Every Tuesday, in room 301, Amateur Radio Club spends their lunch working on turning the niche hobby of amateur (“ham”) radio into an accessible and local reality for beginners. Education, through lessons and presentations during the club, is the first step to acquiring a ham radio license.
“During first semester, the club is mostly lessons about amateur radio because it is a licensed hobby and the goal for the first semester is to get everyone their licenses,” club co-president senior Petro Papahadjopoulos said.
According to The National Association for Amateur Radio, amateur radio is a licensed hobby that uses radio frequencies for recreation, experimentation, and providing emergency communications. Licensed operators are called “hams” and can communicate across the world and beyond to satellites. This extraterrestrial communication is the main attraction for Amateur Radio Club, Papahadjopolous said.
“I’m looking forward to more of the stuff we’re planning on doing in the second semester, like actually using ham radios. There’s plenty of stuff you can do. One of the big ones is contacting the ISS,” said club co-president senior Caleb Canada.
Papahadjopoulos said he was interested in amateur radio and, being the president, spread the word, leading many of the club members to join. He also promoted the club on Instagram, posting photos of radios throughout the building process.
“[The club] is really good,” club member senior Trenton Downing said. “Currently we’re learning how to get our radio licenses so we can do stuff with that next semester.”
Downing said that the licensing process involves online questions about radios, and that he’s excited to learn how radio works for second semester.
Aside from contacting the ISS, one of the biggest appeals for the club is building and engineering, Papahadjopolous said. Once members get their license, they can buy or build their equipment.
“It’s a lot of fun because you get to build a lot of your own gear,” Canada said.
With gear in tow, club members will be able to start contacting beyond Earth next semester.
“[In the] Second semester, club members are going to be doing amateur radio activities such as attempting to talk to the international space station,” Papahadjopoulos said. “Another activity [they] hope to accomplish is getting images of the Earth from satellites.”
The images are of the Earth from outer space, made available to licensed radio-users. According to the ISS National Laboratory, people can only receive these photos if they have an amateur radio license because amateur radio frequencies are legally regulated.
“We’ll be using our radios during lunch if we want to contact the ISS when they’re above the school at the right time,” Downing said
