Published October 8, 2007
The upcoming Paris Texas Hamfest offers a community service project for about 15 North Lamar
High School students with an interest in starting a ham radio club on campus.
The group plans to help at the Paris Texas Hamfest this year. The annual local amateur radio club
event begins at 8 a.m. Saturday at the Coliseum at the Lamar County Fairgrounds.
A part of the requirements for speech class, these students need to complete at least three hours
of community service, then prepare a presentation — usually computer assisted — and give a
speech about their experience.
Marcy Annett, library clerk at North Lamar High School, helps speech teachers and students
coordinate their community service activities including elements of technology. Having the
students put together the presentation is part of the “push to use technology,” Annett said.
There are many jobs these students can perform during the amateur radio event. There are needs
for setting up, kitchen help, “talk in” (where traveling hams call on the radio and get directions),
directing traffic, assistance during amateur radio license testing and helping at the special event stations.
Students have had no formal introduction to ham radio.
“This event serves a two-fold purpose,” Annett said. “It gives them a community service project
and an introduction into ham radio.”
One of Annett’s long-term goals is to implement a ham radio club on campus. She recently took a
community response team class with ham radios being a topic.
“The technology took my breath away,” said Annett, who has since passed the exam and received
her technician level amateur radio license. She’s currently coordinating with the science instructor
to incorporate the club into the school.
“Ham radio is a good springboard for many areas of employment,” Annett said. The possibilities
cover a range of areas from electronic consumer product services, communications electronics
and servicing to avionics and telephony.
There are four speech classes offered at North Lamar High School, each one a semester long.
Students are always looking for projects.
Students can choose their own community service project, anything from mowing a neighbor's
lawn and cleaning the yard (as long as it isn’t for a relative), working at the library or reading
books to residents at a nursing home.
The students at the hamfest will be readily identifiable in their North Lamar High School shirts.
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