Veteran’s Welcome Back

All of us here at Hamilton Tech thank you for your service to our country!  We have been serving Veteran’s like yourself  since 1970.  Combine your military experience with a great education to start a rewarding career.  We’d encourage you to visit our campus and take a closer look at the Programs we offer.  Check us out at www.hamiltontechcollege.edu , and visit our blog, Facebook and our Youtube channel.  Over the years many Veterans have chosen Hamilton Tech; come in and see how we can help you prepare for a new career.  Welcome back!  MC

The Illowa Council Boy Scouts began work on the new Robotics Merit Badge at Hamilton Tech on Saturday.  About 20 Scouts and 10 faculty, leaders and parents worked most of the day on Saturday in the first day of a 3 day Merit Badge class.  This Merit Badge is the latest added to the Boy Scouts.  Hamilton Tech is proud to have been selected as the first Robotics Training Center in the Illowa District. MC

Go here http://www.qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=574811 for a great article on the Festival of Trees Electronics Tree.  Thank You to Marlene Gantt, who writes for the Moline Dispatch, for the great story about the “Dancing Tree”.  The article appeared in the December 24th edition.  We are so glad you are enjoying the tree.  Thanks to all the Electronics students and faculty for creating this fun tree.  Scroll down for an entire blog article and pictures of both of the trees Hamilton Tech entered in the Festival of Trees this year.  MC

Hamilton Tech’s evening Electronics Engineering Technologies students hosted Andy Andresen from Cumulus Broadcasting last Monday night. Andy is the Regional Coordinator for Cumulus in Iowa as well as being one of 2 full time engineers in the state and sitting on the development committee for new products.

Cumulus Broadcasting is the 2nd largest broadcast company in America (Clear Channel is number one). They currently operate 24 stations in Iowa, 5 of which are in the Quad Cities. Andy is in charge of those five stations as well as five more in Dubuque. The five local stations include: Rock 104.9, Star 93.5, 97X,  B100, and True Oldies 1170.

Andy’s presentation included a breakdown of how music and DJ banter makes its way from the mic to your radio. In order for you to hear your favorite song on the radio, it must go through processors, compressors, the studio to transmitter link and finally be transmitted through the transmitter. It is this signal that your radio picks up and you hear. He was able to illustrate his points with pictures of the actual radio stations and transmitter stations he works with, offering the students a virtual tour of Dwyer and Michaels’ studio.

After a thorough explanation of how radio works, Andresen then went on to explain the changes in technology that have emerged and how they are affecting his job and the user’s radio listening experience. The first major change was in how information is  transmitted through the station. Where bulky cables with only 24 channels once ran through the building, the same result can be achieved with ethernet cable and a node device connected to a computer.  Antenna lights that once only lasted a year, requiring a treacherous climb up the tower to replace have been usurped by high intensity LEDs that can last up to 8 years. The final technological advance was one that Andy had a personal hand in developing.  Previously, when radio stations did remote broadcasting, there was a lot of equipment that had to be brought and setup– microphones, mixers, cd players, antennas, etc. Cumulus has developed an ipad application that can tap into the station’s computer system and broadcast remotely with nothing more than an ipod, microphone and an internet connection. The end audio result is clearer than the previous system and is super portable and user friendly. Currently the Quad Cities is the only market using the remote broadcast ipad app, but they are looking to expand to other markets.

Thank you Andy and Cumulus Broadcasting for coming in and sharing with our students.

Hamilton Tech is once again participating in the Quad City Arts’ Festival of Trees. Two trees were designed by students in the Medical Assisting and Electronics Engineering Technologies programs.

The tree designed by the EET program is called “Dancing Lights” and is located at Designer Tree spot #123. The design team was: Steve Hamer, Dave Spittler, Davie Hinkle, and Tim Edens.

The tree designed by the MA program is called “Give Peace a Chance” and is located at Designer Tree spot #126. The design team was Heather Jenkins, Linsey Lyons, Cindy Hickman, Setiva Kasal, Chris Boehne, Carmen Moreno, Kenshanna Henderson, Nolan Ragston, Melissa Franzen, Stephanie Sims, Melody Reed, Erica Johnson, Brie Robacker, Rebecca Chesling,  and Kyla Hamilton.

The Festival of Trees will be held November 18th-27th at the River Center, 136 E Third St; Davenport, IA

For more information on the Festival of Trees click here.

