INTERNATIONAL SCOUTING AND GUIDING BY AMATEUR RADIO

The Jamboree on the Internet (JOTI) is held at the same time as JOTA, but it is an internet activity.
Find out about JOTI pages by going to the New Zealand Scouting website, http://www.scouts.org.nz/ and click on "JOTI" on "events" in the home page main menu.

TO TAKE PART IS SIMPLE
Just arrange to visit an amateur radio station sometime during the JOTA period. Let the amateur operator establish a contact with another JOTA station, and then you can talk to those at the other station. You can also get your amateur to set up a station at a Scout or Guide Headquarters, or at some other 'interesting' or appropriate place such as a camp. The radio activities can become part of the camping programme.

That's it in a nutshell. Very simple, easy to organise, very enjoyable and its free. Half a million Scouts and Guides regularly take part all over the world each year, so it is a really big event in International Scouting and Guiding.

WORLD SCOUT CALLING FREQUENCIES
There are preferred frequencies for initiating radio contacts with other scout stations. Once a contact is made with another station, you should move to another frequency to allow others to use the calling frequency.

Here is the list of calling frequencies

JOTA-JOTI Contact Database.
I suggest that you register on the JOTA-JOTI database. This enables you to find other scouts and guides who intend being active on JOTA or JOTI. Most have email addresses so for JOTA, you can email them and arrange to contact them by radio. For JOTI, the database gives you a list of those whom you can contact, with contact details.

To register, go to www.jotajoti.org and click on "Create new account." Fill in the details on the form and follow the instructions. Please note that spaces in your User Name and your Password are not permissible.

By being registered, you have access to a very useful list of other participants in this activity. The more who register, the more useful the list will be. So please register.

THEME

For JOTA, there is to be a world-wide theme of "emergencies". Some countries will stage an emergency communications excercise, but given the sophistication of NZ emergency organisations, it is unlikely that scouts in this country would be able to assist them in any meaningful way. Instead, I suggest that at JOTA camps, camping be taken to primitive levels, like cooking on open fires etc, as if a disaster had struck. These activities could be talking points for JOTA and JOTI communications..

ECHOLINK.
Echolink will be more extensively used than last year. Details of its use are given in the Echolink page.

See also below about Scout Nets.

WHAT IS HAPPENING AROUND THE WORLD.
See what is happening world wide on JOTA by having a look on the World Scout Organisation's pages at http://www.scout.org/jota.

WHAT HAPPENED ON THE 2010 JOTA.
You can now download the 53rd World JOTA Report by downloading it from the World Scout Organisation's JOTA Site.
Surf to www.scout.org/en/information_events/events/jota/radio_scouting_library/all_world_jota_reports>. Note: this is just on 40 MB in size.

 

JOTA and JOTI ORGANISATION.
JOTA and JOTI are coordinated by the World Scout Bureau in Geneva and are organised by National Organisers in each Scouting country. The New Zealand National Organiser for JOTA and JOTI is Jim Parnell, whose amateur radio call sign is ZL2APE. Many Scout Districts have their own District JOTA and JOTI Organisers who arrange for the Scouts and Guides to take part in the activities.

LANGUAGES

Life would be so much easier, but perhaps less interesting, if every Scout spoke the same language. But this is not the case. How can we help Scouts to communicate with fellow-Scouts that do not speak their language?

Try the translator machine:
This is a free translation service available on the internet. You can enter up to one page of text in one language and ask it to translate it into another. It has over 20 different languages available. Last year, several JOTA groups used it to translate radio messages on the spot. It may not be very fast, but it is fun to do and it does help. You could even prepare a standard message for your Scouts in many different languages. Click on the translate button on the radio scouting web site at and it will get you to the translator machine.

Or else, try using the JCODE. This was developed to help JOTA participants in different countries to overcome the language barrier.

PARTICIPATION CERTIFICATES. Certificates will soon be available from the National Organiser. You will be able to get the 54th JOTA one for each of your participants by filling in this FORM and sending it to the National Organiser. The designer of the logo for this year's JOTA and JOTI is Felipe Trejo Malpica from the Octavio group in Jalisco, Mexico: "The reef knot unites the world so it doesn't rip apart, especially in these times of crisis. It also symbolises the Scout Brotherhood throughout the world. In the typography of JOTA, the letter O represents radio communication; in JOTI, the letter I, a mouse represents the Internet. This idea is to graphically represent a world which uses modern means of communication to send a message of peace, unity, and of support in the face of the disasters that surround us."

SCOUT NETS.
Wouldn't it be fun to meet new scouting friends on Echolink? Echolink allows world wide amateur radio contacts using the internet and amateur radio repeaters set up for the this mode of operation. It is the basis for the World Scout Net, held on the first Saturday of the month at 22.00 GMT (10 am NZST Sunday). Echolink node 131124 is the one to connect to.

CONTACT.
NATIONAL ORGANISER FOR JOTA and JOTI IN NZ:
J C Parnell (Jim), ZL2APE. 87 Duncan Tce, Wellington. Ph. 04 387 2489
Email. jim-p@ihug.co.nz

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11 Oct 2011