JOTA at Dorridge Scout Group
Well I really enjoyed JOTA today, we had about 100 scouts and beavers through the JOTA station this afternoon. Callum M0MCX had spent the last few days on a project antenna for some fun, using computer modelling he has made a 168m corner fed loop in a triangle formation between trees at a height of 27m above ground using sling fishing rods to get the lines to the top of the trees. I arrived to see the wire antenna in a perfect triangle above the field next to the scout hut. It looked really impressive the 550 feet of copper wire between 3 huge trees.
Callum had a video introducing amateur radio to the beavers, cubs & scouts, then Terry G4MKP did an introduction to Morse code with a lesson in sending and receiving CW. Followed by an explanation about QSL cards and writing a message that the kids would then transmit over the amateur radio.
I was operator to generate some pile ups so that I could pick off a few strong stations that would help us with the passing of messages to the scouts. The wire loop was working well, a quick test put GB1DSG in the log of VK9DWX Willis Island, then a QSY up the band to generate a nice pile up to the USA working North & South Dakota Oregon and up to Saskatchewan, Canada. I put out a CQ call for a strong station to help with the transmission of the scouts messages and nearly jumped out the chair as V8BDS Rahamen in Brunei called with a huge signal, he was kind and patient enough to help with about 15 cubs that were only 9, 10 and 11 years old and they were quite amazed that they were talking to someone so far away. Although there was some guy on frequency taking the mickey trying to disrupt the station but I ignored this and after about 5 minutes he stopped.
Excellent afternoon! All credit to Callum M0MCX for organising it so well. 73 de Tim M0URX
