[Elecraft] OT: Boy Scouts looking for first QSO

[KENT TRIMBLE]

Mark . . .

Our Merit Badge University was held at a local middle school last 
Saturday.  We met the Radio Merit Badge on-the-air requirement with a 
K3/KPA500 to a Carolina Windom at 35 feet.//We put together our own 
power point presentation and drafted three of our buddies to help the 
boys with their worksheets and drawings.

If you include the words "Boy Scouts" in your CQ you will have no 
problem receiving a reply.  Our first contact was with Poland and our 
second and third contacts were with middle-aged Eagle Scouts -- a heart 
surgeon on his 30-minute lunch hour, and a former troop Scout Master on 
an island off the east coast.

We found seventeen meters open and less crowded than twenty, and being a 
WARC band it was immune from contesting.

100 watts will, of course, work, but 500 watts works better. Calling CQ 
over and over without a reply is disappointing to Scouts and instructors 
alike.

73,

Kent Trimble, K9ZTV
Bill Gerth, W4RK
Jefferson City, Missouri



On 3/21/2014 9:00 PM, Mark Volstad wrote:
> I am acting as counselor for a group of Scouts from the tri-state area (KY/OH/IN) who wish to earn their Radio merit badge. They will be looking to make their first QSO tomorrow (Saturday) morning, using the club station of Dixie Heights High School (KY4DH), but operating under my call. We will have a limited window in which to make the contacts, so if you happen to be near your radio between approx. 10:15 and 11:00 am EDT (1415 - 1500 UTC), I would appreciate it if you would keep an ear open for their CQs on 14.290 +/- QRM.
>
> 73,
>
> Mark  AI4BJ
>