My Grandfather was the spark. Born at the beginning of the 20th Century, Radio was a magical instrument. Building his first radio led to the path of having stores that were sales and repair shops almost equivalent to Best Buy. I grew up in that environment. I would say the key moment was when he retired and got back into Ham Radio that he bought…

Read more

Hello

The following response is assuming al three of you get your Technician class license.

With 2 Meters VHF, you should be able to reach your sister 7 miles away through a repeater. Not knowing what type of terrain and other obstacles are between you and your sister in NJ. if electricity, or the repeater are unavailable, you would use a…

Read more

You may think that this is new, but SCOTA has been around longer than Parks On The Air.

Scout Camps on the Air is year round. It has a series of awards that can be gotten to try and get the camps active.

Link is

Scout Camps on the Air — Radio Scouting’s Year-Round Awards Program

History of the Radio Merit Badge

BSA starts a Merit Badge Called Wireless in 1919. It is discontinued in 1923 and replaced by RADIO. K2BSA has a pdf of “Radio Merit Badge History”.

The last Revision of the booklet was in 2024 with Requirement 9a5, and it has more in common with the Amateur Radio Technician License. #9 is do one of the following…

Read more

This is for the Scouting Organization with Headquarters in Texas, USA (B.S.A.). For Girl Scouts in the USA or any other Scouting organization, please contact them directly.

If you wish to teach the Radio Merit Badge on a regular basis, there are a few things you have to do ahead.

1) There is a fee of $25. I have been told this covers the…

Read more

You mention the frequency of 146.59. I take it you are talking about 146.52 National Calling Frequency (Simplex). K3MRI gave a great explanation. There are other radios like Alinco that have had the priority feature.

On a different note, A wile back, Kenwood was giving stickers that had “Monitoring 146.52.” printed on them.

When I have gone…

Read more

I commend Icom for having made the Zack and Max comic books . My first two kids could not wait for the next issues when they were about 8 to 9 years old. It made it fun. This enticed them to ask permission to talk on the local repeater on the morning commute to school. They learned the intricacies of talking on VHF, UHF. I would ID at the end…

Read more

My three kids got their licenses between the ages of 10 and 11. My experienced is that up to about 12 years old, they are receptive and eager to get the license, but studying for the test has to be fun and at times hands on.

I wanted to follow my grandfathers footsteps. In my case grandpa just game books and cassettes to study the material…

Read more

Recently I was asked if our ARES Team could help at a Scouting event called ‘Last Scout Standing”. It is a challenge event open to Scouts 14~17 year olds, and then 18y/o and older. It starts on a Friday night, and ends on Sunday afternoon. The participants are clueless of what they will encounter and the challenges ahead of them. The ARES Team…

Read more

Many good points about HOA and the R&R from all.

It also depends on the state as well as county and town laws. There are a few locations that have learned after a series of events, were they changed the rules to let the hams put up something that is a happy medium.

As for Amateur Radio being relevant today, yes we are still needed, maybe not…

Read more