Not being a pedagogical genius, it never really occurred to me until last year to give my General Class students a project to work on while we slogged through the material. Last year, some of them built little QRP kits. Not only was that fun, it was educational.
This year, I’m again asking them to do some kind of project, but one that they choose themselves. Here’s the short list that I came up with:
- Build a 2m beam. At our first meeting, one of the guys noted that while he could hear a repeater about 30 miles away from his QTH, he wasn’t able to hit it with the 5/8-wavelength vertical he was using. I suggest that he build a Cheap Yagi.
- Build a kit like the students did last year.
- Download some antenna simulation software and analyze a dipole or vertical antenna. MM-ANA is free and looks to be a pretty good program.
- Learn Morse Code. How could I not suggest this? :)
Anyway, do you have any other suggestions?