My recent post, “Another take on getting kids into amateur radio,” garnered nearly a dozen comments, so there certainly seems to be a fair amount of interest in the topic. Coincidentally, I recently came across two items on the Internet on this topic:
- Amateur Radio at the South Florida Science Museum. This effort is very similar to our station, WA2HOM, at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. They’re exposing kids to amateur radio, with a view towards getting them interested in the hobby. Unfortunately, they’re having trouble raising funds. I e-mailed Tom, AJ4XM, about how we were fortunate to get grants from the IEEE and the ARRL and have encouraged him to try as well. In the meantime, he’s trying to raise funds by getting hams to donate on the Net. If you have a few bucks, you might consider donating something.
- International Electronic and Ham Radio Camp 2012 in the Czech Republic. This article appears on the IARU Region 1 website. It describes a very cool camp conducted by a group of Czech hams. The ten-day camp drew a group of 40 kids from Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Activities included kit-building, contesting, and a number of field trips. Anyone know of something like this being held here in the U.S.?
Dan KB6NU says
On Twitter, KQ2RP commented:
Anyone know where we might get such data?
Elwood Downey, WB0OEW says
My feeling is kids will resonate best with HF comms (direct random and far-away contacts), ECOM (civic involvement), satellites (geeky) and building (technology). I don’t think talking on an HT will ever grab them these days. I know it doesn’t grab me! I think that’s true for most hams now, see your earlier post on all the quiet repeaters.