Photo of the Month - September 2001
Are you planning to do something impressive for JOTA? Hoping to contact some-one a long way away? Well the Scouts in this months Photo of the Month have set a very high standard already. Mike Brown, is WB2JWD Misc. Activity & Support Coordinator, K2BSA Scoutmaster, Troop 80 BSA, Cortland NY and here is what he has to say ...
An entry for your Photo of the Month, just in time for the Jamboree on the Air next month. This picture is of a somewhat unusual occurrence. It was taken at the 2001 BSA National Scout Jamboree this summer at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia (USA). The picture was taken at the Jamboree Amateur Radio Station K2BSA, and the Scout is talking to Astronaut Susan Helms on board the International Space Station. K2BSA youth staff member Matt Schwaab, KC5SIX, is holding the microphone. Over 500 Scouts were present to watch 16 of their fellows (chosen by lot) talk to the Space Station as it passed overhead at 7:00 in the morning. In the background you can see some of the other Scouts waiting their turns to talk to Susan, as well as other K2BSA staffers watching the contact.
Talking to Astronaut Susan Helms on board the International Space Station
If you want to hear the contact, one of our staff members made a recording and I converted it to wav format and edited it. It's on the American Radio Relay League's website at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2001/07/25/1/ariss-1.m3u The K2BSA station was on the air 24 hours a day during the Jamboree, with a staff of 42 ham operators (all Scouts or Scouters) from all over the US, plus a Scouter from Australia. We talked to 109 countries, all 50 states and all of the continents during the Jamboree, and exposed countless Scouts to ham radio, 95 of whom earned their amateur radio licenses at the Jamboree.
Should you contact Mike or Matt during JOTA then please let us know. At ScoutNet UK we have our own JOTA and JOTI pages at http://www.ScoutNet.org.uk/joti/ where you can publicise your own events.
