Girl GuideThinking Day On the Air at the Starcentre

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A view of the Mars Landscape at the STARCENTRE


Today was Thinking Day on the Air,which is an annual event for Girl guides around the world.This year Keighley and Bradford Guides took part at the Starcentre and i had the pleasure of operating the Station and assisting them with Ham Radio qso's around Europe on HF,we worked many stations mainly on 20M and a few on 40M and 2M. Contacts were made with Germany,Hungary,Ukraine,Italy,Russia,Romania,Spain,Yugoslavia and England.

This is where the shack is located at the college's Starcentre,its the Communication Centre.A large plasma screen is connected to the P.C and allows others to see whats going on in the shack,in this picture it shows Satellite tracking and decoding.

Here you can see Girl Guides operating the FT1000mp and also logging worked Stations.
YL's seem to attract plenty of calls a total of 30 Guides took part in the Event and they all had a HF QSO some had many.They will all receive a communicator badge for their participation and efforts.


Yes its ME having a play on HF, luckily i work at College full time and get to operate the Station regular which is only fair as i set the Station up in the first place H.I!

The FT1000mp in SSTV mode this was a hit with the Guides as i took their photo's and sent them out across the airwaves via SSTV on 20M

The other end of the shack is mainly used for VHF operation,as you can see more P.C's this time used for weather Satellite tracking and receiving,also the Internet such as QRZ.COM,Eqsl etc. To the right is the PSU,FT2600m 2M rig,Azimuth/Elevation controller,VR5000 receiver,ATU and FT890 which was used to receive more stations which were logged towards the Communicator badge.

This is a close up of the VR5000 receiver which i got the College to buy so that when I was not around other members of staff who are not licenced radio Hams can use this receiver to aid their teaching sessions.Well that was the idea, however i feel that the other members of staff seem to be scared of the radio equipment in general and avoid using it! This is a shame as we Hams are only too happy to help people get their licence. The use of radio has been a great tool for me using Science, maths,electronics,geography and propagation to help young people learn something and have fun and a good time.
I'm pleased to report that the Girl Guides really took to radio and had a great time at the Starcentre,hopefully we may hear some of the Girl Guides in the up and coming future of Amateur Radio.
that's all for now 73 and thanks for visiting this web blog.

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