
50th Jamboree On The Air
20 & 21 October 2007
The largest annual WOSM event, the Jamboree-On-The-Air (JOTA) will be held
this year for the 50th time
during the weekend of 20 and 21 October 2007.
The JOTA is an annual event in which about 500,000 Scouts and Guides all over
the world make contacts with each other by means of amateur radio. It is a real
Jamboree during which Scouting experiences are exchanged and ideas are shared,
thus contributing to the world brotherhood of Scouting.
The 50th JOTA theme:
"AROUND THE WORLD IN 50 HOURS".
This years JOTA will have a theme; in 50 hours we will travel around the
globe. Fifty hours? Yes, 50 hours, not just 48. This golden-jubilee JOTA is 2
hours longer: the 50th JOTA will run from 19 October 22:00 h local time to 21
October 24:00 h local time.
An official start will be given by the World Scout Bureau radio station in
Geneva on 19 October at 21:00 h GMT with a transmission in the 20 and 80 m band
and on Echolink.
Resource material to help you organize the 50th JOTA:
- For your contacts with the press, have a look at the JOTA Press Guide and
other material in the on-line library.
- A high-resolution file (in jpg, 1200 dpi, size 2.4 Mb) with the JOTA logo can
be downloaded here: right click the JOTA logo on this page and select "save as".
- The participation card is available in high-resolution pdf format. The file
has the picture and the text for the back of the card as well a printer's grid so
you can print additional copies yourself if you want. To download, right click on
the picture of the participation card and select "save as".
- For your promotion activities, a JOTA poster is available on A3 format as a
pdf. To download, right click on the picture and select "save as".
Programme ideas for your station:
The number 50 will play a dominant role in the weekend programme. We
can, just quickly, look back into JOTA’s history, but more importantly, we will
focus on the future. Here are the programme suggestions to stimulate your
imagination:
- Make a real effort to operate the full 50 hours. The target is to make contact
with at least one Scout station in a different country each hour. Watch the time
differences and the propagation predictions and make a plan: which country should
you contact at which time? You can even pre-arrange a contact using the on-line
JOTA sked book. From each country, make sure you get information about how many
Scouts are living there, what their main programme is, if they took part in the
World Jamboree and the Sunrise Ceremony, what the most important is in life in
their country, who is their Chief Scout. Make a map on the wall with all this
information. At the end of the weekend you have a visible souvenir of your “50
hours around the world”.
- Write a message to the future: imagine Scouts in your country taking part in
the 100th JOTA in 2057. What would you like to tell them? Which things should
they absolutely remember? What should they know about your 50th JOTA programme?
Write your 100th JOTA message, send it by radio or email to the World Scout
Bureau and the Bureau will store your message and “beam” it back to you in 50
years from now.
- Obtain 50 points for the Centenary of Scouting radio award.
- Collect 50 of everything and make a picture. E.g. 50 Scouts together, 50 pairs
of glasses, 50 newspaper reporters, 50 parents, 50 patrol tents, 50 Morse code
keys, 50 radio amateurs, 50 flowers, 50 people you have helped that weekend, “Be
prepared” in 50 languages, 50 different QSL cards, and of course 50 pictures of
50 collected items.
- JOTA 2007 + / - 50: set up a Scout radio station as it would have looked like
in 1957 (consult old World JOTA Reports for photo’s), next to your JOTA station
of today. And on the other side, set up your JOTA station as it will look in
2057. Use your imagination, create new sorts of equipment out of cardboard, wood
or a newly invented metal. And new sorts of communication methods to get Scouts
in touch.
- Host a jubilee party: invite local dignitaries and the press to celebrate
JOTA’s 50th. Use the opportunity to show the guests what it means for your group
to belong to a world-wide movement of 28 million Scouts. Invite your guests to
contact some of those many Scouts abroad. And of course you have the 50th JOTA
birthday cake, don’t you?
- Message relay race: start a simple message and pass it on to a neighbouring
station. This station needs to simply add its call sign to the message at the
end. If you receive such a message from another station, do the same, add your
call sign to it and pass it on. After the message has collected 50 different call
signs, store the message and email it to the World Scout Bureau.
- For the junior Scouts: make 50 different paper birthday hats, the type kids
will wear during a birthday party. E.g. out of old newspapers or other waste
paper material. Make a picture of the funniest ones.
- During your JOTA contacts, ask for the recipe of the most popular JOTA meal.
Collect 50 different JOTA recipes.
The JOTA Story, 50 years of Scoutings’ Jamboree On The Air.
An historic overview of half-a-century of international Scout exchanges via
radio is in the making. This booklet will present its origin, development, ideas,
and world-wide participation. Co-authored by the JOTA founder Les Mitchell G3BHK
and former and current World JOTA Organizers Len Jarrett VE3MYF and Richard
Middelkoop PA3BAR, the JOTA Story will have unique material and photographs most
of which have never been published before. The publication will be available
shortly after the 50th JOTA. You can pre-order your copy of the JOTA story soon.
Instructions will follow. Delivery will be as soon as the publication is
available; expected around mid January 2008 or sooner.
Your 50th JOTA souvenir
As a unique activity for this golden-jubilee JOTA. a number of souvenir
articles is being made available to every one via the World Scout shop. These can
soon be ordered on-line. Watch this space for news.
Interference by the WAG Contest
During the JOTA weekend there is unfortunately one contest (amateur radio
competition). It is an exception to the agreement that there will be no contests
during the JOTA weekend. However, we're happy to announce that an agreement has
been reached with the organizers of this German WAG contest on the use of amateur
radio frequencies during the 50th JOTA. The German contest stations will not
operate in the following segments:
3650 - 3700 kHz, 7080 - 7140 kHz, 14100 - 14125 and 14280 - 14350 kHz, 21350 -
21450 kHz, 28225 - 28400 kHz.
This leaves all World Scout Frequencies in the clear !!
Scout stations may use the whole of each amateur radio band. But if you
experience any interference from the WAG contest, please move to the segments
listed above to enjoy an interference free contact. (Many thanks to Klaus
Sperling DC4NA and Guenter Erdmann DL9BCP for their continued efforts to solve
the WAG interference problems.)
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? Here are a few
ideas:
The translator machine:
There is a free translation service available at 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 home
page and it will get you to the translator machine.
The J-Code:
The J-code is a tool that enables a very basic conversation in those cases
where there is no common language between the youngsters. The J-code is simply a
set of abbreviations similar to the Q-Code used by radio amateurs. It is NOT a
code intended to hide the contents of the transmissions, quite the opposite, it
is intended to enable communication. As such it can be used over amateur radio
and in internet chat contacts. The J-code is available in English, French,
Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian-Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, German, Norwegian and
Chinese (more to follow) and can be downloaded from the library at the
radio-scouting web site.
National JOTA Organizer
Associations who haven’t already done so are kindly requested to appoint a National JOTA Organizer (NJO) who:
- has the required organizational skills to support the Scout stations
participating in the JOTA in his country;
- functions at a national level within his Scout Association (most NJO's are a
member of an Association's international committee);
- communicates directly with the World JOTA Organizer at the World Scout Bureau
and is the Scout Association's representative to the national amateur radio
organization;
- is preferably someone with his own amateur radio licence, or at least with a
vast knowledge of amateur radio;
The NJO has access to specific JOTA information on the web as well as to a
restricted electronic forum. In this way he or she can directly exchange views
with NJO’s of other countries, ask for assistance and organize activities.