ROCHESTER AMATEUR RADIO ASSOCIATION

Fall 1999 Program

     We have completed our 10 week program with Mrs. Walker's 6th grade class at Thomas Jefferson School in Rochester.  The 16 students went on 3 field trips, participate in 5 class room demonstration sessions and spent 2 sessions building their own Morse code key and siren/oscillator. Many area hams are participated at various levels with 7 different hams actually in the class room.
 
 

DATE ACTIVITY
September 30  Session #1 - Overview of Radio Services
- Outline and Expectations of the program
- Exploring the HF Bands
- Exploring the VHF/UHF bands
- Common and uncommon radios in our lives
October 7 Session #2 - Field Trip - WXXI TV
October 14 Session #3 - Morse Code Key Construction
- Construct code key
- Morse Code practice
October 21 Session #4 - Basic Electricity

            - Electrostatic voltage demos
            - Voltage and Battery demos
            - Generator, solenoid, motor demos
            - Current flow and circuits
 
October 28 Session #5 - Electronic Components

            - Review of Volts, Current, Resistance
            - Introduce Resistance, Ohms Law, and VOM meter
            - Make thin film resistor and measure resistance
            - Capacitors description and demos
            - Demo 555 oscillator with resistor substitutions
 
November 4 Session #6 - How the Siren/Oscillator works
- Schematic, Block Diagram, Resistor substitution demo
- Loudspeaker
- Microphone
- Amplifier
- Audio Oscillator and Oscilloscope
November 18 Session #7 - RG&E Radio and Energy Control Center field trip
December 2 Session #8 - Construct Siren/Oscillator

          - Soldering
          - Complete the Siren/Oscillator project
          - Morse Code fun
 
December 9 Session #9 - Field Trip,  Harris RF Communications
December 16 Session #10 - Grand Finale
- Radio history presentation: "From Sparks to Spaceships"
- Demo a spark gap transmitter
- Scheduled 10 meter contact
- Other uses of the Siren/Oscillator
- TV conference between this class and the next class
- "Archie" comic book
- Feedback and farewells

Return to RARA Radio Coaches page
January 3, 2000