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JOTA 2007

12/08/2007 | W3S W3S 50th Annual JOTA Event

Cradle Of Liberty Council Cub Scout Pack 260 was very happy to sponsor a Jamboree On The Air event this year for Scouting units in our local area.

A total of 68 Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Boy Scouts took part in the event which was held at Amateur Radio Station N3NR in Glen Mills, PA on Saturday, October 20th. Participants came from units located in Chester and Delaware County Pennsylvania, as well as New Castle County Delaware. Units participating came from the Cradle of Liberty, Chester County, and Delmarva Councils of BSA, as well as Girl Scouts from the Garnet Valley Service Unit of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania Council.

We had started planning this event in August and I, in particular, was very surprised at how well the event ended up following the original plan. This being the 50th JOTA we wanted to really expand the event beyond the traditional get-on-the-air operation. So, we planned several other activities to demonstrate the breadth of activities that Amateur Radio covers. The overarching plan was to keep the Scouts moving. Cub Scouts, in particular, are very easy to lose if you dont keep things fast paced enough for them. With that goal in mind the general operating plan was to have units come to the station and participate in an hour and a half program. The units would be split up and rotated through the various activities at 30 minute intervals. The activities would include getting on the air, kit building, and demonstrations/games.

On the Air Activity

For the event we had a total of four stations in operation covering 40 meters, 20 meters, 17 meters, and 2 meters. We were granted use of the W3S special event callsign for JOTA this year. Every Scout who attended got a chance to speak on the air at one of the four operating positions that were setup for the day. Scouts were successful in making contact and talking with other JOTA stations in the United Kingdom, the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean, and many stations throughout the United States and Canada. In addition, the Scouts got to hear contacts with other stations through out the world, including stations in the Ukraine, Senegal, Portugal, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic. Some of the Scouts were also successful in making contact with stations in the Laredo, Texas area using an IRLP link via the K3MN repeater.

The operating mode was primarily voice (SSB and FM), although we actually had a demand from some of the Scouts to hear a CW contact. Of course, we were so happy to hear someone actually request CW that we obliged the request immediately!

Kit Building

My cohort in planning many of these activites was Joe Everhart, N2CX. Many Amateurs may recognize Joe as being one of the most well known QRP technical sources in the US. I cannot thank him enough for all the help he gave to me to make this event happen.

Every Scout was given an electronic kit to build. The kit building activity was overseen by Joe, N2CX. Scouts in grades 4 and above got a chance to build The Cricket kit as part of their time at the event. The Cricket utilizes a PIC microprocessor to sense temperature and then drive a speaker to make a cricket-like chirping sound. The kit originated from W1REX of QRPme (www.qrp.e.com). Joe adapted the original circuit board kit to utilize solderless perf board instead to ease contstruction for the kids. An article that gives the details on this implementation of The Cricket is due to be posted on the NJQRP website (www.njqrp.org).

Scouts in grades 3 and below were given a Crystal Radio kit to take home to assemble and experiment with. We had originally planned to have the Scouts assemble the kit at the event, but we were surprised to find that the kit that was ordered for the event required the main tuning coil to be hand wound. Not a very easy thing to do in 30 minutes!

Demonstrations and Games

Throughout the day Scouts were shown a demonstration of Amateur Radio Emergency Communications by Bob Wilson, W3BIG, who is a member of the Delaware County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (DCARES). In addition to providing the equipment for the 17 meter station, Bob also gave an overview of other capabilities that can be deployed by DCARES in the event of an emergency. Concord Township Fire Marshal and Emergency Management Coordinator Fred Field, N3OFR, who is also a member of DCARES, also spoke to the Scouts regarding Emergency Communications and preparedness.

The activity the Scouts all agreed they enjoyed the most was the Hidden Transmitter Hunting Game. We wanted to run a foxhunt, but decided that a full fledged VHF-based foxhunt was probably inviting trouble. So instead, Joe, N2CX, came up with a mini flea-power AM BCB transmitter design. Joe built three of the transmitters in small black boxes that could be easily hid. Each transmitter was keyed by a PIC, and each transmitter was programmed with a different message: BSA, GSA, and CUB. The transmit frequencies were spread out across the AM BC band on frequencies that were not allocated to a station in our area. The Scouts were given the challenge of finding one of the hidden transmitters using a basic transistor radio that was pretuned to one of the transmitter frequencies. In every case, after finding one transmitter, the Scouts asked to trade receivers and go try to find another one!

Thanks To Our Volunteers and Sponsors

The event was primarily paid for by donations from several local institutions including: The Philadelphia Section of IEEE ( www.ieeephiladelphia.org ), Frankford Radio Club ( www.gofrc.org ), Marple Newtown Amateur Radio Club ( www.mnarc.org ), Delaware County Amateur Radio Emergency Service ( www.delcoares.org ), American QRP Club/New Jersey QRP Club ( www.amqrp.org or www.njqrp.org ), and DRS Technologies C3 Systems business unit ( www.drs.com ).

In addition, we would also like to thank the volunteers who helped make this event possible: from the Philadelphia Section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Dr. Denis Silage (K3DS); from the American QRP Club/New Jersey QRP Club, Joe Everhart (N2CX); from the Delaware County Amateur Radio Service, Fred Field (N3OFR) and Bob Wilson (W3BIG); from Frankford Radio Club, Art Hitchens (N3DXX), Brian Kelly (W3RV), Mike Moreken (AB2IO), Mark Smith (N2MR), and Al Zimmerman (K3WGR). -- N3NR


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