[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] JOTA/JOTI

[Wagner, Steven M.]

Folks,

Don (KI4D) and I had a great time this past weekend —great weather and met a bunch of young eager scouts!!  I received an article and wanted to pass along:

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October 19th, 2013 - Boy Scout Troops 581, 1372 and 884, along with the Ole Virginia HAMs Club (W4OVH) from Manassas, Virginia hosted the worldwide Jamboree On-the-Air (JOTA) and Jamboree On-the-Internet (JOTI) operating from an outdoor venue in Bristow, Virginia.
Field expedient antennas were erected on-site to support the JOTA operations and Scouts from the area spoke on-the-air using High Frequency (HF) and Very High Frequency (VHF) radio systems.  Regional communications were established with other participating Troops conducting similar JOTA field operations from Camps Highroad and Snyder, The Mountain Amateur Radio Club, Maryland and Sky Meadows, Virginia.
Wireless Hot Spots for internet connectivity were established on-site for the JOTI operations and an internet café was set up to support the JOTI chat rooms transmitting voice and text communications throughout the United States and Worldwide using the internet.
Seventy-one Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Venture Scouts and Scout Leaders from 15 different Troops/Packs/Crews participated in the 6-hour event logging more than 200 contacts with other Scouts from all over the country that included Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Wisconsin and California.  Contacts were also logged from around the globe with England, Germany, South Africa, Croatia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Columbia, Venezuela, France, India, Portugal, Peru, Indonesia, Guyana, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Cyprus, Malta, Wales, the Philippines, Italy and many points in between.
This was the 56th year for the annual JOTA event and the 17th year for JOTI and it was the 4th year that Troop 581 hosted the events.  All participating Scouts, young and old, had the opportunity to complete many of the requirements for the Radio Merit Badge and learn a lot about amateur (HAM) radio and emergency radio communications while earning the international JOTA/JOTI participation patch doing it.

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73
Steve, W8RJH