Surrey Schools students take to the airwaves in new RF communications course
Students learning to fine-tune signals in the RF communications course. (Image: Surrey Schools)
A group of Surrey students is spending part of their summer break learning about radio frequencies in a new electronics course that may be the first of its kind in Canada.
Held at Kwantlen Park Secondary this month, the RF communications course introduces students to radio frequency technology and allows them to earn their Amateur Radio Certification. For its debut year, the course has 23 Grades 8 to 12 students enrolled.
“As far as I know, there aren’t any other courses like this for high school students in Canada,” said course founder and instructor Adam Drake.
Assisting Drake with the course is volunteer and amateur radio enthusiast John Schouten, who currently serves as a director for Surrey Amateur Radio Communications. A retired member of the Vancouver Police Department, Schouten oversaw the implementation of many of the force’s radio technologies and remains heavily involved in the local amateur radio scene.
“Our goal is to keep the service alive by introducing it to younger generations,” he said. “When people picture amateur or HAM radio, they usually picture an old guy sitting with a morse code key, but there are so many career opportunities to pursue in this field.”
Those opportunities include everything from electrical or waterwork systems, utility controls and aerospace, said Schouten.
“We’ve seen the students experience some real revelations about how integrated radio is with our day-to-day lives,” he said. “They’ve also been amazed at the capabilities of the technology with even the most basic equipment.”
An example, said Schouten, was an antenna he had created out of some PVC pipe and a chopped-up tape measure. Using pieces of the tape measure’s metal blade, Schouten was able to create an antenna that could reach the International Space Station.
Another key part of the course is teaching students about the vital role radio operators would play in the event of a regional emergency.
“We have a lot of people interested in the emergency communications aspects of it,” said Schouten. “There are regional emergency service plans set up with organizations like hospitals, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and in the event of a large-scale emergency where commercial infrastructure goes down, it would be amateur radio operators that would come in with their own equipment to setup those communication lifelines."
It is for this reason that Grade 9 student Ojasvi Ashutosh signed up for the course.
Ojasvi Ashutosh signed up for the course to learn how to help out in emergency situations. (Image: Surrey Schools)
“I know that radios are the only way people are going to be able to communicate in an emergency,” she said “If there’s an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) and all of our devices stop working, I want to be one of those people that can help.”
While initially interested in computer sciences and coding, Ashutosh said she developed a curiosity for circuitry and hardware after her science teacher at Sullivan Heights Secondary taught a unit on physics and machinery.
“I was just fascinated with how you could harness energy and use it in so many ways given the right circuits or machines,” she said. “It’s been surprising to see how much radio communications are integrated into our lives with things like Bluetooth and even our cellphones, they’re basically fancy radios.”
Next Tuesday, the class is also planning to launch a balloon of radio equipment to demonstrate altitude, range and tracking using radio frequencies.
