Calling Amateur Radio Operators
Although not a HAM Operator myself, I’ve got some good friends who have been involved in the sport for years, and I know they share many of the same goals of Scouting. Plus, JOTA/JOTI is an annual event for a number of my Scouts, and it would be GREAT to have something set up on a more permanent basis at our only council camp within our boundaries – OhDaKoTa! Maybe some of you guys can run with this?
Again, thanks to Bryan on Scouting for the article…
Amateur radio: Fun but not free.
That makes the recent sponsorship agreement between the Boy Scouts of America and Icom America, a world leader in the amateur radio market, such big news.
The deal makes Icom the exclusive amateur radio transceiver and repeater supplier for the 2013 National Scout Jamboree.
And even if you aren’t going to the jamboree, you can still benefit from this sponsorship.
That’s because Icom also agreed to loan out up to 10 stations for use by local councils beginning in 2012 and extending through 2015.
Local Scout councils can fill out this application (PDF) to receive one of two kinds of station loans:
- Development Loan Stations. This type of loan facilitates the development of a Radio Scouting program at the local Scout council and provides an opportunity to raise funds to acquire and support a long-term station installation. The duration of the loan is expected to be up to but not longer than 12 months.
- Event Loan Stations. This type of loan is meant to support special events at the local Scout council. This includes but is not limited to Radio merit badge workshops, ARRL Field Day and Kids Day, as well as Jamboree-on-the-Air.
Our thanks to Icom America, manufacturer of communications products for both land and sea.
Brian Cieslak:
July 15th, 2012 at 9:12 am
I am a ham radio operator and a merit badge counselor for Three harbours district. The radio club I belonge to has sposnored a few JOTA stations over the years and have had scouts drop in to make some contacts and earn the patch. Starting with this National Jamboree scouts who know the morse code can get an interpreters patch for there uniform.
I am also working on designing some some low cost radio orienteering equipment , ARDF or amatuer radio direction finding ( also called fox or snipe hunting) is becoming an international sport. A quick description..transmitters are hidden in a large are and scouts have to track them down, stamp a card. usually 3 to 5 transmitters are hidden. Its a race against the clock.
Lets not forget the radio merit badge..it can lead to a fun. life time hobby that lets you experiment with leading edge technology and science.
73,
Brian K9WIS
Member of the Boys Life Radio Club..
Dan Gross:
July 15th, 2012 at 9:35 pm
Hey Brian! While not a HAM myself, I have some really good friends who have been pretty involved with the sport too! It would be really great to put together a Radio Merit Badge session at an upcoming field day or other gathering – a great way to introduce new young people to HAM! The requirements certainly look very doable under the right tutor! http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Radio
Thanks for stopping in and saying hi on foxriverbsa.org!