"How To Day"

 

Yesterday was "How To Day" at the JFK Library in Piscataway, NJ. Through the efforts of SPARC member Harry KC2PGX, The South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club attended and put on a demonstration of Amateur Radio and Morse Code. I didn't think I was going to be able to attend as my team had a VE session scheduled for the morning. However, the Director of OEM for Clark, NJ was in Atlanta, and there was no one to open the building for us, so unfortunately, I had to tell our two candidates that the session was cancelled.

Harry set up a computer, code practice oscillators and some straight keys and paddles, and plenty of literature and handouts. I brought my KX3 and AlexLoop. I was hoping to set the KX3 to the CW portion of an active band so people would be able to.hear "live" CW. Alas, there was so much RF being generated in the building that I had an S10 noise level. That plan scuttled, I was able to set the KX3 to "PTT" and was able to use it as another oscillator.

We had a nice flow of people for the four hours we were there. Both adults and kids showed interest. I had a couple of long conversations with those who were interested in getting their license. 

Harry's original intent was to load a couple of Morse Code decoding programs onto his laptop so that folks could try their hand on one of the code practice oscillators and see what they were sending. The programs he loaded were pretty finicky and worked sometimes but not always. Sometimes the Morse decoded well and other times all that would appear on the computer screen was a series of "E's" and "T's".  To save the day, he brought along this decoder device that he had built from a kit. It was an LED display integrated to a straight key. Depending on what was sent, the LED display would show a dot or a dash and then the letter that was sent. The kids would look at a Morse chart, send with the straight key and then see what they sent appear before their eyes. "Cool beans!" was the general reaction. However, our experience with the finicky computer programs just enforces my idea that the very best Morse decoder is the gray one between one's ears!

What was very interesting to me was that when adults or kids practiced on the straight key, the kids picked up the timing much more quickly than the adults. But either young or old, the general reaction to our presence was well received, and that made the time spent worthwhile, indeed.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!