[Elecraft] Re: Re K2 ordering!

[Brian Lloyd]

On Jun 12, 2007, at 1:51 AM, F5UL wrote:

> Hi Brian,
> What you are trying to do for your GB Montessori School is exactly  
> what I was going to do for a youg association here near Geneva. But  
> I failes because I did not get any allocation for this project, as  
> it was termed unnecessary!!!

I am lucky. The school is small and I am married to the  
headmistress. :-) OTOH, I did apply to the ARRL and they liked my  
proposal so they are providing the bulk of the equipment to pull this  
off. Now I have to construct the facilities.

> Well....
> You did right with the K2, because when you finish  the kit, by the  
> book, you know and understand the transceiver as much as their  
> conceptors.

That is what I am thinking. As technology gets more and more complex,  
the prevailing sense is that ordinary people cannot understand it. We  
are creating a society of appliance operators. I am trying to counter  
that by bringing technical subjects back within the grasp of kids so  
that they understand that they CAN understand what is going on inside  
a computer, a cell phone, a television, a rocket, a radio, a robot, etc.

Arthur C. Clarke once stated in his third law, "any sufficiently  
advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I think he was  
trying to point out that we can take things that appear magical and  
turn them into technology that we can understand. OTOH I can see that  
going back the other way. As the technology gets more complex people  
give up trying to understand it and it turns into magic. I want to  
try to stop that trend, at least for a small subset of children.

The Montessori method has children learning by manipulating. All  
their math is done by manipulation of things. The first-year children  
in a Montessori school tend to have as good a grasp of geometry as  
most high-school (years 9-12) children do. I am just taking that one  
step further and applying that to their science class as well.

Electricity is more difficult as one is dealing with an intangible so  
making it hands-on is more of a challenge. I will actually have  
several cathode-ray oscilloscopes for them to use. (Right now I have  
an HP-180A I am repairing and a Tek 465 that is working pretty well.)  
I taught myself to use a 'scope when I was in elementary school. I  
built my first 'scope from a kit (an Eico 435) when I was 11. A  
'scope is the most useful tool I have ever found for working on  
electronic equipment. I suspect that my fascination with the 'scope  
played a large part in my visual understanding of electronics.

I have one lab where they use a function generator and a 'scope to  
help the kids learn about the relationship between amplitude, time,  
frequency, and wavelength. It lets them view what they are learning  
and tie it to the geometry that has been the cornerstone of their math.

(BTW, in a Montessori school kindergarten students understand the  
concepts of multiplication, division, squares, and square roots. By  
the time they hit their 4th year they are surprisingly advanced in  
their grasp of mathematical concepts including the beginnings of  
algebra so I can begin to teach them the physics from a quantitative  
as well as a qualitative point of view. This year they were learning  
about ratio and proportion as applied to simple machines. The older  
kids designed and built their own throwing machines, e.g. mangonels,  
balistas, and trebuchets.)

> As you intend, take the SSB module, beside fone you will be able to  
> run digital mode too.

That is the idea. I am not sure I will get to the point where I can  
explain modulation from a mathematical point of view but I can give  
them the practical idea. I am looking around for a good, old spectrum  
analyzer so I can show them things in the frequency as well as the  
time domain.

> I waited two years before ordering the KPA100 and it is not yet in  
> service!

Thank you. I have had a couple of private messages say that too.

> About a year after the K2 and SSB, I instaled the KAT2 antenna tuner.

I am hearing similar things from people.

> So you can do lot of things whith QRP level and I will not change  
> anything but for another K!!!

:-)

> Good work Brian, best regards
> F5UL/Bob

Thank you.

73 de Brian, WB6RQN
Brian Lloyd - brian HYPHEN wb6rqn AT lloyd DOT com