Don’t Crackle for Me, Argentina : School Club Holds International Dialogue

“Whiskey Bravo 6, this is San Jose, Costa Rica. It’s a beautiful day down here.”

The voice, from someone known only as Ray, crackled through the shortwave radio in Room 111 of Marston Middle School in Clairemont. Ray, who said he is a missionary who has been in Costa Rica for 22 years, described the economic situation there to Fred Noll’s sixth-grade class.

Talking to people in other countries and in the United States is a typical activity for Noll’s students, especially for the 10 who are regular members of the Ham Radio Club.

Hobby Made Practical

The club, which was started in January, meets every Wednesday to speak with people in countries as distant as Japan and New Zealand--and to learn geography and current affairs in the bargain.

“I like talking to people around the world,” said Ian Buchner, 12, a member of the club. “It’s great.”

Through the club, Noll has given his own childhood hobby a practical purpose. Using the ham radio as a motivator, he tries to make his students “better citizens of the world” by letting them learn firsthand about other cultures.

“I really do see a difference” in the students’ knowledge, Noll said. “Pedro (Nunez) has just really turned on to social studies. He brings in reports about the countries we are ‘visiting.’ ”

Noll said he knows of shortwave clubs similar to Marston’s in New York and Hawaii, but he is not aware of any others in the San Diego area created for the purpose of enhancing learning.

Jim Esterbrooks, a spokesman for the San Diego County Office of Education, said he is not aware of other clubs like Noll’s in San Diego schools, but added, “Sounds like a really good club, great for geography lessons.”

An Edge in Studies

Most of the students in the club said they feel as though they have been able to visit the countries they have made contact with, and that gives them an edge when they study history and geography, or when those countries are in the news.

“You learn about . . . different things and places . . . you couldn’t learn here,” said club member Mike Duggan, 12.

“It is a good experience to talk to somebody else and go visit them if you go” to their country, said Elizabeth Robles, also 12.

And Nunez, the 12-year-old Noll described as “turned on” by the club, said, “It is kind of fun to talk to people when you don’t know them.”

“The main goal I have . . . is “to broaden the knowledge the children have of the geography of the world, cultures and people, even languages--cultural literacy,” Noll said.

Most of the children said they would like to reach someone in China or the Soviet Union, and they have been keeping up with recent events in China and other parts of the world.

“I’d like to go to China to see if they (students) get what they want,” Nunez said.

Reception Varies

The class’ 200-watt radio, identified by the call letters WB6 MQD, has been able to reach such far-flung states as Hawaii, Virginia, Illinois, Wisconsin, Florida and Texas, as well as countries including Costa Rica, Argentina, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The quality of the reception depends on things such as sun spots and the sun’s path in the sky.

Before Noll got his license in 1963, he learned Morse code in his car on the way to work. Being able to transmit or receive at least five words a minute is one of the requirements for the license.

During days when transmissions are not possible, the club studies Morse code, and Noll said he hopes some students will be able to obtain their own licenses.

“At this level it is a little hard for them to grasp what’s going on, because sometimes it sounds like it’s next door to you,” Noll said. “I don’t think half of them believed that we were talking to someone around the world.”