Radio Scouting is happy to announce: This weekend, April 26th and 27th 2019, Special Event Station W2P will again be on the air live from the 57th annual Boy Scout Camporee at West Point Military Academy. A custom one-time QSL card is ready for all those contacts who collect them. Operators KB2FMH and WF2N of the NYCDXA and W2TMR - Ten Mile River Scout Camp Radio Club, will be on SSB from 15 through 40 meters as propagation allows. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We'll be on a mountain with 600 watts and a custom Zero-Five vertical Dave, hopefully conditions are good enough to make it to the left coast.
We are hoping to be set up by 7 or 8 PM EDT Friday night Tom, if the rain isn't too severe (forecast is rain all night) and then all day Saturday from when we wake up to after the campfire show. We'll self spot from our phones initially and will likely be spotted all day by callers. I posted to several of the Facebook Ham groups totalling over 70,000 members and a few Scouting groups with about half as many so I expect a good run if even 1 % get on the air for us. The frequencies will be those in the General portions of 15 through 40 that end in 57 (Ex: 14.257, 21.357 etc...) as conditions support, barring any QRM / scheduled nets. Maybe some 75 meters late Friday night / Saturday early AM (3.857 / 957). I certainly hope our signal makes it across the US and Europe, conditions have been strange lately. I talked to Hong Kong this morning from NYC on 20 at 8 AM eastern with 5/7s so who knows! All I can say is, wish us luck.
Unfortunately no Jeff, Sorry. We have one operating position and it's phone only to get the most coverage. With these niche type events folks seem to enjoy chatting about their experiences. I hope you'll give us a shout if you're on the air this weekend. James.
Thanks, James. I wish you well with your special event. No phone rig here, so "oh well." heh. Coincidentally, I was a scout who never made First Class because I couldn't learn the code back in the early 60s. Now all these years later, CW is all I operate on the air. Go figure! 73
That's where I learned it and what got me interested in radio as a kid. I learned Semaphore and Wig-Wag also. I still have a few "Official Boy Scout" telegraph keys with the embossed code and blinky light. Those were the days!! I haven't touched a key in 35 years though, after getting phone privileges. I prefer to hear voices and know that my voice is heard around the world. I suppose we all have our own hook in this game. Thanks for your kind wishes. -73, James
Sounds like a wonderful event! I'll camp out and scout for your signal, you'll be to my west and I'll make a point of.......sorry, I'll stop now. See you on the air!!
