(Oct. 28, 2009) -- On October 25, members of Wilson High's Amateur Radio team successfully passed their (more rigorous) General Class radio exams and are now licensed to work world-wide (shortwave) radio bands.
Below, Wilson High School’s David Strachan-Olsen, KI6UXJ, 2009-2010 AREC team captain, and Devon Day, KF6KEE, faculty advisor for the Amateur Radio Emergency Communications team, show their newly upgraded HAM tickets. Man in the middle is instructor Gordan West, WB6NOA.
Their previous licenses let them operate on mainly local and regional VHF bands using FM and repeaters, but their new licenses permit allow voice communications on HF bands with global reach (if they select the optimal frequency band for ionospheric conditions which constantly change, part of the radio challenge).
Ms. Day emails: "On the first try we got Japan! Yahoo! Our hope is to be able to do world wide emergency communications...This is so much fun."
Ms. Day says Mr. Strachan-Olsen plans to attend Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo next year where he will study engineering. He was given an internship at both Boeing (2008) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena (2009) partially because of his work in Amateur Radio. David also was the recent recipient of the Hal Nahmens Scholarship by the Amateur Radio Association of Long Beach.
Ms. Day says instructor West extended a scholarship for both Strachan-Olsen and Day because of their community work in emergency communications. [Gordon West, WB6NOA, was voted top Amateur Radio Operator in the nation in 2006 and is a Radio Club of America fellow and a recipient of the ARRL Instructor of the Year Award.]
The Wilson High School Amateur Radio Emergency Communications team plans to build a high frequency station at the school (accessing shortwave bands) to let students communicate with HAM operators all over the world.
