Update, September 2025: this year’s JOTA/JOTI is happening from 17-19 October, so we’re updating this post to assist clubs and Amateurs who are looking for ideas for the JOTA weekend. This event is one of the important ways we introduce youngsters to the great hobby of Amateur Radio, so we encourage all Amateurs to get involved.

Dom VK2JNA with a group of Scouts in the VK2MB shack

Jamboree on the Air/Internet is nearly here! VK2NR will be active from the clubhouse on Saturday morning and afternoon, 21 October 2023.

This page aims to give Amateur Radio Clubs and individual Amateurs who will be hosting Scouts and Guides some useful tips to make JOTA a fun event for everyone concerned.

First, to give you a taste of how we do things at VK2MB, here’s a short video of the JOTA 2022 activities at our clubhouse:

How we do JOTA at Manly-Warringah

Check out the Scouting playlist and other cool videos on our YouTube channel, VK2MB-TV.

In the past, we have taken an HF rig and antenna to a nearby JOTA camp site, but setting up and tearing down all the gear was a lot of work. So we worked with the Scouting Association to streamline the whole operation and give the kids a broader introduction to Amateur Radio.

These days, Scouts and Guides are brought to our club in groups, for about an hour and a half each. They are split up into smaller groups, and during their time they rotate between a number of different activities, each lasting about fifteen minutes.

Here are some of our regular activities:

Build an Emergency Radio Station

What if disaster struck, and the phone system broke down or was overloaded: could you get signal to the outside world using Amateur Radio? After this simple simulation exercise, you’ll be able to! Using a mobile transceiver, a 12V battery, cables, a mast, and an antenna, put together an emergency radio station from scratch, to reach the outside world and save the day! Emergency traffic (or just fun JOTA contacts) are sent via our club repeater.

Introduction to Shortwave

This activity introduces our visitors to the club’s main HF station, and explains the basics of HF radio propagation. The kids get a chance to talk on the radio to other Scout groups or assisting Amateurs. Let them try the Phonetic Alphabet. If it’s their first time on the radio, they might be a little mic shy and not know what to say, so let them use a cheat sheet of questions they can ask the other Scouts.

Seeing Electronic Signals with an Oscilloscope

We can’t see electrical signals with our unaided eyes, but with instruments like an oscilloscope we can! We introduce the basics of the ‘scope: the timebase controlling horizontal movement of the dot on the screen, and the channel amplifiers controlling the vertical deflection.

Using a signal generator or other source, we explain how to observe and measure signal characteristics. Bonus points for adding a second signal source and creating the ABC logo (Lissajous figure)! Let the kids twiddle the knobs and see the effects.

Morse Code

You can tell the tragic story that led Samuel Morse to create his famous code and revolutionise telecommunications. Introduce the sounds of dits and dahs, and how they make up the letters and numbers we use to communicate. Let each person send their own name in Morse with a straight key.

Radio Battleships

This game gets the kids used to message passing on the radio, the Phonetic Alphabet, on-air discipline and just have a bit of fun. The opposing team is in the nearby Scout Hall.

Code Breaking

Based on the training mission from the smartphone app, Escape Team, the players race the clock to crack the secret codes that will defuse a bomb that threatens the city. See the Resources section below for links.

Slow Scan TV

Using an SSTV app on your phone or tablet, take photos (check with Scout leaders first), add your callsign info, and exchange pictures with a co-operating station. Holding the phone speaker or microphone to your radio’s speaker or microphone gives acceptable quality without having to use extra equipment and cabling. See the Resources section below for links to SSTV apps.

Winlink

If you can operate Winlink portable, you can demonstrate how to send email when you’re off-grid, way out of Wi-Fi or mobile phone range. VARA HF is a great mode to contact Winlink gateway stations hundreds or a thousand+ km away on very low power. Plus, for a bit of extra entertainment value, it sounds a bit like R2-D2 from Star Wars!

Web SDRs

We now have hundreds of web-connected software-defined radios, webSDRs, which you can access on any web browser. Pick a webSDR anywhere in the world from one of the maps below, and explore the signals you can hear on it:

For extra fun, let your visitors transmit and hear themselves on the remote webSDR!

Radio Signal Propagation

Here’s an interesting experiment to try after JOTA: get hold of an AM radio, and see if you can identify all the stations the the radio can hear.

Each station identifies itself regularly, but to make things quicker a list of all Australian AM radio stations can be found on Wikipedia: AM Radio Stations in Australia. Stations in New South Wales have “call signs” beginning with the number 2, Victorian stations begin with “3”, and so on. If that sounds familiar, it’s because Amateur Radio stations are the same, just with “VK” at the very start!

Try this experiment during the day, and make a list of the stations you hear. Then repeat the experiment at night, and see if you notice a difference! Why is it so?

Bonus: the AM station Rule of 9: in Australia, all AM station frequencies are all divisible by 9 (example: ABC Radio National is on 576 kilohertz, and 576 / 9 = 64); and if you add up all the digits in the frequency, the sum is divisible by 9 as well (example 5 + 7 + 6 = 18, which is divisible by 9, and 1 + 8 = 9, which is also divisible by 9)!

Frequencies

Amateur Radio magazine provides the following frequency recommendations for JOTA weekend:

Australians stations participating in the event seeking voice contacts can be found on or around these calling frequencies: 3.650, 7.090, 14.190, 21.190, 28.590, 52.160 MHz.

Brave, or foolhardy, Australians stations after CW contacts can be found on or around these calling frequencies: 3.570, 7.030, 14.060, 18.080, 21.140, 24.910, 28.180, 50.160 MHz.

To give the youngsters a taste of international voice contacts, check on or near these calling frequencies: 3.690, 7.090 and 7.190, 14.290, 18.140, 21.360, 24.960, 28.390, 50.160 MHz.

There’s nothing like pictures to capture attention. Slow Scan TV (SSTV) calling frequencies are on: 3.630, 7.033, and 14.227 MHz.

Source: July/August 2023 edition of Amateur Radio magazine, page 7

Resources

BattleshipsDownload
  • Morse Code: thanks to Brian VK2AXC, here’s a Morse Code activity sheet to introduce Cubs to CW:
Cub-Scout-Group-Morse-Code-ActivityDownload
  • Also from Brian, a simple graphic illustrating Australian callsigns:
Australia_AmateurRadio_CallSignPrefixes_v1Download

External Links

  • Escape Team: we recommend printing several sets of pages 2-5 of the Training Mission, each set on different coloured pieces of paper. Cut out the jigsaw pieces and stick them to stiff card, so they are ready to go when the kids visit.
  • Droid SSTV app (Android) and SSTV Slow Scan TV (iOS) smartphone apps.

Some other useful JOTA resources:

Comic format AR material: