Trials and Errors #56: How I Earned My Radio Merit Badge and Just About Got Kicked out of Scouts

This is the discussion forum for the article "Trials and Errors #56: "How I Earned My Radio Merit Badge and Just About Got Kicked Out of Scouts." This personal recollection might jog YOUR memory of the early days of your first license. Were you in the scouts? Have you ever done anything to be completely ashamed of, even years later, and did it push you to redeem yourself? I hope you've enjoyed reading about my own personal experience. The article is at this link.

 

I stumbled into SWLing at age ten. It was at the same time I moved up from being a Cub Scout to a Boy Scout. Boys Life, the scouting magazine has a SWL column, with a good dose of Amateur Radio each month. There were Boy Scout SWL cards. I managed to save up enough to buy fifty of them. Our town Library had a year-old call book and the post office was a block away. Before long I had a budding collection of QSLs to go along with my Popular Electronics WPE9DRF SWL call sign. Learning the code was a requirement for the First Class in those days. I never had a regular Elmer, but Boy Scouts set me on my way.

Tim, K0PG
Troop 656, Silver Fox Patrol
Evergreen PRK, IL.

 

I didn't really do ham radio in scouts. We had a ham operator down the street, but being 9 years old at the time, I was a little too shy to ever really approached him, though I did see his shack one time with my parents. I do remember that he had an atari 800 computer, which I was pretty fascinated with.

We moved away by the times I got to Boy Scouts, and as far as I know, no one did radio, and while I was interested in it, I knew that I would never have the money for any radio stuff. I had one of those 100 in 1 electronics kits that had an AM radio kit in it, but I never could receive anything on it. I probably was doing something fundamentally wrong, but didn't really have anyone to ask.

I did read all the ham radio stuff that was at the library, but it wasn't much.

However, I found plenty of other things to do in scouts, and did get my Eagle in 1986. I have always left that on my resume, and it is by far the most commented item on it.

 

Back in the middle of the last century, we (myself and the members of the Patrol) got in LOTS of trouble at Forestburg camp for running a clandestine CASINO! I won't go into details, but it was a mess of a situation!

But, I did get my Radio Merit Badge at one point. In fact, the study guide for same is staring me in the face right now, believe it or not! Upstairs in a box somewhere is my uniform and other scouting ephemera. I should probably throw that stuff out before someone has to chuck it into a dumpster over my dead body.

 

Hey Brett thanks for the comment. I worked as an executive recruiter for 30+ years, and I can tell you that we ALWAYS gave extra marks to the person who had the Eagle Scout on the CV or resume. It's still true today, I am sure. Everyone respects the amount of dedication it took to get it done. Dave, W7DGJ

 

Hey Jeff, sure enough, a clandestine casino would fit right into the shenanigans that I was involved in during those years. But as far as dangerous stupidity, I think I've got you beat by mixing up black powder in a glass container and sticking a fuse in it. Dave, W7DGJ

 

I won't go into the stupid stuff that we did OUTside of Scouts! a small hint though: filing magnesium blocks into dust and adding it to the 'mix' made for some pretty spectacular FLASHES to go with the percussion. Many newspaper (usually page 2) headlines about the 'big booms' that were heard and seen.

Some things blacked out to protect the guilty... (statute of limitations has probably run out by now) but this is an aerial shot of our 'proving grounds', a spit of wooded land surrounded by marsh with LOTS of development within earshot.

 

Thanks Jeff. Glad to know that I wasn't the only stupid kid around. We found out at an earlier neighborhood sleepover that when you toss a compressed air cartridge (for BB guns) into a campfire, it explodes with tremendous force and noise. The problem for that one is the metal shrapnel. OMG, I can't believe I did this stuff. Walkie Talkies were a part of the fun, as we would station guys around the area with HTs to report on the explosion. Dave, W7DGJ

 

Or... unopened soup cans, or any aerosol can, full or empty.

I wonder though, should we really be giving the 'kids' bad ideas? LOL!

.

 

I wish more kids were reading stuff on QRZ. Dave,W7DGJ

 

I never got far in scouting. Buying a new clasp, tie, shirt, ect every year, and the trips/projects were expensive.
Though my old man would have really loved to keep me in scouting, there were 2 other siblings to think about. I think I got as far as Bear Scout.
That's OK, I got my badges in real life. Sometimes I wonder how we lived through childhood

Middle school opened a lot of doors to exploration.
I started junk picking in Middle School. People used to throw out all sorts of learning material!! Now it all has to be recycled, but back then you could just ask the homeowner and take it home and play with it.
The Public and school libraries were an amazing sources of information from how to make a solid fuel rocket, to how to make a fuel cell. My 1st AM transmitter with a carbon microphone was made from a schematic I found in a book at school. I suspect all those books are gone now as they were too informational My science teachers were always willing to allow me to explore ideas after school as long as they were safe (no home made rocket engines, but I could use Estes ones). Making home made rockets and launching stripped down CB Walkie Talkies in the nose cones kept me and a buddy busy a couple of years. We also flew Control Line planes, nothing fancy I couldn't afford to build or repair anything fancy. Just some balsa, a well loved .049, and 6# fishing line for control wires.

Though my Uncle was a Ham, it never came up until I got interested in radio. Then the gates to the past opened like a dam burst. I quickly learned that you could not leave his house without a tour of the basement with his radio, telegraph, and railroad collections. I'm glad for the time we had before he went SK. My 1st radio setup was some well loved equipment I got from the HS electronics Teacher. they were donated to the school, but he had me make a small donation to the school to take them home. The donation wasn't much and he bought parts for class projects with it, so it was a win/win.

 

Hi Ron, great post, thanks. I wonder if you are still a "junk picker" today. You'd be welcome in my garage, anytime. I was a Hi-Fi buff along the way until my hearing proved to be the short end of the stick, and so the garage (and some future junk sale) is chock full of amps, transceivers, tape decks and more.

It sounds like you had a great growing-up period. Model rocketry was something I would have been fascinated with (as you can expect with my love of explosives and things that you light up). I think you'll like the next T&E article as it's about a 16 year old who co-founded the ARRL. Dave, W7DGJ

 

Somewhat, but it is restricted to "Can I actually USE it" VS can I learn from it. People are still wasteful, but since it often costs them money to dispose of stuff, they sneak it into the can whenever possible.

Looking forward to the article! Much has been written about the OM, but little about his partners in crime.

 

Apparently there's a reason for that, Ron. There's a room full of PR staff presenting the "Maxim Mythology" to the world, Dave, W7DGJ