Wahkiakum students form radio club

You may be wondering what are those four new wires poking up from Wahkiakum High School. They are amateur radio communication antennas for the four radios installed in a cabinet in the Tech Lab.

Wahkiakum Amateur Radio Club (callsign: N7WAH) members and Northwest Aluminum Outfitters have donated over $3,000 in radio equipment and volunteered their time to install antennas and radio equipment to provide Wahkiakum students with an operational radio club. The club is also sponsoring the school club and staffing it so students can contact others around the world.

In their first meeting last Friday they made contacts with other amateurs in South Bend, Olympia, Nevada, California and British Columbia. The two in-state contacts were made using the UHF radio and the Beach-Net Repeater System, which is designed to aid in local area communications, and communications with Olympia in the case of a local disaster. The out-of-state contacts were made using the HF radio, which is designed to aid in communication outside of the local area in case of a local disaster.

Their next task working with the school district is to apply for a contact with the International Space Station. They can currently use their data repeater to talk with others using data modes as the ISS passes overhead, so they are now trying for a voice contact with the astronauts. To learn more about club activities, check their website at http://www.qsl.net/n7wah/index.html or contact Gordon at n7wah.club@gmail.com.