ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast

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Students Achieve Radio Surfer Awards

Thanks to Chris Leviston, M0KPW, ten children at Ireleth St Peters (ISP) CofE Primary School in Cumbria have achieved their Radio Surfer Awards.

Chris recently started an after-school club at ISP, and over the five weeks that it ran, the children enjoyed a range of amateur radio activities, leading to them each being presented with their certificates at the final assembly of the year. With a key part of the club being to pass greetings messages, the RSGB Awards Manager tweaked the scheme to allow a point to be awarded for this.

The children were introduced to the phonetic alphabet, call signs across Europe, QSL cards and the basics of a dipole antenna. They practised Morse code on oscillators and keys, as well as using PMRs.

The 8- to 11-years-olds got to ‘see’ their voices on the scope when Chris’ Icom IC-705 was connected to a dummy load. Using his Yaesu FT-857 running 75w with a SOTA-linked dipole for 20m/40m, all the children passed greetings messages and accurately logged contacts.

With excellent feedback from the children and school staff, plans are afoot for the club to run again next academic year!

Ireleth St Peters CofE Primary School - https://www.irelethst-peters.cumbria.sch.uk/