10/20/2008 | KD0JBN Every fall the Pathfinder District of the Greater St Louis Area Council holds a district wide Camporee attended by approximately 300 boys from around 20 Troops. For the second year KD0JBN (Don Meyer) set up a JOTA station at the Camporee, at Baeumont Scout Reservation. Throughout the course of the Camporee we had around 30 Boy Scouts and WEBELOS stop by to see what was going on. We got 16 of the Boy Scouts on the air and handed out Radio Merit Badge cards and participation certificates to each of them. Although the camp is in a large valley that's tough to transmit out of, we were able to make several contact to the northeast, mostly into Connecticut and Massachusetts. The last group of boys to work on their merit badges and get on the air got a special treat when we worked a station in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.

I had a lot of positive feedback from some of the Scout Masters at our Camporee. One even told me he sent seven boys from his troop to work on getting the merit badge. The most encouraging part for me was having several of the Scouts ask what they need to do to get a license and a radio.

I would also like to give special thanks to KC0SDV (Cliff Rozar) who loaned me the generator to run the station and help with setting everything up, and to the boys and leaders of Troop 765 (my sons' troop) for allowing me to set-up at their campsite and helping me get the antenna up using a 15 foot spar as a mast (see the antenna picture to the left). -- KD0JBN