JAMBOREE-ON-THE-AIR
AT
WEBELOS Woods 2011
QUIVIRA COUNCIL
October 15, 2011

White Buffalo District, Quivira Council held their Fall WEBELOS Woods at Camp Kanza during the Jamboree-on-the-Air (JOTA) weekend and invited local hams to participate.  WEBELOS Woods is a weekend camping adventure for 1st and 2nd year Webelos. It is held annually at Camp Kanza and is staffed by some of the top Boy Scout Troops from several Districts. Webelos will be introduced to several Boy Scouting skills along with just plain old fun activities. They will interact with the Boy Scouts to help prepare them for their own cross-over.  This is our sixth year supporting the scouts at WEBELOS Woods and this year Ron Cowan, ARRL Section Manager for KS again join us.  Camp Kanza is about 1 hour northwest of Wichita, KS.  The JOTA event was one of the positions in the WEBELOS Woods rotation.  Every scout had the opportunity to get an overview of Amateur Radio and talk on HF or VHF/UHF radios.  The event made 262 contacts with the Cub Scouts talking with other scouts and/or amateur radio operators.  We also had a demonstration of Slow Scan TV, PSK-31 and CW reception.  Every year the number of Cub Scouts that get on the radio increases.  Many of the scouts are returns from last year and they look forward to getting on the radio again.

WEBELOS Woods was setup up for seven 50 minutes sessions with about 50 Cubs each.  The event operated under the BEARS club call, KC0AHN.  The area was setup with 6 stations: overview discussion with the movie Amateur Radio Today; HF radio on a DX-LB Plus antenna for SSB; HF radio on a Hustler 6BTV, six band trap vertical used for PSK-31 contacts and CW (Morse Code) receive; HF 20M dipole for Slow Scan TV; 2 Meter/70cm Yagi pointed to Hutchinson, KS; 70cm radio pointing to Sterling, KS, which has a connection to the K-Link repeater net.  Every Cub who wished to talk on the radio had the opportunity to make a contact on at least one radio.

Some of our distance contacts were:
            San Diego, CA
            Lansing, MI
            Venezuela
            France on PSK-31
            We heard Japan
            Via PSK31, JOTA station K7RDG, Sierra Vista, Arizona
            And many others.

The station setup began at 12:00 PM on Friday, October 14, 2009.  WEBELOS Woods started at 9:00 AM October 15, 2009 and ended at 5:00 PM.  All the antennas came down and were packed in vehicles by 6:00 PM.  

Amateur Radio Participants

w0hgj              Harvey – event facilitator

n5gui               James - CW & PSK-31 Demo

aj7f                  Tim - Slow Scan HF

n7ngi               Diane - Slow Scan HF

kd0elb             Josh - Slow Scan HF and assisting scout

wa0rox                        Cliff  - 70cm on K-Link

kc0nxf             Dan - 70cm on K-Link

kb0dti              Ron - HF SSB

Needs a call     Patrick - HF SSB support

n0ld                 Randy - HF SSB

kd0hti              Brandon - 2M Hutchinson repeater

Needs a call     Mary - 2M Hutchinson repeater

kc0ifq              Dennis - Antenna and Ham Radio discussion

 

>And Many - Many of those wonderful amateur radio operators at the other end of the wire that provided the entertainment and education of the boys.

Thanks to the local repeaters and the many operators that helped make this a learning experience for the scouts.:

            Hutchinson Repeater, Hutchinson KS - 146.67
            K-Link at Sterling KS on 444.450

To do list for next year:

            1.  New building doesn't have coffee.  Bring coffee pot
            2.  Breakfast is very early - Bring more donuts