Boy Scout Camporee and the Hams

The Pacific Meramec Valley Amateur Radio Club

demonstrated different modes of ham radio  operation 

during the April 24-25 Camporee hosted by 

Pacific Boy Scout Troop 329 in the City of Pacific, MO.

An estimated 300-500 scouts from 30 troops 

camped out in Liberty Field park as they demonstrated

their idea of futuristic camping which included a stingray  three person

tent suspended around 10 ft high from three poles.   

My husband used army surplus ammo boxes to create a

Go Box for his radio which is bolted into the box for protection

and ease of travel if they were to be called out in an emergency.

It is fitted with plugs and speakers for a quick plug in before start up.

He has room to add a second radio.  One being dual band and digital

and the other will be all digital.  I won't go into techy detail

but they operate differently.  He was able to use his

radio as a repeater so the handy talky radios could communicate

when their signal was not strong enough.

He also had it set up as a packet station so he could transmit

data over the airwaves known as packet radio.  It is sort of a forerunner

of the internet but much slower.  In an emergency they can

send Word docs and Excel spreadsheets which is a requirement

by the State Emergency Management agency plus it works

with the MERS system which is the Missouri

Emergency Radio Service.

An example of PSK31 (similar to instant messaging)

and Packet Radio (similar to email).

Some of the tents that were set up.

His gear packed up and ready to go.

One box is the radio and the other a tool box,

laptop computer and antenna and mast.