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2019 World Jamboree — NA1WJ

Jim Wilson
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We’ve just started working with the 2019 World Jamboree leadership on the amateur radio activation. It will be a part of Centro Mundial and in turn part of Living in the 21st Century and Communications/Media. This broader area includes exhibits that support conservation, sustainability, ethics/faith/belief, STEM, vocations/avocations, and inclusion.

The amateur radio operation fits nicely with STEM, avocations or hobbies, and certainly serves as an entry point for vocations. You can see the early operational vision document at World Jamboree — NA1WJ. Our goals are to introduce the science, technology, fun, and magic of amateur radio operation to Scouts and Scout leaders from around the world. We’ll also serve as the amateur radio voice of the Jamboree via two-way radio contacts within the Jamboree and worldwide.

The current vision by and large sees a similar operation to the 2013/2017 USA National Jamborees with an extensive demonstration station, ARDF-Foxhunting, and special events that include satellite contacts, an International Space Station contact, balloon launches, as well as low-power portable activation at Garden Ground on the Summit property. Since the Radio Merit Badge doesn’t apply worldwide, we won’t offer that instruction.

Much of the equipment is in storage at the Summit. This includes antennas, cables, and more. We also hope to have Icom America transceivers on loan.

The chosen amateur radio call sign is NA1WJ, representing the first North American hosted World Jamboree. We would have liked to have WSJ as the last letters. But the USA’s FCC doesn’t allow three letters in a call sign for the NA prefix. They also don’t allow two numbers, such as 24 for the 24th World Scout Jamboree.

We did not feel that the K2BSA call sign would be suitable as the World Jamboree hosts are Scouts Canada, Scouts Mexico, and the Boy Scouts of America. The NA1WJ call sign seems more inclusive of this team effort for all of North America.

You can learn more about the World Jamboree at these links https://www.2019wsj.org and https://wsj2019.us  If you’re involved in Scouting and want to participate in the Jamboree, you can learn more at How BSA Members Can Participate in the 2019 World Scout Jamboree.

Stay tuned to learn more about this upcoming operation in July 2019.

December JOTA Newsletter Published — JOTA 2017 Results

Jim Wilson
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We’ve published the Jamboree on the Air December newsletter. You can find it and previous issues at this link http://mailchi.mp/0d0aba7e81b0/december-2017-jota-newsletter-including-results-from-this-years-event?e=2d792c1bb4

Better yet, subscribe at the window in the upper left corner of this website to see it in your inbox each time it’s published.

You can also see the 2017 JOTA USA report at http://k2bsa.net/jota-usa-reports/

Thanks to everyone who got on the air and who filed their reports.

 

2017 JOTA Report Winner — K4V

Jim Wilson
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Thanks to everyone who filed their JOTA Station Report. As promised, all the names were entered into a drawing and K4V was the winner of the Icom ID-51A Plus. Thank you Icom America for your continued support of amateur radio in Scouting.

K4V was on the air from Louisville, TN and the Great Smoky Mountain Council. They’ve shared a few photos of their operation along with a delightful video that captures the excitment of getting on the air during JOTA. Congratulations to George Shields and Stephen Carpenter of K4V for conducting a great Jamboree on the Air operation and in winning the HT for filing their station report.

K4V Jamboree on the Air Operation in 2017 from K2BSA on Vimeo.

We used RandomPicker for the drawing. Click on the seal of approval below for verification.

K4C 2017 JOTA Report

Jim Wilson
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This station report was provided by Rob Rousseau, KI4BKE, for the K4C operation in the Black River District of the Occoneechee Scout Council in North Carolina. It’s a great example of operating a top notch JOTA event and providing an excellent report.

Black River District JOTA 2017 Report

In late June, ARRL posted an article announcing the theme for the 60th Jamboree On The Air – “60 Years Connecting Scouts.” Rob Rousseau, KI4BKE, Cubmaster of Pack 66 realized this coincided with his District campout. First he checked with the campout organizers and they were interested in having a JOTA station. He contacted a couple of local Amateur Radio Clubs first to see if there was any interest in a JOTA station at the campout. Fortunately Brian Knox, KK4BK, President of the South Wake ARC responded positively. Another member, Chris Pickar, K4CLP, and Carl Rasmussen, KM4GDU, of Boy Scout Troop 320 also volunteered. In addition, YouTuber John Brier, KG4AKV of Space Comms, volunteered to do a special AMSAT satellite contact demostration during the event.

Be Prepared!

Rob met with Chris early on to start brainstorming on what to do, bring, etc. Both K2BSA.net and Scouting.org had calendars to follow which helped immensly. Chris had printed out the new ARRL posters for display – http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-releases-new-ham-radio-promotional-posters. Rob designed a QSL card and ordered JOTA patches through his Occoneechee Council Scout Shop. He also ordered several free brochures from the ARRL to handout. Chris also registered a special 1×1 callsign for the weekend, K4C for their Apex location. In addition, Chris also registered our JOTA station and received our JOTA ID (JID) – 6US89F. An on-site visit was made beforehand to get an idea of where to put equipment and antennas (and check for power!).

A few weeks before the event, local Gary Pearce, KN4AQ of Ham Radio Now, did a great episode (#347) of JOTA’s 60th anniversary – https://www.hamradionow.tv/episodes/2017/10/2/hrn-347-old-jota. Rob relayed this to his fellow operators and scouts to get an idea of what to expect and tips.

Day of Event:

Setup began at 8am and by 9am was ready for guests. Several groups came by first thing in the morning and kept our operators very busy. Brian, Chris and Carl ran radios while Rob did an introduction to radio and kept counts for the JOTA report. Pizza was delivered to the group during a much needed break for lunchtime. The 1:10pm satellite demo with AO-85 went really well with three contacts while several families and scouts watched with intense interest.

Suggestions:

  • Have a JOTA station at a Cub/Boy/Girl Scout campout.
  • Space out stations & antennas further apart if possible. Some bleed over was experienced.
  • Phone mode was more popular than Digital. The boys really enjoyed talking to someone.
  • Have a Check-in/Introduction table if possible. This will help with crowd control and with JOTA report. We had several large groups show up in the morning. If you have a couple of HF or VHF/UHF stations going, you can space the groups out among them.
  • Have lots of chairs available.
  • Have a local simplex talk-in frequency for Hams and Scouters with HTs.

Attendance:

132 Cub Scouts, 25 Boy Scouts, 3 Girl Scouts, 5 amateur radio operators, 15 visitors.

Here are a few additional links to help with your next Jamboree on the Air event.

JOTA Countdown — Planning guide including a complete calendar for your preparation.

JOTA Event Tips — Insight into planning, publicizing, and operating your JOTA station.

JOTA Station Reports Best Practices — Lots of insight on preparing your station report.

Radio Scouting Brochure — Download for printing a handy brochure explaining all the elements of amateur radio in Scouting.

Radio Scouting Quick Reference Card — Handy card for phonetics, Q-signals, conversation starters.

Radio Scouting Poster — Poster for use at any event to explain aspects of amateur radio in Scouting.

Station Operations — Recommendations for station operations gained at the K2BSA Jamboree station.

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