10/28/2007 | KZ4W JOTA in North West Alabama 2007

The Arrowhead District of the Greater Alabama Council of BSA held its Fall Camporee at Camp Westmoreland near Florence, AL (Google/maps for the location) on October 20, 2007. Earl Wells (KZ4W) of Troop 757 in Huntsville, Al and Gene Keys (WB4NLM) Arrowhead District Unit Commissioner were there to run a JOTA event as part the Camporee events. The theme for the weekend was Olympic Scouting and the contacts made that day reinforced the theme. Earl was working his ticket for Woodbadge and set up many Amateur Radio displays including interactive Morse code and Technician testing for the Scouts in attendance. Gene Keys brought his ICOM 718 and an inverted V dipole cut for 20 meters. Gene has been running JOTA stations since 1993 in conjunction with the annual Fall Camporee. He was also a Shift Supervisor for the 2001 National Jamboree K2BSA Ham Radio station.

Contacts were made with Germany, the Netherlands Antilles, Canada, and the Canary Islands, as well as other JOTA stations from California to New Jersey to the Florida Keys on 100W. There was a direct pipe to central New Jersey and several Scouts at both locations made introductions during the day. Earl also set up a 2M station to work the local repeaters. All of the Scouts had a great time and several spent a good part of their day at the JOTA station.

Camp Westmoreland is approaching it's 80th Year of continuous operation in 2008. The Camp was recently placed on the Register of Historic Places by the Alabama Historical Commission. In addition, it is one of the oldest continuously active Scout Camps in the United States.

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Chris Reno -- K6CAR