Dos Pueblos High School students interested in science and engineering can attend the brand new radio club on campus. The club meets on Wednesdays in S-01 and is looking for new members.
DPHS Radio Club President Malachi Cottrell (10) said he is interested in bringing younger people into the world of ameteur radio, or ham radio. Cottrell started his radio journey by learning Morse code, and he became interested in how it could be used. This led him to becoming a member of the Santa Barbara Ameteur Radio Club to learn more about radios.
“One of the things I noticed when I went to the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club meeting was that there were not a lot of young people,” Cottrell said. “Ham radio is so great because it allows you to learn about all sorts of different STEM topics, from electrical engineering to how propagation works, … and I wanted to share such a wonderful thing with people, who oftentimes just do not hear of it.”
The club is currently building and setting up a High Frequency antenna to increase their broadcasting range. Cottrell added that the club is focusing on learning how radios work and the mechanics behind them.
“It’s a great thing to learn about, even if amateur radio is not what you’re particularly interested in,” Cottrell said. “You can learn about electronics, programming, and encoding. It’s all STEM; it’s all things that would apply to any sort of career in that field that you’re interested in.”
According to the National Association for Amateur Radio, there are around 740 thousand licensed amateur radio operators in the United States, making radio an active form of communication. Additionally, the principles of radio technology still exist in smartphones.
“Why, if I hold my phone up, do I get a little bit of a better signal because of the frequencies that those devices are operating at?” Cottrell said. “And so, that’s one of the many applications … in a radio club meeting.”
Cottrell is working on getting grants to help fund some of the club’s projects. So far, the club has reached out to the Santa Barbara Education Foundation and is looking to apply for grants from the American Radio Relay League and Amateur Radio Digital Connections.
“We’ll look into doing that in the future, depending on the interest level,” Cottrell said. “And if a lot of people come by, then we’ll have more people interested, and we’ll have a better chance at getting those grants to be able to provide for all those interested amateurs.”
Cottrell shared that, while he has six to eight regular members, not everyone on the email list attends every meeting. He said if more students signed up and attended meetings, it would help the club grow. Cottrell added that students do not need previous radio experience to join the club.
“It’s a lot of new faces, which is great,” Cotrell said. “It’s always great to get more interested [and] younger hams. Again, I was saying there are a lot of older people in the hobby, so the more we can bring younger people in the more we can keep it strong.”
Cottrell said he hopes that he can get as many people as possible interested in amateur radio, so more people can join the club and learn together.
“I know it seems like I’m an expert, and I want to say I’m really not an expert,” Cotrell said. “I’m learning along with everyone else, and there’s so much you can learn about one thing … Some people just do digital radio communications, or just do Morse code. So, there’s so much to learn. I’m just scratching the surface, and hopefully, I can bring a bunch of people with me.”
