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Good evening everyone, it's time for HamTalk
Live. It's episode number 136. 2018 Jamboree
on the Air, recorded live on Thursday, October
11th, 2018. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of HamTalk
Live. Tonight we're joined by Jim Wilson, K5ND.
and Bill Stern's NE4RD, and we'll take your calls
live in just a few minutes. Last week here on
The Big Show, Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK, was here
to talk about operating portable with satellites.
And if you missed that, you can still listen
anytime at HamTalkLive .com or on our podcast
version. It's on Apple Podcast Stitcher. I heart
podcasts, Google play, tune in SoundCloud or
whatever your favorite app is. It's probably
there. It's also available on YouTube. So be
sure to check that out. Well, again, a bunch
of announcements. October seems to be the time
of everything happening, and so we do have several
announcements. And the 100 watts and a wire fallout
just started, actually, about three minutes ago.
So make sure you get in on that this weekend
if you can, and you can check out information
on that at 100WattsAndAWire .com. the HamTalk
Live limited edition t -shirts right now. We're
taking orders for these. We had a request from
mostly the satellite community. We did a little
Twitter poll for the saying to put on the back
and the winner was, may the grid square be yours.
So if you're a grid square chaser and the satellite
people are by default, you might be interested
in that. So if you want to order that shirt,
Just go to the link on Facebook or Twitter or
you can go to HamTalkLive .com but you have to
click on the show schedule link and then there's
a link there that you can go and order the shirt
and then you can paypal the cost of that and
we'll go for another week or two to get everybody
a chance to get the orders made and then we'll
get those printed up and get those sent out.
Also next week a school club roundup so get on
the air and talk to some schools and if you're
at a school get school on the air next week it's
all next week monday through friday and then
that rolls right into jamboree on the air which
will be talking about here on the show tonight
and One last thing the ARL division director
ballots are arriving in the mail. In fact mine
arrived today And so if you're in the Central
Hudson, New England, Northwestern, or Roanoke
divisions and you're an ARRL member, you should
be receiving a ballot very soon if you have not
already. And so be sure you vote and those are
due back to Newington by November 16th. So please
watch your mail for the ballot. If you don't
get one, please let ARL staff know, otherwise
they're just going to assume that everything's
fine and there's nothing wrong. So if that applies
to you, I make sure you let them know and they
can take care of that. So get your questions
ready to go here about the scout. Jamboree on
the air. After we talk to Jim and Bill for a
little bit, you can give us a call. I'll go ahead
and give you the phone number. It's 812 -NET
-HAM -1. 812 -638 -4261. So write that down and
have it handy. We're not ready for you to call
just yet. It's 812 -638 -4261 or you can Skype
us if you'd rather. We're on HamTalk Live on
Skype and you can send a question via Twitter
or Twitter handle is at HamTalk Live and we already
have a couple of those in so we'll talk about
those and more with Jim and Bill right after
this word from ICOM America right here on HamTalk
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is a case for holding dead batteries. Now here's
Neil Rapp with more HamTalk Live. Thanks to ICOM
for sponsoring the show again tonight. We'll
be talking about their involvement in scouting
here a little bit later. And we're here on the
show every Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern
Time right here at HamTalkLive .com. And joining
us tonight, Jim Wilson, K5ND. He's retired from
the Boy Scouts of America headquarters where
he spent 21 years in publishing and communications
and now he's a freelance writer and continues
to volunteer as chairman of the National Radio
Scouting Committee, National Jamboree on the
Air Organizer, and a member of the World Jota
and Jody team. He's president of the K2BSA Amateur
Radio Association and you can check them out
at K2BSA .net. and over 172 ,000 scouts have
earned the radio merit badge and therefore formally
exposed to amateur radio. Bill Stearns is a self
-proclaimed nerd, enough so that he made his
call sign NE4RD, and I couldn't be more proud.
He was originally licensed in 1994 at the Melbourne
Hamfest in Florida, which I was just at Melbourne
here a few months ago as KE4RGH. He was an active
member of Civil Air Patrol and past president
of the Amateur Radio Association of Southwest
Florida. And while in Florida he was active in
contesting satellites and VHF, he's now in Billings,
Montana. with his wife and three children. He's
a life member of ARRL and K2BSA, and he's active
in stateside contesting with the Big Sky Contestors
Club and Sky Warren with the Yellowstone County
Ares Group. And he's a software and systems engineer,
podcaster, and generally a nerdy guy. You can
find him on the Linux in the Hamshack podcast,
where he's been a co -host since May 2016. and
also reporting on radio scouting on amateur radio
news line, which means I get to listen to him
multiple times in a week. So we had to pick on
Bill a little bit, but Jim and Bill, welcome
to the show. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. It's
very good. We appreciate you having us on the
show. So, so Bill, we're going to try to, we're
going to try to keep you awake here. We were
joking around that one of the things on the Linux
and the Hamshack podcast was a long time ago
before all these podcasts were around. Bill made
the comment that it was the only podcast that
didn't put him to sleep. So we're going to try
not to, uh, to do that, but you're getting two
weeks in a row on the show now. Yeah. Yeah. I'll
be here for two weeks. I'm not going to be like
a permanent staple here. So we'll, uh, we'll
talk a little Lennox next week, but, uh, this
week we're talking Jota. So Jim, what's coming
up with this year's Jota. Okay. Well, it's, uh,
this is the 61st, uh, uh, Jambri on the air.
It started in 1957. After the world jamboree
that was held in England and the ham radio operators
got together over a coffee and said This was
fun. Why don't we do it every year rather than
every four years at a world jamboree? And so
that's what they did And it's the it's always
the third weekend in October This year, it's
the 19th to the 21st of October. So that's Friday
Saturday and Sunday local time, so it's not like
a contest where at 000 hours UTC it starts. It
starts local time and just get on the air and
start making conversations with other scouts.
Let's talk a little bit first about how scouts
and scout leaders can Participate in this and
then we'll talk about just the the general ham
community. So so first what about the scouts?
The scouts can for for Jambri on the air they
can reach out to a local ham radio club or a
ham operator I always recommend that particularly
for ham operators that want to get engaged that
they start at the troop level or at the pack
level. A lot of guys try to start at the... at
the bigger council level and it's really hard
to get things going there. In fact, I look over
some of the local councils and they have a lot
going on in September and October. It's a big
time in scouting. It's starting up. The scouting
year is starting up. They're raising funds. They're
selling popcorn. They're having their camperees
while the weather is still okay. It's good to
line up with a troop. So scouts can, ideally
their council is doing some promotion work about
all the events in the council. Here in my own
council, in the Longhorn Council, I've started
helping them out through their international
committee. This is part of the international
area within scouting because it's a world event.
We have 11 different operations in the Fort Worth,
Texas area, and first we've discovered all the
ones that are going on and facilitated a few,
and then we publish, here's what's going on,
here's where you can go to get engaged with Jambri
on the Air. So, I guess that's one way to do
it, is look to your local council, particularly
the international representative of your council,
who's in charge of Jambria on the air, Jambria
on the internet, although I will admit that some
of them don't realize that, and also some councils
don't have international representatives. So,
it can get a bit challenging. Let's see, the
other way to do that is the website jodajody
.info has a sign up system where scout units
can sign up and say, we're gonna be on the air
at this place and give all the details about
their operation. Well, all those are listed and
so you can do a search. Uh, you can search on
the United States. You can search on your state
or your city. Uh, and, and, uh, although it's
certainly not foolproof, hopefully you can find
something there and, and, uh, and start, uh,
you know, start, um, uh, start the search for
where it's really happening. All right. Very
good. Now, um, let's throw it over to, uh, bill
here for a minute. Um, what about the. Non scout.
What about the hams that just want to participate
by getting on the air? What what's the advice
to them? Absolutely, you know, there's going
to be a lot of opportunity to to work scouts
and scout groups that are out there activating
these stations, especially with these, you know,
meager HF conditions we've been having. There's
going to be a lot of groups trying to get on
the air and make contacts that might not necessarily
make a DX contact. So you just need to tune your
band up to like the general portion of all the
HF bands as an amateur and listen for CQ Jota.
You'll also find scout groups on PSK 31 and RIDI
and probably this new thing called JS8 call.
I've already seen several groups saying they're
going to try experimenting with that as a method
to get on the air. So they'll be looking for
contacts and basically to get scouts to talk
to other people through amateur radio and If
you can't get out to help a scout group via your
club or a local council trooper pack or crew
You know by all means, you know sit in the chair
sit in the club station You know tune the band
up there to the general portion and start looking
for these groups call in CQ Jota and Help them
help them work and understand how amateur radio
works Anything to add, Jim? Well, I would point
out that on the k2bsa .net website under radio
scouting, there's a listing of recommended scout
frequencies. And so for each band and each mode,
there are designated frequencies. The one that
comes to mind is 20 meters single sideband. 14
.290. But while I say that, that's a place to
call, but it's not the place to stay. And you
wanna move off that frequency, and it's also,
I've heard this in the past, people say, well,
I looked at the frequency, it was always busy,
and so I didn't get to make any contacts. Oh,
for goodness sakes, turn the knob on your radio
and go someplace else. Yeah, or scroll the mouse.
We're a modern amateur radio now. We have the
mouse scroll. Or the touch screen. Yeah, push
the touch screen. But call CQ, better yet, get
a scout on there with that higher voice, that
higher octave voice calling CQ. It's very distinctive
and people will tune into it. And for those,
just as Bill was mentioning, It doesn't have
to be another scout group. If they're calling
CQ for a long time and nobody's responding, please
respond and talk to them about what pack they're
in, what city they're in, what they're doing
in scouting, what they like about scouting. Tell
them you earned the radio merit badge in 1956
or so, whatever. Because it's a lot of fun to
make those connections and it's so helpful on
the other side. They're out there patiently searching
and growing a little frustrated. They got 20
Cub Scouts that are squirming behind them going,
what's up with this? This is no good. And so
you need somebody on the other end of the QSO.
All right, yeah, that's always important to have
somebody available to talk to instead of sitting
there and spinning the knob or scrolling the
mouse or punching around on the touchscreen so
That's a good advice Now we've got to make sure
to get you both off of this program on time tonight
because you actually have a net coming up right
after we get done, so tell us about that. It's
the the USA radio scouting net and it's at 9
p .m. Central or 10 p .m. Eastern Etc in the
time zones. It's on echo link on the conference
server J o ta -365 and Chris Overbay W a5dm is
the net control and we have a pretty good turnout.
It's once a month on the whatever Thursday this
is of the of the month. Is it the third? Second
Thursday, okay. And so, and we get a good turnout,
and a lot of people just trading information
about here's what I'm planning for Jambri on
the air, or next month it'll be here's what went
right, here's what didn't go right, and this
month it'll be a lot of good questions about
as they're getting ready to activate their stations.
Okay, so some more information on this after
the show just hop on that Jota 365 echo link
server and Check that out after we get done here
on ham talk live tonight now. I know you've got
a series of K2 BSA portable whatever call district
planned out Maybe we'll throw this to Bill, because
I know you ran those down on Newsline here last
week, I think it was. So tell us about the K2BSA
call signs that are going to be used next weekend.
