On May 20, 2018, a program called CQScotland is inviting parents and school-age children to Braehead Arena, Glasgow to build an electronic kit free of charge. The website says:
You will be welcome to visit the dedicated Kit Construction Area to build your free kit together. Help will be on hand so you should leave with a fully working project. This event is part of the Scottish Electronics and Radio Convention 2018.
For an event that’s coming up so quickly, details on the Scottish Electronics and Radio Convention is kind of sketchy, but it appears to be some kind of hamfest.
Whatever the venue, this is a program that I could really get behind. We hams gripe and moan about not attracting kids into the hobby, but we rarely do anything about it. Sponsoring an event like this in conjunction with your local hamfest seems like a positive way to get both kids and their parents interested in electronics, and quite possibly, amateur radio.
According to David, MM0HQD, the two kits they offer are:
- AM Radio Kit. This particular kit looks like it costs £17 ($24). That seems a bit pricey, but a quick search for “AM radio kit” on eBay yielded a bunch of less expensive options, including this kit from China for less than $5!
- Morse Code Sender. David notes, “In German but Google translates well.” This kit is only 5€ ($6) and looks like a nice, easy kit to build. This site has all the plans for this kit, too, and you might be able to duplicate it for the same price or less yourself.
So, here are some questions for you:
- Would a program like this be of interest to you or your club?
- Could you get your club to offer this program in conjunction with its hamfest?
- Do you know of any projects that would be suitable for this program?
- What are some things that would be important for a program like this to succeed? (For example, one of the things that comes to my mind is that enough soldering irons and basic tools would have to be available for participants to use.)
I like this program so much I’ve even come up with a snappy logo like the CQScotland logo: