On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:02:26 GMT, "John O"
wrote:

Wonder if there are any other Hams that have managed to take their rigs on
a
Boy Scout campout and got the Scouts interested in Ham Radio, or even
Morse
Code ? We have two Hams in our Troop, and we have thought about doing the
JOTA in October, along with dragging a rig to our indoor/cabin camping
weekends, and something during good weather. Also, what would be a good
rig
to drag out to these camping events....

I've done morse across the lake at our council camp, with those little
super-bright LED keychains. The first-year Scouts were truly impressed.
Actually, I had one group on each end of the lake, and *they* did the code.
:-)

Oddly, I have both HF and 2m rigs, but no license. I have to drag a ham
along to our next cabin outing to help me run an antenna, tune it up, and
start yakking.

John O
A true Heathkit nerd...

I made one mistake (for purposes of this particular thread) when I was
a Scout - I learned semaphore. My friend and I could have passed the
Navy Signalman CPO test for speed when we were 15 years old. We were
not allowed to enter signalling contests at camporees our last 2 years
in BSA - in fact we weren't allowed to be a team for any event those 2
years.

Teach kids Morse if they learn anything. It took my son and I 1 week
(every night) to learn the code well enough to pass the Novice test 28
years ago. But make it interesting or you will lose them - and only
practice for a very short time.

Hugh