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

KWQC Field Trip – Studio Tour

On Tuesday, January 24^th, the third and fourth semester AM Electronics students from Hamilton Tech were treated to a field trip hosted by Meteorologist Kevin Phelps, from KWQC TV in Davenport Ia.

Our first stop on the tour was at an equipment room where the portable cameras are stored and charged. Kevin explained that these portable cameras are used out in the field for live broadcasts. It was pointed out that today’s digital news cameras are much better quality while being smaller, lighter and much less expensive than their predecessors.

 Our next stop on the tour was at the weather desk where Meteorologist, Greg Dutra, was working on the days forecast. Greg explained how he uses the various computers to generate the weather forecast. He also showed us how he uses a computer to control the live Skycam.

We continued our tour and arrived at the master control and editing room which was loaded with racks of impressive looking electronic equipment. We were even allowed access to the rear of the equipment cabinets to see an incredible maze of complex wiring.

The last room we entered was the main studio which included the Paula Sands Live set where guest interviews are conducted. We also saw the kitchen set where Paula and her guests demonstrate cooking.  Another area of the studio was the weather desk. This area included a green screen backdrop which allows a weather map to be superimposed behind the meteorologist. We were all allowed creative freedom to pretend to be news reporters and weather forecasters. We found out that it isn’t as easy as it looks.

All of the employees that we encountered at KWQC studios were very friendly and helpful.  A special thank-you to Kevin Phelps for hosting the field trip, and allowing us to “play” in the studio.  Thanks Craig W for reporting!

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

Just down in the Advanced Electronics building and saw this Christmas Tree in the main entry.  The sign beside it said “Resurrection Tree”.  I did some checking and found out Tim’s class was going to start learning about the “Propeller Chip” which is a computer on a chip.  He thought it might be a great project for his class to bring the old tree back to life using the “Propeller Chip”.  They dug into the project and the “Resurrection Tree” is the result.  The sign says special thanks to Mark Seivers and Dustin Shaw.  The tree looks great!  Thanks to everyone who helped bring the old tree back to life. MC

Like the Smartboard in the electronics classroom? Have an extra remote for your Wii gaming system laying around? Why not make your own multi touch smart board that can be projected anywhere: on a wall, on a table. Maybe you could even make one for your favorite teacher. The setup also works to turn a LCD screen into a touch screen.  Watch this video and see how:

What you need to get started:

• Projector
• Wii Remote Controller ($25)
• LED Pen ($10+ pre-assembled / build custom)
• Bluetooth Adapter (~$10, various vendors)
• Presentation Software – Smoothboard ($29 for registered copy, demo free)
• Other considerations: mount for Wii Remote

For more information, check out the source

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.

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 .

Robins Industrial classes toured Vizient Manufacturing Solutions  in Bettendorf on August 15th.  Vizient Robotics manufactures robotic work cells for major manufacturing companies around the world.  It is a very modern facility that does all phases of the work cell creation from design to fabrication to programming and installation.  They also provide maintenance and repair services to their customers.  This is a great example of an amazing high tech company right here is the Quad Cities.  Hamilton Tech is proud to partner with them on locating employees with a high level of technical training.  To see examples of the work cells they create go to http://www.vizient.com .  Thank you Vizient, for the fantastic tour opportunity.

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.