Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) 2024

Stuart with the help of the radio club he is a member of, the Bredhurst Receiving and Transmitting Society (BRATS), ran our first Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) station at Lower Grange Farm over the weekend of the 19th and 20th October 24.

Each JOTA amateur radio station needs to have a special radio callsign, we applied for and received GB4LGF (GB 4 Lower Grange Farm).

We started early on a damp Saturday morning, put up antennas, ran coax to the courtyard meeting rooms all ready to operate. We used a long wire (G5RV) and a vertical antenna. Each stable meeting room had posters, maps and information about amateur radio so we could explain as required.

The winners of Grow 50 were on site both days doing many activities, so we a good number of Squirrels, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers along with their leaders on site each day. They had a chance to visit us and the JOTI (Jamboree on the Internet) station which was being run by a Scout group.

We quickly found many other JOTA stations to talk to over the radio, and allowed young people and leaders to talk to each other, this brought large grins to both young people and older Scouts

On Saturday Richard ran a PMR radio-based treasure hunt which involved 2 teams, one in the room and the other being guided round the site to find radio related questions. It was amazing how quickly the younger sections picked up radio operation.

Sunday we had some more contacts and we set up a system that allowed data to be passed over amateur radio (FT8) until we shutdown just after lunch.

The station was well received with great feedback so we hope to run more Scout based special event stations going forward.

Thanks to fellow Scout Richard 2E1EVK and Nigel M0OQU, Peter M0PLG and Graeme G6UVL from the BRATS for helping us run this great event along with the support of the staff at Kent Scouts Lower Grange Farm.

Stuart G7JYF (amateur radio call sign)
Kent Scouts Media Team & BRATS member.

If you are interested in being involved in future communications events or interested in becoming a radio amateur please contact Stuart.