Yeah, absolutely. We of course have every call
district except for the zero call district reserved
in our calendar, at least as far as I can tell
right now. But what we do is we actually allow
people and scout groups to uh to reserve the
call sign k2 bsa in their calling area to run
a portable operation And of course, you know,
what's the best event to have that call sign
at? You know the the jamboree jamboree on the
air So it's always always a fight to get that
reservation in early and reserve it. So right
now we have uh Yeah, like ktbs a one portable
one is gonna be out of Lennox, Massachusetts
with troop 8 We have ktbs a 2 is gonna be out
of May's Landing in New Jersey ktbs a 3 is gonna
be over in Old Town, Maryland Ktbs a 4 is gonna
be in Charlotte, North Carolina Portable 5 is
gonna be in Louisville, Texas Portable 6 is gonna
be in Idlewild, California. That should be a
that should be a big one They normally have a
huge turnout for that that particular event there
Portable 7 is going to be in Bremerton, Washington
portable 8 is going to be over at a fall campery
in Wheeling, West Virginia and Portable 9 is
in North Liberty, Indiana. So that's what I see
here in the calendar so far. Those call signs
should be active for the entire weekend. So definitely
be on the lookout for for any of the KTBSA portable
calls and if you're in the zero call area and
you all one for the weekend of. Yeah for the
jamboree on the air, this is the time to go ahead
and send in that reservation and you can do that
at our website at k2bsa .net. Well mentioned
too in the past we've had KL7 and KH6 use the
K2BSA call sign and I'll also point out that
we get a lot of uh... requests that where the
call sign is already been reserved uh... we really
can't have uh... three k two b s a slash fours
out there as an example but uh... so what i always
recommend is go look at the one by one call signs
so there's a lot of stations that act that they
go ahead and reserve you know k four s or something
like that for the weekend and of course i'm told
not i've never done the research on this but
most of the call signs that involve BSA are already
reserved for clubs that support that are part
of scouting including you know call signs like
KB4SA and so there you'll see a lot of BSA call
signs on the air during Jamboree on the air.
All right. Well that's coming up soon. And again,
if you're out there in the zero call district,
uh, we may, we may have a spot for you. So, uh,
get on the website, ktbsa .net and, uh, and maybe
you can, uh, you can finish off all the, the
call districts there. Well, it is time for a
break, but we're going to come back. We're going
to take your calls. And we've got all kinds of
other stuff we can talk about, but we'll give
you a chance to chime in at 812 -638 -4261 right
after this word from Tower Electronics right
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us on voice with Skype at HamTalk Live or give
us a call at 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638
-4261. Now, here's more HamTalk Live. Here's
the snap rap takes the rig he breaks through
the pileup. He's on 80 now 40 now 20 15 10 2
meters touchdown hand talk live Tower electronics
will be in Greenville, Tennessee on October 20th
and LaGrange, Georgia on October 27th, but they're
always at PL -259 .com. HamTalk Live is on the
air every Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern right
here at HamTalkLive .com. Be sure to check us
out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and it's
time now for your calls. So if you have a question
for Jim or Bill, give us a call at 812 -NET -HAM
-1 812 -638 -4261 or you can Skype us at HamTalk
Live on Skype. Also, you can tweet us at HamTalk
Live and we've got a ton of notes here of things
to talk about, so we'll keep talking but you
go ahead and call. We'll get you in here. First
off, Jim, let's talk a little bit about some
of the D -Star and DMR options here and some
other things that are going on on the bands at
the same time that people need to be aware of.
All right, yeah. Let's see, I'm pulling up the
k2bsa .net website right now, and under the radio
scouting menu, there is a tab called Scout Frequencies.
And if you scan down that, it shows up, you know,
80 meters, 40 meters, et cetera, for a single
sideband, CW, PSK. but there's also reflector
033A is a full -time radio scouting and jamboree
on the air D star reflector. There's also DMR.
