A Maryland high school where students learning about professional radio have fallen in love with the amateur side of things.

There was electricity in the air - or perhaps it was electromagnetism - when high school students in Kent County, Maryland, participated in their first ARRL School Club Roundup last fall. With the support and some loaned equipment from the Kent Amateur Radio Society, K3ARS, the students logged contacts in the US and a number of others overseas. For them it was "a pivotal moment," the radio society president, Chris Cote, KE5NJ, told Newsline. He said it exceeded everyone's expectations.

Earlier this year, the sparks flew again, in a manner of speaking, during Winter Field Day. Some of the teens, who are involved with WKHS, Kent County High School's FM radio station, returned to experience once more what the amateur side of the medium can do - and just how far it can go - by calling CQ from the school parking lot with members of KARS.

Now even more students are along for the ride. With the help of Chris Cote and KARS, Chris Singleton, KE3MC, is guiding them on that journey -- one that the broadcast engineer took himself not so long ago when he was still a student at the school: Chris Singleton teaches the broadcasting course on the Eastern Shore, Maryland campus where he is also manager of the school's FM radio station. Along with Chris Cote, he is encouraging the students to study for their license and to set their sights a little higher. They're hoping to reapply for an astronaut contact through Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, crossing fingers that the second time will be the charm. If they were thrilled about working Moscow during last fall's roundup, imagine what a low Earth orbit QSO will feel like to them.

Source - ARNewsline