"Dee D. Flint" wrote in
:
"Alun" wrote in message
...
(Steve Robeson K4CAP) wrote in
:
Subject: Let's debate: Should Amateur Radio be made a free for
all? From: Alun
Date: 5/9/2004 8:12 AM Central Standard Time
Message-id:
I applied to be a counselor for the radio merit badge in boy scouts
a couple of months ago, but haven't heard anything back yet. The
troop leader is more interested in finding someone for the computer
badge.
From what I read in the papaers, it's getting harder and harder
for the
Scouts to find leaders who want to be leaders and not molesters....
PS: The requirement for a CW QSO has been dropped from the badge,
which makes it more practical for me to do it!
Examiners have always had it at thier discretion to send
random letters
and check for character count. In the long run, I bet more folks
have passed the test because it WAS a "QSO" since they could go back
and fill in missing letters....ITS N T T AT ARD TO FI L IN
THE BL NKS ON E YOU BACK U AN LOOK AT W T YOU WR TE DO N.
73
Steve, K4YZ
I think maybe you are a bit confused, so I guess I need to explain a
little more. The radio merit badge used to require the boys to
participate in 2 CW QSOs and 1 phone QSO. Now that requirement is just
for 1 QSO in any mode. Some phone ops used to teach the badge and do
CW QSOs by computer, which had the added advantage that the boys could
see what was being said, whilst others used to get a CW op to
participate (the counselor tests the boys, but anyone can provide the
instruction/demos).
The QSO requirement is only one from a long list, and can be satisfied
by boys with a ham licence if they submit 5 QSL cards from 3 call
districts. The boys who are not hams (obviously the vast majority)
just have to sit in on a QSO instead.
One of the other requirements is to draw a frequency chart, and there
are very specific rules about what it has to show. The funny thing is,
the example in the book doesn't comply. It was done by the ARRL, but I
don't think it was created specially for the purpose. I think it was
just something that already existed that they let the boy scouts use.
One of the questions I am contemplating is whether I should give
credit for copying it, or whether they should have to do it properly?
73 de Alun, N3KIP
I'd say make them do the chart by the rules of the merit badge.
There's very little to be learned just by copying a pre-existing chart.
Of course they should be allowed to use the ARRL one (and others) as
an information resource.
In the real world of work, one frequently has to reformat information
to meet customer formatting requirements.
Dee D. Flint, N8UZE
That's pretty much what I was thinking. I just wanted to see if others
would agree. The league's chart in the scout merit badge book covers a
slightly wrong frequency range, and it doesn't really show the required 8
services. At least, it sort of does, but it mixes some services together
while separating some users that are part of the same service.
I was wondering if I was being too pedantic, but I tend to think that maybe
it is best to ignore that chart and show them one that is more correct. I
imagine the FCC chart is super correct There again, were the scouts really
meaning to imply the proper definition of a 'service' in their
requirements? Maybe they had something vaguer in mind?