[FARC] JOTA Volunteers?

[Bob Moroney]

OK David, so it sounds like say, 10 AM to 2 PM or 11 AM to 3 PM, on 
Saturday, 10/18.  As of right now, I think I can help with that, with an 
SSB rig, power source and portable antenna. 

Personally, I'm not sure that stuff like PSK and other digital modes 
have very much WOW! factor to compete with the internet, at least for 
the age group we're talking about.  While the modes themselves are very 
cool from a technical point of view, the more nuanced concepts behind 
them like "very low radiated power", "noise immunity", "very low 
bandwidth", "error correction" and even "Look Ma, no wires!" seem to get 
lost in the noise for the average kid, from what I've seen.  It's still 
just typing stuff on a keyboard and reading stuff off a screen, which 
they probably all do every day.  Not to say that digital modes shouldn't 
be demo'd, but for some reason, actually talking to someone who is 
somewhere else via SSB or on a repeater seems to be more magical. 

Now APRS could be very interesting to the Scouts, I'd think, being able 
to see the location of the person you're talking with, and, presumably, 
that person seeing your location.

Anyway, all that pontificating aside, pencil me in for an SSB station. 

Also, you may want to check around to see what other local Scout groups 
are doing.  I've not helped with JOTA before (and must say I'd never 
heard of JOTI until today), but it seems like every year for as long as 
I've had a Ham ticket, someone in this area has set up a JOTA station 
somewhere in the area between Point of Rocks/Brunswick and Thurmont.

73, Bob K9CMR
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
David Kindred wrote:
> Bob,
>
> I want to do something very modest. The JOTA is officially scheduled for
> the third weekend in October (18th and 19th). It apparently starts 12 AM
> Saturday and extends 'til 11:59 PM Sunday.
>
> I haven't nailed this down yet, but was thinking we could do it for 4
> hours on the Saturday. That would give a fairly wide window for the kids
> to come, and not exhaust volunteers too much (I hope). I'd, of course,
> make sure we had snack items around. I'm always motivated by the presence
> of food, at least. :-D
>
> I just really want the kids to see that there are communications methods
> available outside of the Internet, that there's a community of GREAT
> people involved in it, that there are service opportunities available
> within the hobby, and, most importantly, that ham radio is FUN!
>
> 73,
>
> --David, KB3NAI
>
> On Wed, September 17, 2008 10:53 am, Bob Moroney wrote:
>   
>> David,
>>
>> What date(s) and time(s) do you have in mind?
>>
>> 73, Bob K9CMR
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> David Kindred wrote:
>>     
>>> Howdy, all.
>>>
>>> My son has volunteered us to organize his boy Scout troop's Jamoboree on
>>> the Internet (JOTI) this year. It appears to be an Internet equivalent
>>> to
>>> the Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) that has been around for 80 years. I'm
>>> just
>>> coming up to speed on these two jamborees, never having attended an
>>> example of either in the past. I was hoping to combine the JOTA and JOTI
>>> in one session, since they occur on the same day. So, this is a one day,
>>> multi-hour event.
>>>
>>> The purpose of JOTI is to introduce scouts (boy and girl) to various
>>> forms
>>> of Internet communication, including e-Mail, Internet messaging,
>>> Internet
>>> Relay Chat, videoconferencing, and the like. JOTA is similar in hoping
>>> to
>>> introduce children to all forms of ham radio (SSB, CW, digital modes,
>>> APRS, fox hunts, etc.). JOTI information can be found at www.joti.org.
>>>
>>> So, I definitely will have to do something for JOTI, but wondered if
>>> anyone here might be willing to volunteer time and/or equipment to have
>>> simultaneous JOTA activities? I thought the kids would like to see APRS
>>> in
>>> action, use PSK31 and see it as IM equivalent, try their hand at SSB or
>>> CW
>>> communication and thought they really might get a kick out of a fox
>>> hunt.
>>> I think there's potential for showing a number of kids how much fun ham
>>> radio can be.
>>>
>>> My intention is to invite Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. I'd
>>> hope
>>> that FARC folks would send folks over, as well. I don't know what kind
>>> of
>>> turnout we'd get, but I thought anything we could do to introduce ham
>>> radio to younger folks could be beneficial.
>>>
>>> Would anyone have an interest in helping with JOTA activities? I'm going
>>> to hold the event at our house, because we already have a number of
>>> computers we can use for the JOTI functions.
>>>
>>> I don't yet have details, because this was just kind of sprung on me.
>>> Being a dad can have its unexpected events!
>>>
>>> 73 to all,
>>>
>>> --David, KB3NAI
>>>