Scout Jamboree 2024 – ham radio
The Pacific Jamboree, which is held every 4 years, was located at Camp Barnard, the 250 acre Scout Camp which includes Young Lake in Sooke. This was the third Jamboree in a row held at Camp Barnard. Not certain yet where the next one will be as it was not announced.
I’m not exactly sure of the exact number of attendees, but it was at least 3100 plus with Scouts coming from England, Australia, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, USA, Switzerland, every province in Canada except Quebec, and likely a few more.
Activities included canoeing, kayaking, mountain biking, log rolling, overnight hiking, robotics, rifle shooting, rock climbing, bus trips into Sooke and Victoria, the ever popular badge trading and of course Ham Radio.
We had 6 full time Ham certified Scouters and two part time volunteers helping us. They came from as far away as Alberta, Ontario and Newfoundland. One of the volunteers was Andy Woodsworth VE7PT. He was a scout and has participated in many scouting activities at Camp Barnard
Over 600 Scouts attended our Ham Station which was an increase from previous years. They had to complete 10 Ham related activities to earn the badge. These included: 1) talking on a Ham Radio, (either HF or UHF / VHF), 2) learning and reciting the phonetic alphabet, 3) going on a Fox Hunt, 4) reciting several of the Morse Code letters, 5) making a Morse Code beaded bracelet, 6) deciphering a daily mystery Morse Code message, 7) using Morse Code practice keys to send and receive messages, 8) completing a Ham Radio word search, 9) sitting in on a 15 minute talk about how one can become a Ham Radio operator and 10) looking up an available call sign.
I was somewhat surprised not to see a few of the scouts at the radio tent. As for that, are there any photos of the scout activities? That would have been nice to see. Perhaps they are there but I did not see them.
73
Garry/ Ve7ajj
I was one of the volunteers at the Scout Ham Radio activity tent and I really enjoyed my interactions with the Scouts (boys and girls). It was a very popular activity and it was fun to see their reaction to talking on the air for the first time. Scouts Canada are very protective of the Scouts and that may be why Ron did not put up photos of them.
Good stuff! I went to Camp Barnard as a scout back in the 1960’s. Ist Tsartlip, Sidney BC.