11/20/2007 | KQ4BH After six months of unsuccessfully searching for Radio Scouters to help with JOTA, my son and I headed off to Camp Coker in Society Hill, SC to present a one man JOTA for the Order of The Arrow encampment scheduled that weekend. As we began launching lines into the pine trees for the Carolina Windom, we were joined by two men and a Scout who offered to help. We were glad for it, and they helped us get the antenna raised. While setting up the HF station one of the men introduced his son as an Eagle Scout, a licensed ham who had been awarded something for 2006. Regrettably, with my ears tuned to the radio I only caught a bit of what was said. When they offered to bring their battery powered '857 and 20M dipole up from their campsite I said "Great" and in turn helped them get their antenna up over the building we were using for JOTA. So now we had two stations working SSB and CW. Greg was sure good on that key. My signal was okay, but I had to wait my turn with many contacts. By the end of the day I had logged a dozen contacts between our Scouts and others up and down the east coast, both on 20M and 40M. Greg had worked a number of stations including Italy. Activity began to fade and we had a two hour drive home so we packed it in and thanked our friends for their help.
The next day as I looked over the log I realized I didn't have Greg's call or his dad's name or call. Who were those great people who had appeared out of the woods? I turned to every Scout and Scouter that had seen us that day asking if they knew their names, but no luck. Then during the ARRL Sweepstakes I ran across N4MXP and Mark recognized my call and remembered the JOTA operation. Hey , I 've been looking everywhere for you! I responded. I quickly noted both his call and Greg's N3XL. Later on Google I found out that I had spent JOTA 2007 with Greg Davis N3XL, the 2006 Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Award winner, and his dad Mark N4MXP.
Ham radio sure makes it a small world, and I'll never forget the 50th Annual JOTA. -- KQ4BH