For more information on the programs at Hamilton Technical College click here

Medical Assisting Students and their tree

Electronics Engineering Technology Students' Tree

Medical Assistant Students' Tree

As part of our weeklong series highlighting Veteran’s and Hamilton in honor of Veteran’s Day on November 11, 2011 we highlight a program started by a student and instructor:

Hamilton Student Steve Oliver started helping his sister, Sarah Oliver,  find computers for the homeless veteran’s she worked with through her outreach center and through her work with the VA as something to pass the time. He started with computers that were donated by the community, erasing people’s personal information, making sure they worked and then helping set up computer banks where homeless veterans could come and access the internet.  Then, when he was in Joe Wesenberg’s 4th semester Computer Fundamentals class he proposed the idea to Joe of having the school donate its old computers to the cause. Joe was on board with the idea and Hamilton Technical College’s President Maryanne Hamilton offered to donate new monitors, keyboards, and computer mice to the cause.

As a technical school, there is a requirement for the computers that the school uses to be up to date and able to utilize the newest technology. This creates a turnover of computers that are still functional, they just don’t meet the requirements of the school; but, they do meet the needs of homeless and/or needy veterans. The computers Hamilton has provided allow veterans to use the internet to search for jobs, access VA resources, and connect with friends and family through email and social media. They also give them word processing capabilities to create a resume. Computers are distributed to both outreach centers, which provide a bank of computers with internet access for homeless veterans as well as to the individual homes of veterans who are unable to afford computers of their own.

Currently, Steve and Joe go through all of the old computers as they are cycled out of use at Hamilton and make sure that each computer going out is fully functional. They wipe the hard drives of anything extraneous or saved student work that might be on the computers. They are often able to piece together a working computer from several computers that are not working. Each computer is then given a brand new monitor, keyboard and mouse, provided by Maryanne Hamilton. So far the school has donated 10 computers, with plans to donate more as more computers are replaced on campus.

Steve Oliver graduates from the Electronics Engineering Technology program in 30 days and he is hoping the program will continue at Hamilton Technical College after he graduates. He has been impressed with how the program has grown from something he did on his own to pass time to something that can really have an impact on veterans in need in the area.

A group of electronics students toured KLJB Fox 18 studio this week.  They spend most of there time in the control room that houses all the electronic equipment that powers Fox 18.  As you can see in the photos, they also learned about the antennas and dishes that are a part of keeping the station on the air.  Thanks Fox 18 for giving us some insight into the operation of a  local TV station.  For more information about Hamilton Tech visit www.hamiltontechcollege.com .

Fields of Green

Steve’s class toured the John Deere Seeding Factory in Moline on Tuesday.  The plant was bigger then they expected and many students were surprised by this.  The factory builds a variety of planting and seeding equipment that is used primarily in North America.  For more information on the John Deere Company visit www.deere.com .

Hamilton Tech participates in Genesis Flu-Free Quad Cities

President Maryanne Hamilton and Director Mark Christy participated in the kick off event for Genesis Flu-Free Quad Cities at McKinley Elementary School in Davenport. Here is a link to the QC Times article http://qctimes.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/genesis-kicks-off-flu-free-campaign/article_d76a71a6-d97b-11e0-91b0-001cc4c03286.html and a link to more information at the Genesis site http://www.stelter.com/clients/pdf/Genesis%20Flu%20Free_5510.pdf. Hamilton Tech is a proud sponsor of Flu-Free QC at McKinley Elementary.

On September 7, 2011 a group of students from Tim Edens morning electronics class along with Larry Bradley, visited the VLBA radio telescope near North Liberty.  The students were able to see the control systems that capture the information received by the radio telescope.  As you can see in several of the photos taken on that day, they were able to climb up on the dish itself for an impressive view of the sheer size of the dish (82 feet in diameter) and the surrounding Coralville reservoir and country side.

The Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) comprises ten radio telescopes spanning 5,351 miles. It’s the world’s largest, sharpest dedicated telescope array. With an eye this sharp, you could be in Los Angeles and clearly read a street sign in New York City!

Astronomers use the continent-sized VLBA to zoom in on objects that shine brightly in radio waves, long-wavelength light that’s well below infrared on the spectrum. They observe blazars, quasars, black holes, and dying stars. They plot pulsars, exoplanets, and masers, and track spacecraft, asteroids, and planets.  More information is available at http://www.nrao.edu.