AmateurRadio.com

The weekend of July 19th & 20th saw the 1st YOTA UK event take place in Wolverhampton UK. This event was to run along side the main YOTA event in Finland for those who couldn’t make the trip to the main event.

YOTA is a fantastic initiative to promote amateur radio within young people. The European event has been running for some years now, but the RSGB was invited to take part for the first time this year.

On Saturday we had young amateurs complete antenna construction (Available here). Complete the intermediate practical’s and examinations. In the afternoon we also hosted the buildathon with the hugely successful PSK receiver.  Throughout the day we had talks, presentations and a special event station (GB1YOTA) running alongside the indoor activities.  It was a bit warm I can assure you and with constant rain, thunder & lightening it was a great day.

Sundays activities took place outdoors. While the special event station still carried on- many of the participants took part in some ARDF, a spot of operating and testing their newly constructed antennas. You can see a small snapshot of the Sundays events in this video.

A big thank you to Wolverhampton ARS who are based at  The electric club at Wolverhampton – who were amazing hosts,  Camb Hams for supporting and supplying the Special Event Station and of course all the participants who’s enthusiasm and technical ability was simply astounding.

Here we go again. We have just started a new 6 month distant learning course for the advanced exam. Our recent in class success of 100% pass rate for the intermediate license was a fantastic achievement for the students and tutors alike. And this time we had quite a spread of student ages from 12 to 60+ all scored very highly in the exam and have signed up for the advanced course.

This term we have again used an online free resource called Edmodo. Edmodo describes itself as a social learning platform, and it really fits with our classroom platform.

Our classroom works like this. Each week we set a set of questions based on learning material we have covered in previous weeks. The material can be video, text, powerpoint or audio segments.  We follow this up with 3 weekly homework sessions and score each student individually.

Being distant home based learning its quite easy for the student to feel isolated. So to ensure the student is supported and has a mentor we assign each student a tutor who passes feedback and support to the student. Along with this we also set some motivational targets that can be gained when a student hits a particular milestone. It’s a system that really works. Our student retention rate for last term was fantastic. We have made a few minor adjustments to the classroom template – but it is pretty much the same as last time.

This term we have 80+ students signed up and already submitting responses and saying hello to other students.

If you run any training course I highly recommend it. Ok it takes a little bit of understanding but it is a fantastic FREE tool. And we all like things that are free don’t we.

Here we go again. We have just started a new 6 month distant learning course for the advanced exam. Our recent in class success of 100% pass rate for the intermediate license was a fantastic achievement for the students and tutors alike. And this time we had quite a spread of student ages from 12 to 60+ all scored very highly in the exam and have signed up for the advanced course.

This term we have again used an online free resource called Edmodo. Edmodo describes itself as a social learning platform, and it really fits with our classroom platform.

Our classroom works like this. Each week we set a set of questions based on learning material we have covered in previous weeks. The material can be video, text, powerpoint or audio segments.  We follow this up with 3 weekly homework sessions and score each student individually.

Being distant home based learning its quite easy for the student to feel isolated. So to ensure the student is supported and has a mentor we assign each student a tutor who passes feedback and support to the student. Along with this we also set some motivational targets that can be gained when a student hits a particular milestone. It’s a system that really works. Our student retention rate for last term was fantastic. We have made a few minor adjustments to the classroom template – but it is pretty much the same as last time.

This term we have 80+ students signed up and already submitting responses and saying hello to other students.

If you run any training course I highly recommend it. Ok it takes a little bit of understanding but it is a fantastic FREE tool. And we all like things that are free don’t we.

A big friendly welcome to my new readers who will be reading my blog entries via AmateurRadio.com – I hope my articles will provide insightful reading.

If you are not already “in the know” im based in the UK and provide distant learning course for UK amateurs alongside Steve (G0FUW) and Lewis (G4YTN) along with home based learning we also provide in class education as well.

PSK Receiver No. 001 with Raspberry Pi

The education element of the hobby really interests me and not content with the 3 tier license, we also provide buildathons for anyone who is interested in electronics, radio or construction.

