On Saturday, October 17, OVH ran Jamboree-on-the-Air (or JOTA) at Camp Snyder in Haymarket, VA. One of our members , ROB (W4FSK) was our liaison with the scout camp and was also in charge of the camp that day. We had a troop of boys, a second one of girls and a third troop of Muslim boys. Rob estimates the OVH volunteers worked with about 50 scouts and their leaders, just at Camp Snyder. The scouts that made contacts were given signed contact cards that they can then use for partial credit for several merit badges.
John (KG4NXT) brought his IC-7610 so we could have a digital station and both Al, (KB4BHB) and “The Other Ken” (KN4DD) brought their 2 meter mobile stations. The digital station ran FT8 and worked European, Caribbean and US stations. Looking at PSKReporter, the digital station was also heard in Antarctica and the Philippines. After Al’s station suffered a malfunction, Ken (KN4DD) ran a 2 meter FM station out of his truck and was very popular. He had his scouts contact Gil (KM4OZH) at his farm in Amissville, VA via the 97 repeater. Gil had rigged a speaker on top of his car so he could do farm work but also hear when he was needed. When Gil became unavailable due to his work, Ken also contacted another JOTA group in Centreville which was run by Jim (KN4ELI). When there were no scouts lined up outside his truck, Ken talked to the scouts in Centreville. Ken also had scouts in his truck talk directly to the scouts in Centreville. This was a form of “self preservation” as there was about 30 scouts there, mostly Girl Scouts.
There was one Girl Scout interest in sideband. Ron (K3FR) changed the FT8 setup to sideband and worked with her for over a half hour.
AL (KB4BHB) arrived early at 8 AM and helped with setup.
Theresa (KG4TVM) made a hotdog lunch for OVH volunteers and also took the photos below.
We had several OVH members that volunteered to help but were unable to do so. George (K4GVT) needed to be home to meet contractors. Don (WA2SWX) had his DMR and hotspot packed up but had to take his dad to the hospital at the last minute. Wayne (N7QLK) had volunteered for a late afternoon spot but the schedule changed at the last minute and we asked him to stay home.
