Scouts from the 114th (Fairmilehead) Troop with leader Paul Fullerton.
John Cooke GM8OTI and Alan Masson GM3PSP operated GB0BSS in JOTA – Jamboree On The Air – from Bonaly Scout Camp for the third year running. Scouts from the 103rd Braid (Greenbank) and 114th Braid (Fairmilehead) troops participated. The objective was to encourage the Scouts to operate, speaking into the microphone, giving their own information – name, age, troop – and asking questions of the Scouts at the stations they contacted.
Operation was from the large open-ended barn on the right (not the teepee)!
Centre-fed inverted-Vee dipoles for 10m, 20m, 40m and 80m were suspended from John’s 12m – high Spiderbeam pole, with the ends attached to the fence.
Operating position in the barn.
John Cooke GM8OTI.
Alan Masson GM3PSP, who provided the rig – a Kenwood TS-2000X running 100W SSB, mostly on 40m.
Groups of Scouts spent about an hour at the JOTA station before moving to another activity.
Most of the Scouts took the opportunity to speak into the microphone once contact was established by John with another JOTA station.
The Scouts noted the information received from the other stations.
JOTI – Jamboree On The Internet – was one of the other activities. A room was set up with laptop computers. The Scouts participated in several JOTI chat-rooms, perhaps less intimidating than speaking into a microphone!
Dinner was cooked in campfire style in a flame-proof open-ended tent.
The barn became the dining room after the JOTA station closed down.
Special GB0BSS QSL card which will be sent to all the other stations contacted, to confirm the contacts.
All the participating Scouts will now be proudly wearing this special JOTA / JOTI badge on their uniforms.