The ARRL Executive Committee has approved Education & Technology Program (ETP) station and progress grants to five schools. Two schools received ETP station grants at an estimated total of $3600, while three others already enrolled in the program received progress grants totaling $800.

Station grants will go to the Banning Lewis ranch Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and to Southport Elementary School in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Banning Lewis Academy wants to set up an Amateur Radio station at the school for a club formed within the past year. Eleven students already have become licensed and have participated in the ARRL School Club Roundup and other on-air activities using borrowed equipment. The school also offers a class in basic electronics and radio. Southport Elementary plans to set up an Amateur Radio station at the school, form a radio club, and integrate the ARRL wireless technology curriculum into the classroom.

Receiving progress grants were Forest Knolls Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland; Ankeny Centennial High School in Ankeny, Iowa, and South Hopkins Middle School in Nortonville, Kentucky. Forest Knolls requested funds for an additional antenna for a second school club station. Ankeny Centennial High School needed additional funds to purchase antenna supplies (wire and coaxial feed line) for a student a project to build portable antenna for Field Day and other activities. The school’s Amateur Radio club boasts some 30 active student members. South Hopkins Middle School sought a progress grant to fund the purchase of fox hunt transmitters and hand-held transceivers to conduct school Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF) activities with the support of local ham radio clubs.

The goal of the ARRL Education & Technology Program, directed by Education Services Manager Debra Johnson, K1DMJ, is to facilitate the integration of wireless technology into participating school curricula. The League provides curriculum development support, resource libraries, ham station equipment grants and progress grants, and ARRL Teachers Institute in-service training. The current — and expanding — count of ETP schools/teachers stands at 663.