NYC school's amateur radio club helps relay messages to and from Puerto Rico

Lea Medina operates a radio.
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/DNAInfo New York)

Most of Puerto Rico is still without power following Hurricane Maria, so it's difficult for people on the island to communicate with friends and family in the United States, but a group of radio-loving New York City teenagers is using their skills to pass along 25-word messages that are then displayed on large boards in the center of towns for residents to check out.

The amateur radio club at the Garden School in Queens started just last year, and it now has 20 members. They typically compete in contests but have gotten plenty of real-world experience since Maria devastated Puerto Rico last month. People can send an email to their station, K2GSG, and the students craft the "radiogram," or message, and send it. There are about 24 amateur radio operators in Puerto Rico working with law enforcement and first responders to relay radiograms, and messages are also being sent back from Puerto Rico to the station.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.