On May 12, 2010, at 8:12 PM, Darrell Bellerive wrote:
In my search for a good radio for him to listen to the bands, I have
decided that a Ten-Tec Delta 580 would be a great starter rig.
Coverage
of all the bands from 160 to 10, and a simple user interface. So I
am in
search of one for him.
There are a whole bunch of rigs which would be similar. The earliest,
Triton, Triton II, Triton IV, Centurty 21 and 22, and first Omni had
analog displays.
There was a digital Trition 4 and later Omni, which meant they had the
same PTO as the other rigs, but instead of a slide rule dial, they had
a digital frequency display.
There are some differences in features and power and except for the
later Omni's they did not have the WARC bands. The Century one and two
are CW only. IMHO (and take it as exactly that), it will be near
impossible to interest a child in ham radio with only CW.
Also, being from Canada, I am not well versed in the US licence study
materials. What would be a good study manual for a youngster to get
his
technician licence? I suspect at his age it may take a while until
he is
ready to take a test. I see that there are some hams in the US
licenced
at age 8, so perhaps he will also be one of them.
The US has no age limit. He just needs to be able to read and
understand English. There is some math in the test, so it may be
beyond him. There used to be a series of video tapes from the ARRL
(kids love watching video), but they discontinued them and have not
released them AFAIK on DVD.
There are computer programs which give you a sample question from the
pool (the same questions he will be tested with), and check your
answer. If you get it wrong, highlights the correct answer so you can
memorize the material. After all it does not matter how he learns the
limits of the 80m band, or what QST stands for, only that they are
part of his memory.
An other thing you may want to consider is he a builder (or in the
current slang a "maker")? If he is and you can spend the time with
him, you may want to introduce him to radio with a series of kits.
Start with a no solder crystal radio and work your way up to a
recevier. Ten-Tec sells kits you may find appropriate and there are
several sites that sell crystal radio parts.
Geoff.
--
geoffrey mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
Jerusalem Israel geoffreymendelson@gmail.com
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge
or understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the
situation. i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found
in the Wikipedia.
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