We’ve been attending the Fun Palace event at Ormskirk Library for several years now. Not only is it a great opportunity for the Quantum Technology Club to showcase what our members get up to at our meetings, but it also enables members of the public to get up close to modern technology and have a ‘play’.
Usually the first Saturday in October, several local technical, art, craft, and other special interest groups get together to let the public see what’s going on in the area, how they can get involved, and maybe learn a new skill.
Amazing the visitors at the Fun Palace
This year the Quantum Technology Club turned up with its latest project; the amazing 3D light dome that wowed visitors at the Liverpool MakeFest earlier in the summer. It took centre stage in Ormskirk Library too and attracted lots of very interested and intrigued visitors.
We occupied a lot of the exhibition space at the event as we also took along our venerable QuanTris blox game. This too generates lots on interest, not least because it’s very interactive. We have big plans for this exhibition piece over the coming year as it will be developed from a one-trick pony (all you can currently do is play blox on it) into a plug-in cartridge console – albeit scaled up several hundred percent. Well, our mantra is, “If it ain’t big – go home”. Watch this website for more news and developments on this project.
Mr Morse – everyone’s favourite
Some know him as Trevor, but we affectionately know him as Mr Morse. Once again, Trevor wowed folk by revealing that texting is not the only, or even original, form of short message service (SMS) that can be used to send messages around the world. He gave visitors the opportunity to use a Morse Key and spell out their name using Morse Code. As always, this is one of our most popular exhibits, especially with the younger visitors.
Doing a science – Watching the ionosphere change in real time
Finally, the amateur radio station chattered away delivering messages to other folk around the world without using the Internet. The ionosphere, several miles above us in the sky, was most definitely affecting transmissions and we were able to demonstrate this in real time to several interested folk. Now that global warming is firmly on the agenda, people’s interest in the sun is starting to peak and this gives us a great opportunity to show how we can experiment with what our nearest star throws at us. We’re looking forward to colonisation of the moon – that will surely get more people interested in amateur radio.
Ormskirk Library Fun Palace 2024 and Lancashire Day technoJAM 2023
We’ve been invited back for next year and we’re all looking forward to that very much. However, we’ll be back any Ormskirk Library before then for our Lancashire Day technoJAM on November 25th. So if you can’t wait for next year’s Fun Palace, come on over in November and pay us a visit. We look forward to seeing you.