JOTA-JOTI 2014 - West Centenary Scout Group

Wow, JOTA-JOTI is over for another year.

This is the first year I’ve run this as a Group activity, and we’ve had quite a few members participate over the weekend at the Jindalee Scout Hall. On Saturday we had Jindalee Cub Scouts, then at the night sleepover we had Scouts from both Jindalee & Jamboree Heights Troops as well as the whole Rover Scout Crew, then on Sunday we had the Joey Scouts followed by the Jamboree Heights Cub Scout Pack.

The Ipswich & District Radio Club (VK4WIP) came down with some of their equipment and the radio’s were used by the Jindalee Cub Scouts, and some other scouts & leaders throughout the weekend. Unfortunately due to the ionosphere conditions and the equipment we had, we weren’t able to make radio contacts on Saturday night or Sunday afternoon, but we were still able to make Internet text and voice chatting contacts. Both myself and the members of the radio club that attended have already starting discussing how to increase our chances to do better next year in the event the same radio conditions happen again, as well as other activities based on communication and radios.

Map of contacts

This map shows most of the contacts made, red is by Radio and blue is by Internet chat (text or voice).

Photo’s

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Ipswich & District Radio Club

Just a free well deserving plug… the radio part of this activity for our Group would not be possible without the help of the members of the Ipswich & District Radio Club. This is the first year they participated with us for JOTA, and already have some ideas on how to improve it for next year. All four of their members that were our guests for the weekend were there for both days, and they were pleased to see that our youth members were all keen and interested about the radios.

The Ipswich & District Radio Club is planning on doing a training course early next year (January or February) for the Foundation License. As far as I’m aware, there is no age restriction on getting your Foundation Licence or becoming a member of their club, but keep in mind that they aren’t a youth organisation so if youth do attend they should go with an adult family member. From everyone I’ve spoken to with the club, and the business meeting I attended, I can say that they are all friendly, welcoming and keen to share their passion & knowledge of Amateur Radio.

Once you have the Foundation level licence or higher, uniformed members (both youth & adults) can wear the Amateur Radio Operator Badge on your uniform (pictured left).

JOTA-JOTI 2015

This year has been quite successful, especially considering this is the first time I’ve run this as a whole Group activity. We already have ideas on how to improve this for next year which includes plenty of advance planning. Next year when we are a few months out from JOTA-JOTI, you should get some more information from your section leaders, as well as on this website.

Last words…

There was a lot of work involved by myself, the section & Group leaders, my daughter (a Jamboree Heights Scout that stayed with me the whole weekend and helped the younger sections) and the Ipswich & District Radio Club members, so I would like to take this chance to publicly thank them all. B.R.A.V.O.! THANK YOU!

James “Wombat” Cavanagh
Assistant Group Leader & JOTA-JOTI 2014 Base Co-ordinator

West Centenary Scout Group