[KYHAM] Radio Theory and Construction Workshop

[Bill Fuqua]

The Radio Theory and Construction Workshop will meet Saturday, February 26, 
2005 in the basement of the Red Cross Building at 1450 Newtown Pike, 
Lexington, KY. The basement entrance is on the Left side of the building if 
you are looking at the front Newtown Pike side) of it.The Workshop will 
begin at 1:00PM and continue until 3:00PM.
This workshop is for anyone interested in the subject of radio theory or 
construction. Anyone may join the workshop at any time. This workshop does 
not really have a beginning or an end. It is a continuing effort to help 
those that are interested in knowing more about the internal workings of 
radios (receivers, transmitters and antennas) and/or building them. A ham 
license is not required and there are no age restrictions. I encourage 
young students to participate. Participants will have to obtain their own 
tools and they will need to purchase a beginner's radio kit (AM-550K). I 
have kits in stock so you will not have to wait. Just pay me for the kit 
and I'll order another to replace it. That way we will have some always 
available for new participants.
The Bluegrass Amateur Radio Society's Youth Education Program (Y.E.P.) can 
provide "Now You're Talking" books for students up thru the 12th grade 
participating in our "Introduction to Amateur Radio" and books, kits, tools 
and parts for those in the "Radio Theory and Construction Workshop" at no 
cost. This kit cost about $20 and it is perfect for learning soldering, 
component identification and basic radio theory.
If you wish to join our workshop please e-mail me so that I can add you to 
our list. I have a short questionnaire to get some information about your 
interest, experience and knowledge level. If you cannot be contacted by 
e-mail call me in the evening at (859) 272-9523 and I will add you to a 
phone list. This is necessary because we do not hold the workshop every 
weekend due to other obligations, vacation, hamfest and license exam sessions.
We are working on our kits and doing some experiments while we are still in 
the crystal radio phase of our project. We are doing some experiments 
having to do with generating radio signals. This includes building a simple 
signal generator and doing some AM transmitter experiments using the kit.

Some additional news.
I now have a simple computer interface for the signal generator so that it 
can be controlled by any computer that can act as a terminal. You can enter 
your frequency, a step size and press + or - on the keyboard to do 
frequency sweeps. This allows you to do easy bandwidth measurements of 
tuned circuits, amplifiers and such. The signal generator works from 1 Hz 
to 1600 KHz. Just right for our kit. So far the parts cost of the signal 
generator is still less than $20. I hope to add a frequency counter 
function soon plus a simple AM modulator.
73
Bill wa4lav