JOTA (Jamboree on the Air) is a spectacular opportunity to introduce Scouts to amateur radio. For many, this will be their first exposure to the world of ham radio. Some will go on to become hams, enjoying the hobby for a lifetime. A few will even find the basis of a career in science and technology. JOTA is not a QSO contest. The idea is to contact other Scout stations and allow as many Scouts as possible to talk to other Scouts and learn about who they are and what they are doing. You might think about counting the Scouts on both sides of the QSO rather than the number of QSOs!

Ten's of thousands of US Scouts participate every year. Scouts of all programs are invited to take part, from all countries, totaling over a million, though mostly in Asia. There is even a J-Code for language barriers.

K4L Justin Sligh, KN4MQR, BSA Camp LaNoChe, Paisley, FL

Our particular event station K4L broke records in 2018 for the total number of participants, representing 8% of the total US participation in the world-wide event. We'd like to double that by having many more stations, hams and activities this year...but we need help. Last year we processed 1,010 scouts and 235 visitors, with 5 hams and a dozen helpers. This year we are aiming for all 1800 potential scouts at the sold-out Halloween themed event. Other events we'd like to host at this years JOTA are: CB Battleship, WiFi ARDF, true ARDF (need more people/receivers/foxes), Lego Build and CW/Morse key stations. -- Our goal is to give an immersive experience and keep the scouts interested while waiting their turn for HF/VHF and IRC Scout Chat on laptops. Ken Lyons, KN4MDJ@Gmail.com OCTOBER 19TH, 7AM - 10PM (We setup the night before) We may be setting up more stations in Rybold so that Scouts BSA troops can visit and take part. Main camp will be at capacity with the 1800 cubscouts. If we can get the EMCOM trailers from LARA and OARC perhaps they may setup there. For Scouts BSA we predict 50-200 participants for Rybold, if we get good advertising to the troops.