[FARC] Scout Merit Badge Help

[Bob Moroney]

David,

Thanks for offering to help!  If you and one or both of your sons can 
pitch in, we should have it covered.

I'm not planning to cover any of the finer points of traffic handling at 
the level used in ARES/RACES/NTS activities, so previous experience 
and/or expertise might be helpful, but not certainly not required. 

The COMMEX activity is more meant to give the Scouts a taste of what 
it's like to actually "communicate" (vs. chat) by two-way radio as part 
of a directed net.   Ideally, each Scout would have an opportunity to 
get on the air and pass and/or copy one or more brief messages. 

I'm still working  through the details of the activity in my own mind.  
I think the main challenge will be to keep it simple and do-able in a 
one-hour session, but still make it meaty enough that the Scouts come 
out of the activity feeling that they've met a challenge and 
accomplished something toward earning their Radio merit badge.

Right now, I'm leaning toward a fill-in-the-blanks format, where the 
outlying teams will pass prepared messages, with net control having the 
same prepared messages, but with key items left blank and needing to be 
filled in accurately.  Then the team sending the message would also have 
to fill in some blank items on their end, such as receipt time, serial 
number, net control operator name, etc. 

If you (or anyone else reading this) have any other suggestions to reach 
the simple + do-able goal, and make the activity meaningful, they'll be 
more than welcome.  We've still got a week or so to tweak things.

Thanks again & 73,
Bob K9CMR
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
David Kindred wrote:
> Hey, Bob,
>
> I should be able to help. Andrew and Kit (KB3STE and KB3STF) should be able
> to help out as well. None of us knows how to pass traffic. Will you be able
> to tutor us ahead of time?
>
> 73,
>
> --David, K3PO
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: farc-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:farc-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
> Behalf Of Bob Moroney
> Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 5:35 PM
> To: FARC Mail List
> Subject: [FARC] Scout Merit Badge Help
>
>
>
> Jim N3HTA, Jack N3JP, Mark KB3SRY and I will be conducting a Boy Scout 
> Radio Merit Badge program at the upcoming week-long Scout camp being 
> held at Camp Airy (near Thurmont) from Tuesday, 8/18 through Saturday, 
> 8/22.  (These dates are a week earlier than the dates I originally 
> mentioned at last month's FARC meeting.)
>
> I think the four of us can handle the program for the first four days 
> (two groups of up to 15 Scouts each, in two consecutive sessions each 
> afternoon), but we could use more help for the final sessions on Saturday.
>
> Instead of having the Scouts do the usual thing of getting on the air 
> and QSOing with Hams on HF and/or the local repeaters/echolink, I plan 
> to try a SET-like COMMEX, where teams of Scouts disperse to the corners 
> of the camp grounds, and attempt to pass traffic back to another team 
> Scouts acting as Net Control.  (This sort of exercise was suggested by 
> Alan KA3DYL, and sounds like a great alternative to the "usual" 
> get-on-the-air activities Scouts get to do.)
>
> I plan to give the Scouts FRS HTs to use for the COMMEX, but it would be 
> good to have a licensed Ham accompany each Scout team to monitor their 
> activity, assist as needed, and make an alternate (2 meter) channel of 
> communications available.
>
> If you can help, please let me know by email or a phone call 
> (301-831-5060).   The estimated time commitment would be between Noon 
> and 4 PM on Saturday, 8/22/09.  Equipment needed would be a 2M HT and 
> whatever portable power source and antenna you normally work with.   (I 
> can also probably scare up a couple of extra 2M/440 HTs, if needed.)
>
> Thanks & 73,
> Bob K9CMR ______________________________________________________________
>