Fantastic results on Sunday, July 21. The K2BSA demonstration station saw 531 Scouts, Scouters, and visitors go through the station. Of course, the frequent rain showers pushed a few people into our tent and we took advantage of the opportunity to introduce them to amateur radio!

The Radio Merit Badge workshops awarded the badge to 43 Scouts. To date, 248 Scouts have earned the badge at the Jamboree. ARDF-Foxhunting saw 22 Scouts on the trails hunting for hidden transmitters. Pretty good results for a very rainy day.

We have a high altitude balloon launch today that you can follow here. It is planned to launch around 10:30 AM Eastern, 1430 UTC. We also have an amateur radio license testing session planned for 7 PM this evening.

Tomorrow is the last day of the Jamboree. We’re getting pretty tired but delighted that we could serve Scouting and amateur radio in this fabulous new location for the Jamboree.

Saturday, July 20, was simultaneously a tremendously busy day and a light day in the demonstration station. The International Space Station contact hoopla started around 10 AM as the selected Scouts arrived. Plus, we had a high-altitude balloon launch from the station around 10:15 AM. The show for the ISS contact started just after 11 AM with the contact happening at 11:34 AM. It was a great contact with Luca Parmitano of the Italian Air Force and the European Space Agency with just a few moments of signal loss. All 10 Scouts got in a question and a few were able to ask a second question. At the after event press conference with Jamboree Hometown News it was delightful to hear the Scouts tell about their experience. A highlight was Keenan who earned the Radio Merit Badge, passed the Technician license exam, and made his first semi-official contact as a license amateur radio operator with the ISS! Overall, the demonstration station supported roughly 65 Scouts and several hundred visitors for the ISS contact. We are planning to post the audio recording, video, and photos, at some point.

ARDF-Foxhunting had just 10 Scouts come through but several leaders and staff members came by to investigate the activity for use in their troops. Lots of interest from the orienteering community.

The Radio Merit Badge workshops continued at their capacity with 45 Scouts earning the badge. We went to an every half-hour schedule in order to run sufficient workshops prior to the start of the Jamboree Big Show in the nearby Summit Stadium. Scouts started filling the stadium at 1 pm and the show started at 4 PM – this was early due to an expected thunderstorm in the evening.

Given the other activities underway, we were pretty busy. We also handed out quite a few contacts to stations looking for a K2BSA QSL.

Thanks to everyone that got on the air to help us out with Scout demonstrations.

We had a good day on Friday, July 19. However, the station was closed twice due to thunderstorms moving through the area. That did make for a high volume of traffic, but only for shelter from the rain. Even with all that happening, and the propagation challenges, we logged 160 QSOs and conducted demonstrations for 327 Scouts. That brings our total to 1,388 so far.

Radio Merit Badge workshops continued through the thunderstorms, with instructors raising their voices to be heard over the thunder! Forty seven Scouts completed the requirements.

License testing resulted in 5 new Technician licenses, 1 new General license, and 2 upgrades to General. Doing our bit to grow the next generation of hams!

Today we have a high altitude balloon launch at 10 AM with the ISS contact at 11:34 AM. The big Jamboree Stadium Show has been moved to 4 PM due to expected thunderstorms this evening. So our station will be shutting down sometime before 4 PM.

Thanks to everyone who has spent time on the air with the Scouts. For all who are trying to make contact and haven’t yet, thanks for our persistence and patience.

73, Jim, K5ND