GB5EJ, EuroJam, Hylands Park, Chelmsford, Essex, UK 29 July - 10 Aug. 2005

Athough it could be seen as a dress rehearsal for the upcoming Centennial for Scouting, the World Jamboree of 2007 at the same location with over 40,000 participants expected, the EuroJam 2005 (EJ2005) was a magnificent event in itself with over 10,000 Young People (YP) and thousands of Adult Leaders from some 67 different countries. A lot of information can be found online at www.eurojam.org. Let's restrict ourself to the amateur radio operation.

Up to only a few months before the start of EJ2005 it remained unclear wether there would be any amateur radio activity from the site. Due to relentless efforts of initially only a few dedicated Hams it all came together. It required a lot of improvising and finding ways to deal with "the system" but the results certainly made it worthwile. During the operation, GB5EJ was aired by 12 crew members. Most can be seen in the crew picture:

Left to right standing Seán EI3IP, Erwin PA3EFR, Paul PA5UL, Jochen DK8ZM, Ivor G4GET and sitting Ralph VE3RJE, Anthony 2E0AZS, Liz G0RJX, Barbara G8AKU, Alan G3WNS and Richard G0REL.

Not in the picture is Dennis M0NDJ who had another job in the International Service Team (IST) but who came to operate very frequently in his spare time.

Other hams involved with support and preparations include Frank M0AEU, John G0GDU, Malcolm G4CXT, and Ant M1FDE who provided us with Echolink access via his node at his homeQTH in nearby Chelmsford. Unfortunately we had to miss Magdi ST2M who intended to be part of the crew but who couldn't overcome paperwork issues in time.

The radio station was located in two flimsy white tents with the generator located just outside it, not an ideal setup.

More impressive was the antenna farm, consisting of TH7 Triband Yagi for 20m, 15m and 10m @ 64 feet, 1/2 wave dipole for 80m @ 50 feet, 1/2 wave dipole for 40m @ 50 feet, 1.5 wave dipole for 17m @ 50 feet, Colllinear for 6m, 2m and 70cm @ 66 feet, 9 ele Yagi for 2m @ 25 feet, Collinear for 2m, and a Receive antenna for WEFAX. The large white marquee in the back was not part of the ham radio station but was the EJ Cinema. The little green tents to the left of the shack tents housed our equipment safe (a.k.a. a crewmember’s car…).

Radio equipment (kindly loaned to the event by industry) included an FT 1000MP Mark 5 Field for HF, TS 570DG for HF, TS 2000E for HF/VHF/UHF, FT 874 for HF/VHF/UHF and a number of personal handys etc. for local use. With these, several thousands of QSO's were made into some 105 DXCC entities but this number could still go up a little as the log is still being computerised. Best QSO was when just before K2BSA went QRT we were able to work them, tnx Jill KC8PVQ.

All QSL were written out on the spot and have been delivered to the RSGB bureau. We were QRV on almost all bands between 80m and 70 cm and via Echolink. The shack hosted a weather satellite receiver which drew quite some interest from visitors as the weather throughout the event was quite "British". Hidden around the site were some RDF transmitters for Fox Hunting and a number of very neat flashing Eurojam badges were made at the kit-building desk.

On the Eurojam campsite many more licensed participants were active in the IST-team or as Troop Leaders and even a few YP had a license. Over 30 hams signed our guestbook and we even hosted an animated Eyeball Sched. Prominent visitor to the shack was Richard PA3BAR, JOTA organiser for the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) who was quite impressed with what had been achieved. Richard introduced Dr. Eduardo Missoni, Secretary General of WOSM, who stayed much longer than his schedule allowed. He was very interested indeed as to what amateur radio could do for Scouting, especially in Third World areas like Africa.

Although GB5EJ can be considered a success we intend to improve in many respects two years from now for the 21st World Jamboree. We hope to have 24/7 operation with at least 30 operators and a much larger shack. Hopefully we'll be a ticketed activity so we'll draw many more YP into the shack. We'll try and make sure we have Internet access from the start so we can be directly QRV on Echolink and DXclusters, monitor sched emails etc. so many more Scout and Ham stations can QSO us. Unfortunately this time it took VERY long to get online, resulting in the loss of a number of sched possibilities. We apologise if this happened to you.

73 de Paul PA5UL
Radio Interested Scout RIS#410
RNARS#3302, MARAC#005
“Chikai” Cub Scout Master, Sionee Pack, Scouting Ashanti,
Zoetermeer, The Netherlands
email: pa5ul <at> amsat.org

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