10/19/2009 | K4YTZ I wanted to give a report on the Boy Scout "Jamboree on the Air" (JOTA) event we held at the York County Amateur Radio Society clubhouse (South Carolina - www.ycars.org). Had a good turn out as you can see from the picture. It went the full 3 hours but time seemed to whiz by so fast. They boys were very attentive, asked a lot of questions and were very engaged the entire time. I did a presentation on the different aspects of amateur radio and how it is used in emergency preparedness. Brian Dale - AD4XJ, gave a presentation on the science of radio such as wave length, frequency; and on radio safety. He also talked on the requirements for the Radio merit badge. Steve Kelly - WB4QNI, (see picture) brought in a display of different morse code keyers and a setup to let the boys see, touch and feel morse code. After this we went into the radio room where we had two stations setup. Brian showed them some digital modes such as SlowScanTV and PSK31. We then set them up with contacts on various bands using the club callsign, K4YTZ. I was on the UHF/VHF bands and Brian was on HF. Each boy had a "log book" with them and they filled out information about each of their contacts. Patches and certificates were provided for their participation.

In terms of getting new HAM's, yes! Brian and I are meeting with them again in December to do their Radio merit badge, and again in March. I will be teaching a class for them to get their technician tickets. (including their Dad's!)

Brent Case -- K4BSC