It’s been a year since my daughter, a young leader at the local Scout troop, helped with JOTA/JOTI and remarked that they were only really doing the “on the internet” side of it, not the “on the air” side.

And that we should fix that.

I didn’t have the Full UK licence that would allow me to register a special event callsign. Got that. I didn’t have any portable radio kit, or experience operating in the field. Did that. And, at last, October rolled around again. This time, we were ready.

The day started with a hearty second breakfast before heading out to the field to set up our equipment. Compared to some of the JOTA stations I’d seen photos of, we had very little to offer—just the same equipment that regular visitors to this site will recognise.

The GB2BS JOTA HF station. Trip hazards are all part of the Scouting experience.

But though not very exciting to you or I, and far from impressive to look at, it was the first time a dozen or so Scouts had hands on with anything more capable than a walkie-talkie or an FM broadcast receiver.

Several groups rotated around, with a couple of the keener faces coming back again and again to have a go. Others were more interested in the indoor activities, with digital radio (via hotspot) on offer, as well as text chat, video calls and Minecraft.

Not that I got to see any of that, unfortunately—rather than de-rigging our equipment for lunch, I stayed to babysit it, and the end-of-day clearup was such an efficient operation that I didn’t get to look in then either!

I started with a quick tune-up test on the 40m band, but struggled to find any space at all—a contest was in progress and it was all but impossible to find even 2kHz to myself. Figuring the Scouts would prefer a less challenging environment, I switched over to 20m and we stayed there most of the day.

Despite a lot of “CQ Jamboree” calls, we unfortunately never got much interest from others. We had much better luck scanning around the band. Our Scouts spoke to a few other JOTA stations, but largely the they were getting bored of waiting for our turn during long JOTA-to-JOTA QSOs between other groups, so we moved on and found others to talk to.

We got nine contacts in the log before lunch, along with a lot of discussion about on-air protocols for the more interested, and some frustration trying to break through pile-ups. (Welcome to HF, folks.) Faroe Islands was a highlight, which would have been a new DXCC entity for me if I were using my own callsign, and a nice rare one for the Scouts’ first time on the radio.

Left on my own to look after the kit, I chucked four SOTA/WWFF chases into the log while I ate and waited for more Scouts. I figure it’s always nice when a random special event station works you, rather than the other way around.

Four more 20m contacts later, time was ticking on, and I decided to try throwing 10m into the mix and switched to the vertical antenna. I had suggested earlier that we should end the day that way, as there was a chance of getting to North America once they’d woken up.

It was a bit of a gamble; I’d never actually worked anyone on 10m phone, nor had I worked North America on SSB either. We made it to Asiatic Russia with a call to R7TG at just over 3,300km, and by that point the keenest of the Scouts were doing the whole QSO by themselves with only light supervision. But sadly, all too soon it was time for the Scouts to head home without a call to America in the logs for today.

As I was packing up the dipole antenna, my daughter asked if she could give 10m a try for a bit… and immediately worked N2ZN for the New York QSO Party.

Some have all the luck, eh!

Although I missed the indoor action, we finished the day with the Scout leaders talking about how we could do JOTA bigger and better next year—so I think we can call the day a resounding success. They even saved me a Scout badge, my first in 25 years!

The JOTA/JOTI 2024 badge

Thanks to all our contacts today:

UTC	Callsign	Band	RST Sent	RST Rcvd	Name	Country
905	LA9KHA	20m	59	57	Cato	Norway
0941	SK100KTH	20m	59	59		Sweden
0947	LA1YKA	20m	59	45	Haakon Olav	Norway
0957	HB9ERN	20m	59	59	Benno	Switzerland
1032	OY6JAM	20m		55	Skótafylki Sigmunds Brestissona	Faroe Islands
1041	OY6JAM	20m		55	Skótafylki Sigmunds Brestissona	Faroe Islands
1055	II5RAPT	20m	59+5	57	Sezione A.R.I. Pistoia	Italy
1112	OM8JOTA	20m	59	33	Jamboree	Slovakia
1131	SP8X	20m	55	55	Piotr	Poland
1200	DK4HAA	20m	59	59	Harm A.	Germany
1200	DF9HC	20m	59	59	Haiko	Germany
1200	DC1TC	20m	59	59	Tobias	Germany
1206	YO5PUV/P	20m	57	45	Emil Nicolae	Romania
1247	II5BP	20m	59	55		Italy
1303	IU7RAM	20m	45	45	Piero	Italy
1312	IZ0JUB	20m	58	47	Michael David	Italy
1319	II3RTRE	20m	59	57	Centenary of Italian Radio Broadcasting	Italy
1345	R7TG	10m	59	42	Alexander A.	Russia
1348	IT9KHW	10m	59	57	Vincenzo Giuseppe	Italy
1404	N2ZN	10m	59	59	Kenneth J	USA

Here’s the map from today:

See you on the air next time!

73 DE GB2BS