ABQ, New Mexico School Club KG5JDP, Starting SOTA

Hi Everyone, KG5ISG, Don. I’m a teacher here in ABQ at a 6-12 grade school, and our school radio club is starting a SOTA group this fall. I’m learning the ropes and hope to have the students up and running on local heights soon. Any advice will be welcome.
Cheers, Don

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Good show Don,
Hope you’ll be able to include HF (and CW) in the mix at some point, radio being more “magic” if students work someone a thousand miles away. Using alerts will greatly improve chances for more contacts. Good luck, and will be listening for you and your students on the bands.
Ken, Tucson, AZ

I live in Albuquerque and would be glad to give you a hand. Email good on QRZ.

73,

Mike - ke5akl

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Thank you, Ken,
I have a few students with Tech. licenses and one middle school student with a General license and we are working on getting him and everyone else equipment and training in CW to increase our luck in the fall.
Cheers, Don

Thank you, Mike,
We are in the middle of Graduation and finals now and will get ahold of you as soon as it dies down a bit.
Cheers, Don

Indeed! An extra 20dB won’t hurt a thing.

The students had a morse class during lunch a year ago. I was told by two middle school teachers they were sick of hearing students trying to send cw messages to each other during class time

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Got my general ticket! That helps a lot for this journey!

Tell them to learn it, too.

  • fred kt5x (retired teacher)
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Congrats on the General Ticket. That opens up so many new possibilities for you and the club. But to set a really good example, have you already started on the Extra? It really isn’t that bad…

I like Fred s advice. Have the teachers learn the code. At least well enough to surprise a youthful message sender.

Looking at the title of your post, I now realize that ABQ is a popular short reference to Albuquerque. Which is good. It would take me a week to learn how to spell it.

So, are you considering a Vanity call for the club ending in ABQ? There are still a few possibilities out there, even though hams have been seeking out the ABQ suffix. Strangely the County EOC in your town is going to let their 1 x 3 become available in just a few months. Any problem with picking up a WHISKEY call for a school club? But you could always think of a more creative phonetic for that “W” call…

Thanks for the advice - I’m still rattled from the General exam…so I’ll start slowly for extra.
I’ll suggest the teacher morse class at the next staff meeting. I hadn’t thought about a vanity call so I’ll see what I can do for the club.
Cheers, don