"Keyboard In The Wilderness" wrote in message news:kdrmd.145285$hj.18911@fed1read07...
Here in San Diego, we not only do demos of Amateur Radio, we have helped set
up donated stations in 5 schools. Example:
http://transworldradio.8m.com/mchs/index.html

One school had students talk to astronauts in space (SAREX Program)
http://www.palomararc.org/Scope/jun02scope.pdf

Also the ARISS program
that offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of
Amateur
Radio by talking directly with crewmembers of the ISS (International Space
Station). URL:
http://www.arrl.org/ARISS/sarexfaq.html

Upwards of 100 San Diego students have obtained their licenses.

Currently 20 students are attending a Ham Radio class in Vista, Ca

And at the ARRL field day in June 2004, we had 20+ unlicensed Boy Scouts
and numerous kids OPERATE and make contacts on Ham radio as far away as
Australia -- via the GOTA station (Get On The Air)
http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2...s-fd-2004.html

And an annual Scout event is JOTA -- upwards of 500,000 Scouts and Guides
all over the world make contact with each other by means of amateur radio.
http://www.scout.org/wse/jota.shtml


Re geography -- Who knows every country, island, cay, spit, and reef in the
world better than a Ham Radio DXer ??

True - but there is more to geography than simply knowing where places
are. The physical and social geography of the site is key to
understanding the overall relationship of that place to the rest of
the planet. However, you're right, knowing where the places are is
the start to understanding.

As an aside, we just got the new National Geopgraphic Atlas as a
(requested) early Christmas gift - if you haven't seen it yet, it is
fabulous, by leaps and bounds one of the most amazing documents I have
laid eyes on. When I have a few minutes to spare, I am able to sink
into that book, pore over it's contents and dream myself to distant
lands...

One of the most fascinating things about the maps is seeing how
sparsely populated and developed the Former Soviet Central Asian
nations are...compared to their surrounding nations, and especially
Europe, their maps look like (and certainly they really are in many
cases) vast expanses of open territory. To hear a SW station from
that neck of the woods is to hear a high desert frontier...

Bruce Jensen