[FARC] Ham Radio for 7 year olds

[Joseph M. Durnal]

I think they liked the PIXIE II just because it looked neat.  I used
it as a prop to explain it sort of this way.

The sound is made here, point to the key jack input (didn't really get
into code, just the concept), and it goes through these electronics,
pointing to the oscillator and crystal, and gets turned into a radio
wave and goes out the antenna here, pointing to the antenna leads.
And then I explained it the other way, the antenna detects the radio
wave, and it comes back through these electronics and the sound comes
out here, pointing to the speaker jack.  But really, I think they just
liked a circuit board with stuff on it!

I had thought of that with the QSL cards, I brought 10 cards, chosen
some because they were far away, and some because they might be places
the kids know, like New York, Hawaii, and so on.  I brought one of my
W9IMS (Indianapolis Motor Speedway station) cards, which was a big
hit.

It was a mom, I think she was mostly curious.  She asked about some
rules, how the HT was different from a cell phone, how far away can
the radios reach, and how do they do that, and so on.  Some good
questions, but hard to answer properly and keep on the 7 year old
level.

73 de Joseph Durnal NE3R

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 10:28 AM,  <david at retroscape.com> wrote:
> Well done, Joe!
>
> It really sounds as if you planned and presented well.
>
> Why did the kids seem to like the PIXIE II kit? Did it just look cool to
> them, or did they seem to like the idea that a slightly older child than
> them could assemble a working radio/electronic device? That's very
> interesting about the QSL cards. It hadn't occurred to me that the more
> familiar places would hold the most interest instead of the most distant.
> How long did you keep your presentation?
>
> Did the parent who was asking all the questions seem to have an interest in
> becoming a ham, or was he just curios?
>
> Good job!
>
> --David, K3PO
>
> On Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:10:44 -0400, "Joseph M. Durnal"
> <joseph.durnal at gmail.com> wrote:
>> None were scared of the mic, but I think the cue cards helped them there.
>>
>> They really liked the PIXIE II kit and the QSL cards, especially
>> Hawaii and Jamaica which seemed to be places that they really knew,
>> unlike Argentina and Croatia.  I also brought a QST with me with an
>> article about Duncan, KU0DM, a young ham with his picture.  I also
>> passed around one of my handhelds.
>>
>> My timing seemed perfect, switching between a little bit of me
>> talking, a little bit of show and tell, me talking, show and tell,
>> really kept their attention.  Just when they seemed to be getting
>> bored with that part, I was finished talking and showing and ready for
>> the on air demo, which captured their attention again.
>>
>> If there was any problem, it was one parent that had a bunch of
>> questions that I really couldn't answer on a 7 year old level, but
>> that wasn't a very big deal.
>>
>> While I think that 7 year olds are a little young for recruiting, that
>> was not my goal, I just wanted them to know what ham radio was and
>> some neat things about it.  Hopefully they'll get a chance to be
>> exposed to ham radio again when they are around 9 or 10 and they'll be
>> able to recall this experience and some of the neat things they saw
>> and some things I told them.
>>
>> 73 de Joseph Durnal NE3R
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 8:20 AM,  <david at retroscape.com> wrote:
>>> Hey, Joe,
>>>
>>> Would you give us some details? What items seemed to grab their
> attention
>>> the most? How did they react to QSL cards from different countries? Any
>>> particular fascination? Were they scared of the mic.?
>>>
>>> 73,
>>>
>>> --David, K3PO
>>>
>>> On Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:14:51 -0400, "Joseph M. Durnal"
>>> <joseph.durnal at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> no problem - I had a few locals on the air!  It worked out great!
>>>
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