Monthly Zoom Meeting for Collegiate Clubs Offers a Variety of Topics
Each month, ARRL hosts a Zoom meeting with student representatives and advisors from the large community of college radio clubs. The group met on January 11, led by ARRL Collegiate Amateur Radio Advisors Tony Milluzzi, KD8RTT, and Andy Milluzzi, KK4LWR. Among the schools represented were College of DuPage, University of Arizona, University of Florida, The Ohio State University, Temple, Cal Poly, University of Michigan, Penn State, Texas A&M, and others.
These meetings often include a guest speaker or spotlight the activities of a particular college club. This meeting, however, was a bit more open ended – inviting a rapid-fire collection of the different activities the clubs have taken on over the school year. Here’s what they did:
- Foxhunts
- Satellite operating
- Winter Field Day
- School Club Roundup (second full school week of February, and third full school week of October)
- Parks on the Air (POTA) expeditions
- State QSO parties
- A shopping trip to a ham radio dealer. Bringing along some of the new and inexperienced members
- Project building. Examples:
- 1/4-λ ground-plane antenna to help extend the signal of a handheld radio
- Tape measure beam for radio direction finding
- End-fed half-wave antenna (see kit available from ARRL)
- High-altitude balloon launch with amateur radio payload
- Restoration of vintage radio gear
- NTS nets and informal nets
- Hosting license exam sessions in the community or at events
- Volunteering to support public service communications at a marathon or bikeathon
Each of these activities can encourage new experiences for participants and helps everyone in the club develop skills and knowledge. Consider creating a 12-month calendar of events for your club, with one activity scheduled every month. For example: three contests or operating events (including ARRL Field Day); three projects or workshops; two public service events and/or an annual basic EmComm training session; and four speakers.
College radio clubs are uniquely organized to emphasize learning by doing. After all, most of their membership are busy students who join the club for new experiences and to have fun. It’s a model that might work for every radio club!
For more information about the monthly ARRL Collegiate Amateur Radio webinars and related resources, visit www.arrl.org/WeWantU.
