[SJRA-Members] BSA April 25 Camporee / SJRA help

[w2mc at comcast.net]

Good morning all! 

The local Boy Scouts have asked for some help; anyone around Saturday the 25th? The message below is from Bob - K2UT 

I'm looking/thinking about having two hf rigs on, and a third on the local repeaters, and perhaps a 'decode the message' in CW. 

Anyone want to have some fun? 

Jon 
W2MC 

----- Original Message -----




Basically I’m hoping for a couple stations, at least being voice and another mode to show some different ways of communicating. My area is the Communications merit badge so everything is focused on various ways to communicate. ATV is not a requirement but figured it would get the boys’ attention, especially if a rover station could walk around and rely back live images to the main table. Maybe doing that with an HT would be cool too. 

Laser sounds great… anything with potential of injury would be really cool ;-) Yes, we know it’s not THAT kind of laser, but the boys will think of shooting down airplanes when they hear “laser.” If possible, a Morse code contest would be extremely good. Let one guy send a secret message and the rest of the patrol has to copy it. Bonus points for correctness and speed. 

Each station will have a patrol for about 30 minutes, so it doesn’t have to be a whole lot. Getting them on the air will take most of the time. Putting fish in the barrel by asking SJRA members to monitor the repeater is fine. 

This is from about 9 AM until 3:30, then the boys start getting ready for evening activities. You’ll be able to drive right up to where the station will be. No commercial power, unfortunately, but if you have any alternative power (solar) they guys will be interested. 

Bob 



.... 
>> I am heavily involved with Scouting, and am putting together an activity for 
>> the Quakesen District Camporee on Saturday, April 25th. There are five 
>> merit badges being offered, Communications being one of them. I keep 
>> telling the other organizers it will be no problem to get a ham radio 
>> station or two set up for the boys to see and get on the air, but kept 
>> forgetting to formally ask SJRA for help. My bad. 
>> 
>> This is a three day camping trip but all of the merit badge activities are 
>> on Saturday from about 9 AM until 3 PM. The exact number of Scouts is 
>> unknown, but a decent guess is about 70. They move from one session to 
>> another as a group of about 8, spend 40 minutes, then move to the next 
>> portion and a new team comes in. Besides working on merit badges, they earn 
>> points at various stations (activities, not radio stations) and the team 
>> with the most points wins an awesome plaque that their troop displays. 
>> 
>> I'd like to see at least two kinds of modes; 2 meter FM voice is certainly 
>> good, but maybe a digital station? TV would be absolutely amazing. BTW, 
>> Channel 6 is sending a news truck. 
>> 
>> One other activity I'd like SJRA to run is a Morse Code contest. Maybe give 
>> each team a unique message to send (different for each team because they'll 
>> give their message to the next group to help them), two copies of the Morse 
>> Code chart, and then the team divides into listeners and senders. They get 
>> a maximum time but then get points for accuracy. This is open for 
>> suggestions. 
>> 
>> The site is the Rancocas State Park in Westampton. It used to be the Indian 
>> Reservation. 
>> 
>> There is no power, so batteries/generators would be needed. I suspect you'll be in the open field away from trees, but for 2 meter and >> weak signal digital modes some simple masts will do fine. 
>> 
/? 
The information on the local Scout site is: 
http://dk.gardenstatescouting.org/event/1660012