Check out the Ham Nation JOTA programme.

How about a a computer for $25 -$35 ???  That’s what the Raspberry Pi Foundation hopes will become a reality.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation’ is a UK registered charity (Registration Number 1129409) which exists to promote the study of computer science and related topics, especially at school level, and to put the fun back into learning computing.

It plans to develop, manufacture and distribute an ultra-low-cost computer, for use in teaching computer programming to children. It is anticipated that this computer will have many other applications both in the developed and the developing world.

The first product is about the size of a credit card, and is designed to plug into a TV or be combined with a touch screen for a low cost tablet. The expected price is in the region of $25- $35 for a fully-configured system.

Provisional specification
700MHz ARM11
128MB or 256MB of SDRAM
OpenGL ES 2.0
1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
Composite and HDMI video output
USB 2.0
SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot
General-purpose I/O
Optional integrated 2-port USB hub and 10/100 Ethernet controllerOpen software (Ubuntu, Iceweasel, KOffice, Python)

Provisional launch date is November 2011. For more information, check out the blog at http://www.raspberrypi.org/

We have just completed another very successful Thinking Day on the Air with the local Girl Guides at their South Newton Activity Centre.

Over the last two weeks the Radio Club members have helped the Girl Guides in Bishopton with some of the work required to gain their Communicators Badge.
The Guides learned about Morse Code and sent each other messages using the code.
They were also able to use Amateur Radio to send greetings messages.
As well as having a great time and lots of fun on the air, the Guides also completed a report on their visit to the Amateur Radio Station which they delivered back to the other members of their unit.
As usual the club will be manning a special event station for ‘Thinking Day on the Air’ and we look forward to meeting up again with the Bishopton Guides during that event.
See link on the right.