There's some, I'm trying to look here if there's
some talk groups. Talk group 310. Okay, talk
group 310. Brandmeister also has a talk group
907. I don't operate D -Star, excuse me, DMR,
I'm a D -Star guy. But there's a lot of activity
on both of those, and the good news is there's
no propagation involved, where the sun is not
our friend these days. I see an All -Star node
number, IRLP, is also available. Echolink has
two conference nodes, Jota -365, where our net
will be going on later this evening, and Jambo
is a node that actually Bill Stearns created
to help us out. Jota -365 was getting very crowded
on Jambri on the air weekend, and so he added
another one. So, anything else there, Bill? Now
that all looks all right. Yeah, plus so you can
also make contacts on a PRS and pack it and everything
else So don't be afraid to try try everything
and anything to to go ahead and create some jamboree
on the air traffic Okay, and and Jim let's while
we're talking about D star and that kind of thing
let's take a moment to To talk about your partnership
with icon Exactly, ICOM America is a tremendous
supporter of radio scouting, Jamboree on the
air and our Jamborees. I recall just a quick
story back in 2011, 2012. I called up Ray Novak
and I said, Ray, I know you've been helping with
Jamborees and loaning some equipment, but I want
you to give the equipment this time around. And
the phone was silent and I thought, uh -oh. But
as Ray always does, he was thinking about 20
steps ahead of me. And he said, I don't want
to wait to the jamboree. I want to start right
now. And what he cooked up was 10 complete stations
for loan to local scout councils. And that started,
I think it was 2012, they started with IC 7200s,
antennas, power supplies, the whole nine yards
in Pelican cases. Now they've been upgraded to
IC 7300s, that great direct conversion radio.
And they're out, they'll be on the air, this
jamboree on the air from a lot of scout councils
around the US. And they also are the... the transceiver
sponsor for Jamborees, that was 2013 -2017, and
it will be at the World Scout Jamboree in 2019.
And they also installed three repeaters at the
summit, Bechtel Scout Reserve in West Virginia,
where the Jamborees are held. A two meter analog
repeater, a 440 analog, and a 440 D -Star repeater.
So they've been extraordinary partners to us.
And we're talking to them now about a big promotion
campaign to get Hams on the air to work the world
jamborees so that we can, just like we were talking
here, we need somebody on the other end of the
QSO and ICOM is going to help us beat the drum
and get Hams activated for that. So we're incredibly
blessed with the support that Ray Novak and all
the people at ICOM do for radio scouting. Very
good. We're very appreciative of all that ICOM
does for Ham Radio and particularly the scouting
part of things. So if you would like to get in
the conversation here, give us a call. It's 812
-638 -4261 that you call to join the conversation.
That's 812 -NET -HAM -1 or you can... Tweet us
as a couple of people did earlier in the week
or you can Skype us to or ham talk live on there
HR 1 erl or nestos wanted to know where to follow
We weren't too sure if it was the show or jamboree
on the air. The show is ham talk live comm but
Tell us about the Joda and Jodi website and and
of course k2bsa .net You bet there's Joda Jodi
dot info is operated by the world Jambri on the
air Jambri on the internet team and There's five
of us on the team operating that site and It's
where the sign up is, it's where all the information
is about participating. And there's a fascinating
new game there where you can actually enter.
Just as you would at a real Jamboree. Go in the
main gate and go into the various aspects of
the Jamboree. Also mentioned, Jamboree on the
internet is an easy way to get involved. And
there's JOTI .TV where there's live TV going
on. There's JOTI .Radio where or jotiradio .net
or something like that, just do Google. Or is
it org? Yeah, just jotiradio, Google it. But
yeah, they're interviewing people and playing
music all through the weekend. I'm actually going
to be interviewed there about the world jamboree
on Saturday. So that's a way to follow Skype.
Watch the social media, Facebook, Twitter. That's
one of my tasks for the weekend is watching those
social media channels and responding to the queries
that come up. And also one of the things I do
is I capture a lot of really cool photos. Watch
for videos too on YouTube. One of my favorite
activities is a Rube Goldberg machine. And so
scouts make up these machines and videotape them
and post them. And they're just a blast to see
the really, really clever ones that they come
up with. Lots of ways to participate in Jambri
on the air, Jambri on the internet. All right.
