Topic: Jamboree on the Air

[W1VFB]

To all the great participants of NEAR-Fest.

With the date change of this fall's NEAR-Fest, this great event happens to fall on the same weekend as the International Boy Scouts event of the Jamboree on the Air, which introduces amateur radio to Boy and Girl Scouts of ages from all over the world.

We as amateurs have a great opportunity here to provide a chance to Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to get on the air and communicate with other Scouts locally, regionally, nationally or even internationally.

With the gathering of amateurs, the likes of which many have never seen, we have a great opportunity to show and allow the youth of Scouting to see, hear and talk to others in our vast amateur family.

To all of the NEAR-Festers that set up radios to show off their wares, and I know there are many of you, and to those who set up their radios for the pleasure of being able to transmit from NEAR-Fest, we should look for those stations from around the U.S and the world (propagation allowing) and talk to those young people out there and show them that you can talk around the world or across the street.  Excite a youngster out there and return their CQ and introduce them to the wonderful world of amateur radio and encourage them to strive to get their ticket and to help our hobby grow.

Mr. Mike, if you read this, is there a way we could encourage Scouts to come in uniform so they could be identified as Scouts and allow them to work with the stations and hams at NEAR-Fest to get on the air.

I, myself, will be attending NEAR-Fest on Friday only to go home and on Saturday particpate with the Taunton Area Communications Group from Taunton , MA and the Whitman ARC from Whitman, MA at Camp Norse Boy Scout Camp in Kingston, MA at a Covered Wagon Cub Scout event.  We set up several 2 meter stations along with HF stations and we get the Cubs on the air.  Last year we had in excess of 145 Cubs on the air talking to other hams or other scouts.

This is the type of event that helps us hams promote our hobby.  All it takes is a station, a little time. 

I hope Mr. Mike and the entire NEAR-Fest family will at least, think about this event, and take the time and opportunity to get a youngster or Scout on the Air.

Thanks for listening.
See you at NEAR-Fest.
Greg
W1VFB

[W1VFB]

OK, we've had 67 people looking at this posting.  That's not too bad.  What we need is for you to let us know that you will try to get the Scouts and kids on the air if they are around your stations.  Obviously the conditions need to be good.  And unfortunately they haven't been what we would all like them to be but even across the fair grounds would support the purpose.  A kid will get excited when another person answers their call. They don't have to say too much, their name, age, hometown, and their rank if they are a Scout.  Most kids are very shy to the experience but with a little prodding they come around and will talk.  They fumble and studder a lot but they eventually get out the information.

I hope everyone out there that sets up a station at NEAR-Fest will try to get some Scouts and kids on the air.

Thanks again.
Greg
W1VFB
Catch ya!

[W1RC]

We (NEAR-Fest's High Command) think this is a very good opportunity for us to try to attract young people to our hobby and are actively working on getting a JOTA special events station up and running at Deerfield this October.  K1RV, the trustee of W1BSA has graciously allowed us to use the call at Deerfield. 

Joe, K1JEK has volunteered to set up a station for this purpose so it looks like NEAR-Fest will be participating in JOTA this year.

We need to get the word out to scoutmasters all over to let them know this is going to happen.  All young people (under 18) get in free anyways but anyone, including adults, wearing a legitimate Scout uniform will be admitted free.  C'mon guys I know ya!

73,

MisterMike

[K1WIZ]

This might be really out on a limb, but what about the possibility of a ARISS contact?  Sure there's a thrill of talking to others around the world, but it's totally a million times more exciting if a planned ARISS contact could be arranged for NearFest. 

For more info see: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/reference/radio/

- or -

http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/ariss/

In the days of ubiquitous interactive high speed wireless services, we as hams need to do more [to attract younger souls to the hobby] by raising the bar and pushing the envelope.  If I were a kid today, with internet connected cellphones, etc, a radio contact with someone on the ground would be "fair" as far as interest goes.  On the other hand, a chance to communicate with an astronaut would have some serious appeal - and yet it's all done with radio - no infrastructure.  I'm a big kid myself and at least this is what I can relate to as far as the appeal goes.  Surely since ISS passes over several times a day, there would be at least 1 or 2 communication windows open for an opportunity to get kids to make a contact such as this.  The other side of this coin, is that for such a contact of this level, it would surely be worthy of local media coverage and that could be golden for PR/outreach purposes to attract new blood to the fest, if not the hobby.

Just an idea...   

[BobK]

Hi There,
I am the Scoutmaster in Deerfield and would like to participate in any JOTA activities at NEAR-Fest this year. I just found out about it last night (Been at Deerfield Fair too much lately!) when I returned to the real world. One of our assistants, John KB1- OBH is also on board with this. Please let us know what we can do to help.
Bob KB1-LEL

[W1VFB]

Bob,
It's great to see that someone is stepping up.  I started this topic because I am involved with JOTA here in Mass.  The Taunton Area Communications Group is setting up a special event station at Camp Norse in Kingston Mass on Saturday while a Cub Scout Covered Wagon event is taking place.  We usually get about 100 to 150 cubs on the air talking to hams in the eastern Mass area. 

Mr. Mike is the man to get a hold of to see what has been established.  He states that K1JEK is setting up a station and that K1RV is allowing the use of the call sign W1BSA at the special event station.  I believe that Joe K1JEK is a local (to Deerfield) ham and has a 2 meter repeater in the area.

First get in touch with Mr. Mike and then he will be able to get you hooked up with the others that are involved. 

I will be at NEAR-Fest on Friday and I will look up the station and hopefully will meet you.

[n1iwv]

"Joe, K1JEK has volunteered to set up a station for this purpose so it looks like NEAR-Fest "

Is Joe / K1JEK out there???
K1JEK de N1IWV

[BobK]

Good deal,
I'll be there on Friday afternoon and Saturday with some scouts.
Bob

[W1VFB]

Well, the fall 2009 version of NEAR-Fest is now in the history books, as is the Jamboree on the Air.  I was at the Fest on Friday and I looked for the JOTA station but I couldn't find it.  Mind you I didn't look too hard but I still couldn't find it. Did anyone find the station??  I hope that it was on.

Anyway JOTA down in Mass. was a resounding success.  We were able to get 238 CUB SCOUTS on the air.  That's a hundred more than last year.

I'm glad that we had such a great reader views to the posting here on the Forum.  To me that's important.  Just getting the message out is what it's all about.
Once again, Mr. Mike and his crew did a fantastic job.  KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!

See you again in the spring!!!