University Park, Pa. — On Sept. 11, 2001, Nick Leghorn a young teen from New Rochelle, N.Y. developed an interest in Ham Radio. When cell phones and most other forms of communication in New York City were down, experts in amateur radio stepped in to help the city's communications and Leghorn was impressed. Today, Leghorn, a junior College of Information Sciences and Technology major focusing on security and risk analysis serves on the executive board of the Penn State Amateur Radio Club. The club will celebrate its 100th anniversary on Saturday, April 18, by holding an "open station day," where anyone can go to the station to have their own time on the air.
Amateur radio uses various types of radio communications equipment to reach people all around the world, wirelessly. Participants are able to support their communities in emergency and disaster communications.
"I’m a big emergency management guy and I just think this kind of communication is really cool," said Leghorn. "Basically you can talk to anyone in the world for free. Last week we spoke with a guy in Jamaica that was complaining about all the storms they've been hit with."
According to an article Leghorn found in an issue of the weekly student newspaper the State Collegian from Nov. 24, 1910, the wireless station that had already been in development for a while, placed State College in wireless connection with stations in Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Baltimore. A larger antenna installed later allowed communications to reach much further. The article said when the station was completed it would be the largest wireless station in any college in the country.
James Breakall, a professor of electrical engineering and an amateur radio hobbyist since the age of 12, advises the club and said it has had a lot of success in ham radio contests, placing in first or within the top five for many years.
"They take part in about 12 contests throughout the year — where stations around the world compete to see which one can talk to the most stations throughout the world in a limited time period, like 48 hours," he said. "It takes them at least a weekend or more to get the station ready for a contest including fixing and maintaining all of the equipment at the station, which is located on campus in the Wagner building."
Breakall was a member of the club as a student at Penn State from 1973 to1979. He rejoined in 1989 when he returned to the University as a faculty member. He said he has seen standard membership decrease with the advent of the Internet but he also has taken the opportunity to teach students in his first-year freshman seminar classes about ham radio. Most of them pass the licensing test — all operators are required to pass an FCC licensing exam displaying knowledge and understanding of key concepts -- so technically the club has about 160 members on campus. About 30 are active members.
Amateur radio, Breakall said, is appealing to those like Leghorn who are interested in emergency communications and those interested in electronics and emergency techniques. Breakall said it has a fraternal atmosphere to it and he has even traveled to Europe several times to meet people he has spoken with over the radio.
In addition to the open station, the club has additional plans for its centennial celebration.
"We also plan to bring the new D-STAR repeater online, a system that was a donation from iCom of America — one of the biggest vendors of radio equipment worldwide — and is a leading edge technology that we plan to implement here on campus," said Leghorn. "The next day, we've planned a Foxhunt, which is an exercise in direction finding with radio waves, it's extremely fun. Both days, we will be operating a 'special station' with the call sign K3PSU, making contacts with people all over the world, and even above it."