A Kent Union society, popular with School of Computing students, has attracted interest from the online technology community by building an inexpensive antenna that can tune into a range of frequencies including, weather balloons and aircraft transponders.
An article about TinkerSoc’s (The Tinkering Society) antenna, built from galvanized garden wire and connected to an inexpensive USB TV tuner, appeared on the popular tech website hackaday.com on Monday 28th January. The sudden volume of traffic to TinkerSoc’s site was so high that it caused it to temporarily crash.
TinkerSoc is the University of Kent’s engineering society, embracing all forms of technology, engineering and craft. It is for people who like to see the potential of technology and through experimentation come up with new applications, often beyond the original intended use. Although Tinkersoc is open to students from every discipline, it attracts many computer science students who are interested in using technology for fun, creativity and self-expression.
Daniel Knox, a PhD student at the School of Computing and president of TinkerSoc said: “We were amazed by how much interested the blog post generated. It is great that so many people from around the world share the same interest as our members and wanted to offer support.”
For more information on TinkerSoc visit http://tinkersoc.org/