2010 San Mateo Maker Faire Amateur Radio Exhibit

Foothills Amateur Radio Society (FARS) is sponsoring an exhibition of Amateur Radio Technology at the 2010 San Mateo Makers Faire. Many clubs and club members from around the bay area will be participating. The goal of this year is to demonstrate what people can do with a technicians License. We hope that people seeing the various technologies will become interested in earning their license.

With many clubs participating, people visiting the area will see that there are multiple groups and there are people of all ages participating. We are an active and social group. We will have an amazing array of Ham Radio demonstrations. We will show the technology of amateur radio.

Earning your first amateur radio license, called a technician, is relatively easy now that the morse code requirement is gone. The pool of questions and answers are public. Out of the possible 400+ multiple choice questions in the pool, you are asked 35 and must answer 26 correctly to pass. There are plenty of on line and printed tutorials to help you learn the material.

FARS is the primary sponsor. They have pledged equipment, money and support. The ARRL has stepped up to the plate and will be paying many of the expenses of the Faire.

During the show we will have demonstrations of Automatic Packet Reporting System(APRS), Slow Scan Television(SSTV), Oscilloscopes and Earth Moon Earth Bounce.

APRS is a mashup of ham radio and with data from a GPS and telemetry information from devices such has heart meters, weather stations, movement data from vehicles, balloons to model rockets. In fact we will have an APRS weather station at the Maker Faire.

SSTV is a method sending images over radio frequencies. We will be wondering around the fairground taking pictures and sending them back to the booth, without running up our cellular bill. We will also be mixing in data from a GPS so we will have the latitude and longitude of where the picture was taken.

Mark Metzer, AF6IM, will be talking about jumping out of an airplane at over 18,000 feet, deploying his parachute ASAP and making contacts on 2M or HF. While he is doing this, he has an APRS station on him with a pulseox meter capturing his heart rate and oxygen levels. More information is at parachutemobile.org.

Palo Alto Amateur Radio Association, PAARA, will be demonstrating how to use an oscilloscope. Whether you are an electronics hobbiest who has never had the opporunity to use one. Or someone who has seen them in movies or sitting on some bench somewhere, here is your chance to learn what they are and how they are used.

Kit Blanke, WA6PWW, and Dave Wolfe, AA6XV, will be giving a demonstration of Earth Moon Earth bounce on Friday afternoon for the Makers after they have set up their exhibits.

After the show, BAERS will offer a ham cram 2 weeks after the faire so those who became interested in ham radio can get their license with one day of study.

Links and Contact Information

• Yahoo group for this event Maker Faire Hams. If you are a HAM and want to participate, just click on the link and jump in. the water is fine.
• 
• ARRL Emergency Communications
• ARRL Technology Overview
• Email Michael Pechner, KI6QNZ for more information.