The
Cumberland Valley Amateur Radio
Club Award for Radio Excellence
Cumberland Valley Amateur Radio Club
(CVARC) sponsored 4 Science Fair prizes for 2008. These $50
cash prizes, accompanied by a reward certificate, will be awarded to to
Intermediate, Junior, or Senior level projects that best explore some
aspect of the physics of radio communication.
See photos of projects that have won these prizes.
This document provides the
information necessary to the student to compete for one of these
prizes.
For information about CVARC's sponsorship
of
these awards, or for mentoring support for your project, contact one of
the project advocates:
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D.
Daniel McGlothin - KB3MUN
Bill Beyrer - K3ZIV
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science.fair@w3ach.org
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For information about the Cumberland Valley Amateur Radio Club (CVARC), go to the club's website.
For information about the Science
Fair itself, go to the Franklin
Science Council's website.
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Table of Contents
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Qualifying
Criteria for Science Fair Entries
It is reasonable to ask "How do I know
if
my Science Fair project will qualify for one of the CVARC prizes?".
This section answers that question.
It
is the stated goal of
CVARC to award prizes for projects that explore some
aspect of the
physics of radio communication.
Another way of stating this
qualification is that the project must deal with the basic
science
of radio as it is used in communication.
Some definitions (taken from the on-line
American Heritage Dictionary of English Language, 4th
Edition, see also: science,
physics,
radio,
communication):
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Science
means the
observation, identification, description, experimental investigation,
and theoretical explanation of phenomena.
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Physics
means
investigation of the physical properties, interactions, processes, or
laws.
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Radio
means the
wireless transmission through space (and reception of the same) of
electromagnetic waves by means of equipment capable of transmitting and
receiving these signals.
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Communication
means the transmission of information.
Therefore,
for the
purposes of qualifying for Cumberland Valley Amateur Radio Club Award
for Radio Excellence, we can make these descriptive definitions:
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physics
of radio
communication refers to
investigating, by means of experiments,
the use of radio signals to
transfer information over some distance. Such investigation may
acceptably be focused on the equipment that generates, transmits, or
receives those radio signals.
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basic
science of
radio as it is used in communication
refers to using experiments
to investigate the application
of the physics of radio
to the communication of information.
The question of partnered projects
may come up.
The prizes that the CVARC will be offering will be available to
partnered projects, so long as they otherwise would fit into the
individual categories as discussed below.
However, the student should be aware that, given a situation where a
partnered project and an individual project would be scored the same by
the CVARC judges, slight preference will be given to the individual
project.
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Notify
CVARC of Intention to Enter a Qualifying Project
The
student desiring to
compete for one of the Cumberland
Valley Amateur Radio Club Award
for Radio Excellence prizes is
requested to
notify CVARC prior
to the judging of the prizes. The latest that this notification can
take place will be when the student sets up the project's display just
prior to judging. Pragmatically, this notification should take place
well prior to that time, especially if the student desires mentoring
assistance.
The
CVARC judges will work with the Science Fair organizers to review the
projects as registered to identify possible qualifying projects. And
the CVARC judges will also canvass all of
the projects displayed projects to identify possible qualifying
projects. Unfortunately, it may be that the judges will overlook a
project's qualifying merit--hence the strong recommendation
that the student notify CVARC of their intent to compete for one of
these prizes.
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Notice
of Intent to Qualify for a Cumberland
Valley Amateur Radio Club
Award for Radio Excellence
The student should download and
complete this form and submit it to CVARC well in advance of the judging.
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You
may also send your notice by email to
science.fair@w3ach.org providing
the same information (your name, the project name, the name of any ham
mentors, and your level--Intermediate, Junior, or Senior) that
Email notification should take place no later than the day before your project is setup for judging.
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Examples of Qualifying Projects
A
qualifying project will
investigate, by means of an experiment,
some aspect of the physical nature of the transmission or reception of
information by means of radio waves. Project complexity is expected to
increase with the higher divisions. Partnered projects are also
acceptable assuming that they otherwise follow the guidelines of
individual projects.
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Intermediate
Level
(Grades 4-6)
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Building a
crystal radio set is a demonstration
project. To make this into an experiment, the student might, for
example, use different antennas (length, type, etc.) as the independent
(changed) variable and record the signal strength (audio volume,
voltage into the audio amplifier, etc.) or count the different stations
detectable as the dependent (measured) variable.
