Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester. Enrollment limits are set by the faculty, but the suggested limit is 25.

Description: This is an evolution of previous offering of the “hands on ham radio” seminar. Have you ever wondered where party ballons that are released end up at? Have you ever wondered how walkie-talkies work? Have you ever wondered how GPS works? UC Berkeley offers two flavors of amateur radio seminars (EE39-this one, and EE84 – Fun with ham radio). Amateur radio (ham radio) is a popular hobby and service in which licensed Amateur Radio operators (hams) operate communications equipment. Although Amateur Radio operators get involved for many reasons, they all have in common a basic knowledge of radio technology and operating principles, and pass an examination for the FCC license to operate on radio frequencies known as the “Amateur Bands." These bands are radio frequencies reserved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for use by ham radio operators. The role of amateur radio has obviously changed with the presence of the internet. Remarkably, amateur radio today offers unique opportunities and capabilities due to its independence on commercial infrastructure. For example, it is a legal ground for hands-on experimenting with wireless communication technology and it allows communication in emergencies and from remote areas. What can you do as a ham? Talk to people (near and far) Build stuff (amps, sdr’s, antennas, receivers) Emergency communications (emcom) First person view (FPV) vehicles (drones) at much higher power Hit satellites, moon, meteors, airplanes (with radio waves! … not something else) Digital communication with Automatic Positioning and Reporting System, packet radio Use Repeaters covering Bay-Area, California and the United States' mesh networks In the seminar we will learn about ham radio and experience it. The main focus of the class would be towards technologies needed for tracking “party balloons” equipped with radios in the amateur radio frequencies. In past semesters, balloons released by the class reached Europe, Kazakhstan and Tibet. At the end of the semester we will release a tracker and will attempt to break our record! Students in the class are expected take a ham licensing exam (self study) and become licensed radio operators at the end. Each student will also get to keep a VHF/UHF handheld amateur radio at the end of the course.

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