School Club Roundup

During the week of February 11 – 15 scan the bands and listen for young voices and respond to their

CQ calls during the School Club Round-UP (SCR). They may get your callsign wrong the 1 st time, be

patient, remember they are more proficient at texting. Thank the students for showing an interest

in our hobby. Mention scholarship opportunities, that eventually lead to satisfying and great paying

career opportunities. Remember the lifelong friendships that can develop.

Along with other schools, KF5CRF will be on the air, doing their best to hang out on the corner and

make contacts. The students will appreciate you sending schools their way, or letting them know

what frequency they can find other schools. Remember, each student brings a varied level of

experience to the QSO. You may be that students very first QSO, congratulations! When you get

time, sit back and listen for 20 or 30 minutes as the QSOs engage and disengage and the students seek

out another contact. Remember, every contact counts. Individuals are 1 point, clubs are 2 points

and schools are 5 points. Do you hold multiple callsigns? Offer those out as well, they all add up, but

please identify the other callsigns as club callsigns as appropriate.

Left is Jada KF5TAT doing some last

minute cramming for a recent General

license test. Jada and her classmates

are in the 7th grade and 12-14 years old.

Nearly all the students have been in the

program since the fall. Jada is one of the

strong operators. Her schedule should

allow her to participate after school until

1800 CTZ on Monday, Wednesday and

Friday during the SCR. Next year, Jada's

roll will shift from operator to coach and

peer mentor. Students enjoy showing

off how cool amateur radio is and Jada is

no exception.

Because art is also taught in the classroom, we have the potential to show amateur radio to those students. We work to get them involved. We pair inexperienced students with a student coach to teach them how to say their name phonetically and practice a QSO or two. When the student coach says they are ready, the student coach is the one actually coaching the QSO in the background.

Thanks to Paul, KC5CYY for this information.