Episode X: Identities Revealed!

I guess at this point in the project, you're saying to yourself, "This project is pretty awesome! I wonder who's hands I should be shaking."

My dear readers, today is your lucky day.

 

From left to right: Mr. Paul Je, Mr. Gino Cunti, Mr. Mark Rector, Mr. Patrick Neelin, and Mr. Kevin Luong.

Again, a million and one thank you's to Brenda Dube for her amazing photography!

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Tomorrow morning, we're all meeting up to start on the construction of our primary antenna. We're supposed to go on the roof, so let's all hope it doesn't rain.
See you tomorrow!

Episode IX: Presentation Time

Hello there, friends!

I'm sitting here in the computer lab, trying to study for my last two exams, and my mind keeps drifting back to First Contact. It amazes me how quickly this project has gained momentum. It's a great feeling, when people ask me about how the project is progressing.
Last Friday, in particular, was amazing.

In short, we hosted a presentation of this project for a few very important people, including the president of Humber College, Mr. John Davies, Associate Dean Mr. David Alcock, and Associate Dean Ms. Susan Krausz. It was, without a doubt, the best presentation I've ever been a part of. For those who are close to me, you'd know that I am not normally very good at public speaking. Maybe it was the suits. Maybe it was the giant carafe of coffee and donuts. Maybe it was the energy in the room. Whatever it was, we all put on a pretty excellent presentation.

I'd like to thank Melissa Neelin for helping us to prepare for the presentation, Brenda Dube for taking such amazing photos of the presentation, Mr. Rector for talking us up before we went on, and Mr. Ramdas for taping the presentation.

I'd also like to thank all the students, faculty, and members of the administration who attended, too!

Episode VIII: The Struggle Ends

Good day, everyone!

The last week has been pretty darn productive for Operation: First Contact.

Last Wednesday, on April 9th, we put on a presentation for a panel of students representing all the different programs at Humber. Our presentation went really well, and we got approved for some extra funding for the project. I'd like to thank the panel so much, because without their support, we'd have to resort to begging for spare change!

On that note, last night, we had a booth set up at a party set up by Humber Rez. While we didn't make a whole lot of money, we certainly made people aware of our project. My sister Melissa came up from Welland to give us a hand with everything, and we're all really thankful that she did! She's going to be starting at Humber next year, and she's going to be a welcome part of the Humber Telecom Club!

Tomorrow, assuming all goes according to schedule, we should be starting the assembly of our primary antenna. We ended up deciding that the Hy-Gain OSCAR-style Yagi was the very best antenna to suit the needs of our project. While we assemble it, we're going to be taking some primary measurements for the antenna we're designing. Over the summer, we'll be building our antenna. We'll also be spending a considerable amount of time testing, re-testing, and re-re-testing both antennas.

Now for some really big news!

Friday, we are going to be hosting a meeting for some of the most important people at Humber College. I'm not going to give away too many of the details just yet, but trust me when I say that it's going to be pretty exciting!

Check back here next week to see how it went!

Episode VII: Meetings and other fun stuff

After a short hiatus, I'm back! I apologize for my lack of updates. Between school and some of my personal family matters, the last month has been pretty crazy. In spite of all this, though, we've managed to stay fairly busy.

First up: I'd like to send my congratulations out to Gino, who completed a fairly extensive training program out in Mississauga and obtained his amateur radio license. You'll know Gino when you see him, because he's going to get all the clothing associated with being a ham. He'll be the guy wearing a really big baseball cap with VA3JUV printed on it. He'll be carrying around a handheld radio, speaking in the mumbo-jumbo language only true radio aficionados can understand. If you ask him to spell something, he'll use words instead of letters. He's just that cool!

Just as I wrote that, I got a text message from Gino saying that he just passed his advanced amateur radio exam, and that he's now qualified to build a transmitter. That guy, I tell you.

We've made some progress with First Contact in the last few weeks. After doing some more research, we've decided on using a Hygain Two-Metre Oscar antenna. It has a circular polarization, which will help to cut through the atmospheric conditions. The antenna itself shouldn't be more than $250, and Skyward Towers Inc. has given us a quote to mount the antenna once we purchase it. We're hoping to get the antenna soon, stick it on a temporary tripod so that we can play with it and learn about it. Then come May, we'll go up there and mount it on the tower.

A bit of an obstacle we're facing right now is finding a rotor which can manipulate both elevation and azimuth. More specifically, we're trying to find one that's decent yet cost effective. Personally, I like the idea of taking one of our team members and wrapping them in tin foil and pointing them at the space station.

Last Friday, we had a meeting with Professor Ramdas, Professor Oliver, and Professor Rector. We presented them with a pretty awesome Powerpoint presentation, and told them everything we've researched and planned. Then today, we had a meeting with Professor Rector about some soon-to-be-officially-announced news. While I can't really talk about it until it's officially announced, suffice it to say that things with this project are about to get really exciting very soon. I recommend checking back here soon to find out more details!

On that note, I shall bid all of you farewell for now. Have a great week.

Episode VI: The Struggle of the Antenna, Part Three

As promised, here are some pictures of the antenna tower we're hoping to work with.

Mr. Rector, if you're reading this, thank you very much for sending them!

This is the antenna tower on the top of Humber's N building, as seen from the J building. It doesn't look all that big from over here.

Here, though, you can see just how high the tower really is. I estimate it's about twenty feet high.

Here's the tower from another perspective. And yes, I'm giving the thumbs up!

Here's the base of the tower, with my foot being used as a reference as to the size of the base.

This is a really neat photo of how the Yagi, whip, and dipole antennas are connected to the tower.

Another shot of the top of the tower.