Using Amateur Radio to Enhance Engineering Education

Amateur Radio hobby was recently discussed at upcoming IEEE MTT International Microwave Symposium (IMS).

IMS is the premier annual international meeting for professional technologists involved in all aspects of microwave theory and practice.

On Tuesday, May 24 professors from universities in the United States and elsewhere will discuss the specific ways amateur radio is being integrated into their engineering education. The professors discussed how electronics/engineering education using amateur radio is effective, and the impact amateur radio-based instruction has had on their curricular and success of their graduates. 

Panel Organizers and Moderators

  • Suresh Ojha W6KTM, National Instruments, Santa Clara, CA
  • David Witkowski W6DTW, Joint Venture Silicon Valley, San Jose, CA
  • Beric Dunn K6BEZ, Tarana Wireless, Santa Clara, CA

Panelists

  • Dennis Derickson AC0P, California Polytechnic University
  • Bob Iannucci W6EI, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Xiaoguang Liu AI6DW, University of California, Davis 
  • Sanjeeb Panday 9N1SP, Tribhuvan University

IEEE MTT International Microwave Symposium - http://www.ims2016.org/

Two New Radio’s Seen at Dayton

At the recent Dayton Convention, Amateur / Ham Radio enthusiasts saw two new radios coming to market.

The Yaesu FT-891 is an HF transceiver covering the 160 to 6 meter bands with 100 watts. It features a general coverage receiver tuning 30 kHz to 30 MHz. Modes include AM, USB, LSB and CW. Features include: attenuator, noise blanker, keyer, compact size, backlit LCD and backlit keys.

Kenwood showed under glass a D-STAR tri-band handheld at their booth, supported by colourful brochures.

Suggested selling price is between $500-700 per unit.

New South Hampshire D-STAR Repeater

UK Amateur / Ham Radio D-Star operators will have access to a newly licensed D-STAR repeater, GB7IV covering South Hampshire.

Based at Chandlers Ford, midway between Southampton and Winchester, the new repeater offers blanket coverage of the cities of Southampton and Winchester, as well as surrounding areas.

The repeater is now on air with Interlink connectivity planned for UK-wide and Worldwide communication. The licensed channel is R7 which is repeater transmit 145.775MHz and repeater receive 145.125MHz.

Repeater Info - https://ukrepeater.net/my_vetting.php?id=2920

D-Star UK Website - http://d-staruk.co.uk/