The Scouts & Schools Program

An Educational Outreach of AARC

by James Alderman, KF5WT

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Winter Camp 2005

Greetings Fellow Amateurs,

Thanks to all who volunteered at "Winter Camp 2K5." Around 1600 Scouts and leaders from all over northern Texas and beyond enjoyed the spring-like weather during the four-day camp. Many of them participated in our Amateur Radio programs. Although we experienced a few "bumps in the road" during our programs this time, a good time was had by all.

We had 59 students in our Weather Merit Badge program, and 73 in Radio, for a total of 132 students. A total of 11 club volunteers donated approximately 175 man-hours of time towards these programs. Volunteers once again served as "table mentors," helping students with their drawings, and serving as control operators during on-air activities.

Classes

Upon arrival at camp we immediately noticed that there was a good bit of water in the radio classroom. Mopping it up did no good. It just seemed to keep coming back. Turns out, there was a water leak inside the wall.

We reported the matter to camp maintenance, and on the first day of class we arrived to find that the wall was opened up for repairs. However, the old plastic pipes were so brittle that every repair seemed to cause another crack somewhere. We had to just move our tables and benches away from the side of the room where water was leaking in. Throughout the duration of camp the floor never really dried out.

We were also surprised this time to discover that class size limits had been changed from previous years and we were VERY crowded in both Weather and Radio. I guess that's a testament to the popularity of our program. However, this large class size tended to diminish the quality of the class to a degree since we had to rush through our required radio contacts and didn't really have time to enjoy the QSOs.

On The Air

Radio contacts were made on the Athens and Palestine repeaters. Local hams were good to monitor these frequencies during the days of camp to spend some time on the air with each Scout. Athens contacts were made using a mobile radio inside the classroom connected to a homebrew J-pole attached to a sewer vent pipe on top of the classroom. Palestine contacts were made using a handheld radio and a homebrew tape measure beam. Even using a talkie on low power, the tape measure beam gave us a good signal into Palestine.

A satellite contact was attempted on Wednesday, December 28. However, we could hear the satellite strong enough to make out what was being said, but we weren't able to make contact. The satellite was simply not high enough in the sky.

Extra Activities

The pleasant weather once again this year meant that few Scouts wanted to be indoors tinkering with radios during the afternoon free time. Fishing, football and Frisbee were popular free-time activities. Consequently, we had very few visitors during our afternoon open station activity.

Some very important foxhunt experiments showed us that we still have some work to do if we intend to put on a successful foxhunt at camp.

I had brought along with me a homebrew fox to use. However, we quickly learned that it was too powerful (2.5 watts) for use with the homebrew tape measure beams (without attenuators) which we had intended to use for the foxhunt. So for next year we'll plan to build some half-watt foxes and some more tape measure beams.

The afternoon VE session was not adequately advertised in the camp publicity package which is sent to local Scout leaders in October. Thus, very few knew anything about it. We only had two Scouts attempt the Tech test.

Although I had advised against any Scout attempting the test without at least some prior study, two 12-year-olds got a copy of our club's study materials and did just that. Neither passed, but both got half of the questions right. Both of these guys are from the north Dallas area where there are plenty of VE opportunities. No doubt they will have their Tech licenses in short order.

To Improve Next Time

1. Get more instructors trained so we can rotate personnel among Radio and Weather as needed. This point came to our attention when I got very sick with a fever the night before camp was to start, and it was very questionable whether I'd be able to recover in time. We don't want an entire program to be dependent upon one person. We need several instructors who can step in if anybody can't make it.
2. Get all of the bugs worked out of the foxhunt and do some trial runs weeks before camp. The foxhunt must be simple enough that a 12-year-old can figure it out, and it's also challenging enough to be fun for all ages.
3. Distribute volunteers more evenly among Weather and Radio classes. At times we had all of our helpers in the Radio class and none in Weather.
4. Better advertise our optional programs (VE session and foxhunt) in promotional literature sent out to Scout leaders before camp.

Thanks

Special thanks to the following club volunteers who worked at the camp and helped make our Radio and Weather programs a success, and thanks to the Athens and Palestine radio clubs for the use of their repeaters.

• Aaron and Angela Scott
• John and Dana Beckton
• Rick and Alice Smith
• Jim Alderman
• Wanda Alderman
• Mark Coleman
• David Pulley

Thanks to our BSA youth staffers Steven Cory, Sam Blount, and Dillon Sparks.

Thanks to the dozen-or-so Scout and Scouter hams who attended camp with their units, brought along their radios, and came by to wish us well and lend a hand.

73, James Alderman, KF5WT

Photos

1 thru 5 - Setup was complicated by the fact that the leaking water just would not go away. Water does not mix well with electricity and RF ! The pipes inside the wall were so old and brittle that each time a leak was fixed, another sprung.

6 thur 9 - A single HF station had both voice and PSK-31 capability on 10, 15 and 20 meters. A portable 2-meter station was connected to a homebrew J-pole attached to our restroom's outside vent pipe.

10 thru 13 - Fifty nine (59) students took the Weather Merit Badge class, which was held in the headquarters classroom. Due to the large number of students, and due to the fact that another class was being held in the same room at the same time, conducting the Weather class was challenging. Alice Smith (N5WBH) did a wonderful job teaching Weather, as always. However, a breakdown of the camp's wireless electronic filing system necessitated that all paperwork be filled out by hand--a task which took several hours.

14 thru 20 - Seventy three (73) students took the Radio Merit Badge class. Since water kept puddling on one side of our classroom, we had to crowd the students more to one side.

21 thru 23 - A low-orbit satellite contact was attempted on the first day. Because of a less-than-optimum orbital pass, we could only somewhat copy the satellite but not transmit through it. Radio contacts were done on three local repeaters. Both Palestine and Cedar Creek repeaters could easily be accessed with a talkie on low power using a homebrew tape measure beam. Note the J-pole on the building in the background.

24 - Because of the hard work of the kitchen crew, staffers and camp volunteers didn't have to devote valuable man-hours to preparing their own meals each day. That translated into thousands of extra man-hours which could be devoted to camp program areas, including Radio and Weather.

25 thru 30 - Spring-like weather made for enjoyable afternoon activities at Winter Camp, including the Mountain Man and Indian Village programs, pod races, and fishing.