Scouting and ham

[Nashua Area Radio Society]

Hello everyone!

 

As most of you know who have got me on the air; I am the Merrimack VFW Post 8641 Commander in Merrimack, NH.  Part of what the VFW does is chartering a scout pack/troop.  I would like to propose to our post’s scouts that we do a scouting ham day, but my knowledge and experience is very little in this area.

Is there any interest in getting involved to make this a reality?

 

Thanks, 73.

 

Paul

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[Nashua Area Radio Society]

Paul,

I am the Historic District Vice Chair for membership and the Daniel Webster Council JOTA coordinator.  The Club has done amazing work with Scouts at Jamboree’s going back to 2016.   Including this years (not ordinary) JOTA.

Jamboree on the Air is the weekend of the 4th Saturday in October.  Often we camp someplace and build a program around Radio Merit Badge, fox hunting, and emergency communications – definitely right in the sweet spot of BSA motto Be Prepared.

I am always game for additional youth exposure – let me know if there is something specific you want to do with your troop, and I will post in the club forum leading up to JOTA this year.

73 and Yours in Scouting,

Greg Fuller

[Burns FISHER]

Ham radio and scouting goes back a long ways as I recall.  Isn’t there a merit badge for it?  I seem to remember it being common in Boy’s Life articles many years ago when I was getting it.

[Nashua Area Radio Society]

Hi Paul,

I’m an Eagle Scout from Heart of New England Council. One of the biggest things you can do is operate during JOTA (the international Jamboree on the Air) in October. There’s a net on the *JOTA-365* conference on EchoLink, as well as local nets. More information about the BSA’s participation in JOTA is here: https://k2bsa.net/jota/

K2BSA is a great resource as it’s the BSA’s radio club. They have monthly radio scouting nets and support at the National and World Scout Jamborees at the Summit.

I’m not sure if you saw the article in the latest QST but there was a troop in Texas(?) that got their Scouts involved with ARES after a hurricane.

Radio merit badge is a relatively easy badge to teach, especially with the support of a local club. When my troop earned it we had elmers from NVARC come out to help.

If you’ve got questions I’m more than happy to answer!

 

73 and yours in Scouting,

Owen KC1KZT

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