mrkstvns Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 (edited) This past weekend was BSA's annual Jamboree on the Air (JOTA). Did any of y'all participate? Story about this year's JOTA:https://www.ksby.com/news/local-news/northern-slo-county-boy-scouts-connect-with-scouts-overseas-via-radio-for-jota-joti-jamboree Edited October 21, 2019 by mrkstvns Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackdaws Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 Sadly no. This is something that I have been wanting to participate in for the last 6 years and for what ever reason it just never pans out or isn't that well advertised in my council. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karunamom3 Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 Yes! Our district made it a weekend camping program. We had 6 scouts complete the radio merit badge and 4 begin pioneering. We are in NJ and we connected to folks, some scouts, in Maine, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Canada and Germany. It was open to cubs, scouts and venturers. It was cold, but lots of fun! 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParkMan Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 11 minutes ago, karunamom3 said: Yes! Our district made it a weekend camping program. We had 6 scouts complete the radio merit badge and 4 begin pioneering. We are in NJ and we connected to folks, some scouts, in Maine, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Canada and Germany. It was open to cubs, scouts and venturers. It was cold, but lots of fun! I love the picture! As a Scout, I served as a Den Chief. The den leader was a big ham radio fan - he had all kinds of equipment. Every so often he'd break it out and we'd get to hear messages from around the world. I was a life long memory. You experience looks so much like that. Thanks for refreshing a wonderful memory! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrkstvns Posted October 22, 2019 Author Share Posted October 22, 2019 7 hours ago, karunamom3 said: Yes! Our district made it a weekend camping program. We had 6 scouts complete the radio merit badge and 4 begin pioneering. We are in NJ and we connected to folks, some scouts, in Maine, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Canada and Germany. It was open to cubs, scouts and venturers. It was cold, but lots of fun! This is really cool! I imagine most councils and districts could find a local radio club willing to come out to a scout activity with a load of radios the scouts could use to "talk to the world". Thanks for sharing! I loved the picture too! BTW: You can find amateur radio clubs in your area here: http://www.arrl.org/find-a-club Might be a handy thing to keep in mind for next fall... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clemlaw Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 On 10/21/2019 at 11:35 PM, karunamom3 said: and 4 begin pioneering Hmmm. That sounds like a good way to get a free tower. 🙂 We did JOTA at the North Star Scouting Museum in Minnesota, http://www.nssm.org as K0BSA. The management of the museum has recently undergone some changes, and I think that's why the program didn't get very well publicized this year, so the turnout was very low. On a positive note, though, we have a permanent antenna at the museum now, which should streamline future JOTA's and other events. In previous years, I've counseled Radio merit badge. This year, for a change of pace, I decided to do Signs, Signals, and Codes, instead. Six scouts completed it, including two girls, the first girls I've signed a blue card for. They all did very well on both Morse Code and Semaphore. 73, W0IS 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrkstvns Posted October 24, 2019 Author Share Posted October 24, 2019 (edited) Doing the JOTA could be a great opportunity to also work on Radio merit badge. Sounds like that was what was going on last weekend in northeastern Ohio where 3 local radio clubs helped scouts earn their merit badge. The story doesn't specifically mention JOTA, but it does say the boys communicated with scouts in other states who were "attending a jamboree". Sounds like quite the event! https://www.vindy.com/news/community-news/2019/10/boy-scouts-earn-radio-merit-badges-rapidly/ Edited October 24, 2019 by mrkstvns 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RememberSchiff Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 Jamboree on the Air 2019 Results report https://k2bsa.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Jamboree-On-the-Air-Report-2019-Final.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrkstvns Posted December 6, 2019 Author Share Posted December 6, 2019 22 hours ago, RememberSchiff said: Jamboree on the Air 2019 Results report https://k2bsa.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Jamboree-On-the-Air-Report-2019-Final.pdf I tend to view "reports" with a looming fear of impending boredom caused by figures, charts, and tables full of useless mumbo jumbo. The report you cited was nothing like that! It was entertaining and informative, full of real-life stories that showed how to make JOTA participation work in different scenarios. Useful stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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