We have news this month of three widely-separated activities
with similar goals of increasing young people's interest in amateur radio. The
World Association of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides' annual "Thinking Day on
the Air" event took place in February, with groups of young women learning
about amateur radio and getting a chance to get on the air. It's the Girl
Scouts' version of the Boy Scouts' annual Jamboree on the Air. The ARRL Letter reports on activities in Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
Maryland and Nebraska that drew large numbers of
interested scouts. For more info on Thinking Day on the Air, visit <http://www.guides-on-the-air.co.uk>.
In Australia,
Tony Falla, VK3KKP has outfitted an old public bus with a ham station designed
to give young people an opportunity for hands-on discovery of ham radio's
magic. Newsline reported on a recent
demo for a group of Venture scouts, who made a chance contact with a ham in New
Zealand who was operating from a mountain cabin with just a radio and a
battery. Many of them decided to follow up and get their Foundation licenses
(Australia's beginner license). Falla was also written up recently in an
Australian newspaper, in an article titled, "My Place: The Science of the
Hams."
Finally, a group of students in Virginia used ham radio to
talk with the crew of a research vessel in the South Pacific that is using
advanced technology to search the ocean floor for the remains of aviator Amelia
Earhart's ill-fated Electra, which
disappeared in 1937 on an attempted round-the-world flight. The ARRL Letter also reports that the ship's
crew had the opportunity to make a ham contact with International Space Station
Commander Shane Kimbrough KE5HOD, at the ISS ham station NA1SS. Some
Russian-speaking crew members on the research vessel also got to talk with one
of the Russian cosmonauts aboard the orbiting station.
