School ham clubs?

[ae6yd]

How many people have school/college/university ham radio clubs?

How many of those clubs actually do anything?

If you don't have a club, or an active club, how many of you would like to start one?

[kj5t]

This is another great topic to bring up, in fact I was considering doing so myself. My school lacks a club; however, I did attempt to get a club started. Here is my story.

Well, I have always wanted to have a school club, but in order to do that there must be A) someone to sponsor, and B) interest among the student body. I lacked both. For awhile the only ham at my school was my computer teacher, who is busy just about every day after school with the school website, working on various videos (he does all of the sports highlight videos, and the senior video) throughout the year, and also just doing his own required duties. The weekends are not a best time for a school club, and if it was he also runs his own business.

This year, we got the biology teacher who is a ham, but she never wanted to work with me to start a club. The club "concept" was approved by administration, I had typed up bylaws and was planning a demo and working to get all of that. However, as the second semester rolled around nothing had gotten done. Because the sponsor had not stepped up to do her part (as in to officially make things happen). As a student my typing up letters, bylaws, getting students interested in going to a demo, calling the local clubs to get support, all stops when the sponsor doesn't get back with me on possible times and dates of the demo, doesn't get back with me on when the group would meet. And then she never has time when I go to her, and as the second semester continued she basically told me "I don't I have the time for this".

So it has never happened at my school. I will work next year, as a member of the community to set-up a demo, working with the administration, to MAYBE be able to do something as part of the classroom, and maybe a non-ham teacher would be interested in working with me for this.

As for local school clubs, the AJ Moore Academy started a radio club with sponsorship from Bill, KD5UEW. When the club started they got a lot of support from the school and students were interested. A few students received call signs, now a year and a half later they are not on the air (the students) and Bill can't get any more students interested. The club is still there, and will be there and hopefully he will get more interest from students next year.

[AD5UT]

Trying to start a club at Northside High School here in Fort Smith. No hams teach at northside and the state has piled a lot of extra stuff on the teachers this year, so it has been tough finding a sponser. Bylaws aproved though. I set up a station during the school club roundup and one person showed up. Not a real big interest in anything like this at my school. One teacher still thinks its a CB.

edit to add: University of Arkansas in Fayetteville has a big club, got a note from them at the Regional Science Fair with my logging program.

[M3PHP]

I go to university at Buckinghamshire Chiltern University College, over here in the UK and we dont currently have a amateur radio club (i dont think there is any amateurs at it bar me)

[ae6yd]

I bring it up because myself and a fellow amateur are attempting to (re)start the Amateur Radio Club of UC Riverside. Unlike your situation, OWO, student organizations here need no advisor, simply the signatures of 10 interested students. However, nobody except registered organizations is allowed to put up flyers, etc. so we've had the problem of actually getting the word out. At this point we're just going to have another 5 random friends sign our charter and then we'll hope to attract more interested parties later.

I was wondering if anyone had any pointers or such for a new organization, if so I'm willing to listen.

[kl7aj]

I got my feet wet in electronics in the Mira Costa High School ham radio club back in 1970. Mr. Scott, our teacher, was a wild man...we did things with electronics that ain't never outta should been done, and I'll never forget it. Haven't seen a club station since then, and probably never will. I hope you find a great one!

eric

[KG4TQS]

I am pretty sure I am the only ham at a school of some 2500 kids. Not a chance of a club.

[KC0KBH]

I'd love to set up a school club at my school, but I think there is just a lack of intrest. I've got a few friends who are interested in ham radio, but, of roughly 100-1500 people (I'm guessing somewhere in that range; probably 1000), I know for sure, that I am the only ham.

[kb3mme]

Same for me as TQS.
I have a few friends who might be interested, but not seriously.

[WA2ZDY]

Like Eric's, my high school had a great ham club station. We didn't have a lot of members, but our advisor, the electronics shop teacher, W2IJE (SK) was a big force and we had great stuff. That's where I got my first exposure to RTTY, 2m SSB, 6m, SSTV . . .

If you find more folks interested in hamming it's a great way to have fun and to learn. Of course if nobody is interested, the club will serve no purpose. 'Tis the way of our times and ham radio I'm afraid. Heck, electronics in general is losing ground in today's society. I learned from a guy who works in the electronics dept of the local college that the dept is dying. There is very little interest anymore in hands-on electronics.

All the designs come from Japan (ham gear is no different) and servicing it consists of replacing boards. Anyone can do that. The talent of actually knowing how it works and how to keep it working is becoming lost; at least in our throw-away society. What a shame.

[kj5t]

Quote[/b] ]If you find more folks interested in hamming it's a great way to have fun and to learn. Of course if nobody is interested, the club will serve no purpose. 'Tis the way of our times and ham radio I'm afraid. Heck, electronics in general is losing ground in today's society. I learned from a guy who works in the electronics dept of the local college that the dept is dying. There is very little interest anymore in hands-on electronics.


