11/06/2008 | KE5HDF Cub Scout Pack 705 hosted our 3rd annual Jamboree on the air. Two Amateur Radio operators (HAMs) volunteered their day to tell what radio is about, how it works, what all we can do, and how amateurs helped during Hurricane Ike. There were demonstrations of Morse Code and text messaging by radio. Visitors talked with scouts in California, Illinois, Michigan, The Netherlands, and United Kingdom. One of the high points for me was hearing the Scouts in England describe their location. They were on a camping trip to Sherwood Forest outside the village of Nottingham!

KE5HDF (Ralph) talked to the boys and their parents about what HAM radio is and what we do. Since most of our boys are 1st to 3rd grade, we did not go too much into theory or propagation. But we did show them how we just have some wires in the air and how early signals were all Morse Code. The Tigers seemed to enjoy the Morse code table better than anything else. They did their names and we talked about how to build a practice key with clothes pins, aluminum foil, and a flashlight bulb.

All ages, including parents, listened intently as WB5VRC (Cliff) demonstrated PSK31 (text messaging) and Echolink voice communications. It seemed there was an epidemic of mic-fright among the boys, but not the moms and dads. One mom jumped in and had a nice QSO with a scout leader in Michigan using 2M over the local IRLP reflector.

Overall, we had about 30 people attend and made 12 contacts. We have already started making notes on how to make it better next year. Another pack held their first JOTA and we are talking about joining forces for 2009 to make it bigger and more exciting for the boys. -- KE5HDF