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Junior
Level (Grades 7-8)
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A remote control
toy (operated by a radio controller)
detects radio waves that convey the commands from the operator. To use
this as the basis of an experiment, the student might decide that the
dependent (measured) variable would be how far away the toy can be from
the transmitter and still respond to the commands, and the independent
(changed) variable would be antenna length or type.
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Senior
Level (Grades
9-12)
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More Examples of Qualifying Projects
Some
people have suggested that this prize is rather narrow in its
definition. These additional examples are to demonstrate that the
breadth of the reach of amateur radio, and hence the breadth of the
science fair categories that could easily have a project eligible for
this award.
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Intermediate
and Junior Level Categories
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Earth Science see description of Senior-level category Earth & Space
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Life Science see description of Senior-level category Medicine & Health
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Physical Science see description of Senior-level categories Physics, Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science
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Senior
Level Categories
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Computer Science and Mathematics
are used extensively in amateur radio. There are software defined
radios with software filters that could become the subject matter of an
experiment. There are a bunch of digital communication modes (nearly
every networking
technology is represented or used in amateur radio); these could be
used as
the basis of experiments. There are a number of mathematical models
covering a number of physical components or phenomena (a few examples
include antenna models and
analysis of signal skip or refraction) that could become the
underpinnings of some interesting experiments.
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Earth & Space
sciences include the examination of the geo-magnetic phenomena of the
sun, the earth, and the RF-noisy planets and stars. The geo-magnetic
properties of the sun and the earth are especially important
to amateur radio operators as these things can significantly affect the
radio transmissions. The interaction of the solar flux and the sunspots
with the earths ionosphere could be the source of a number of different
experiments; radio signal propagation under varying conditions could be another
rich source of experiments.
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Engineering
is sometimes thought of as the application of science to real-world
problems. Amateur radio has its share of engineers, and also a vast
array of engineering problems to be solved. An experiment could be
built around ampacity testing of the Anderson Power-Pole and other wire
connectivity schemes. The study of the various lightening arrestor
claims should yield some ideas for experiments in the areas of safety
and RF grounding, static electricity management, and equipment
protection from lightening strikes and power surges.
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Medicine & Health
research can also be considered to be related to amateur radio.
Experiments could be designed around the issues of RF safety, body
cavity absorption of radio signals, and tissue heating from radio
signals.
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Physics
is where we would like to see the most activity. With a little thought,
there would be a number of experiments that could be constructed around
Ohm's Law, Kirchoff's Law, or the concepts of resistance, impedance,
and reactance. More complex experiments
can be constructed around the application of these concepts to solve
real-world issues in amateur radio.
As can be seen with this brief discussion, the
physics
of radio
communication and the basic
science of
radio as it is used in communication
can easily encompass many of the categories
provided for the student to classify his or her project.
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Some More Ideas
for Projects
Keep
in mind that some of
the projects described in these links DO NOT meet the criteria for a
good science fair project that involves experimentation. However, with
a bit
of clever thinking, a
demonstration project can be turned into an experiment that does. CVARC
provides, without endorsement, these external links for your benefit;
if you know of an external link that would be appropriate here, please
let CVARC know..
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The ARRL
Technical Information Service page
shows the
breadth of what can be considered radio.
With some thought, any
number of Science Fair projects could be developed from the project
descriptions. (Some of the articles indexed here are viewable by ARRL
members only—if a student needs access to one of these, your
mentor will be able to assist.)
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The ARRL
Science Fair/Merit Badge Projects page
discusses some ideas for demonstration projects. Searching the ARRL
website for 'science fair' will yield some additional ideas.
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Any edition of the
ARRL Radio Handbook, or the ARRL
Antenna Book, will give the observant student a number of experimental
project ideas. These, and a number of other basic reference books, can
be borrowed from most libraries, or purchased from a number of
locations, including the ARRL On-Line Store.
It may be possible to borrow
some of these reference books from members of the CVARC, too.
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L. B. Cebik, W4RNL,
has written extensively on antenna
design
and theory; a number of articles
at his website could be converted
into Science Fair experiments with the proper experimental design.
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Julian Rubin lists a
number of radio related ideas at his
website: Radio & Wireless Science Fair
Projects; Radar & Sonar Science Fair
Projects; and Radio Circuits
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Ian Purdie, VK2TIP,
has a website
that lists a number of radio-related projects and tutorials, and
particularly provides some suggestions and hints
for Science Fair
projects. An intermediate student might want to visit VK2TIP's Crystal Radio Set Page
for some
ideas about using crystal radios in a Science Fair experiment.
