During the week commencing 4th August 2014, a group of young women visited the Defence School of Aeronautical Engineering (DSAE) Cosford, as part of the ongoing “Women into Science and Engineering” (WISE) project.
One of the areas visited was the No: 1 Radio School (No: 1RS) which forms part of the Defence School of Communication and Information Systems (DSCIS) organisation. DSCIS, itself, is under the control of the Defence College of Technical Training (DCTT) which has overall responsibility for the education of personnel from all three Services in specialist engineering disciplines.
No: 1RS provides training for Trade Group (TG) 4 Information Communication Technology (ICT) technicians and also to future and existing Engineering Officers. Whilst training is provided for the maintenance of and operation of communication equipment, the emphasis is now geared to the delivery of Information Management and network enabled Services.
To provide both interest and practical experience, the women were split into two groups and were introduced to both the Radio and Radar training equipment (Labvolt Systems) as used by Service personnel undergoing training at No: 1RS.
In Radio Principles, they were set observational and manipulative tasks involving Amplitude Modulation (AM), making full use of test equipment to achieve and record the results. Their overall performance was most credible and they adapted well to the intricacies of the equipment and made full use of the time to ask many questions regarding Service engineering.
Within Radar Principles, the women performed measurements of return signals, using targets of different size and profiles and viewing the effects on a digital radar display. Once again, they demonstrated good cognitive and psycho-motive skills to achieve meaningful outcomes.
Post exercise, debrief of the group indicated that the experience had been both enjoyable and useful as it had provided a brief insight to the training that is delivered at No: 1RS and an indicator to foundation academic work that they would need to undertake for a career in Service Engineering. The Royal Air Force is a strong supporter of the WISE initiative and No: 1RS was delighted to provide this opportunity for possible future women engineers.
Notes:
Image DSCF0017: Radio Experiment. Exploring Amplitude Modulation
Image DSCF0068: Radar Experiment. Measuring Target Returns
References:
The Defence College of Technical Training (DCTT)
http://www.raf.mod.uk/no22traininggroup/organisation/dctt.cfm
The Defence School of Communications and Information Systems (DSCIS)
http://www.raf.mod.uk/no22traininggroup/organisation/dscis.cfm
Women into Science and Engineering (WISE)
http://www.wisecampaign.org.uk/