Our very successful PSK receiver kit (Instructions here) has now been used up and down the UK and orders are still coming in for the kit via the RSGB all over the world. Its a perfect kit for newcomers or students wanting to build a radio related project for their intermediate practical assesment.

A couple of weeks ago we were asked to provide a buildathon for 21 young scientists at the BRLSI in Bath. And when I say young I really mean 8 – 14 years of age.

All but 3 kits went away working that afternoon and one of the first was a young 8yr old girl who had never held a soldering iron or had any clue what was really going on. But by the end of the day not only had she completed a build of the receiver but was decoding PSK signals on 20m in less than perfect conditions.

That was a particular highlight of mine on that day, seconded only by persuading her father to pop along to some of the in-class lessons and see what it was all about.  It seems that there is a little bit of curiosity in radio in all of us. even today !!

Whereas we are keen to knock ourselves for not connecting with the youngsters, and gaining interest in the hobby, it actually seems to be that we are not that great at following up and converting the curious mind into a radio hobbyist.

YOTA UK is taking place over the weekend of the 19-20 July at in Wolverhampton. Most of the activities will be at the Electricity Club near the City Centre, home of the Wolverhampton Amateur Radio Society. There will also be some outdoor activities in the near-by Baggeridge Park.

• This weekend offers two exciting days of amateur radio activities where you can: 
• Meet other young radio amateurs
• Learn about the Summits on the Air awards
• See how you can work through satellites
• Have a go at using digital modes
• See how easy it is to build portable antennas
• Take part in a Direction Finding competition
• Find out about the latest radio technologies
• Learn how to solder and use test meters
• Complete the Intermediate Practical Assessments
• Build a 20m PSK receiver
• Take the Intermediate exam
• Try your hand at operating the YOTA UK Special Event Station! 

Tickets are only £5 per day with additional cost if you want to build the receiver or take the exam. There is even a BBQ is included on the Saturday evening.

Full details of the timings, directions to the venue and a list of items to bring, will be forwarded by email.

Bookings are limited so book now – Click here

You can also keep up to date by following @YOTA_UK on twitter

YOTA UK is taking place over the weekend of the 19-20 July at in Wolverhampton. Most of the activities will be at the Electricity Club near the City Centre, home of the Wolverhampton Amateur Radio Society. There will also be some outdoor activities in the near-by Baggeridge Park.

• This weekend offers two exciting days of amateur radio activities where you can: 
• Meet other young radio amateurs
• Learn about the Summits on the Air awards
• See how you can work through satellites
• Have a go at using digital modes
• See how easy it is to build portable antennas
• Take part in a Direction Finding competition
• Find out about the latest radio technologies
• Learn how to solder and use test meters
• Complete the Intermediate Practical Assessments
• Build a 20m PSK receiver
• Take the Intermediate exam
• Try your hand at operating the YOTA UK Special Event Station! 

Tickets are only £5 per day with additional cost if you want to build the receiver or take the exam. There is even a BBQ is included on the Saturday evening.

Full details of the timings, directions to the venue and a list of items to bring, will be forwarded by email.

Bookings are limited so book now – Click here

You can also keep up to date by following @YOTA_UK on twitter

Being able to work from home clearly has its advantages. Today for example I find myself walking along the ridgeway just down the road from me. The dog loves this place but it doesn’t really offer up as a great location to play a bit of radio. Or does it ?

For me the idea of a perfect location is somewhere remote. Easily accessible and yet offers up enough real-estate to erect an antenna. Of course what antenna you erect is entirely limited to the location. In recent weeks I have been using a home brew vertical antenna to great effect, although one of the SOTA beams Linked dipoles also provide a great lightweight antenna package.

Back to the ridgeway. Is this a perfect location? Well it might just turn out to be a good area after all. There are some areas that offer some small amount of space – The Vertical antenna would be the perfect choice here and its very easily accessible too.

On todays walked I hunted out a couple of small areas where I can settle down in a quiet corner and set myself up for the day.  I do have a couple of days off coming up soon – So I think I will try one of these locations out and film the results too. There is an added benefit as there is a woodland nearby, so fuel for my Firebox is sorted out for the day – so a nice lunch and warm drink is certainly on the cards.

I will of course update you and if I remember my camera – upload a video of my time on the ridgeway.