I had my first opportunity to drag my gear out of the shack and operate in the field since getting licensed earlier this year.  Myself and another local ham set up a JOTA station in a local park for a local group of Cub Scouts.  I had a blast, and all of my gear worked, particularly the home built clothesline reel / flexweave antenna that I learned about here / QRZ.  It's hard to see, but my antenna is in the background - yellow painter's pole. The pic is deceiving - it looks like my antenna is extended down at a really steep angle.  The wires visible there are guys for the vertical for the other station.



http://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=10&f=22&t=675149

http://forums.qrz.com/archive/index.php/t-241775.html

The kids were great.  Some were really interested; some not so much, but they all had a chance to get on the air.  I was running on 20m and we talked to New York, South Dakota, New Mexico and Oregon before giving the kids them a taste of VHF/UHF.

Very nice!

Did you use the KX3? What all did you show them?

Ha - no, I'm nowhere near being able to afford a KX3, although I definitely feel the need someday, based on the everything I've read here.  I'm finding that I definitely enjoy getting out in the open, away from the shack.  For now though, my rig is a not-so-portable Kenwood TS-140S.  We ran his FT-857 and my rig off a 12V deep cycle marine battery.

We tried to show them a little bit of everything, except digital.  I brought my SignaLink / computer but we were running late during our setup (cough - lots of time on the vertical antenna - cough).  The other OP was showing them equipment, setup & CW; I got them talking on SSB (20m) and VHF / UHF.  Lots of patient operators out there today working with all the kids - some of the kids stepped right up, knew what they wanted to say and went right at it.  Some were so shy they were barely modulating.  Oh, and these kids... most of them were 7 - 9 years old, so their attention span was, um, pretty short.  One of them - the 9 year old son of the other OP - is licensed (either the youngest or second youngest in NV).  He's studying to test for General. Three of the kids have a desire to test; one had already been studying.

Fun day, and the weather was perfect.  "Fall", here in Vegas - about 80 degrees, with a few sprinkles.

One more pic:

I had a great time iota last year...couldn't make it this year.  Thank you for doing it.  Do you have a tattoo on your head..or is it the pic?

It was fun, and I'll definitely sign up to do it again.  My "little one" is 22 years old now; I'd forgotten what it was like to see a kid's eyes light up when they learn something new .

That's the other OP; he has those on both sides - hearing aids.  Without them, he's totally deaf.

We had a great time, too.  It wasn't a huge turnout; only seven or eight scouts, but they had fun.  We had two stations set up to handle the expected crowds, but didn't really need them.  Our location (as directed by the hospital where the event was held) was right at the intersection of two main power lines, and we couldn't go higher than about 20 feet.  One station was using a 20m and 40m inverted V and I was using my Little Tarheel II on a grounding stake.  17m was hopping with the German QSO party, so several of the scouts got a chance to make SHORT contacts, but they were grinning from ear-to-ear.  I'm still amazed when I get "59 great signal" reports from a stick in the ground.

I had the solar panels and power wagon out there, but I didn't hook them up until late in the day just to refresh the batteries.  They did stimulate a bunch of questions, though.

Were you guys calling W1IW?

I heard several scouts work him and he was having a good time with it.

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Not us.  We were using the club call sign or our personal ones.  There was one German station in the contest that got eight contacts in a row from my radio since there were a bunch of Dadhams there.

VERY NICE. The ARES group i am an AEC for is doing a special event next saturday.   Callsign N5N

We didn't get W1AW either - didn't run across him.