JOTA (Jamboree on the Air) is an opportunity to bring amateur radio to scouting. Each year, typically in October, scouts and scouters get on the air waves to talk about how scouting impacts their lives across the country and the world.
Troop 17 participated in JOTA this weekend at our charter organization’s location, Harrisville Congregational Christian Church. Our troop trailer (not pictured) has a PVC pipe mounted to the side with a 30 foot extended flagpole mast reaching to the sky. It’s almost tall enough that it should be supported with guy wires however our dipole antennas seemed to keep it steady in the low wind environment.
For antennas we chose to run with 2 dipoles. Reaching the top of the mast was a dipole cut for the center of the 80 meter band. It is constructed of speaker wire (which works wonderful for measuring twice and cutting once!) and a simple center conductor that also has a 1:1 balun connected to RG58/U coax. Our second dipole is cut for the 40 meter band and was approximately 4-5 feet lower from the top of the pole. It is constructed of green electrical wire (thanks Mike!) with a center conductor connected to RG58/U coax. Both antennas were oriented North-South so we were broadside to the East-West.
Our 80 meter dipole was connected to my MFJ-949D antenna tuner and in turn was connected to my Yaesu FT-891 radio in my go-box. This setup worked great for all of 80 meters and even though orientation was wrong the band was so open that I was hearing stations from Antigua and Santiago with no problem!
Jason was working the 40 meter band with his ICOM IC-7300. That is one awesome radio with a built-in tuner, waterfall display, and voice spectrum analyzer all in one box. Again, we were not oriented for North-South contacts but he was able to work a group of scouts in Toronto that said the temperature was 38