I am the new STEAMlab coordinator at the Montana Science Center in Bozeman, and have been a ham since 1990, AE7PJ. It has been a while since I have been to any W7ED meetings, but was fairly active as a non-voting member for a few years.

The Montana Science Center was formerly the Bozeman Children's Museum, and has recently rebranded and relocated to across Huffine from the mall. In the rebranding, one of our goals is to raise the average age of our customers, begin to target middle and high school students, and get them excited in all things technology related. In that effort, I feel that creating a ham station at the Science Center is perfectly in line with our vision.

When I was active with W7ED, one of the areas of focus was to attract the interest of younger hams. What better way, than to bring ham radio to where there are middle and high school students are, who already have expressed an interest in technology. However, I can not do it all myself. There is plenty of opportunity for the Gallatin Ham Radio Club to help! I know there are members who have built many more stations than I have, so I would greatly appreciate some consultation in planning and installing one when the time comes. Any hardware that could be donated to bolster the utility of the station would be fabulous. I also plan on providing license classes, and could use the help of your experienced instructors and VEs

My long term goal is to start a youth ham club at the Montana Science Center to participate in the various aspects of ham radio, both in the shack and in the field. I think W7ED would be a great Elmer club to help it get off the ground, and maintain a healthy relationship between the generations of hams.

Best regards,
Tim Schober
STEAMlab Coordinator
Montana Science Center