2013
Radiotek 2013.
Photos taken at activity days through the year…. 2013
Photos by ZL3KB.
Emily with her project. 
Stacey hard at work. 
Daniel and his FM radio. 
A few of the November Radiotek students.
RadioTek – Another day of radio technology at Branch 05
The RadioTek machine continues to roll on, introducing the delights of radio building to more victims, young and not so young.
On Sunday 14th November the rain stopped early and the water level in Lake 05, as we call our carpark, started to drop.
Ten RadioTek students attended the fourth and last Radiotek of 2012, with six first timers in attendance, and we were honoured to have Margaret, XYL of Ken ZL3KD, join us to finish her radio with us.
The day ran the usual course, where the first timers had a quick introduction by ZL3APB on how radio waves work, then into some soldering practice before morning tea, and then their first project of a steady hand game. The second timers were taken through learning about electricity and meters by ZL2BAT, whilst the third timers were shown some effects of tuned circuits by ZL3KB.
After lunch the first timers started the next project of a simple AM radio, and when it was finished they all had a go at running it from a solar cell, a kiwi fruit battery and a miniature steam engine.
Daniel, pictured here, deserves a special mention. He has now been three times and had completed the steady hand game, and the AM radio with speaker amplifier on previous visits. This time he made the FM receiver, and he completed it with almost no help from us. At “turn on” time, it was only a faulty switch that stopped it from working first time! This was quite impressive, and he helped his brother make his radio too.
As it came towards the end of project building it was interesting to see the desperation to finish their radios, almost to the point of not being able to keep their hands steady, so none of them could win at their own steady hand game.
By the end of the day, we had a full set of very happy students, and parents, going home with fully working projects. The team Rory ZL3HB, Brian ZL2BAT, Des ZL3AK, Barry ZL3BMW, Aidan ZL3APB, Ron ZL3RON, Rod ZL3ROD, Kelvin ZL3KB would like to thank themselves for the preparation work and sacrificing a Sunday to have fun.
Author Kelvin Barnsdale ZL3KB
Updated by ZL3UE 17th Nov 2013