In addition to the first packet of QSL cards from the W2 bureau (see previous post), I received a card from Hugh, NT5O. Hugh writes, “Hello, and thank you very much for the ‘wrong number’ QSO in the 2009 Texas QSO Party.” That confused me for a second. I thought, “Did we send him the [...]

WA2HOM, the club station at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, of which I am station manager, received its first pack of DX QSLs from the W2 incoming bureau. There was one card from the Bahamas (C6AGU), one from Spain (EE5E), and two from Germany (DL7ON, DL3YM). EE5E claims to have the “shortest CW callsign in [...]

This is an interesting idea. This might be something we could do at the Hands-On Museum when we’re not operating the rig there….Dan
From NorwalkPlus.com, Sep 29, 2009
Experience the adventure of shortwave radio at the Norwalk Public Library
NORWALK, CT – SEPTEMBER 29, 2009 – In the midst of today’s electronic gadgetry and communications innovation little is [...]

We finally got some new QSL cards for WA2HOM, our station at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. Yesterday, Jim, K8ELR, and I spent a lot of our time there making out cards to send out via the ARRL’s Outgoing QSL Service. I’ve also signed us up for service via the Second District QSL Bureau.
We [...]

Meet Hamlet, the newest member of the WA2HOM team. Mostly he just sits around and chews the fat, but I’m trying to teach him CW.

I know you are probably getting tired of reading about our adventures at the museum, but since I’m using this blog partly to document my ham radio activities, I guess you’ll just have to put up with me. :)
Here’s the update:

Tower project. A week and a half ago we met with the museum folks [...]

Friday night, I played Elmer. One of the guys who was in my General class last year built a Norcal 40 and needed some help aligning it.
We got the receiver portion going quite nicely, but the final amp didn’t want to work for us. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before we could debug [...]

Thanks to Ig, N0EFT, and his crew:

Tim, WA8VTD, back up radio operator;
Steve, KB9UPS, ARISS mentor and antenna and az/el rotor operator;
Olivia, KC8VGH, who handled the microphone and kids; and
Candy. KD8IPC, who made the initial contact and helped with the kids;

yesterday’s Space Station contact from the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum was a success. Despite the low [...]

On page 95 of the January 2009 QST, there’s a short article on three recent grants by the ARRL foundation. The third one describes the grant give to our Hands-On Museum project. It reads:
A grant of $3,000 have been awarded to the Hands-On Museum that offers experiences in the wonder of science, math, and [...]

As I was going to the museum yesterday, another idea for a display hit me. Perhaps we could do something with antennas. The display could explain the different types of antennas (dipoles, verticals, beams) and why some are longer and some are shorter (the concept of wavelength).
If we had a computer screen big enough and [...]