About this episode

Mike Case W8MSC discusses the evolution of Parks on the Air and his journey in ham radio.

Mike Case W8MSC is one of the key figures behind Parks on the Air, helping transform a one-year, ARRL-sponsored park activation event into a lasting global program. Mike’s path into ham radio started later than most. Licensed in 2014 after a chance encounter reignited his technical curiosity, he brought a background in IT and a love for the outdoors. Field Day was the spark, but it wasn’t enough. He wanted more than a once-a-year experience. That search led him to National Parks on the Air (NPOTA) in 2016, and when that program sunset, Mike did not step away. Alongside Jason Johnston W3AAX, Thom Martin W8TAM, and others, he helped shape what came next. From a small Michigan-based effort to a national, and now international, platform, he was there building the backend, refining the rules, and testing ideas in real time. What began as a scrappy operation running on a server in a basement, built with a “maybe we’ll get 1,000 users” mindset, quickly took off. Mike and the team had to evolve fast, moving from a simple LAMP stack to a cloud-based microservices architecture. Along the way came unexpected challenges, from broken log formats to scaling pains and the complexity of global…

People in this episode

Host: Kevin Thomas

Guest: Mike Case W8MSC

Topics covered

• Parks on the Air
• ham radio
• community building
• technology evolution
• outdoor activities

Keywords

• Parks on the Air
• ham radio
• Mike Case
• community
• technology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Parks on the Air, ARRL, National Parks on the Air

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