Ham Radio Games

[KL5LD]

Hello all,

I work for a middle school and have started a ham radio club for the the kids. We have been doing it for a couple weeks now and it has been going great and has been growing, which has really surprised me. We get more kids every week joining up and seeing what it is all about. We meet every Tuesday and Thursday at 1430 AKST and I basically have been starting from the bottom with teaching the kids things such as the Q codes the phonetic alphabet, the band chart, and even Morse code. I have also been teaching them on how to pass the Technician exam and going over all the question pools. So far so good, the kids are loving it.

With all that being said, I have been also trying to make it fun for them. They are in school all day having to take test and reading and being killed with power points and I don't want to continue doing that for another 2 hours in a club that is supposed to be fun and exciting. So I have been doing Radio Hide and Seek, I am having the kids play hide and seek, kind of like Marco Polo were the kid that is "it" calls out "QTH" over the radio and the other kids that are hiding need to announce what class room they are next to. It has been really fun, but I need to find some other fun games that I can have them play that is age appropriate (11-14) for them and is something that can also add learning into the game. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[VK6NCB]

if you have a ham licence, set up a low power beacon, and have them find it with a directional antenna.
let them start by just going and chasing it, then give them pointers (like triangulation)

 

[ladn]

Maybe a good ol' fashioned T-Hunt?

 

[serial14]

Sounds amazing and good job giving them the exposure and opportunity. Brought up some good memories of my own experiences. Here are some of the things I've done.

• I've done some basic Fox hunting with teenagers with little radio background and they've all enjoyed it and picked up the basics pretty easily. As a bonus, sometimes we hide candy with the radio fox that they can find.
• One time I got a Byonics "PicCon" Foxhunt Controller kit and had them solder it together. That kit was the right size and difficulty for the kids. They could each take a turn soldering on a couple parts and then pass it along. They were able to finish the kit in about an hour and then the next time we met they got to see it in action. They seemed to enjoy that.
• I've also done variations on hide and seek. Some times its more like 20 questions to figure out where a person is hiding. I liked that one cause it started to teach them the cadence of having a group discussion across a radio. My most recent one had more of a "downed pilot" sort of theme. I went out an hid in some open nature area and then they had to ask me questions, consult a map, and hike to find me.
• ARRL Kids Day / Scout Jamboree on the Air / or similar. It was fun to be the target of the pile up and the kids really enjoyed it. Doing it during a "formal event" is fun. But I've also just done it a random times. In my experience, as soon as you start announcing you have several kids wanting to "try radio" other hams turn it into a pile up for you I've done it on both VHF/UHF repeaters and HF.
• Show off some scanners / SDR radios and how many signals are out there. I did this in 2 parts. first was live/interactive. The second, I had recorded some traffic off a local system and played them back the audio and asked them how much they learned from it and trying to guess what it was.

 

[ladn]

Do you have HF/Shortwave capabilities or maybe DMR? Or can you access some of the online remote HF radios?

IF so, the kids could "plot the callsign" of various stations they may hear. Some might be a specific location if a QTH is given, while others might be a general location on a map. Maybe add a math component to calculate straight line or great circle distances.

 

[KL5LD]

Cool ideas guys thank you so much for the input. I do have a license (KL5LD) and I have been making contacts with DSTAR and the kids have loved it. I also have been teaching them Morse code and have been working with them a lot on that. Hopefully my proposal with the district will go through for some equipment I requested. So far it has been going through the process with no issues so hopefully that will go good so I can do some more stuff with them. I just got another kid join today, so surprisingly I am now at 14 kids in the Ham Club which is amazing. I didn't think it was going to be as popular as it is, but we are soaring high on interest even among the other teachers and staff.

 

[serial14]

Another memory came to me. When I was in High School there were several of us that had our ham licenses and some that got it because of this. Our band director was a ham and embraced it and us. He got all the kids with licenses and made us the communications/leadership team of the band when ever the band traveled. I went to a large high school with a large band program and so any time we went to an even there were 3-4 busses involved. Even though the school busses had radios of their own, we passed all the coordinating traffic needed. It was really fun, served a purpose, and taught us a lot about leadership, logistics, planning, etc. For my self, it has had a last impact on my life.

I don't know what type of events the school does or the kids are involved in. But letting them use their new found interest & skills in service of school activities could be fun and a confidence boost for them like it was me.