The Wick High School Radio Club, callsign GM0WHS, has been running for over a year now. The club offers Wick High pupils the opportunity to sit their amateur radio qualifications and practical (on-air) activities. Our course revision happens as an evening class over Google Classroom and our practical activities usually happen on a Tuesday lunchtime and after school.

The school club has been very lucky to attract funding to allow us to buy a very good transceiver and temporary mast, allowing us to get on the air quickly. Having a high quality transceiver also means that our pupils are able to hear and talk to stations from all over  the world.

We are now in our second year of taking part in the worldwide Youth on the Air (YOTA) month. Over the course of the month the school club has used to special callsign GB24YOTA to make as many contacts as we can. On the 2nd of December we had many of our young operators have a go on the air. For many, this was their first time on the radio and has inspired them to take up the offer of being in the next cohort of Foundation students after Christmas.  It was a very busy day with 93 contacts made from all across Europe and even one in the USA!

On Sunday the 8th some of our qualified operators took part in a second YOTA day thanks to the Caithness Amateur Radio Society who kindly hosted us at their clubhouse. Having access to the clubhouse meant that we were able to operate multiple radios and at one point we had three operating, two on HF (high frequency) and one using digital voice (D-Star). Over the course of the day we made 153 contacts.

With the club now being active for over a year we have really established that there is an interest from our students in being involved in amateur radio. Getting on the air builds confidence, their ability to interact with others as well as reinforcing cross-curricular knowledge from the Science curriculum when we cover aspects like antenna design, propagation theory and electronics. We have seven qualified operators in the club now and another five wishing to take part in the Foundation course after Christmas.