JOTA -- Jamboree On The Air 2007

JOTA
An on-the-air operating event sponsored by the World Scout Bureau, Jamboree on the Air was founded in 1958 by Les Mitchell, G3BHK. It has grown to become the largest international Scout event. JOTA now boasts the participation of nearly a half million Scouts and Guides in over 100 countries, involving as many as 10,000 Amateur Radio stations.
The even relies on the Amateur Radio community and local hams for its success. Getting Boy and Girl Scouts (including Cubs and Brownies) and Venurers on the air to talk with other Scouts around the world provides a great opportunity to expose youth to Amateur Radio. Some troops and clubs team up to make a big splash with lots of activities, radios, antennas and offering a variety of modes to experience. For others, the event provides an opportunity to coach a smaller group of Scouts and to just have fun talking on the radio. Scouts usually enjoy communication by speaking into a microphone, but some radio amateurs are able to provide other modes of operation for Scouts to experience, such as slow-scan TV or amateur TV, satellites, packet radio (APRS) or radioteletype, or even earth-moon-earth contacts.
This year like every year since 1988 (maybe before) Scouts of the North Star District will be able to participate in this annual event at the Fall Camporee. I will be there again this year demonstrating HF (shortwave) radio and giving boys an opportunity to talk with other Scouts around the world. In addition we will have the KC Northland ARES mobile EOC to tour, these guys will be there if another tornado rips through Gladstone as in 2003. We will also have demonstrations of various VHF and UHF station operation maybe even an opportunity to talk through a satellite. Then on Sunday morning Venture Crew 239 and Near Space Ventures will launch VentureStar 3 their third annual Camporee high altitude balloon in celebration of the 50h anniversary of JOTA.

For more information about this very specail JOTA visit the World Scouting Bureau Web site at www.scout.org/jota/, read the JOTA story and brush up on the rules for the Scouting 100 Radio Award, for which JOTA contacts apply.

(thanks to K1DMJ at QST Magazine for her contributions above)

Let him take the lead....

Suppose you are at the Camporee, suppose its Saturday, late afternoon and time to turn in the troop score sheet. You get up from your chair and start walking in the direction of the radio tower, or some other perceived spot of operations control. You arrive with troop in tow and ask where to turn the sheet in, I will turn to your SPL and ask him were you at the meeting last night. He replies affirmative so I say to him where were you told to turn it in? He says back there at the flag pole.

So what just happened?

As adult leaders its easy for us to "take over" the troop even if we have the best of intentions to let it be a "boy run troop" because we are looked on as the leaders. Next time stay in your chair, call your SPL over to you and whisper to him a reminder what comes next, let him take the lead.

See; The Scoutmaster Whisper at; <http://bsaroundtable.com/smwhisper.html>

Whose Limits Are They?

There is an Asian story about the training of elephants that goes something like this. When an elephant is born and still relatively weak, a very large stake is driven into the ground and a large heavy chain is attached to it and one of the baby elephants legs. In this way the baby learns that no matter how hard it tries it can't get away from that stake and chain, a lesson it carries into its adult life, hence the fable about an elephant never forgets. It learned as a young elephant it could not escape its shackle, and even though as an adult it would have no problem dislodging the stake it never tries to escape its learned limits.

We as adults must be aware of this lesson and think about the consequences of the limits we may inadvertently put on our children. When we say to them pick Scouts or sports because one has to go so you can do well with your studies, what are we really saying? Are we establishing a limit that they will carry with them the rest of their lives? Are we saying you can do this or that but not all these things? Have we just created a box around our children, shackled them to a large stake in the ground and told them they can go no further?

Can a child be overwhelmed by too many things to do, sure he can, but more often than not its us, the parent that is overwhelmed not the child. So next time you say to your son or daughter "you can't do both" think about the message you are sending, and offer up a way for them to make the decision.