I am going to have to disagree with you here. I think amateur radio in our schools, if focused the right way, can provide so much more than just amateur radio, and the chance to learn about amateur radio and electronics. Some schools do cross curriculum projects. For instance if the history department is studying science of the past, the science department gets involved by doing projects similar to what the great inventors of the past might have done, the english project does a research paper on the inventor. I know of schools that have done much more than that, involving all of the core subjects.

My point of telling about this, is that amateur radio fits right in with all of the core subjects. Imagine if there was a club on campus what could be done. First off in the spanish or other language courses, students could get the chance to talk to people in different countries and really hear the true dialect. It would be a fun experience and would be a great project. All the school needs is a control operator licensed to operate on HF and an HF station. But that is just the bare minimum. The physics class could build antennas and learn about physics. The world geography class can really use it to talk to people all around the world and get first hand accounts of what it is like in other countries. The fact is that amateur radio in the classroom provides an important learning tool.

I think the biggest asset of amateur radio in the schools is in technology classes. Yeah, we talk about how electronics are not important, but look at how amatuer radio experimenters have formed what we know today as the internet. We had packet radio long before people had email. We still today experiment with networking. We are becoming a digital world, and in many ways I feel amateur radio is going right along with it. Cell phone repeaters, well we had repeaters long before cell phones. Amateur radio provides a basis for an understanding for students of technology in the past, and provides that bridge to todays technology.

So amateur radio has a place in the school, even if students are not at first interested. I wouldn't expect all kids to get interested, but some would get interested, and those that didn't, they would still learn.

[KA7WZZ]

I'm Starting one in my school this Sept.
KE7ENR

[KC0UWF]

I'm thinking about asking around and see if there is any interest in a HAM club.
I"m a Police officer in a small town and have a very few ask me why I carry my police radio around with me off duty, when I tell them it's a HAM radio and give them a short lesson, they seem to be interested.

our school has about 600 high school/middle students.
I'm thinking if i can get 10 interested, and get them licensed. that would be a great success !!

does anyone have any resources on Power Point's or info sheets??

I"m thinking of having a meeting this spring to see if there is any interest.see who comes, what they expect or want.
then start meeting this fall. there is ONE licensed Ham in school now. but graduating this spring..... [B]

[AK7V]

I was a member of the University of Michigan club, W8UM. Except they didn't have any radios. And only a few members. Our meetings were few, and when we did meet, we'd talk about how we wish our club radio hadn't been stolen and what we'd do if we had one along with a place to put it.

Thankfully, the club has apparently revived and students are enjoying it now! I hope to hear them on the air some day.

[KE5FWX]

From what I know, I am the only ham in my school. It would be pretty boring.

[KI4MRU]

This has been an interesting thread, and my story pretty much parallels what a lot of other people have said. I'm just about to graduate (in 2 days!) from Grove City College in western Pennsylvania. This past fall semester, one of my professors offered students in his data communications & networking course the opportunity to get an amateur radio license for their semester project. I wasn't in the class, but I'd had the professor previously and I was interested, so I studied in my spare time. He had scheduled a date for a VE team to come to our school and administer the exam, so I went and passed, and the rest is history. As an electrical engineering major, it wasn't too hard for me to read through the General and Extra class study guides, and I passed both of those tests a few weeks later.

In any case, my school used to have an active radio club, but it's been 10 years since the club was really "active." Our school has an amazingly long history in radio...one of the physics professors set up radio station 8CO here in 1914, and our broadcast station WSAJ has been on the air since 1922 and is still going strong today. But students mostly lost interest in the amateur radio side of the spectrum. I, along with a couple of other people who took the test last fall, were interested in restarting the club on campus, and with the help of our professor and the previous club advisor (who is preparing to retire in the not-too-distant future) have managed to get space for a shack, an antenna installed on the roof, and a radio set up all in the span of one semester! Not bad! The problem is, there's still an uncomfortable lack of student interest. We had a couple of meetings this semester where only the officers and advisors showed up...not a good sign! However, the license project will be offered in the same class again this coming fall, and we have elected new officers so I'm hopeful. Our radio (Flex Radio SDR-1000) is ridiculously easy to use and makes DXing really fun. In just the last week and a half, I've worked nearly 25 countries just by visiting the shack for a couple of hours each evening and seeing who's on the air! I'm hoping that will appeal to today's college students, who have so many other distractions and may not initially want to be "bothered" to learn the intricacies of some of the older radios out there. Not trying to say that's a bad thing, just that you have to market your product appropriately to your target audience! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

So, starting a club can be done. It's not an easy process, and there's still the possibility that ours could fail, but I really hope it doesn't. I'm hoping there may be ways to tie this into other curricula besides just being a club station, but I think that would be easier at a high school than it is here at a college.

