RadCom Report December 2013

RadCom 1913

An enquiry about amateur radio from the Tinker Society at the University of Kent at Canterbury led to a fruitful visit from the HIlderstone club. John Hislop G7OHO expounded the varied aspects of amateur radio while Don Turner G4TKR explained the virtues of the Kent repeaters in which he is involved. They appreciated seeing some amazing Arduino projects which Matt Payne M0LMK had constructed, including his ‘drifting buoy’.

Sixteen students wanted to gain their foundation licence so we started them off on their VHF QSO. On the following Sunday they joined us for the Jamboree on the Air special event station. We had the call sign GB0BAS for the 1st Birchington air scouts. In the morning eight beavers aged between 6 and 8 took part in various activities associated with radio communications. They learnt Morse code using a Morse key, made an LED electronic circuit to send Morse with light flashes, found the fox with a direction finder and spoke to other scout groups on the club radio.

RadCom 2013

The lads had a great time and thoroughly deserved their activity badge. In the afternoon we split the university students into two groups and set them the challenge of erecting antennas and making an HF QSO. Both succeeded and learnt a lot from it. They are looking forward to the foundation exam in December and making their intermediate project over the holiday period.