The third weekend in October is celebrated worldwide as Jamboree On The Air or JOTA, where boy and girl scouts working with volunteer radio amateurs around the world make contact and create new friendships via Ham radio over a two-day period. This year JOTA/JOTI was celebrated on October 21/22 where over 2 million scouts from 174 countries contacted each other via amateur radio or Over The Internet – JOTI.
Here in SVG, over a dozen teen aged girl scouts and boy scouts from the Kingstown Scout troop converged at their head quarters at Arnos Vale to establish contact and create friendships with local and regional Ham radio operators.
On hand to facilitate local, regional and international contacts via ham radio were radio operators Sean Patterson – J88CU, YRM IT Director and YRM Director/Secretary Donald De Riggs –J88CD. The radio operators gave a background to ham radio and allowed the scouts to spell their names using the international phonetic alphabet, as well as assisting with the erection/dismantling of the HF antennas used for the activity..
Several contacts were made both locally and regionally and the scouts had a great time chatting over the air creating new friendships in the process. Every year, the YRM assists the scouts and occasionally girl guides with similar activities.
Donald Deriggs