I though it might be interesting to mention that my son has as part of his The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and my suggestion taken and passed his foundation licence as one required activity. They also undertake a hike and camping trip. I suggested that for his exhibition project which he needs to present that he takes his handheld and we go walk a few of the hills in south coast of England and he activates a couple of them. Having been a beaver, scout and now in explorers he really likes the idea.
Personally I think this is a great activity and well suited to the scouts and award schemes like the DoE. and I will be explaining to some of the scout leaders when I next see them.
That aside I think its going to become quite popular in my house over the summer. Wish I had discovered this sooner.
Well done Kevin! There has long been a connection between scouting and Amateur Radio, Indeed I got interested in AR through my brother who got his interest through the scouts.
The theme of this years Ham Radio show at Friedrichshafen last weekend was Radio Scouting. Amateur radio was always interesting for Scouts, with SOTA, and other “on the air” scheme’s it should be even more attractive nowadays.
I also arrived in amateur radio through scouting - back in 1976! I am still a Scout leader, but other than a couple of soldering exercises and a bit of phonetic alphabet I havn’t really found a way of engaging the scouts.
I wonder ( weather permitting …) if SOTA - JOTA is a possibility combining a hike with a short activation. If it was vaguely co-ordinated it would add a reason to the hike and a homebrew (probably hf) antenna could be made by the scouts in a previous meeting. This year JOTA is 19-21st October.
From the Scout side in the UK helpers should be DBS checked, and there is a permit system which will apply to hills over 500m - so there are a few potential hurdles. On the positive side it might lead to some younger blood in the hobby!
I must admit to not having read up on the new greetings messages rules in the UK and what the Scouts would be allowed to do.
I am also aware that a near by scout group and the local cadets have via the Sutton and Cheam Radio Society trained and got through a number of youngsters for foundation. I might suggest a round robin and see if they can get on the air when they are in attendance. Perhaps some co-ordination is all it would take.
I take my daughter (7yo) with me on activations when I can. Some days she is interested and some days she chases butterflies and thinks about unicorns or whatever 7yo girls think about. She actually worked a few stations on one of my last summits. She seemed to have a great time as her contacts were the farthest of the day (California and Washington State from Georgia), and the chasers, while a little confused at first, had a good time too.
She actually worked a few stations on one of my last summits. She seemed to have a great time as her contacts were the farthest of the day (California and Washington State from Georgia), and the chasers, while a little confused at first, had a good time too.