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Two websites (Radio
Waves Below 22 KHz--Nature Radio Signals and Strange Emissions at Very
Low Frequency and Natural
Radio--Tune Into the Music of the Spheres)
discuss various very low frequency projects and investigations that the
advanced student could turn into a Science Fair project.
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A winning entry in
the 2006 Intel International Science
and Engineering Fair was based on investigating radio signals emanating
from the planet Jupiter. You can read about this project, as well as
other ideas for experiments, at Radio
Jove—Solar and Planetary Radio Astronomy for Schools.
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How to Do
an Experiment
There
are a number of
resources that describe the scientific
method and how to design
an experiment so that there is a
single independent variable
(what you change: the thing
that is changed from one trial to the next) and the measurement of a dependent
variable (what you measure: the
thing that is measured the same way
on each trial). A more involved discussion of experimental design
considers the use of statistics
to analyze the data.
This
next description of how
to craft an experiment comes by way of a science teacher who is also an
amateur radio operator.
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Science Fair
projects should promote experimentation. For example, pull a pendulum
back 5 degrees and let it swing 50 times, and find the average swing
time. Now pull it back 10 degrees, then 15, then 20, etc.
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Now, graph
"Period" of swing on the Y axis (what you measured) and "Angle of
release from vertical" (what you varied) on the X-axis. Then find a
mathematical relationship.
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Even more
repetition is encouraged, by doing this same experiment of 5 degrees
through 90 degrees, a total of 10 times, so you have 10 trials of the 5
degree swing. This makes the average (and standard deviation) more
tightly constrained.
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The problem
with radio, is that you'd like to vary something to at least 10
different values, and watch something respond.
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For example,
build an Inductor-Capacitor (L-C) circuit, and vary the capacitor
value, and measure the resonant frequency, and plot Frequency (what you
measured) against Capacitance (what you varied).
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Showing how
to put voice onto a laser light, shine it across the room, and get the
information off the light beam is very cool. And to understand the
science behind it is very powerful. But you always have to be thinking
how to vary something ~ 10 times that is fundamental to the experiment,
and then measure an output.
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When
[students] ask me for ideas, I tell them to look in their textbook at
homework problems. For example, in the electrical section, it might
say: "Suppose an L-C circuit has an inductor of 50 micro-Henrys and a
Capacitor with 27 pico-Farads. What is the resonant frequency of the
circuit?" Now, take that homework problem, and tweak one of the
parameters 10 times and call it a project.
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So, maybe
start right there. Physics books with electromagnetism have very little
pure-radio material. But lots of electro-magnetism. Possibly find a
college-freshman Electronics/Radio textbook, that has lots of homework
problems in it, and see what project ideas come nicely out of the
textbook into experiments, by simply varying one of the parameters.
That parameter is then graphed on the X axis, and the thing that is
measured is graphed on the Y axis.
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The reason
you repeat the pendulum experiment so many times is to get an average.
Science fair judges need to realize that when you design an electrical
circuit, and throw the switch, that the current reading of 1.23 amps,
is going to say 1.23 amps again, and again, and again, and again, and
again. That is the cool thing about electronic experiments - once they
work, the answer tends to be VERY consistent, making more trials
superfluous.
Your
teacher will have
his/her own way of explaining the design of experiments. This section
is intended to provide another description of the process of designing
and running experiments for the Science Fair. We recommend following
your teacher's suggestions if they differ greatly from the material
presented here.
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Notes
About Radio License Requirements
The
student performing
experiments in radio science should be aware of the following
information about the radio license required. More information can be
found starting at the ARRL's
Regulatory Information Branch
webpage.
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Many experiments can
be performed without transmission, and so do not need a license.
- Certain
experimentation can be accomplished with very low
power transmissions, so long as they do not interfere with other
devices or operators of radio equipment. (For more information, review
the FCC's
Part 15 rules in light of
sections 15.23 and 15.25).
- Under no
circumstances are transmissions permitted that
would interfere with radio frequency bands that are allocated to
specific uses or services.
- Any person
transmitting on the radio frequencies licensed
to amateur radio must have the appropriate class of license for that
frequency (see the FCC's
Part 97 rules). The student is
encouraged to
obtain his/her own amateur radio license.
- If the student can
not get his/her amateur radio license,
a mentoring ham may be available to supervise the student making the
transmissions as a third party using the mentoring ham's license. This
is a special circumstance, and the student will need to understand the
rules associated with this.
