MONROE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — In this week's Here's to You Kid, we revisit a teenager who turned a hobby into a way of helping save lives.
The high school student is a Ham Radio Operator. 28/22 News re-introduces us to the teen and his role at the Monroe County Public Safety Center.
Samuel Thrall is not seated at a Pleasant Valley School desk where you would usually find him.
Instead, he is lending a hand at the Monroe County Public Safety Center.
The 14-year-old McMichaels teen can help behind the mic in the event of an emergency.
"So say a blizzard happened, we would be deployed to various Red Cross centers through the county to establish communications, and therefore, relay any needs that the stations might need," stated Thrall.
Samuel got there by passing three levels of the FCC amateur radio licensing exam.
He is now a member of the Eastern Pennsylvania Amateur Radio Association, and to think his personal passion for ham radio started quite by coincidence.
"I failed my swimming test at Boy Scout camp one year so I replaced it and I replaced it with the radio merit badge, and I took the radio merit badge and I got really into it," explained Thrall.
Teen produces podcast to spread positivityWhat he found fascinating was the science behind ham radio.
"It's a technology we use on a daily basis. Our phones are all powered by radio just with computers built into them."
Samuel says earning his certification took time, work, and dedication but he was up to the challenge.
"Especially at my age it was difficult as I hadn't had most of the math but it is a fun process and it's rewarding at the end when you get to play with, you know, these technologies and it's a fun experience and you meet a lot of people along the way."
He credits lessons learned from his high-tech hobby with helping him understand school subjects such as information transfer through radio waves.
"So that's something I can carry through, and a lot of the aspects in school I'm also using that from radio and a lot of the math, too."
It all adds up to what he hopes is turning this hobby one day into a career.
"I plan to go into telecommunications or something involving radio technology as that's just a field that interests me. It's very fun."
Samuel is also working toward several Eagle Scout awards. He says after he graduates high school in a few years, he would like to enroll in a military service academy.
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