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Author Topic: Extending a club beyond radio  (Read 1531 times)

ON4CKM

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Extending a club beyond radio
« on: July 08, 2019, 02:20:05 AM »

I'm looking for (success) stories of clubs that have extended beyond radio. Our club participates in the day of science, JOTA, gives courses to get your license and so on to get fresh blood into the radio hobby, but it remains hard. So did any of you expanded beyond pure radio? E.g. become an electronics club instead, or a makerspace or fablab, to get a bigger base and where some (optionally) might get into ham radio as well?
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K1HMS

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RE: Extending a club beyond radio
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2019, 09:16:49 PM »

You do not need to choose between radio or other technologies. Amateur radio can span it all.

We are a growing club with over 200 active members. We have just finished our Tech license summer class in a public Middle School. One of 7 classes this year.

Our HAB (high altitude balloon, over 110,000 feet / 32 km) attracts all ages with radio comms and tracking, weather prediction, environmental data (pressure,  air density, temp, wind aloft, etc). It is inspiring to see young students, boys and girls, presenting charts and graphs interpreting the data. Our ISS contact at a Middle School resulted in a number of students deciding to get more invloved in science and math with a few pursuing a amateur license.

HAB, ISS, and others activities are of interest to people that have no knowledge of amateur radio or do not have an interest in talking to a stranger over the air. Once they discover it overlaps onto their field of interest it is more likely they will get a license and become a member.

Kit building is always a hit, the younger set really like keyers and morse code. There are some into applied mathematics; fields and waves, DSP, digital rig and rotator control, Digital modes, Kepler / satellite tracks, mechanical design, etc. There are some that Q rates in contests is all that matters and for others it is emergency management and comms is just part of it. There are many other activities that draw people into amateur radio.

It can be a lot of work at times but it seems to be working, we (NARS N1FD.org) were selected as this year's 'Club of the Year' at Hamvention in Dayton.

A club focused purely on "on the air" radio operation or contesting is fine, but some are finding they are "aging out" with some predicting their club will be gone in a few years.

A parallel are First Robotics teams. They are well supported and growing. To be successful the robot has to be viewed as a system engineering problem. Without a diversity of talent (software, mechanical, a wide range of electronic skills, servo theory, inertial guidance, applied math, logistics) there is no team.

In short, we haven't extended beyond radio, we have just taken a broader view of what "radio" is.




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KM6BSQ

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RE: Extending a club beyond radio
« Reply #2 on: August 17, 2019, 07:40:05 AM »

wow, that is very impressive
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AA4Q

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RE: Extending a club beyond radio
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2019, 01:11:36 PM »

here are some examples of cross-over clubs/groups/forums that combine 2 hobbies.

http://www.landops.com/

http://www.4x4ham.com

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1101562313308836/

https://www.sota.org.uk/


and the thread on Field Day has some mouth watering discussions of FOOD!

Poole AA4Q
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