Scouts at Hamvention 2008

If you see a lot of scouts in the halls and flea market of the 2008 Dayton Hamvention, it wont be an illusion. That's because Scout Leaders will be reaching out to ham radio operators at Hamvention to encourage them to provide more amateur radio opportunities to scouts back in their home towns.

Amateur Radio Newsline's own scout leader, Mark Abramovich, NT3V, is here with the details:

Bill Ragsdale, K6KN, is a district chairman for Yolo, in the Golden Empire Council in Woodland, California, just outside of Sacramento.

A ham since 1954, Bill came up with the idea of combining his two hobbies - Scouting and amateur radio into a presentation he'll give on Saturday, May 17 at 9 a.m. in Room 2 at Hamvention.

"I put together a 45-minute program on the interaction between Scouting and ham radio," explains Ragsdale. "It's called 'Adventures with Elmer Baden Powell. It's a play on the concept of Elmer as a mentor and Baden Powell as the founder of the Scout movement."

Ragsdale, active on Scouting internet chat sites, has assembled a small staff of volunteers to help deliver a program that will offer lots of good ideas for hams willing to hook up with Scouts.

"We cover how to get involved with the Jamboree on the Air, how to use IRLP and Echo Link to establish worldwide communications and how to put on local events at that time period," Ragsdale says. The bottom line, Ragsdale says, is it's easy to get involved. "Scouts have events such as camporees, jamborees, jamborama that are outdoor events and we find that amateur radio is a natural fit for that," he says.

Ragsdale says he's also setting up a booth in one of the exhibit halls to encourage some networking between Scouts and hams. "We anticipate we'll have 500 or 600 people come by the booth and our idea is to educate them and provide resources for them that they can take away with them," Ragsdale says.

And, there's one more thing the group will do.
Matt Murphy, KC8BEW, of the Muskingham Valley Council in Zanesville, Ohio, is behind an effort to get Boy Scout camps which have ham radio operating for the summer to register with a database he's calling SCOTA for Scout Camps on the Air.

"We'll kind of pattern it like some of the others, lighthouses for one, IOTA, something like that," Murphy says. "And, what we'll do is come up with a numbering system which, incidentally, has been provided to us by the Boy Scouts of America because every council has an assigned number."

Murphy says the idea has been gelling for less than a year. He says he's looking first to gather the data and then set up a general area on the web where it can be accessed.

"It started out about six, eight-months-ago," Murphy says. "Started coming up with the idea and started taking it from there. And, I'm hoping to get some contact with Boy Scouts at the national headquarters. "My council, local council is helping out a little bit and kind of get the word out to begin that way."

Visit http://YoloBSA.editme.com/Dayton for further information.

Mark Abramowicz, NT3V
Amateur Radio Newsline