I recently had the pleasure of helping my radio club host a stand as part of the Festival of Bright Ideas in Hobart, held has part of National Science Week. This has been one of the first public events that the club has been involved with for some time, and has it turned out, it was a great success!
The stand was put together to be highly interactive, with demonstrations of transmitting voice using light, Morse Code decoders, using LIPDs to transmit data between two consoles and software defined radio. With the festival focused on introducing younger people to science. Check out the video below as Justin VK7TW gives a tour of the REAST Stand!
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnR_NFJlTTc[/embedyt]
The light communicators were by far the biggest hit of the stand, with many people getting interested in how this worked, and the children getting really excited using the mini light communicators. I think there was proof that there is actual interest in amateur radio out there, but it is just a matter of getting out there and showing people what you can do.
It’s fair to say a lot has been learnt from being involved with this event and we’re now already looking into what can be done next year to make the exhibit better.