[QCWA] Re: Licensed for 34 years

[L M]

This last message of this thread struck a nerve.

I was licensed at age 13 in 1959 as WV2FBX. A 7th grade classmate, who was 
then WA2AKT, got our electricity shop teacher and several of us kids 
interested.

Last week, I visited a 9th grade technology teacher at the high school that 
I retired from. When I told her that I come in on Thursdays to keep the ham 
radio club going, she replied, "What is ham radio?".

On Saturday, I made a presentation to a small group of teachers at the 
annual Science Council of New York City (SCONYC) conference at Stuyvesant 
High School within sight of the World Trade Center site. The topic was 
"Bringing Wireless Technology into the Classroom". This program was 
developed by Mark Spencer, WA8SME at ARRL. It promotes using ham radio to 
give a hands on experience and some advantages to the teachers and students. 
It is a major part of the League's "Big Project" program that trains 
teachers and gets schools on the air.  Once again, one of the attendees 
asked "what is ham radio?" .  I hope the ones who seemed excited will follow 
through and start a program at their schools.

For the last 20 years, I have been administering the School Club Roundup 
(SCR) and trying to promote activity among young people.  So far this year 
we have processed 66 entries compared to 57 for 2005, even with the low 
sunspot activity.  Many of these were from newly established school 
programs.

We have so many wonderful memories and anecdotes to relate here. What else 
can we do to make sure that our great "hobby" will continue and thrive and 
that our kids and grand kids will be able to relate their own stories?  One 
thing I have noticed is that many of the successful school groups are 
supported by their local non-school clubs or parents of students or 
retirees.  It is not easy to get a school to support a ham radio program. 
There are lots of hurdles to overcome. They range from unfamiliarity with 
who we are and what we do to pressures of "No Child Left Behind" and other 
standards and testing requirements. We can use all the help we can get to 
introduce young people to ham radio.

If you are active and have the time, try and reach out to a local school 
through a teacher or other staff member you know.  If you cannot do that, 
try to be patient and welcoming to youngsters you may hear on the air.

Thank you.

73,
Lew, N2RQ
n2rq at arrl.net
Assistant Director, ARRL Hudson Division
Nassau Co. NY ARES & RACES
Formerly AAR2FV, Army MARS (30+ years)
Trustee W2CXN, Brooklyn Technical High School ARC
QCWA member 20800

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
 safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin

If we don't model what we teach, we are teaching something else.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Curt Phillips W4CP" <robocurt at yahoo.com>
To: "Discussion of QCWA" <qcwa at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 9:50 AM
Subject: RE: [QCWA] Re: Licensed for 34 years


>I think that everyone who gets their license at a
> young age should have an asterik by their name if a
> family member was a ham.  :-)  (I'm kidding a little
> bit and probably jealous.)
>
> No one in my family and no one that we knew were hams.
> I got interested in ham radio at 10 years old after
> reading the Walter Thompkins book, "SOS At Midnight"
> from the school library and from my dad getting some
> CB radios to use in his business that year (they
> didn't work well for business, but one of them would
> tune the shortwave bands.)  I also liked that in all
> the Cold War movies, etc., it seemed that ham
> operators always had the info before anyone else.
>
> But it took until I was 13 to get any help in becoming
> licensed... the local Civil Defense Radio Club
> advertised a licensing class in the newspaper.  I was
> taught Morse Code by Ava Gardner's nephew, Bill
> Grimes, SK (K4WGG, ex-KD4JQ; WA4AXH).  This WAS in
> Smithfield, NC, Ava's home town.
>
> My dad finally got licensed 16 years after I did
> (W4ACL, ex-KB4BPX) and he's still using some of my
> equipment.  I keep telling him that the son is
> supposed to use the father's equipment, not the other
> way round.  :-)
>
> 73, Curt W4CP (ex-KD4YU; WB4LHI)
> Licensed since 1968
> Raleigh, NC
>