Amatuer Radio

Amateur Radio is a not-for-profit hobby shared by many people all over the world. I'm not really sure how I got into Ham radio...I grew up going to Hamfests with my dad, who hunts for radio vacuum tubes. I decided sometime aroung 9th grade that I wanted to get into the hobby, but didn't really know enough about it to get my license. When I got to Embry-Riddle, I joined the school's Amateur Radio Association, and the guys in the club helped me get my license. I became KC8NMS on December 15th, 1999 as a Technician class licensee. I have sinced upgraded to an Amateur Extra.
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The Embry-Riddle Amateur Radio Association's QSL Card	The QSL card ERARA sent out for the special event station held for the 2000 Daytona 500

In October of 2000, the ERARA held a Jamboree on the Air camporee. This is the official logo for our event.	My personal QSL card

The ERARA club shack, aka "MOD 1." We have several rooms inside MOD 1, where we store our gear.	Atop Mod 1, we have several antennae, including our impressive array used for satellite communications. The array is computer controlled, so it can be programmed to track satellites as they orbit the Earth.

Our satellite communications station. The computer controlls the rotor for the antenna, which allows us to track a satellite as it orbits into our line of site.	The club maintains a repeater, which lives atop the Winston Tower at the Daytona International Speedway. This is the antenna for the repeater, also mounted on top of the Winston Tower.

Tom, our club Treasurer and brilliant maintenance guy before he graduated, tests out the weather station that feeds weather information into the repeater. In the background, you can see the Speedway.	During ERAU basketball season, the Amateur Radio Association sponsors the blimp that flies around the fieldhouse during pregame and half time. This past year, we added an Amateur Television camera and transmitter to the blimp's gondola, allowing us to project bird's-eye-view images onto a screen at the back of the court for the crowd to watch.

Timmy shows a young fan how the blimp works	Tom and Paul watch the exciting basketball game

Tom and Sparky prepare the blimp for flight	Timmy shows two kids how the blimp gets pictures back to the television

The blimp was also equiped with a mechanism that could drop candy on the crowd. Here, Carrie, Tim, and Sparky are attaching paperclips to Tootsie Rolls so they could be dropped.	Operation Under Duress: During Jamboree on the Air, Sparky makes a contact via HF while eating lunch at the same time. Impressive. :)