Christmas workshop with children

Here you see C2 minus on the circuit board, explained Lina, a 9 years old girl to me while I was fumbling with e my eyeglasses, looking for the pole direction of the condenser in the connection diagram.

The Saturday workshop with children between 8 and 14 years, announced in the local press by the radio club K33 was inspiring.

We intended to stimulate their interest in electronics - and make them perhaps talk about the amateur radio.

Now it will, now it is time to engage in the long neglected youth work and train these future amateur radio operators. This kind of work should be on top of our agenda.

"Our son did not dare to call at your club evenings. Now he is glad, to work with like-minded young people under technical care in this project ", told me a mother.

An electronic Christmas tree developed by the " AATIS " (working group amateur radio and communication in the school), was the topic of this Saturday.

First the children were taught how to work with solder - pyramid, cube and circuits from wire - and then we addressed the main part of the work after some small sausages and juice.

With the help of a prototype the eight children (3 girl 5 boys), soldered the different parts on the circuit board, supervised by Leonard DD5PL, Sylvester DH4PB and Klaus DF3GU.

I was amazed by the children's dexterity, while bending right with pliers and tweezers the components and pointing to fix it exactly mutually assisting each other.

If the tree would flash the work would have done correctly, then it is correct.

But an error could arise from conductive strips soldered together or a falsely polarised condenser.

Who had successfully finished, could set still his name at the Morse-tape-writer, or decode a long Morse- tape.

After that they walked home with their parents and the flashing Christmas tree.

Now they are waiting for Monday, to present their Saturday results to their schoolmates.

Amateur radio can be an extraordinary experience!

Sylvester Föcking, DH4PB