DMTC Shines Again at the 2nd Annual "Rock The School House"
April 2009

MECA competitors from around the area descended on DMTC for the 2nd annual "Rock The School House" car audio competition. The Mobile Electronics students from DMTC had been working hard on their two entries for months in hopes to add to Team DMTC's trophy collection.

The show started out with a visit from one of the premeir show cars in the southeast, the BMW M3 of Rusty Johnson. In addition to this visit, the show once again featured the expert judging of the professionals at Elite Audio.  When all the smoke had cleared, Team DMTC's Lexus had once again won its category in the SPL competition and the "SPL - Best of Show" award.


Although the team's new SQL Mustang project didn't bring home any hardware, many vauable lessons were learned for future competitons. Everyone in attendance had a great time while enjoying the music and fun that is the spirit of the Mobile Electronics Competition Association.

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Zachary Trojan Named 2008-2009 Student of the Year
April 2009

Every year, as the Mobie Electronics matures here at DMTC, it gets harder and harder to select a "Student of the Year" for the program. Many students excel both academically and in their hands-on project work, but eventually spring comes around and a decision must be made. This year one student went the extra mile in all areas of performance. 


Zachary Trojan is a second year student and currently enrolled in the "Advanced" class. During his entire time in the program, he has performed extremely well academically. This year, on top of all his academic success, he has taken the lead in work on our new project vehicle. Please join us in congratulating Zach when you see him at this year's MECA "Rock The School House"  competition at DMTC as he helps unveil our latest creation!

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Common Calculators From Generous Strangers!
February 2009

Thanks to the generosity of private citizens, matching funds from the Gates Foundation, and the "Donors Choose" organization, the Mobile Electronics program now has twenty matching calculators for classroom use. As the program's students are well aware, electronics is a very math intensive course. The use of calculators is almost a daily occurrence, some students even refer to it as their second math class! Along with this comes new functions and sequences on the calculator. Teaching these new concepts can be very difficult with multiple different calculator models being used.

But now the entire class can follow along as Mr. Lipp describes the process key by key. Hopefully this will reduce the stress of new subjects and increase overall class performance. Thanks again to "Donors Choose" and their contributors for their help and generosity.

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The Beast Demands More Power!
January 2009

In preperation for next year's MECA season, Team DMTC's 2002 Lexus RX300 (affectionately known as "The Beast" by team members) is under going some serious upgrades in our never ending quest to get louder! This project is a combined effort between our partners in the Auto Tech and Machine Tool programs right here at DMTC, as well as some high-powered equipment from a new friend.

The first and most ambitious step is an upgrade for the stock alternator. Our new friends from Powermaster supplied us with a 200A XSVOLT SPL Competition Alternator. The problem was that this model is not a "bolt-on" for the Lexus. Not a problem for the extended team here at DMTC. Our old friends in the Auto Tech program said they could make it work, but they would need some special help.

In steps the precision experts from DMTC's Machine Tool Technology program. After some serious engineering by the students from Auto Tech, it was concluded that the exsiting mounting bracket had to be modifed and new stand-offs had to be fabricated. Machine Tool students easily modifeid the bracket and fabricated new stand-offs from scrap aluminum stock. Nothing like a real world project to get the creative juices flowing.

The two final steps will be handled by this year's Mobile Electronics class. They will be installing new "XS Power" primary and secondary batteries, also from our friends at Powermaster, and reconstructing the amp rack to "wall-off" the back of the vehicle. These two modifications, along with the new alternator, will definitely help with this year's goal of qualifying for the  MECA nationals in Nashville this November.

Thanks to everyone involved in this project!

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Team DMTC's "The Beast" Named SC State Champ!
November 2008
Even though Team DMTC's 2002 Lexus RX300 did not score enough points to qualify for the MECA Nationals this year, it did have the highest year-end point total of any "Radical X" SPL vehicle in the state. Based on this standing, and the vehicle's participation in the SC State Finals at Elite Audio, the MECA's Commmisoner Steve Stern has named "The Beast" the official 2008 South Carolina State champion in the "Radical X2" SPL category.


With a year of MECA experience under our belt, our goal next year is to qualify and attend the MECA Nationals. Many improvements are underway for this vehicle, so we of course hope to post even higher SPL numbers. Thanks again to all our sponsors, (Kicker, Monster Cable, Tsunami, Boston Acoustics, Xstatic and Optima) for this vehicle. Thanks also go out to all the team members, past and present, that help make this project a reality!

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The 150db Club!
September 2008
As a warm-up for the upcoming MECA SC State Finals, Team DMTC traveled across town to see their good friends at Elite Audio who were hosting another competition in their "Show Off" series. Our 2000 Lexus RX300 SPL project vehicle, affectionaltely known as "The Beast" by team members,  did not disappoint us and officially broke the 150dB barrier. 


In addition to winning the Radical X-2 SPL category with a score of 150.2dB, once again the Lexus came home with the "SPL - Best in Show" award. Also returning to the lanes, was Team DMTC's very own Josh Heckel. Josh, who is a recent graduate and MECP certified, won his category in the SPL "Street" divison. Last but not least, our very own Mr. Lipp won the "Most Improved" award in the SQL competition.


Many thanks to the students that could attend. Their help and enthusiam makes competing not only exciting, but fun. And of course, thanks to our SPL sponsors - Kicker, Monster Cable, Tsunami, Boston Acoustics, Xstatic, and Optima - we could not do it with out you!

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NewYear, New Project, New Sponsors and an Old Friend
August 2008
Classes will begin soon here at the Daniel Morgan Technology Center, and with a new school year comes a new Team DMTC project car. Once again our sister program here at Daniel Morgan, Automotive Technology, has donated a beautiful vehicle for us to work on. As you can see below, it is a well maintained late model Ford Mustang.


This time we will be concentrating on Sound Quality, while continuing our tradition of sharp looking installs. With this new project, comes help from some new friends and the continued support of team's original sponsor. 

This project vehicle will feature a head unit courtesy of our new friends at Alpine Electronics. That head unit will be supplying signal to an awesome new five channel amp driving matching door speakers and subs provided by our newest friend, Memphis Car Audio. 

Just in case you were wondering who Team DMTC's original sponsor is, and how we are going to connect together all of the great euipment listed above, the answer is the same to both questions - Monster Cable. The great folks at Monster have supported us from the very beginning. To Monster, and all our great sponsors, thank you so much; we couldn't do it without you!