BSA to Offer Amateur Radio Operator Rating Strip

[RememberSchiff]

I give the ARRL credit in trying to interest our iPhone, Facebook youth in amateur radio.

 

Last year, the ARRL helped the BSA released the Morse Code Interpreter strip (above left pocket) and this year the new Amateur Radio Operator strip (right sleeve) for any scout or scouter who holds a valid FCC-issued Amateur Radio license.

 

http://www.arrl.org/news/bsa-to-offer-amateur-radio-operator-rating-strip

 

More impressive than OMGWTF Internet Acronym Interpreter or Facebook Friend strips. I made that up as a joke, those don't exist do they?

 

[5yearscouter]

My husband and my almost 17 year old are both Ham radio operators. my almost 13 year hasn't pased his license test yet. They got into it in conjunction with my son's very first merit badge --radio--as a new boy scout, put on by a Ham Radio Explorer club at ScoutORama (scout fair) when my son was almost 11. They do some support for bicycle and foot races where the cell reception is non-existent; and were the "in case of emergency" plan on the troop's last canoe trip (down a canyon with no cell reception). They already requested those patches for their uniforms.

[DLister]

The Amateur Radio Operator rating strips are now available from National at http://www.scoutstuff.org/bsa/new-items/emb-amateur-radio-operator.html. I'm not sure yet if they've made it into the brick-and-mortar stores yet though. In case anyone's curious about the size, they're the same height at interpreter strips.

[SSScout]

Test test, CQ, CQ...