We do have a caller on the line, so let's see
who we have. Welcome to HamTalk Live. Good evening,
guys. It's Don, KV2YSI. Good evening, Don. What's
your question here? I may have missed it, turned
off the stream to call in, but was wondering
if there's any more tips for someone that might
try doing their very first tambourine for a scout
group. Yeah, sure there's a You just do it No,
no, I did I've done it I've done my first one
several times Because every time you do it, it's
always different and depending upon the size
of the group You know, I feel that you you can
probably overplan it. I basically basically suggest
just having the radios on and Introducing yourself
to the the the visit your own troop that's coming
in or is it? Or is it just random troops that
are gonna be come visit you? I probably would
just try it for the group We just joined like
a couple weeks ago. So Okay, so be familiar people.
So yeah, yeah I would basically keep it simple
and introduce them to amateur radio. Tell them
all about the hobby and then And then slowly
get each one on the station. There is a complete
operator's guide on our website, ktbsa .net,
and it'll give you all kinds of hints and scripts
and stuff like that that the scouts can use when
they get on there and actually talk to people,
if you're going to do HF or DMR or D -Star or
any of those. Simple question, especially if
they're younger, they might not know what to
say. We tend to find that the older scouts tend
to wing it. Any time you get a kid on, whether
it's scouts or in my situation at school or whatever,
scripts are always a big help. So they know what
to say. And then they can kind of, like you said,
the older scouts may kind of ad lib their way
through it and wing it. But some of them have
a little mic fright. So having a script there
and making sure everything is working properly
so that there's not a lot of Fiddling around
and dead time I think are a couple of the key
things here in in any time You're trying to introduce
young people of any sort in the ham radio No,
I'll mention to on our website on the k2bsa .net
website. There's a Radio scouting quick reference
card. It's under the radio scouting tab in the
menu And the nice thing about it is Tom Schussler,
N5HYP, and Chris Janahan, KE5KPC, created this
card. And it's got a place for the call sign
to be written in and the phonetics for the call
sign, and then what cue signals mean. Probably
as importantly, there's 45 questions on that
card for the Scouts to ask to help them. But
they're absolutely right. The Scouts come in
and they're really frightened about, or maybe
it's not fright, it's just they don't know how
to use the microphone or they're just maybe a
little bit timid about it. Now the group that
you're going to be with is it will you be at
a campout or what will be the setting? Don't
even know like I said, we just joined So nothing
is even planned at this point, but I thought
if I was gonna offer To try doing it that I'd
at least ask some people in the know of Better
ways or be some tips on how to get it going Yeah,
it's I think it's mostly actually a best practice,
and this is a little maybe over the top, is at
the Jamboree we taught a Radio Merit Batch class,
and the first part of the class was about How
do you speak on the radio? What are cue signals?
What are the questions to ask? How does it go?
When do you say your call sign? When does the
other person, do you say over? Those sorts of
things. And when the scouts showed up in the
station, they really knew what to do. They had
a good feel for it. They didn't have as much
mic fright. So that's probably an over the top
example, but it gives you a snapshot that says,
brief them on this is what's going to happen
and this is how you participate and you find
maybe the most eager scout and ideally it's a
small group around the radio although I've got
some pictures of monster groups but you find
a scout that's a little bit more outgoing and
they get on the radio and they can demonstrate
to the other ones how it works. Just actually
just calling CQ can be kind of cool as well but
yeah. Bill's has the good perspective. Turn on
the radio, call CQs, see what happens, and then
you'll know what to do differently next time.
Don has an advantage too. You can also show him
some satellite working. That was pretty interesting
seeing the kids at the National Jamboree. Watching
a satellite Q. So in progress up on Garden Ground
Mountain The kids really really were interested
in how that worked And then you get to spend
you know a few minutes of the contact of the
bird flying across Doing that and then you can
sit there and discuss exactly what happened because
uh that that that really kind of shows them What
are the possibilities of? amateur radio We got
some good feedback when we did a, our club did
a merit badge thing, I think it was last year.
