Boy Scout Camporee

Spanish Trails District Fall Camporee 2006

October 13th thru 15^th

The Green Valley Amateur Radio Club joined the Boy Scouts Camporee to demonstrate Ham Radio and to give the Scouts the chance to build their own alternating LED flasher kit.

Friday morning October 13^th Lloyd N7GV led a group of club members including Omar KW7OS, Rudy N3EBG, Ron VE6RGP, Joe NX2L, Randy KM7T, & Gene W0KAD to the “Double V Boy Scout Ranch” West of Tucson where Ton Fagan WB7NXH and his son Jimmy KE7IDC met the group and outlined the plan for the week end.

The Scouts were scheduled to start arriving at 4 pm which allowed enough time to set up the Amateur Radio station and its antennas, as well as the flasher kit assembly area.

After Lloyd outlined what needed to be done, a crew started the erection of the 20 meter and the 40 meter dipole antennas which where hung from 30 ft masts. A table with its own sun canopy for the station was also set in place. There was a Kenwood TS-50 HF transceiver and a Yaesu Linear Amplifier that gave the Station a 600 watt punch.

As that crew worked on the Ham Radio station the rest of the group set up the Club's two 10 foot x 10 foot canopies separated by enough room to hang the GVARC banner. Then a ratty old blue canvas was hung over the space between the two canopies and two 8 foot. 3 foot tables were put in place so the Scouts now had a space to build the flasher kits.

Bob AD7FQ, Linda AD7FP, AD7KC Carolyn, Frank KE7GUF and his Xyl arrived during the afternoon before the Scouts did and were ready to help each Scout as they started their kit assembly.

Gene W0KAD & Joe NX2L sat down at the radio and worked stations from around the world. A highlight was a nice long contact with Roger VK2RO in TOCUMWAL, AUSTRALIA. Roger was one of many stations that were willing to take the time required to talk to some of the Scouts directly.

In all there were 113 contacts made on the radio. Several stations talked directly with the Scouts asking each Scout about such things as what levels and badges the Scout has achieved. There were well over 100 Scouts that talked on the radio. For most it was there first time to see or hear Ham Radio.

One memorable event was at the end of the contact with Larry KA0PLW. With the mike held open, all 8 to 10 Scouts from one pack, in unison, said “Good bye & thank you Larry” after each had talked to him individually.

While the Radio Station was working, the main attraction of flasher kit building was going on and on in the other tent under the watchful eyes of the original members that had helped set up. They were joined by several others members Jim KE7AUN, Dick W7KAM and Don Davies.

There were 119 kits built by the Scouts with an average time of 20 minutes to build one kit. You can see how many hours went into the project. I heard that Saturday night the camp looked like a fire fly convention.