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#JOTAJOTI 2021 is this weekend!

William Stearns
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#JOTAJOTI 2021 is this weekend!

Jamboree on the Air and Jamboree on the Internet is this weekend, so be prepared!  Here’s a few tips from participants over the past few years:

  • If there are too many stations on or around the frequency, take that fancy circle knob on the radio and move the VFO away to find a clear frequency.
    • Official Frequencies such as 14.290 are really just references that point you to the upper end of the SSB section in the band.  Don’t rely on waiting your turn or possibly creating QRM, move up or down the band and find a clear spot to call “CQ JOTA”.
  • If the band conditions sour on HF, move to VHF or Digital Radio (D-Star, Echolink, M17, WIRES-X, DMR, etc).
    • While D-Star (REF033A) reflectors and Echolink (JOTA-365) ( channels are well known, some of the other digital modes aren’t quite as visible to knowing where to connect to.  Search your channel list for JOTA and you may find some in there like on Brandmeister where we see Global Channels for JOTA on 907 and 9071-9078.  Do you know of more, please share on social media with hashtags of #JOTAJOTI and #hamradio.  We try to keep our list up to date here.
  • If your scouts are having an event somewhere in town where you can setup a quick portable demonstration station, then load it up and head over!
    • Although you should have already planned this months ago, sometimes it’s fun to be spontaneous and just be present!
  • Most importantly, just have fun!
    • Even if no scouts show up, it’s a great time to get on the radio and help other stations show the magic of amateur radio to the youth!

We did publish the JOTA-JOTI newsletter that should have hit your inboxes today.  If you didn’t get a copy of it, you can check it out here.

K2BSA Callsign Requests Issue

William Stearns
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K2BSA Callsign Requests Issue

I just wanted to pass this note along to those that have been requesting callsigns.  The system has not been emailing the trustee, so the requests were not getting processed.  We will be going through the requests in the order in which they were entered into the system.  If your request was not answered, we sincerely apologize for not getting back to you.  We will continue to investigate the issue with the form submission.

K2BSA Camp Station Committee

William Stearns
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K2BSA Camp Station Committee

K2BSA is happy to announce the creation of the K2BSA Camp station committee. The purpose of the committee is to create a resource for the establishment of Camp based amateur radio stations.   The committee has created its mission statement and has defined what a camp station is as well as started developing the suggested steps in successfully building a camp station.  The goal of the committee is to grow the number of permanent camp based amateur radio stations as well as to make them a useful tool in promoting amateur radio to the scouts and help full fill their scouting requirement.  We also hope that this will help generate future licensed amateur radio operators.  For more information, please use our contact form.

Radio Merit Badge Numbers 2020

Jim Wilson
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Radio Merit Badge Numbers 2020

You can find the full 2020 listing of merit badge numbers at Bryan on Scouting – 2020 merit badge rankings: A list rewritten by the pandemic.

Radio Merit Badge came in ranked at 90 with 3,550 earned. That’s down by 36% from 2019 at 5,519. You can find a chart below with the numbers displayed for each year beginning in 1990. You can find the full history at Radio Merit Badge History.

While it’s disappointing to see the drop in numbers for 2020, it’s actually quite amazing considering the pandemic lockdowns.

Congratulations to all those who continued to bring the Radio Merit Badge to so many Scouts.

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