One of the goals of the ARRL is education regarding amateur radio, with the intent of bringing new licensees into the fold. As a special service club, the Tulsa Amateur Radio Club strives to do the same in many ways. One obvious way is through licensing classes, but there are other ways we can reach out to non-hams as well, such as holding events in public, or giving presentations to other community organizations.

Yet another way to bring new blood into the ranks is to show the benefits of ham radio to children.

Tulsa (Oklahoma) Public Schools has the Tulsa Metro Chamber Partners in Education program, funded through a grant from Tulsa Area Community Schools Initiative (TACSI). This program is designed to broaden the students' horizons by showing them areas where what they are learning in school can be applied later in life.

Putting these two concepts together, having the TARC adopt a school lets us spark the interest of the students, and accomplishes the goals of TACSI. One of our members, Rita Kukura (KE5JZW) is the counselor at Cooper Elementary School. With her acting as liaison, the club was contacted with questions about how amateur radio could be tied in to the school curriculum and spark the interests of the students in their academic pursuits. Well, that list is pretty long - there is science, of course, with the electricity and RF concepts involved, and math when it comes to the formulas involved with converting frequency to wavelength, figuring the resonant length of antennas, and calculating SWR. There are also language skills - we are communicators, after all, so talking is very important. But the initial presentation took it much farther. From Industrial arts (antenna building) to Geography (where IS that contact, really) to Social Studies and Foreign Language (learn about the DX you just worked) and even spelling (CW) and computers and typing (PSK31), we managed to tie in to nearly every subject the students would cover in their classes.

So, starting back last November, we've been meeting after school with a group of 30 fourth and fifth graders after school for a one hour Enrichment program. So far, we've talked about what ham radio is, and made some local contacts via repeater with Don (K5OKB) and James (KD5ICG). The next session we covered Ohm's Law. This involved playing with multi-meters and resistors to prove that Ohm's Law really works. We've demonstrated the importance of safety devices by "making" our own fuses, then melting them by intentionally shorting them out. But what the kids loved most was making those contacts.

One Wednesday in early December, the club's Communications trailer was set up in the school parking lot, and using its capabilities (including a Yaesu FT-897 and LDG AT-897 feeding 100 watts to a G5RV on a 30' mast), all the students had time to make a short contact on 20 meter phone. A quick "CQ School Demo" using the club call, W5IAS, under the direction of control operator Jay (AD5PE) yielded a 59 reply from Dave, W4PBU of Tampa, FL. Some of the kids immediately got big eyes when the realized how little it took to talk to some one that far away, while others had to wait for the next session to learn where Tampa was! Dave was gracious enough to stay on the air for over 30 minutes, talking for a minute or two to each student in turn, until band conditions took a turn for the worse, and we started having trouble hearing him. At that point, Del, W7JG broke in and told us we were 59 to his shack in Tacoma, WA. The last handful of students as well as all the teachers got their turn talking to Del, just as our hour ended. Meanwhile, Lee (KE5CUB) kept those waiting their turn on HF entertained by showing off his handheld as well as his mobile HF (Icom IC-7000) which was listening to the goings on from the trailer.

The teachers are thrilled because the kids are excited to have us visit with them, and the kids want to turn their one hour per week Enrichment Program sessions into a full blown Technician licensing class. Let's all do whatever we can to bring them fully into ham radio.