Passing It On

In the school in which I teach, we are on a 4-day week. When we have Fridays "off" the school remains open for help for the kids who fall behind, and we can do enrichment activities on that Friday. Last year I got the idea of doing an amateur radio demonstration on that day. It was neat. I had a pretty good turnout; enough that I was able to offer an amateur radio class on those Fridays. I started with a handful of students, meeting for a couple hours every Friday morning. We studied, but at the end of the year, the timing was such that we weren't able to coordinate the VE testing with the end of my class.

This summer, the VE team graciously offered to come to my school and test my kids; they did, and the first 2 passed. What a neat thing to have brought some kids into ham radio…they received their licenses just this last week, and I've been running around securing them equipment and helping "get them set up." Last night, they came over to my shack for their first QSOs. It was the typical "mike fright" that we all know of, and it was fun to see the ham community here in my area get into the repeater and welcome them with open arms.

What was better, however, just happened today. It was my chance to converse with these two kids; they at their homes, me at mine, having a nice little roundtable on .52 and enjoying every minute of it. I cannot describe to you exactly how it feels to listen to two young men, both with call signs and stations, having a QSO; knowing that I was responsible for getting them there. It is the joy that a teacher feels. It is a joy that any teacher immediately understands. It is the joys of helping another person better themselves, and seeing the finished product.

They are not finished there. They are already riding me (during the SUMMER, no less) to get together with them to work with them on Element 1, the Morse code. I love it. They want to upgrade and see the rest of what ham radio is, and I applaud them for that. I feel that one of the true disadvantages of the No Code Tech is that it gives a newcomer privileges on VHF and they never get to see what they are missing. That won't happen here. My intentions are to give them experiences on all aspects of ham radio. I am going to have area hams come in and talk to them, show them stuff; we will do projects, and I want to give them a lot of "aftercare." The last thing I want is for them to get their 2-meter tickets and do the repeaters for 2 months and die on the vine.

I have so many folks to thank. To the Black Hills area hams, I say thank you, and God bless. To my Father, WBØRMN, who taught ham radio courses 20 years ago, putting lots of hams on the air, I hope that some day I'm half the teacher and ham you are. To the community at eHam, thank you too. You guys are a wonderful resource, and I've contributed articles before, and felt like I've "grown up" here as well. It just occurred to me, the articles that I have written here before all have a common theme of Elmering. Wow. If you've never tried, why not find someone and share ham radio with him or her? I certainly have no regrets, and will always remember this feeling I have now; the feeling of taken something that was once given to me, taking that thing that is a part of my life, taking that thing, and passing it on.

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