Engineering Students Get A Radio Demo

-

This afternoon I introduced my engineering/electronics students to the world of amateur radio.
The students are in their second year with me studying part time on a three year schools provision we are delivering at the college. The students have all built FM receivers so as promised I brought in some of my standby ham radio gear to show them how things work.
I set up my YAESU FT -767 in the back of the van which I parked inside the college grounds. I showed the students my collection of mono band antennas explaining their purpose regarding wavelength size and resonance without trying to overcomplicate  things too much.
I decided to make the most of the opportunity and got out the large Hustler mono band mobile antenna which has separate resonators (interchangeable top loaded whip sections)  for most of the HF bands. I powered up the trusty old Transceiver and began to check out the 40m band with the students listening by. We were fortunate as the band conditions were favorable and  I was soon in qso using the college's club call MX0KSC. The students soon got the hang of it and were keen to try and tune the vfo to a voice signal, I gave them a go under strict supervision and to my pleasure they were taking things seriously. I spent the next couple of hours changing over the Hustler resonators to explore the various HF bands as we worked lots of stations on 40m, 20m, 17m and 15m.
The confidence levels soon crept up and when the first student took to the microphone to pass a message and help me work a station in Northern Ireland I then had my hands full because they were hungry for more. We called CQ and had a few takers and in the end managed qsos into Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, Bavaria and Bulgaria. The students enjoyed the experience and a couple of them might even become Hams of the future. I was very pleased with their behavior and operating manner as well as surprised just how interested they were in ham radio as it was quite a chilly day. Next week they will be back in the welding workshop nice and warm but there will be more from MX0KSC in the very near future. 73

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Full Size Delta Loop for 20M

-
Image
I came across a simple delta loop design courtesy of dxzone found on the net some time ago and have been planning to give it a go for a while. This weekend I had a couple of hours spare, so I decided to give it a go using some 2mm multi strand wire cable, a dipole centre and a mixture of 75 ohm and 50 ohm coaxial cable. The delta loop is supposed to be resonant on 20 meters but I found it to be a little high so at present I am tuning the Loop with my mfj-969 which copes extremely well. The resonant frequency is 13.2 MHz at the moment so the next chance I get, I shall shorten the overall length making sure that each of the three sides are still equal in length, and hopefully adjusting the antenna for maximum performance ATU free for 14.2 MHz. I believe the miscalculation in the resonant length is probably down to the fact that my wire is covered in the plastic sleeving from the manufacturer which always effects the swr as I have noticed in past experiments with dipoles you always get sl...
Read more

Homebrew 40/80 Trap Dipole Design

-
Image
This Antenna design was one that I used about 4 years ago, it worked exceptionally well on 80m and 40m. The size of the antenna makes a Half wave length on 80 meters, and with the traps a half wave on 40m with a SWR (standing wave ratio) of 1:1-1.5 across both bands. It worked well also on 20m with the use of an A.T.U (antenna tuning unit). I made my version of this antenna using 3mm multi strand copper cable which I left covered by the PVC insulation. The traps can either be home brewed using some 40mm diameter plastic drain pipe and winding wire around the pipe approximately 10 turns, then connected in line after the 10 metre lengths. Or the alternative is to purchase some commercially made 7.1 MHz traps, and fit them in line the same way. The antenna can be fed with 50 ohm coax with a home brew balan or again a commercially purchased balan. The wire lengths of the dipole are 2x 10 metres and 2x 6.7 metres as shown on the diagram above. This antenna can be mounted quite low to the gr...
Read more

YAESU G - 5500 Elevation Rotator Repair

-
Image
After 10 years of careful use my G-5500 eventually developed a couple of faults on the elevation rotator side.  Fault 1. For the past year I have had to guess the elevation as the readout was no longer working on the controller unit. I suspected the position switch which was located inside the rotator up above the house roof which was a pain in the butt to say the least. Fault 2. Over the winter the gearbox on the elevation rotor seized up solid. I plucked up some courage and erected my ladder and which with the aid of a rope to lower the mast it all worked out quite straight forward. Once down out with the impact driver and away I went. Once I split the case with the impact driver which was easy, I found lots of sandy grit and dried out remains of what should have or once was gearbox/bearing grease. The next step was to inspect the seized gearbox and then remove the main shaft which can only be carried out by first removing the entire gear housing u...
Read more