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Notes
About Safety
The
student that is
performing experiments in radio science should exercise appropriate
cautions related to the use of electricity and radio frequency
generating devices.
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Radio experiments can
be done quite safely. Your teacher, or ham mentor, will be able to
discuss basic safety concerns with you.
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Safety—Battery: Most types of experiments
likely to be performed by students for the Science Fair will be battery
operated and will not generate high levels of electrical voltage or
currents. Obviously, normal care should be exercised with recharging
batteries, or when operating devices that are plugged into the wall
outlet.
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Safety—Line Voltage: Some devices used
may be powered by the wall-outlet; normal operating precautions should
be followed when using these devices. If the Science Fair project
requires dissembly of such a device, or building a line-voltage
operated device, the student should be aware of rules for working
safely with these types of circuits. (One place for additional advice
in the this area of electrical safety is the Electrical
Safety excerpt from the ARRL
Antenna Book.)
- Radio Frequency (RF)
Exposure Safety: For the types of
experiments likely to be performed by students for the Science Fair,
there is probably no more RF exposure danger from the experimental
apparatus than from using a cellphone, a cordless telephone, or an
electric blanket. (More information can be found at the ARRL's
RF Exposure Safety
webpage—near the bottom is a nice summary
of RF Exposure safety guidelines.)
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Guidelines
for Judging Science Fair Entries
The following Judging Rubrics and Judging Guidelines
have been developed. These are made available so that the students may be aware of how to
best compete for the prizes.
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Parental
and Teacher Consent for Science Fair Project
Mentoring
The
student desiring
mentoring assistance from any amateur radio operator affiliated with
the Cumberland Valley Amateur Radio Club will be required to have
written permission of both the parent/guardian and the teacher before
CVARC members will be able to provide mentoring guidance, advice, or
assistance with equipment.
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Parental
& Teacher Consent for Cumberland Valley Amateur Radio Club
Mentoring
The student will need to print this form and have his/her
parent/guardian and teacher indicate their consent to the club's offer
of mentoring for a student's Science Fair project. Once completed, mail
it to the address shown on the form.
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Pictures
of the 2008 Entries
One project was awarded a Cumberland Valley Amateur Radio Club Award for Radio Excellance.
Kyle Zimmerman, a 7th grade student of Mr. Bryan Flickinger at Waynesboro Area Middle School,
had project #1416 about How to Make a Wireless Signal Stronger.
The project investigated using reflectors, made from aluminum foil, to
alter the signal strength of a WiFi access point.
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Pictures
of the 2007 Entries
One project was awarded a Cumberland Valley Amateur Radio Club Award for Radio Excellance.
Allison Sites, a 10th grade student of Mr. Mathern Mellot at Fannett-Metal High School,
had project #3203 about Microwave Radiation Safety.
The project's investigation into radio frequency radiation, while focused on
the microwave oven, touched on the broader issue of RF safety.
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Science
Fair Information—Local to International
You
can look at these
websites for more information about Science Fairs. The information
about the regional/national/international Science Fairs are provided
for your information—but don't be alarmed, the process used
by
CVARC to judge for its sponsored prizes will not be so rigorously
formalized.
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Franklin Science Council
:
this is the organization sponsoring the local Science Fair that CVARC
will be sponsoring prizes for. The web site discusses the science fair
from the entering student's perspective. It does not have specific
criteria for judges.
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Carlisle
Area Science Advisory Committee:
this
nearby local Science Fair organization has a Science
Fair Info page with some well
developed information for both
student's and judges alike. The judging rubrics used here seem to make a special effort
at objectivity; these forms can be accessed from their Science
Fair Info page.
By the
way, this is the governing
organization for the Science Fair
that students from the Trinity High School Amateur Radio Club N3THS
participate in.
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Lancaster
Newspapers Science & Engineering Fair:
this nearby Science Fair
has a well thought-out judging rubric
listed on its website.
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Capital
Area Science and Engineering Fair
is the regional level of Science
Fairs that includes the our local Science Fair, and is limited to
grades 7-12. As this regional Science Fair is affiliated with the
International Science and Engineering Fair, and so has somewhat
different, and in some cases, more stringent guidelines.
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International Science and Engineering Fair
is the national/international level of Science Fairs. Comprehensive
information is available to both entrants and judges, especially check
out the left-side menu items Info
for Judges and Forms/Documents
Library.
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