I was privilledged to have my two sons assist me with a Hammies Boot Camp in the Bisho area of the Eastern Cape. What made this course special for me was that my old friend and Scouting collegue, Lunga Nqini had asked me to run it for his Church/Scout group. The course was planned for April 27-May 1 but ended a day earlier than anticipated.
17 eager kids awaited our arrival and one very loaded Nissan Sentra arrived early Friday morning. Things soon got underway and classes began. Really interesting questions from some of the kids.
One of my favourites: If we not allowed to use bad language on the radio, but we are allowed to play music – what if we play music with bad language? A nice short answer to a Scout/Church kid: If you have music like that you listening to the wrong kind on music.
Friday we did a LOT of theory, Saturday was a lot more fun with practical activities and Sunday was teh day for the HF tests. What a day!
I received a call to return to the saltmine on the Monday – the day the written exam was due. This meant we needed to close up a day earlier than anticipated. Sunday turned into a day full of tests for the kids – each going through their HF test and then the group finally writting the written paper at 15:30. By 17:00 Sunday we were on the way home again. Roadworks, SunSet and idiot drivers together – but we made it home safely!
A new ruling from the SARL RAE committee is that 5 QSOs are now needed for the practical test. Fortunately we had started the mamoth task of 17×5=85 QSOs Saturday afternoon! It was a long haul that I’d have to say.
Upon reflection, one thing that amazed me was that almost all of the kids were scared of the battery! I had to show them several times that you could touch the terminals – mentioning each time that you could not touch them together! Yet each one, while practicing to set up the station was overly cautious when working with the battery. At first I wanted them to relax, but I think a healthy dose of care is probably a good idea.
Another thing that jumped out at me was that the language barrier was not nearly as bad as it used to be. That said, when you get a little 9 year old Xhosa girl who cant read (or as we used to say – sound it) Electromagnetic radiation, you have to ask how many 9 year olds could anyway 🙂
A number of priceless moments stick out for me, but probably my favourite is getting a signal report as “a beautiful, loving 5/9”. A close second came from Enkosi – our top scorer – who when I asked her duting one of our QSOs whether she was having fun replied that she was having an absolute BLAST. Enthusiasm you don’t often hear on the radio – and that with perfect protocal. Sommer net lekker!
To view more pics of the course and the accommodation at the venue, look here.
