The Radio Waves Group normally meets on the 2nd and 4th Friday every month at The Sun Inn, Eastwood (upstairs) from 9.00 am – 12 noon.
Next meeting: Currently there are no plans to meet up.
Radio Waves held a Zoom meeting Friday February 26th 10 am continuing discussion
In the Age of AI
Radio Waves Meeting
After studying video clips about the subject we had a very interesting discussion on Artificial Intelligence. The discussion covered the advantages and disadvantages of using AI and decided that AI itself is just a tool. How it’s used can be the problem. Facial recognition technology can be used for good. Spotting terrorist suspects from thousands of pictures. Or it can be used to erode our freedoms as in parts of China at the moment. It was good to meet up again after all these months of lockdown
The contact for the group is Ray Dring on 01773 770138
The Radio Waves group tries to understand the modern world. From it’s history to the present day, the techniques, technology, engineering and legislation also it’s operating rules and regulations.
To do this in a non-technical way we use books, DVD’s and live videos streamed from the internet as well as getting our hand on equipment.
We are slowly working along a path that will enable members with no technical knowledge to understand how electricity and radio run our society.
If a particularly relevant item becomes current in the news we may examine that instead of the planned meeting, for example;
Following the acrimonious campaign by president Trump we decided to look at Wiretapping and other types of bugging. We showed how in 1917 we tapped the German undersea telegraph line to expose the German plan to foment a war between Mexico and America, thus bringing America into WW1 on our side. We then looked at one UK domestic and three other famous Cold War incidences.
Following President Trumps announcement of the rapid expansion of the US military immediately following his election, we looked into the history of the 125000 atomic weapons that have been built to date, In particular the 2421 atomic weapons that have been exploded, 526 of them in the atmosphere. Included in this was a video of China’s nuclear preparations.
Following the dreadful fire in Grenfell tower, which we did not examine directly, we looked at the systems that should protect us from such occurrences. In particular we looked at how gas, fuel oil, air conditioning and high and low voltage equipment should shut down safely. How did it spread with modern building techniques?
Following the need to protect the ozone layer some older equipment began using Propane or Butane as the operating gas. In addition there has been a considerable amount of counterfeit CE marked equipment bought in to the country including fuses, circuit breakers, and other electrical equipment. We looked at how such things would reduce safety in such a situation. The people in the tower were of the poorest strata and so were more likely to have cheap, old, poorly maintained or faulty equipment in possibly overcrowded rooms. Even so our systems should have protected them.
For further information about the group and/or current meetings please contact Ray.
The first meeting was on Friday 8th July 2016.
June 2020
The Radio Waves group decided that this Coronavirus thing would not stop us getting together so it was decided to get together using Zoom.
For those of you not familiar with Zoom, it is basically an app that enables several people to link together by phone, tablet or computer and have an “on-line” meeting. The app enables you to both see all the participants and have a chat together from the comfort of your own home.
So, on Friday 26th June at 10.30 am the link up with our Radio Waves gang commenced. Now, you would think that attendees of a group called Radio Waves would have the technical knowhow to perform this link up with ease. Not so! It took the group at least 15 minutes to get everyone linked in causing much hilarity in the process.
After not meeting for several months it was good to both hear and see everyone and we all contributed by telling all that we had been up to in the lock down. From cabinet refurbish to gardening and the rest, everyone had been keeping busy and most of all keeping both sane and safe.
It has been agreed that the meeting was such a success that we would repeat it soon, albeit with a more structured agenda – but without taking the fun out of it. To all you other groups out there that have yet to meet up, Zoom comes highly recommended so why don’t you give it a try? Roger Bacon
Radio Waves Archive 2017-19 | Eastwood and District u3a (eastwoodu3a.org)