[KB3IRL]

School Clubs have good and bad... We had one but it did me no good. I got involved in the club but the teacher incharge fed me lines of how great it was but i have fallen away since the lines he fed me ended up as trash.

[W8LBO]

Well, my school doesn't have a club, but I used to try to recruit young hams. I've woken up since, though. I sooner recruit people to run with me, or play golf or something. It's a lot healthier, and you still get a lot of talking in. Know what I mean? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[pe2ysb]

Hello,

I'm a Dutch HAM, and also a member of "ESRAC", the "Eindhoven Student Radio Amateur Club" (PI4TUE and PI5EHV) probably the only Dutch student ham club. The club is at Eindhoven University for Technology in the Netherlands. (Department for electrical engineering.) There aren't much student Ham’s (3 at the moment, including me) and also some students who want to become a HAM. We do have many former students who are still member and use the club shack.

I became a member in November 2005 and a HAM in April 2006. Our club has an educational license (PI5EHV) this allows people who don't have I license yet to operate the shack, when they're supervised by a HAM. So I could already work the bands while waiting till April to get my license.

Our website is http://www.esrac.ele.tue.nl/index.php?lang=en (check the webcam http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif )

73 de PE2YSB

[KB1LQD]

Me and Bryce KB1LQD & KB1LQC started a club and have been very succesfull, a pernemant station is on its way for next year and the arrl has awarded us their big project grant.... the clubs very active as well which surprising for having a temporary setup and poor antennas.... but there is interest.... With a good deal of work and commtment, a active and stable club can be formed, my one tip is that its gotta stay current and interesting, so introduce new stuff once and a while....
Chelmsford High School Amature radio club, KB1NAY

[kc9fje]

I share the same problem as many of you guys, No to little interest. We, Wb9duc and I, have trying for several years but Personally I think there not wanting to shift ANY amount of money from the football Dept. hihi

1 ham out of 700-800 students... probley 4 more have interest... fun odds... hihi

[pe2ysb]

Quote[/b] (KB1LQD @ June 26 2006,19:25)]Me and Bryce KB1LQD & KB1LQC started a club and have been very succesfull, a pernemant station is on its way for next year and the arrl has awarded us their big project grant.... the clubs very active as well which surprising for having a temporary setup and poor antennas.... but there is interest.... With a good deal of work and commtment, a active and stable club can be formed, my one tip is that its gotta stay current and interesting, so introduce new stuff once and a while....
# #Chelmsford High School Amature radio club, KB1NAY
Nice to hear there are some school who do have an active club, maybe i'll hear KB1NAY on the bands sometimes http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif would be nice http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
I'm probably qrv tomorrow from 11:00 UTC, till 15:00 UTC on HF.

[KE5GDB]

I have a school club, well not me personally. I'm a member of the Westbrook Intermediate Ham Radio Club. WIHRC. I'm one of the most active Hamsters out of about 300. We got our name, the Hamsters, from our old intermediate school Webster Int.

WIHRC Hamsters (http://hamsters.clarc.org)

[ve6wtf]

when i tell people i am a ham radio operator at school the laugh at me

[W8LBO]

VE6WTF, hey, don't worry about it. It's not a crazy hobby by any means. I've gotten laughed at while skateboarding before. Some people will laugh at anything.

[KB1LQD]

VE6WTF, thats just people being inmature, I have gotten funny looks after telling people that im a amateur radio op. if they cant accept it, its their problem....

When i've told other students that im a ham, i get pretty much the same reaction as when i tell them im a mountain biker.... the point is, do I really care what they think?.... not really, as long as im having a good time doing what I do.

[ve6wtf]

yeah i guess so. but "ham" lol it is funny "i am a ""ham"" radio operator"

[ve6wtf]

i have a great time until i zapp myself. i got it bad the other day. a whopping .6 amps. #### that hurt

[W8LBO]

LOL, yeah, I know a club that "ham" is pretty fitting for, though, hehehehehe. J/k.

[ve6wtf]

hihihihihihihihi - .... .- - ... ..-. ..- -. -. -.--

[KB1LVM]

I'm going into 8th grade and I am the only one in my school who has a HAM license. I try to explain it to my friends but they get all glassy-eyed. My sister kind of understands it but she doesn't want to get her license and she's only going into fifth grade. All the high schools close to me don't have HAM clubs, and besides I think me and my dad are the only ones in our town who have HAM licenses. I wish our school would have a HAM club but our school only has 350 students for K-8, so in the meantime I will just have to settle for my dad.

[kc8upg]

I'd have to agree with the guys who say that they are the only ham in a school of several hundred students, that there is no chance of a club, and minimal interest. It would be nice, though.

[2I0JVI]

I know of 3 hams, including myself in my school here in Northern Ireland, and they are 2 technicians for some department in the school of about 950 students

My friends seem interested in radio but are reluctant to do anything about it- even with the CW scrapped in the UK...minimal interest here as well.....