LX9S – CQ calling jamboree stations around the world –
Introduction
JOTA / JOTI 2018 runs from Friday the 19th to Sunday the 21st October 2018.
This is the 61st year this event is running and is the largest Scouting event on the calendar with approximately 2 million Cubs, Scouts and Guides taking part.
Normally HB9S – the scouting station of the World Scout Bureau – operates from Geneva. This year HB9S was invited as guest at FNEL (Fédération Nationale des Eclaireurs et Eclaireuses du Luxembourg) Scout-HQ in Luxembourg. The callsign therefore changed to LX9S.
LX9S was operated during the JOTA by an international team of "radio scouting" operators. The “radio scouting” operators came from Luxembourg, Switzerland, Malta and the Netherlands. They were supported by a group of local specialists going from IT-specialist, logician, cooks, scout leaders and radio-amateurs of the Luxembourg Amateur Radio Society.
Activities at LX9S
During the JOTA/JOTI around 30 scouts stayed permanently on the site and 60 scouts visited for a few hours during the weekend. A small camp site was built with of course a traditional campfire and campfire activities.
The scouts spend half a day contacting Scouts and Guides from around the world over the radio and Internet. They could solder an electronic circuit (sound detector) and complete a number of badge requirements.
LX9S Station description
The station was built of local and remote equipment and antennas. On the premises of the FNEL clubhouse several antennas were erected. One tower mast on a trailer with a rotatable 20-meter band beam, 40-meter band dipole and a VHF/UHF groundplane antenna on top. A second mast was setup for another VHF/UHF groundplane antenna and also used for a 40-meter band dipole and a 80+160 meter band dipole antenna. For the echolink and SSTV setup there was another antenna mounted to the balcony. DMR radio was operated via a local hotspot connected to an Internet connection.
For short wave 3 different local setups were used. Which where build with FT-2000, FTdx-1200, FT991A transceivers including amplifiers to make a strong signal on the bands. For D-star/DMR, echolink, SSTV there were other transceivers and portables/handy's. The remote station was built with two FTdx-5000 transceivers which were connected via the Internet to the remote contest station LX7I. This station has a very impressive setup with multiple stacked antenna's in different directions on multiple bands including amplifiers, all easily controlled via computer. The two transceivers could operate simultaneously on different amateur bands. For logging all the nice QSO's (connections with other scoutstations) a logging program was used which was interconnected with all the transceiver setups. For JOTI there was a room with multiple computers to chat with other scouts.
Conclusion
A youtube video gives a excellent impression of the JOTA/JOTA activities at LX9S and the FNEL Scout-HQ. During this weekend some 600 QSO were made with scouting stations all around the world. The team had a lot of fun and the JOTA/JOTA at FNEL HQ was great experience. Thanks to all who made this experience possible.
LX9S Crew
