Today, the school held a meeting for all of the Wireless and Telecommunications Technology students. Wireless students from all years and semesters were invited to attend. Professor Ramdas, Professor Rector, and Professor McCulloch each gave little speeches about some of the career possibilities that would be available to students after they get their diplomas. Two students from the sixth semester gave a little presentation about some of the projects that they're working on, and a former graduate from Humber came in and talked about what he's been doing since he left school.
Included in this meeting was a presentation by my fellow classmates Gino, Paul, and myself. In a nutshell, we're attempting to form a club through the school, the Humber Telecom Club, which we hope will strengthen ties between Wireless students, regardless of what semester they're in. For instance, I know that when I started at Humber, I had no idea of what to expect in my program. I had no idea of what was expected of me. I thought it was working with cell phones. But in the time since then, I've realized that it's so much more than just cell phones. This program has introduced me to so many ideas and concepts that go even beyond the realm of electronics and telecommunications. I'm learning so much more than I thought I would. I'm learning self-confidence; the kind of confidence that can only come with hard work. As a new student, however, it would have been really nice to have had some to mentor me. Someone I could go to if I had questions about the program. That is going to be the focus of this club, should it actually come to fruition. We're hoping that we can have guest speakers from the industry come in to speak with the club members, too. Not only would something like that be really helpful in knowing what the industry is doing, but it's also a great way to make industry contacts. During this meeting, we managed to get a lot of signatures for our club. During our presentation, we also officially announced our project to the school. We talked a little bit about it, and we generated a lot of interest from not only the students, but also many of the professors who were also in attendance.
Today, we talked with Professor Rector about the condition of some of the equipment in the school. For instance, there is a Yagi-Uda antenna on the roof of the N building. (For anyone not from Humber, the N building is predominately used by the Electronics, Wireless, Computer Engineering, and Robotics students.) The problem is, first of all, that it's a stationary antenna. For the purposes of this project, we will need an antenna capable of being pointed in both azimuth and elevation. Secondly, apparently this antenna is designed for HF frequencies (between 3 MHz and 30 MHz), whereas we're going to need an antenna which is designed for VHF frequencies (30 MHz to 300 MHz). The frequencies that the space shuttle's radio operates on are:
Voice Downlink: 145.80 MHz
Voice Uplink: 145.20 MHz
Packet Uplink: 145.99 MHz
Voice Uplink: 145.20 MHz
Packet Uplink: 145.99 MHz
We learned today that there's a whip-antenna on top of the Yagi which is designed for VHF, but whether or not it will meet the specifications of this project is yet to be determined. Kelly, the gentleman who operates the electronics parts crib, will be forwarding the specifications of the antennas to Professor Rector, who will then advise us on what do next.
Things are starting to get really exciting now. It's just a matter of time until we can take this from the planning stage, and actually start getting down to work!