Yeah, the satellite pass was the highlight. It
really sold the kids on, on Amateur Radio at
that point. I think about three and a half hours
later, they were singing a different tune, but...
That's a typical merit badge class. Yeah, it
was a, it was an overnight camp out too. So like
the kids were having fun, but, uh, they wanted
to run around and play basketball or something.
But anyways, it was a good time. All right, I'll
let you guys go. So maybe someone else can jump
in. Thank you very much and have a great night.
Thanks for calling Don. Thanks for calling. Good
luck. Yep. Yeah. The, uh, I'll mention my own,
uh, I went out and did a demonstration for a
venturing crew locally, a satellite QSO. And
right from the start, everything went wrong.
The wire broke loose from the battery. For some
reason, I couldn't get my transmit working. Didn't
have the frequencies right or whatever. But lo
and behold, we were at least able to hear the
satellite come over. It was FO 29. and we came
back into the ham shack that they have at this
camp, and we briefed them on, here's what an
orbit is and all that, but they said, well, we
learned how to troubleshoot, we heard what goes
on on the satellite, and they got, they were
kind to me, actually, but they seemed to get
a lot out of it, but it was, I called it an epic
failure. but still it made an impression. I hope
a good one. Well we are just about out of time
and I've still got a couple of things here and
I don't want to keep you guys too late here but
you mentioned a badge swap on slow scan. Yeah,
the one of the things that world Joda Jodi team
is promoting this year is a badge exchange now
I'll mention in in Europe and probably the rest
of the world other than the US They're called
badges. Here in the US, we call them patches.
But that's something that scouts do. They trade
patches when they're face -to -face. And what
they're trying to do is a slow -scan TV badge
exchange. And I know that GB2GP, which is in
Gilwell Park, where Scouting basically was founded,
is going to be on the air. And they've said they're
going to be very active with a slow scan TV badge
exchange. So that's something cool to check out.
And there's something cool going on over in Westchester,
Ohio. And Jocelyn, I bet, is here to talk about
it. Good evening, Jocelyn. Good evening, Neil.
uh... nice to be on and uh... jim and uh... bill
nice to uh... hear your voice uh... i'm sure
uh... uh... will get to meet soon uh... from
either convention or something because we're
close by there but i just want to chime in i
heard the gentleman thing you know how a lot
what what do i do in kinda comparing to uh...
what uh... jim was saying which is you know just
do your best uh... i think we the first year
is always rough you never uh... do everything
right uh... things are going to happen but the
kids don't really care they're just there and
they're just happy to be talking to somebody
so the point the first thing that the most important
point is to make sure they make a contact with
somebody it doesn't have to be dx it could be
local and just get that bug in them of like we're
you know we're talking on this wire and stuff
so that's my advice and yes as you as i've mentioned
the voice of american museum will be hosting
jamboree on the air for any scouts in the area
of the Cincinnati Dayton area that wants to come
down and see us free access to the museum. So
if there's a queue for to get on the radio, just
go to the museum, come back, check in. And if
there's a spot open, sit down and we'll get make
QSO with with whoever we can get a round up for
Joe and Brian the air. Awesome. Very good. I
wanted to mention to the listeners, Jocelyn had
a feature article in our newsletter that was
released this morning. During last year's Jambri
on the Air, five, it looks like five different
stations worked one another all in the same frequency,
getting the scouts engaged. But as importantly,
Jocelyn described how he was introduced to amateur
radio some 30 years ago, lost it. Along the way,
but picked it up It you know, we were planting
seeds and and when scouts are introduced to jamboree
on the air they might take on Catch on fire right
then or it might be 30 years later as it with
Jocelyn case, but comments Jocelyn No, you're
exactly right. You know, it's it's planting that
seed and as I've mentioned before uh... it's
not every it's not everybody's cup of tea uh...
radio snack on appeal to everybody but i want
the scouts to come in see what it is and leave
knowing there's a hobby out there and this is
what it is and as you have to mention you know
may not take fire instantly it may take some
time but at least they're aware in the back or
not but they're minor they added this radio thing
and that was really cool uh... and uh... uh...
as neil knows we're pretty uh... lucky there
to have the uh... or have our shack inside them
Voice of America Museum here in Westchester,
and having that means that they can come back.
