55 New Jersey Scouts earn merit badge

55 Boy Scouts from Central New Jersey have earned their Radio Merit Badges at the David Sarnoff Library in Princeton.

This, as radio hams from the Delaware Valley Radio Association and the David Sarnoff Radio Club hosted the merit badge presentation sessions on Saturday, January 5th

Among the presentations that the Scouts attended were classes on radio theory, electronic circuits, electrical safety and amateur radio. They also got the chance to speak to hams across the country and on board the battleship USS New Jersey.

Additionally, they saw demonstrations of the Automatic Position Reporting System, sent their names in Morse Code, located a hidden transmitter on the property and learned how Amateur Radio provides essential communications during disasters.

To finish the day, Dr. Joe Taylor, K1JT, of Princeton University and the inventor of the WSJT codec spoke on how he earned his Amateur Radio License and Radio Merit Badge as a Boy Scout. He also explained how these instances in his life led him to a career in Radio Astronomy and led to his being awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of a binary pulsar.

Dr. Taylor then presented each Scout with a Radio Merit Badge application.

This was the fourth year that the library and David Sarnoff Corporation have hosted the scouting event.

Source: ARNewsline, K2GW