room.
In short it is difficult to give teens a full view of amateur radio when
some of the idiots on the air and are just that real idiots. This part of
the same discussion "Ethics" on the School Club Roundup users group ...
Enough Venting.
And finding volunteer Elmers to teach in the class room, very difficult, as
most hams of the 80s and beyond know nothing but how to operate their
radios, can not even make their antennas. The exception are those wonderful
guys that worked in electronics and communications in the service or their
day to day work. God Bless them. Our newest and best resource for Elmers
are members of the Society of Broadcast Engineers Chapter 54, they have
taken time off to teach in the class room.
You can check out our home page at K4AMG.org, to get an idea about what we
are trying to do. Please give us some input about what you think we are
doing right or wrong.
God Bless
Rich
W4BUE
----- Original Message -----
From: "R Oler" <orbit...@hotmail.com>
To: "B J" <va6...@gmail.com>
Cc: "Joe" <n...@mwt.net>; <amsat-bb@amsat.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2013 11:38 AM
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: D STAR is here to stay
in large manner chat rooms and the like have taken the place for some of
the CQ...Robert WB5MZO/S2
Sent from my iPad
On Nov 13, 2013, at 9:51 PM, "B J" <va6...@gmail.com> wrote:
On 11/13/13, Joe <n...@mwt.net> wrote:
I agree on that also.
Now I'm not picking on them here. But I am a member of Four local
Amateur Radio Clubs. And have been an Amateur since 1975 and have seen
this "Hobby" change a lot through the years. And in all four clubs 90%
of the newly licensed get into this Hobby now, through the Public
service aspect of the hobby. IE: Skywarn, communications during
disasters, support like in parades etc. While there is nothing wrong
with this. But these newcomers do not seem to get the thrill of just
getting on the air, and throw out a CQ just to see who comes back. Just
for the thrill of the unknown. And that is sad.
I feel that Amateur Radio is more to them as the Service part of the
Amateur Radio Service. Not the experimenting and exploring part.
I often get a similar reaction when I talk about amateur radio,
particularly from younger people. They can't quite grasp why I'd want
to put together a station and, perhaps, talk with someone when there
are easier ways of doing that. Even if I don't have any contacts, I
like to find out just what the hardware can do and how far my signal
can go. It's fun to know that I can reach a satellite that's, say,
somewhere over the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia putting only 5 W into
my Arrow yagi.
Many peope, I suppose, have become accustomed to the plug-and-play
aspect of electronic devices and expect to have clear 2-way
conversations every time. Tinkering with something in order to hear
or be heard is likely something they wouldn't like or would be too
bothersome to them.
Then again, my interest in radio began as an SWL while I was still in
high school over 40 years ago and I listened to broadcasts from, as
the song says, "far away places with strange-sounding names". It was
fun bragging to my classmates that I listened to, say, Radio
Australia, not that any of them paid much attention to it.
73s
Bernhard VA6BMJ@ DO33FL
<snip>
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