Transatlantic Friendship Power by Steam

Learning about technology isn't always what it seems. As a group of girls in England recently found out, technology can lead to something wonderfully personal....called friendship. Jeremy Boot G4NJH picks up the story from here.

The 11- and 12-year-old girls are called the STEAMettes, a name that's a nod to their shared interest in Science Technology Engineering, Art and Maths. For the past four years the Kent County youngsters have been guided by John Hislop G7OHO, a retired physics teacher and an ambassador in STEM learning. Most recently John has taught them such basics as soldering and the coding of a microbit computer they were going to use to send CW they'd learnt.

After Larry Olson W9INE saw a presentation by John and the STEAMettes at the QSO Today ham expo in August, Larry introduced them to Colorado teacher Ravi Davis, KF0FYL. Ravi has several newly licensed hams in her sixth-grade school who have also been coding microbits.

Since the STEAMettes have studied Digital Mobile Radio in preparation for their Foundation licence, they put their knowledge to use in a transatlantic QSO on October 29th via DMR. The Colorado students used radios loaned to them by the Estes Valley Amateur Radio Club. Ravi told the local newspaper that this was the first DX contact for her students. They talked about their schools, their lives and the differences in their respective communities. Suddenly, even with 7600 km between them, the students felt none of that distance at all.