It's JOTA Time October 15-16!
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/09/27/5/
NEWINGTON, CT, Sep 27, 2005--Scouting's Jamboree On The Air (JOTA), is
a 48-year-old tradition that provides an opportunity for the Amateur
Radio community to expose young people to Amateur Radio. JOTA 2005
takes place over the weekend of October 15-16, and if you've never
participated in this annual fall event you're missing a great weekend.
Operation may be on any Amateur Radio band or mode.
"It's a chance to offer a Boy Scout or Girl Scout leader--cubs and
brownies included--the opportunity for their troop or pack to
participate in this worldwide scouting tradition," says ARRL
Educational and Technology Program Coordinator Mark Spencer, WA8SME. He
notes that Les Mitchell, G3BHK, came up with the idea for the first
JOTA in 1958. Some half a million scouts and Guides in more than 100
countries have participated since the initial running, making JOTA the
largest international scouting event ever.
JOTA 2005 begins Saturday, October 15, at 0001 local time and ends
Sunday, October 16, at 2359 local time (which may be Monday, October 17
in some locations). Stations on the air for this international event
include K2BSA/5 at Camp Wisdom in Dallas, Texas; additional K2BSA
stations operating from other US call sign districts; HB9S, the World
Scout Bureau headquarters in Switzerland, and GB2GP at Gilwell Park,
England. Members of the Newington Amateur Radio League (NARL) will
sponsor JOTA activities at ARRL Maxim Memorial Station W1AW.
Spencer advises participating groups to register their JOTA events on
the ARRL Web site. "Some scout troops are very small or may want to
'check out' JOTA before setting one up of their own," he says.
"Registering will help them locate the closest JOTA event."
The Valencia County Amateur Radio Association provides the Get Your
Radio Merit Badge Day Planning and Materials Notebook to help groups
organize a Radio merit badge seminar in association with JOTA. More
information about JOTA is available in September QST, p 54.
Additional information on Amateur Radio and scouting is on the ARRL Web
site. ARRL asks JOTA participants to complete a simple survey on the
ARRL Web site following JOTA. Completing this form will help ARRL see
the growth and the needs of this activity.
JOTA Space and Satellite Opportunities
The AO-51 "Echo" team has announced that during JOTA 2005, the
satellite will be available for for exclusive use by scouts and by
satellite operators communicating with scouts. "Please allow the scouts
the opportunity to make as many contacts as possible via AO-51 during
this short time period," said Mike Kingery, KE4AZN, of the AO-51 team.
For the JOTA weekend, AO-51 will be configured in the dual FM repeater
mode. This provides two independent FM repeaters with separate uplink
and downlink frequencies for use by JOTA participants.
Kingery says this mode will be enabled the week before the event to
allow amateur satellite stations to familiarize and test this mode.
AO-51 FM Repeater #1 downlink is 435.300 MHz; the uplink is 145.920 MHz
(67 Hz CTCSS tone required). AO-51 FM Repeater #2 downlink is 435.150
MHz; the uplink is 145.880 MHz (no CTCSS tone required).
Although there has been JOTA operation in the past from the Amateur
Radio on the International Space Station's NA1SS, the chances of
operation for JOTA 2005 are slim. That's because the event falls very
close to the arrival of the ISS Expedition 12 crew of Bill McArthur,
KC5ACR, and Valery Tokarev. ARISS Ham Radio Project Engineer Kenneth
Ransom, N5VHO, says a decision on JOTA participation by NA1SS will be
up to McArthur.--some information from AMSAT-NA and ARISS
