Bruce MacKinnon, KC1FSZ, writes on the Wellesley ARS mailing list:I have two scouts working on their Radio Merit Badge. Part of their requirement is to make a QSO. Is anyone available for a brief QSO on the Wellesley repeater [147.03+, 123.0 Hz CTCSS] at 8:30 PM Monday evening (February 25)? It shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes.
Bruce MacKinnon added at 10:01 PM on February 25, 2019:
We had a very successful round-table on W1TKZ this evening and two scouts from Wellesley Troop 185 successfully completed their Radio Merit Badge. This was the culmination of about two months of work that includes a basic understanding of propagation, some electronic theory, operating procedures, careers in radio, safely procedures, and a tour of a shack.
One other entertaining thing we did a few weeks back involved stringing up a dipole in the parking lot of the church where the troop meets and running one of my homebrew WSPR beacons (500mW) on a battery for a half hour or so. There’s a nice iPhone app that shows the live WSPR spots and the guys are always amazed to see that people are hearing us all around the country and into Canada. It still feels like magic to me every time I see that work. HIHI.
A huge thanks to Leandra AF1R, Gary N1ZCE, and Nina N1NGK for the making the sched this evening and speaking with the boys. We also had a few curious onlookers this evening which usually turns into more customers in the future! I’m hoping some of these scouts go on to get their ham tickets.
Thanks and 73s,
Bruce KC1FSZ