[PBARC] Fwd: Boy Scout to Boy Scout contact, April 25

[Glenn]

All -

Last Saturday we set up a mini field day setup at regional park to 
demonstrate ham radio to the boy scouts.   As N5JWJ was talking to the 
scouts, we heard a station calling CQ on 20M looking for some one to 
talk to to demonstrate ham radio to a boy scout troop.  How could we not 
respond back with 10 to 15 boys scouts standing there? It turns out they 
were a troop in Grand Rapids, MI.  Here's the write up that N8XX put out 
on some of his reflectors.  I will be collecting a few more facts on our 
side of the event and forward them to Hank but I wanted to share with 
you the write up that Hank put together.

It was really a unique experience.   And you could almost see the ham 
radio bug in some of their eyes!

73,
glenn


Hi, Glenn:

Thanks for talking with me about the Boy Scout to Boy Scout contact we
had on April 25.  Below is what I sent to the Michigan QRP Club
reflector, and a couple local club reflectors.  I'd like to fill it out,
especially with perspective from the Arkansas side of the contact.

==================

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:     [MIQRPCLUB] preliminary report - QRP TTF
Date:     Sat, 25 Apr 2015 19:16:45 -0400
From:     Hank Greeb n8xx at arrl.org [MIQRPCLUB] <MIQRPCLUB at yahoogroups.com>
Reply-To:     MIQRPCLUB at yahoogroups.com
To:     Michigan QRP Club <MIQRPCLUB at yahoogroups.com>


Not exactly QRP, so pardon the bandwidth, but 5 of us, Bob Robinson,
KD8HNF, Cortland Richmond, KA5S, Del Rockwell, W8WDW, Frank Schmidt,
N8UVI, and Yours truly, Hank Greeb, N8XX, all went out to Wabasis Lake
County Park today for QRP To Field.  We were getting set up with three
rigs, to operate as WQ8RP, when a scoutmaster came over to us and asked
about what we were doing.  I told him a bit about ham radio, and asked
if the scouts would like a demo of ham radio and a possible chance to
talk on ham radio with people around the country.  The troop was #283,
from Belmont, Michigan, on a weekend "service project" and Campout for
the Kent County Park District, as well as to have other usual activities
during a weekend camping event.

He took us up, and after the scouts did a short "work detail" for the
park, they came over and observed the operation.  Del, W8WDW had his
mobile rig out on a picnic table, powered by a Honda generator, raised
the power to 100 watts, and called "CQ we have a boy scout troop here
with us, anyone for a chat about Hamming?"  To our surprise and delight
for the troop a W5 called in, and he had a scout troop with him!  Many
of the scouts were able to talk with their counterparts in Arkansas,
they compared temperature, asked each other questions about their
favorite activities, etc. for over a half hour.  They even sang "happy
birthday" to one of the Arkansas scouts, which we deemed didn't violate
the law about "no music" being transmitted over ham frequencies because
the singing was so off key, etc. :)

Note, we decided to NOT demonstrate QRP operation, because of band
conditions, and therefore decided NOT to use WQ8RP for the demo, since
WQ8RP is the club call for a QRP club.  I guess that Ed wouldn’t have
minded, but…

Who'd have ever thought that one random scout troop would come by during
our QRP TTF effort?  AND the first contact we made to demonstrate ham
radio to them would be with another scout troop!

I'll have a "real" QRPTTF report in a few daze after I collapse four
logs into one and figure out the "score."  But, the activity in above
report "really made our day!"

72/73 de n8xx Hg
QRP >99.44% of  the time

=====================

Note, I have a few pictures from our event  but haven't taken them off
my camera yet.  Others took pictures but so far they haven't shared them
with me.  I'll bug them for their pictures and share them with you when
I receive them.

72/73 de n8xx Hg
QRP >99.44% of the time