Radio Merit Badge at Camp Lehi
The Radio Merit Badge is earned by approximately 6,500 Boy Scouts in the US each year. The Radio Merit Badge requirements are demanding and require both classroom learning as well as applied learning in front of a radio. I really like the design of the merit badge with its hidden Morse code message and lighting bolts.
I had an opportunity to teach the radio merit badge at a recent Merit Badge Pow Wow at Camp Lehi here in the Bay Area. My co-instructor for the course was Ray Wentz, W6LPW.
The night before the course the Merit Badge Pow Wow organizer (Jon) and I installed three antennas: a 40 meters home-brew wire dipole, a 20 meters rotatable dipole, and a vhf/uhf antenna. We setup the radios and class room in the great outdoors under a couple of canopies. Power was provide a generator.
The 40 Meters wire dipole worked really well for the scouts. They made contacts with 100W into the North Carolina to the East, Vancouver to the North, San Diego to the South, and Hawaii to the Wes…
I had an opportunity to teach the radio merit badge at a recent Merit Badge Pow Wow at Camp Lehi here in the Bay Area. My co-instructor for the course was Ray Wentz, W6LPW.
The night before the course the Merit Badge Pow Wow organizer (Jon) and I installed three antennas: a 40 meters home-brew wire dipole, a 20 meters rotatable dipole, and a vhf/uhf antenna. We setup the radios and class room in the great outdoors under a couple of canopies. Power was provide a generator.
The 40 Meters wire dipole worked really well for the scouts. They made contacts with 100W into the North Carolina to the East, Vancouver to the North, San Diego to the South, and Hawaii to the Wes…