Radio Days at the ScienCenter
Seth Maxon, Wulf, Sophia and David Franck instructing at the Hamfest (bigger)
Radio Days is a youth experiential instruction project. Sponsors are the Cornell Center for Materials Research Outreach Program, the Ithaca Sciencenter, TCARC (AF2AA) and CARC (W2CXM). All instructors are volunteers and have more fun than they could ever get paid for! The radio is a simple crystal design by several TCARC members specifically to make construction easy yet instructive for the under-10 set. Come join us, you'll see!
I'm writing to report that our third Radio Day at the Sciencenter on August 9 went very well. Following the pattern set last spring, eight children built radios for the first time and three returned for followup activities. Since we were following a simpler design for the set (a less complicated coil), building went a lot faster than before and the first timers had plenty of energy for extra experiences.
Our post-build activities included the return of an HF station. This included listening in on two morse QSO's (Pennsylvania and Kentucky) with Doug Wheeler K2EPL at the helm. Wulf Hofbauer KC2KCF introduced children to various radio-electronic components and traced signals from transmitter and through their xtal sets with a scope and a audio amp/speaker. Curry Taylor N2TQ worked with children at a many-circuits-in-one kit that gave them a chance to build and operate instantly. He also raised their consciousness of construction possibilities by bringing in examples of homemade devices and explained the art of PCB fabrication. Eileen Tan KC2KCG led a discussion of what happened with the returning children's home efforts. Later, she took groups on a ``nature walk'' about antennas that included source hunting with our 10 GHz dish and discussion of lower frequency system such as our HF antenna. Eileen also helped a returning child build one of our current sets. Carl Franck KB2KDV ran a crystal set repair shop and discussed home projects: the addition of an audio amplifier to a child's xtal set and an alarm alert system for use in a house with an elderly member. Our building instructors did a great job they included Seth Maxson, Emerilis Casado, Terri Lisman, and Nathan Franck KC2GLK. Shannon Guiles served as a head waiter: helping children pick and get to the right activity. She also took a lot of fine photos. Kevin Dilley from the Cornell Center for Materials Research Outreach Program and Mary Lou McGiff helped on location as well.
Our xtal set build at the TCARC hamfest the previous weekend went very well also: nine children made sets (with the youngest being seven years old!). Eileen, Wulf, Carl, and David and Sophia Franck served as as fine instructors.
As ever we are indebted to Kevin, Juliane Bauer Hutchinson and Nev Singhota of the CCMR Outreach Program for all their help providing parts and tools and recruiting instructors. And to Mary Lou and the Sciencenter staff, especially Eric and Kathy for their help.
We have gotten a number of useful suggestions from the children and parents and many appreciative comments. Thanks to all for a great time!
Please let me, Carl KB2KDV (cpf1@cornell.edu, 255-5215 (work) 257-6969 (home)) know if you would like to join in at our next Radio Day activity. Hopefully it will be within a couple of months.
73, Carl KB2KDV
Pictures:
Seth Maxon, Wulf, Sophia and David Franck instructing at the
2003 TCARC Hamfest.
Wulf catches a worker slacking off at the radio factory.
Got it and Dad is proud too!
Eileen's returning student decides to make a better xtal set.
Doug shows a new guy how to ham things up.
Curry's student shows that he has the right touch for electronics.
Wulf shows how to track down signals
