JOTA 2004
JOTA took place as an overnight camp operating from Saturday midday to 3pm Sunday. Jota was run as a combined CARDS and br 56 operation. A station was erected at Omaka off Johns Road. A total of 43 contacts were made, 8 on HF (voice and PSK31) and the rest on Echolink& IRLP. Participants included Guides, scouts, cubs and Ventures.
Many varying activities took place. A short course taught the scouts about radio and operating procedures. Training in radio procedures took place on a PRS net set up around the camp. ATV was used between buildings using cameras and transmitters on 1.2 Ghz and 2.4Ghz. ARDF and fox hunting took place using 2mtr and HF equipment. The 2 mtr equipment suffered a little due to QRM from the data repeater. A professional 160 MHz possum tracking system used by D.O.C was also in use.
Communication took place on HF from 80 thru 20 with good results. Aerials used were 80 meter loop, 3 wavelengths centre fed on 40mtrs and an 80 meter Off Centre Fed Windom. Two HF receivers were in operation. One was on the pacific area aircraft frequency 8857 MHz. The other was listening to 19.918MHz Weafax Melbourne AXM and was connected to a computer running a weafax program to display the weather maps being broadcast. One IRLP and two Echolink stations provided nearly continuous radio traffic on Saturday until 3 Sunday morning.
A small FM broadcast station was run called 'Scout FM' broadcasting on 88.2MHz. This was a MP3 player in the form of a computer running 2000 songs so you never heard the same song twice. The range of this station with the 1 watt TX and aerial hanging from the rafter was 7km. APRS was running on Ui-view showing weather and vehicle movements around Canterbury.
A microphone hooked up to oscilloscope allowed the scouts to see their voice as they spoke. Morse code oscillators were set up for the practice of Morse code. A scanner was on listening to various frequencies. A old AM Tait radio was on the local tower at the airport. A laptop was running the Satscape satellite tracking station.
Thanks to all those who donated time and assistance to make this a success. Pictures are to follow.
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