In 2008 the Contoocook Valley Radio Club was asked to help NEAR-fest establish a working Amateur Radio Station at the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium in Concord. - (It is now called the McAuliffe Shepard Discovery Center).  Mr. Mike, W1RC, and NEAR-fest pledged to provide the monetary funds necessary and our club members pledged to help with the set up.  The brand new Discovery Center building is now complete and it is time to establish a working station where school groups can communicate by appointment with the Space Station, and where Planetarium Employees and Volunteers can use  the station to both enjoy and promote Amateur Radio.   This new section on our K1BKE Web-site will  allow us to post projects and notices for those who are excited about  participating at the Planetarium Station.

Eight new members of the Planetarium Staff have signed up to take the Technician Class Course starting there, on  Jan. 20th, 2010.

"See How Antennas Work" - Daily Antenna  Demonstration Dave McDonald e-mailed a list of the items needed  to establish a daily 20 minute demonstration of RF Energy using Dale's model of lighting up light bulbs across the room with small 432 antennas. Dave needs  people to obtain or build the equipment. Don Curtis, N1ZIH, has donated the Tripod Dale, AF1T, has repaired a donated 432 Transverter Steve Jones, N1JHJ, and Ken Wilkens, K1MID, are  looking through their stocks for a regulated power supply. Who can come up with more parts of the equipment,  needed?  Can you build antennas? Dave was so intrigued with RF energy, especially when the light was lit up by a hot dog antenna, that he thought school  children would get excited too if they saw this. Dale will be the contact person for this project and will collect the donated components. Call him at: 428-3840 or e-mail at:  dpclement@tds.net.  Thank you  ahead of time.  AF1T's "An Illuminating Introduction to Antennas" presentation description and sketches of Dales  antenna demonstration set-up - both in pdf format.