We're open every weekend. If they want to get
in and do more radio, we're there. What happened
to me was the gentleman that did the Jeremy on
the Air for us eventually moved away, and I never
knew what it was called until much later in life.
So anyways, I know you guys got to run. I know
you've got your nets going on. I'm going to say
thank you, Neil, and look forward to try to get
as many Jota contacts as possible in two weekends.
All right, Jocelyn. Thanks so much for calling
in. We'll see you soon. All right. Thank you
and good luck. Yeah. Thanks for calling in. Great.
Bye bye. All right. Bye bye. All right. Well,
we didn't talk about the, the rating strip thing.
Do you want, do you want to take a minute for
that? Oh, that'd be great. Yeah. Well, we had
some discouraging news over the last few weeks.
I think it's the awards insignia and uniforms
committee of the Boy Scouts of America announced
to us that they were discontinuing the amateur
radio operator rating strip. And for those of
you who don't know, that particular strip If
you have a ham radio license, sew it on your
left sleeve. And so it was a great incentive
for scouts. After they'd earned the radio merit
badge, we'd say, for about an equal amount of
investment of your time and taking the test,
you can get your license, you can sew this patch
on. And in the old adages, nothing happens in
scouting without a patch. Well, that was perfect.
It was perfectly positioned. But the awards and
insignia committee decided that they're not doing
these kinds of things. They're not doing it more
broadly. Their official statement is on the k2bsa
.net website and read that over. And of course,
the patch was for adults. It was for youth. I
think we've gotten some comments there that the
committee seemed to take this more from an adult
perspective rather than the Scouts, but it is
unfortunate, but The other part of that news
is any scout patch, any uniform, even though
it's discontinued, can still be worn. It doesn't
have to be stripped off your uniform or anything.
And so if you've got them, sew them on. If you've
got them sewn on, leave them on. So that's kind
of the good news there. It's not going away.
It's just that BSA Supply won't be selling them
anymore. They still have them in stock, so order
them up. But disappointing, And as I told Neil
before the show, I wrote about five different
emails, all of them dripping with venom and flames
around the edges. And then I toned it down and
I said, well, they're not going to change their
mind. How can we make this the best? And how
can I get the right word out for everybody? And
we were able to do that. So disappointing for
sure. But don't take it off your uniform. Okay,
very good. Well, I got to get you guys Off of
here so you can get to your net but thanks so
much for coming on and talking about it and Hopefully
we can get a lot of Scouts on here in just a
couple of weekends. So thanks for coming on the
show. Oh You're welcome us. Yeah, thank you for
having us and y 'all you're even inviting bill
back next week. So that's We'll, we'll see how
that goes. So, so yeah, next week we'll be talking
Lennox. So, so get out your, uh, your penguin
tuxedo and we'll, we'll see how that goes. So,
well, that is a wrap for this week's edition
of ham talk live. Thanks to Jim Wilson, K5 ND
and Bill Stearns and E4 RD and everybody out
there in cyberspace for listening and calling
in. and invite you back next Thursday night,
9 p .m. Eastern Time. Russ Woodman, K5TUX, and
crew will be here to talk about Linux in the
ham shack. And for a list of all of our upcoming
guests, just visit hamtalklive .com. And don't
forget that USA radio scouting net happens in
just a few minutes if you're listening live,
10 p .m. Eastern, 9 p .m. Central on EchoLink
conference node JOTA - 365. So this is Neil Rapp
WB9VPG saying 7 3 7 5 and may the good DX be
yours.