SWAMPSCOTT — Students at Swampscott High School are connecting with operators in Germany, Italy, the Caribbean, and beyond without using a cellphone, a social media account, or even an internet connection. 

Through the school’s growing Ham Radio Club, students are learning how to set up antennas, track satellites, and communicate across the globe using technology that predates the digital age but still finds uses in modern technology, and for hobbyists like Brian Casey, a chemistry and environmental science teacher at the high school. 

Last school year, during a school-wide day of fun before Thanksgiving Break, Casey introduced a group of students to the hobby. 

“I brought in my ham radio set-up from home … and I had about five or six or seven students come up there and made a couple of contacts in Germany,” Casey said. “That kind of sparked some interest.” 

That interest quickly developed into a formal club. Casey said the group successfully applied to the Federal Communications Commission for a club license and was assigned the vanity call sign N1SHS, allowing students to operate under the school’s station. 

The new club currently has around seven active members, many of whom are also involved in the school’s robotics program. Casey said amateur radio offers students a blend of technology, engineering, communication, and problem-solving skills while exposing them to a broader community of operators with similar interests. 

“A lot of technology that goes into commercial radios and cellphones and satellites has come out of experimenting in amateur radio,” Casey said. “When we’re licensed, we have freedom to try new things, to make new antennas, to open up the radio and adjust things.” 

Students told committee members that one of the biggest draws has been the ability to communicate with people they otherwise never would have met. 

“We’ve been able to go in at lunches, and I’ve gone in and talked to two or three people from Germany and then just gone back along with my day,” 11th grader Kaden Mcdonald said. “It’s really cool.” 

10th grader Rafael Schwartz recalled making contact with an operator in northern Italy after school. 

“It was really amazing to have this opportunity to just, after school, always be able to come to this place where we could just communicate and make connections,” Schwarz said. “Just building community over long distances.” 

The club’s station, located in Casey’s classroom, includes equipment donated through a grant from the American Radio Relay League, the national association for amateur radio operators. Students have also built some of their own equipment, including antennas installed at the school. 

Beyond international conversations, members have participated in weather-reporting activities through the National Weather Service’s Skywarn program and experimented with amateur radio satellites, which require operators to track transmitters moving up to 17,000 miles per hour overhead. 

Casey said the club hopes to expand next year by incorporating amateur radio into science classes and helping students earn their own individual FCC licenses. 

During a club presentation at a recent School Committee meeting, school officials agreed that the amateur radio club set Swampscott High School apart from surrounding communities. 

“We’re the only high school around here that has this,” Superintendent Jason Calichman said. “If it’s going to be something that kids want, if it’s going to be the reason you want to come to school, we want to have it.” 

Casey said the long-term goal is for the club to become a lasting part of the school community. 

“We’ve got to leave a legacy,” he said. “At some point, I’m going to be gone from here too, so this has to carry on by itself.”