The Eisenhower Middle School Amateur Radio Club, KF5CRF took to the airwaves for the fall 2011 School Club Roundup, SCR.  The radio station is inside the art classroom of Clifton Harper, KE5YZB, for Monday and Tuesday of the contest week.  With Fall-Break starting on Wednesday, Harper needs to be creative to get and maintain student participation.  He resorts to the only honorable thing to do, bribe them with food!

Using Chile Dogs and Pizza for lunch, Harper keeps students coming to a local park located near the school during the Fall-Break for 3 days of the SCR contest!  Students are encouraged to come out, visit and learn more about amateur while being encouraged to "GET ON THE AIR".  The students are no strangers to this park.  Harper uses this park each Saturday to allow students more on-air time and more one on one tutoring.

Late Thursday afternoon the event was punctuated by a phone call from West Gulf Division director, David Woolweaver, K5RAV.  The news from the Director was super fantastic, Mr. Harper's ARRL School Equipment Grant request was approved!  David asked if it was possible for Harper join him at the West Gulf Division Conference in Ardmore, OK to make the announcement.  Harper was not able to commit and already knew this was a difficult request, but it was decided that if Harper goes, he wanted to bring students with him, and time was running out FAST!

With cool mornings and bright sunny skies the students participated for the last 3 days of the SCR from the Kid's Zone Park.  With two radio stations operating and two callsigns, students found plenty of on air opportunities.  The non-contest station was all over 10 meters with newly licensed 10 year old technician Marcos Bernier, KF5LLG hunting for DX and he found plenty.  With Ireland, Japan, South America and other DX stations, Marcos was having plenty of fun and sharing it with the students working the band with him!

It was great to share a moment with other control operators working in the background to keep things moving forward.  To all those great coaches working besides their students, keep up the great work, every team sounded fantastic!

With Friday being the last day, we found time to discuss ideas for the February 2012 contest and what we could do to expose more students to getting on the air for the 1st time.  FUN by all!