[Milsurplus] Radio Displays

[John J Mccarty]

Tom and All;


  The radio club I am in has done interactive displays for years. We've set up
various types of demos for JOTA, girl and boy scout groups, schools and Armed
Forces Day. We are always looking for new things to demo and over the years
discarded things that just don't work and tried to think up new ones. But, in
reality, most things do work to different degrees. You have to have some idea of
what the volume/flow rate of your audience will be. Things that work for a small
"captive" groups don't always fly for a setting where people "flow" by your
table. Figure that also, you'll need some help, either with you on site or a
remote that is willing to take the time to talk to people, or both. Some of the
things we've done:

 Morse Code hands on demo. After all these years it still draws them in. We've
built code demo boxes which are 6 ne555 tone generators in a box using a common
wall wart power supply. Each tone generator has a cheap key and audio lab
headset. And at the flip of a switch the generators are paired together so that
pairs of people can send to one another. On the table, the keys are taped down
along with a laminated copy of a Morse Code character sheet. I've seen people go
from 0 to almost 5 wpm with this kind of set up in a relatively short period of
time.

 Mechanical RTTY always is a good bet. We've set up a 3B W.U. machine with the
cover off (almost small enough to carry) and a T.U. and worked it against either
a computer/tnc or a remote station.

 Having a vintage mil radio that people can talk to someone else either a little
distance away or to a remote station is always fun, especially the older WWII stuff.

 If you anticipate a young crowd, like grade school age kids, mentally build up
a list of things that they like to talk about or questions they would like to
answer while talking on the radio, like "what's your favorite place to eat,
what's you favorite subject in school, what video games do you play, or do you
play an instrument at school?". Some of these kids once you get them talking
it's hard for them to put the mic down.


73 and good luck


John n9hrt

On 9/28/2007 1:16 AM, Tom Brent wrote:
> What I find to be one of the most enjoyable aspects of this military radio
> collecting hobby is when I have the opportunity to take my equipment out in
> public and connect with people who are not a part of the amateur radio
> fraternity. In the week prior to Remembrance Day/Veteran's Day I will be
> part of an event that brings together private militaria collections,
> veterans and hundreds of schoolchildren. Do any of you have ideas on how I
> might involve the kids in "hands-on" interactive displays? Having c.w.
> chattering away in the background with keys and code practice oscillators
> out on the table worked surprisingly well last year. I use the word
> surprising because the high level of interest I observed was not what I
> expected in this world of computers and cellphones. Can you offer
> suggestions on other things I might do to spark their interest?
> 
> Thanks for your help!
> 
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