The types of activities during JOTA as well as leading up to and after the event are limited only by your imagination. Here are a few thought starters. You can also find more planning tips at www.k2bsa.net/jota-event-tips/.
Before JOTA
- Ask an amateur radio operator to talk about ham radio communications. In patrols, visit his station to see how it works. Learn about radio waves and their propagation.
- Design special QSL cards with Scouting themes for the JOTA weekend. QSL cards are exchanged with the other stations and Scouts you contact during JOTA.
- Find an unusual location for the JOTA station, working closely with your amateur radio partner.
- Find out about commercial radio and television. How are programs made? Visit a television or radio station. How are programs transmitted? How does a radio receiver work? Build a radio receiver.
- Learn about electricity. How is it produced? Learn about safety procedures. Visit an electricity generating station.
- Learn and practice using Morse code. Build a Morse code practice oscillator.
- Find out about other countries and prepare questions to ask over the air.
- Practice talking into a microphone using radio operating procedures and terminology.
- Find out about your local area to be able to answer questions from Scouts in other countries and other parts of the U.S.
- Send a report of your plan to the local newspaper. Ask them to visit during the event.
- Learn a few words of greeting in other languages.
During JOTA
Arrange a weekend camp or camporee and set up the station at the site.- Arrange a program of camp activities to run concurrently.
- Invite parents and other supporters to visit the station to see what the Scouts are doing.
- Organize a weekend hike and take portable radio equipment. Log the contacts made for the amateur radio operator.
- Ask each Scout to prepare his own personal logbook. Include details of the names of the Scouts contacted, the frequency, the station call sign, and the mode of operation.
- Set up an information section that can quickly find out a few details about the location of the station you’re in contact with, including the country or state.
- Plot contacts made on a world map or a U.S. map.
- Complete QSL cards to send to the people contacted.
- Make a tape recording of the conversations.
- Build simple electronic kits.
- Prepare and publish a JOTA newsletter or a story for your troop, district, and council newsletters or websites.
- Prepare a quiz and ask the questions over the air.
- Complete participation cards for each Scout who talked. Use the certificate/log forms that can be downloaded from this site.
- Determine the distance between each radio station and your station.
After JOTA
- Write the Scouts contacted. Send QSL cards and/or a patch.
- Start planning to participate again next year.
- File your report and photos with the national JOTA coordinator using the online system published on this website.
We’ve also prepared a Troop Meeting Plan, which you can find at https://www.k2bsa.net/troop-meeting-plan-radio/ along with a Cub Scout Program Helps at https://www.k2bsa.net/cub-scout-program-helps-jota/