On August, 11 1995 our club was asked to help an Orange County California based school the, "Arroyo Vista Elementary School" to establish their Ham Radio station. This was so the school might inspire their students education by allowing them to communicate with other parts of our country and world. It was deemed that this could be an exciting addition to their educational curriculum. The station installation also offered a communications resource to the school, and surrounding community, in times of natural disaster or emergency!

The school already owned a previously donated Medium Frequency/High Frequency (MF/HF) Single Sideband (SSB) transceiver for the short-wave bands, and also a 2 Meter Frequency Modulation (FM) transceiver for more local communication. They had no antenna for this station though, and sought out our assistance. This all came about since a child of Mitchell KC6SXY, one of our Directors, actually attended this school, and he knew of the principal's desires. Mitch donated the hardware materials for the construction of the antennas, and I whipped up a design.

Since the school had various aesthetic considerations or limitations on what the antenna would look like, and all of us wanted the school to have the best diverse installation possible, the antenna system posed some interesting perameters. What I came up with was a "home-brew" 2 Meter "Ground Plane" antenna, that also functioned as the "center insulator" for a multi-band arrangement of "Inverted V" HF antennas. The Ground Plane was constructed as a 1/4 wavelength radiator with three "counterpoise" radials. It snugly fit atop a 20 foot tall mast, and the "Inverted V" wires served as "guy lines" to keep the mast straight and erect.

With this arrangement the school could operate on all of the HF bands, as well as the 2 Meter Very High Frequency (VHF) band. In the picture where Bob K6BD is crouching, you can see the antenna's construction. It is also visible in four (4) of the other photographs. The antenna, when raised, resided on the patio cover above the school's lunch area. I wish we had a picture of its final appearance. I hope it will become an inspiration to a flock of young Hams, who can look up at its details as they eat lunch each day, and imagine the interesting places and persons they can use it to communicate!

In the photographs displayed you see our hardy antenna crew, and the school principal. Photo #1 shows from left to right, Steve N6ZUK, Bruce KE6MKZ, and the school's principle Dick Campbell. In photo number #2 I am shown seated, going over the antenna's details and planned appearance with Dick. We are sitting in the lunch area below where we installed the antenna.

Photo #1 Steve N6ZUK, Bruce KE6MZK, Dick Campbell	Photo #2 Bruce KE6MZK, Dick Campbell, John WA6BFH
Photo #3 Bob K6BD	Photo #4 Matt KE6ALM, Steve N6ZUK

In photo #3 Bob K6BD is shown climbing the ladder up to the roof top. It is both sad and funny to remember that Bob was showing better energy and resolve than the rest of us. Bob unfortunately became a "Silent Key" following a heart attack only several months after this photo was taken. In photo #4 Matt KE6ALM is showing some signs of the heat on this very hot day. Steve holds out a hand and cautions him about being careful not to fall. In photo #5 Bob inspects my handiwork while Steve looks up the length of the mast, and off to the right I size up how we will run the coaxial transmission lines. In photo #6 I am explaining to the school's principal how the antenna will appear, and in which directions the various wire antennas will be run, as he looks down at the details of the antenna's "hook-up". You can see a spool of copper antenna wire in Steve's hands. In photo #7 Dick is saying something like, "You think this thing will really work?". Seriously, he was quite pleased and appreciative of our efforts! Lastly, in photo #8, I am reeling out the other half of the dipole "Inverted V" that Steve has just taken off with in the other direction. We finished the installation about an hour later, and put the radios "on the air"!

Photo #5 Steve N6ZUK, Bob K6BD, John WA6BFH	Photo #6 Steve N6ZUK, John WA6BFH, Dick Campbell
Photo #7 Steve N6ZUK, John WA6BFH, Dick Campbell	Photo #8 John WA6BFH

Stop the presses! I was told, after version one of this article was written, that following our antenna installation, the school Ham Radio club licensed 11 new Hams!

This is only one such exercise that we planned for the education and inculcation of new Radio Amateurs introduction into our marvelously scientific hobby! We welcome the chance to do similar projects at other schools or science and youth centers. Kids are the heart of not only Ham Radio's future but, also the future of our rational scientific and technologic world!