WADARC ran a station at the Birkenhead District Scout Headquarters in BALLS ROAD, OXTON (IO 83 LJ). At various times over the weekend, active on 2M., 4M., 20M., and 80 metres.

Three of the JOTA stalwarts had other commitments at various times over the weekend so the station was not on air for as long as it usually is. Despite this, it was a successful station from both a WADARC and a Scout point of view.

The weekend started with a handover ‘ceremony’ where Vic (G4UDR) passed over the GB 2 JAM callsign plaques to me (G6XHF) as he is no longer going to hold  the callsign N.O.V.

Instead of the trailer mounted Raynet mast, this year we had a 12 M SCAM so the club’s newly refurbished 3 element beam was sent aloft to about 40 feet with an 80 M dipole slung just below it. Geoff’s Diamond X50 was used for 2M and a co-linear erected for 4M. (mainly for club members’ talk in but also for echolink).

The rigs used were a Kenwood TS711e putting about 35 Watts out on 2M and a TS440 SAT giving 100 Watts for the HF bands. We had the option of more power via a TL 922 Linear on H F but it really wasn’t necessary. Conditions were not their best on 80 Metres on either day with rapid and deep QSB meaning that a station could be 5/9 0ne minute and completely inaudible the next. Interestingly though, none of the stations we spoke to mentioned that this was a problem with our transmissions.

Contacts were made across most of the U.K. on 80 M throughout the mornings and then, across the rest of Europe and into the U.S and Canada during the afternoon using the beam on 20 M.

In all, we contacted 85 stations of which 26 were other Scout JOTA Stations. JOTA is NOT a Contest so it is not the total number of stations that are contacted which matters. Far more important was the fact that twenty young people visited the station and almost ALL of them went on air.

4M echolink proved to be a very worthwhile facility, providing the best Scouting contacts of the weekend. Bob (G4NCI) conducted what turned into an Echolink training session that resulted in us speaking to HB9S, The World Scout Bureau in Geneva and also to HR100S, The scouting centenary camp in KOWLOON, Hong Kong.

My thanks go to all those who attended whether you were there all weekend or just popped in for an hour or so

Simon G6XHF