Education & Assessment Programmes
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The Westlakes Amateur Radio Club has an Active Training and Education programme that incorporates Radiocommunications Courses designed to prepare participants for Amateur Radio Qualification Exams. In addition, we can deliver courses in General Electronics as well as Microcontroller Programming. For two years, our Education Programme was slowed because of Covid Restrictions. We are back up to speed and looking forward to this coming Semester. We welcome enquiries from anyone interested in Amateur Radio, as well as school children and teenagers who are interested in Electronics or Coding.
Please feel free to contact the Education Officer by email at: education@westlakesarc.org.au or by phone on 0402 119 074.
The Foundation Qualification is an introductory Amateur Radio qualification based on the Amateur Radio Class License. It allows the qualified person to transmit a maximum of 10 Watts on six of the Amateur Bands. This is sufficient to allow you to, under the right conditions, contact other Amateurs around the world. Amateur Radio is an engaging and immersive hobby for young people.
10 Watt transceivers that cover the HF, VHF and UHF bands are available from less than $60 up to $2000.
The Standard Qualification is a higher level. Successfully completing the Examinations requirs serious study and application to detail. It allows you to transmit using a maximum of 100 Watts
and offers you several additional Frequency Bands. There are many members of the Westlakes Amateur Radio Club who enjoy conversing with Amateurs in other Countries.
Why is it so exciting, in this age of mobile phones and Zoom? It is amazing to realise that amateur radio signal travels through the air, directly from your antenna
to the antenna of another Amateur on the other side of the globe.
The Advanced Qualification authorises qualified persons to transmit on a large number of Bands and to transmit using up to 400 Watts.
Our Practical Electronics Course covers a great deal of Electronics Theory but delivers it in the context of practical experiments and projects that you can take home. The projects include:
A Crystal Set for listening to AM Broadcasts, A Bench DC Power Supply so that you can do experiments at home, An Audio Oscillator that can produce sound effects, as well as many more interesting and challenging projects.
The course in which you will learn to program an Arduino Development Board using C++, is also Project-Based. This course follows on from the Practical Electronics Course and covers the development of firmware for microcontroller projects as well as the interfacing circuits that you will connect to the microcontroller's inputs and outputs. Projects include an RGB LED Lighting Controller, a fan speed controller, a programmable alarm system with a real-time clock and a free-roaming, obstacle avoiding robot that speaks and responds when it hears a clap.
Our Education Officer holds courses and activities on a regular basis at the Clubhouse at Teralba to encorage school and university students to investigate STEM learning areas; Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Members of the community can find out more about what we do, and perhaps get involved. Please contact the Club if you would like us come out and present at your organisation or school.