Welcome to my people.rit.edu website! I am a Third year Electrical Engineering student at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY. Engineering at RIT is a five year major with five quarters of coop experience. RIT gives each student with web space in which to use. This website is used to highlight some of my past and current projects. Many of them deal with Amateur Radio, a hobby I am very involved in. Other projects have been completed for class, technology and innovation festivals, or for other interests.
My interests reach broadly out in different directions. I am a musician who plays guitar in a semi-active band, mostly during the Summer while on break. Creativity is something that I am always enjoyed having. It is nice to step back from all the math and problem solving to relax to some great times with friends playing music. Photography is also starting to gain interest with me. Winter quarter 2008-2009 I enrolled into "Introduction To Photography for Non-Photo Majors" at RIT through the College of Imaging and Applied Sciences. It has been a great class that allows me to take a break from my engineering courses and relax. Allowing me to come back to my engineering courses refreshed and ready to dive into the work more effectively. I believe that some of the creativity makes its way into my engineering. Stepping back and looking at the problem, figuring out in a creative way how to most efficiently solve it. Sometimes the best route is not always through math or standard practices. Thinking "outside the box" often leads to creative solutions.
Athletics are a huge part of my life. While I was never a high school varsity athlete, I was the president of the mountain bike club. Since my freshman year of high school I have been a mountain bike rider. I focus more on cross country long distance style riding but am getting more involved in free ride and dirt jumping. My interest in bike and mechanics led to a job at a local bike shop. I perform all mechanical repairs to my bike. My current bike was built from the frame up by me, piece by piece. At RIT, I joined the RIT Crew team my first year and I was placed on the Novice team. RIT Crew is a Division III NCAA team which races in the Fall and Spring. Being on the crew team involves on average six days per week of practice for all three quarters (Fall, Winter, Spring). I am now on the Mens Varsity team and rowed in the Fall of 2008 in the Varsity Four, wining both gold and silver medals.
Amateur radio has been an important aspect of everyday life since high school. I was assigned the call sign KB1LQC by the FCC in September 2004 as a Technician class license holder. Within one year I upgraded to an amateur Extra class license holder within one year. My first contact was made with a homebuilt 7.121 MHz CW transmitter and a borrowed HF receiver. My favorite mode of contact is CW (Morse Code) which I am proficient at communicating with. I later upgraded to a Heathkit HW-101 tube transceiver which taught me a lot of what I know about vacuum tubes. I now use modern solid state radios but still am an active builder and designer of radio circuits. My brother and I Co-founded the Chelmsford High School Amateur Radio Club KB1NAY in 2006 which is still active and both of us still help with on the side. I am now deeply involved with K2GXT the RIT Amateur Radio Club. I served as the Secretary in 2007-2008 and as the Treasurer 2008-2009.
I recently helped create and launched the College Amateur Radio Club Association at CollegeARC. Check it out for current activities for college amateur radio club around the world. We also share relevant news and information. Our featured articles are a huge source of information about a variety of topics. You can also follow CollegeARC on Twitter and join the Facebook group by searching for CollegeARC on Facebook.