SCOUTS and Cubs from 3rd Alton Scout Group been on air, thanks to a helping hand from the Three Counties Amateur Radio Club.

Each year Scouts and Cubs around the world join together on amateur radio to have an International Jamboree, which provides an opportunity for Scouts, Cubs and Guides throughout the world to chat and share scouting and guiding experiences.

Before the event, Scouts and Cubs at 3rd Alton Group were shown how radio transmission works in talks given by Scout leader ‘Sparks’ at Scout and Pack meetings. The youngsters understood then how radio travels and how aerials and transmitters work and about Morse Code. Over the weekend, they were then able to try their hand with real equipment “on the air”.

The Scouts had their own event call sign – GB4SFR (Scouts For Radio) – and contacts were made with many groups throughout England, Wales and Scotland, as well as Guernsey. They also spoke to UK Scout headquarters at Gilwell Park in Essex.

Scouts talked on various radios on HF, VHF and UHF frequencies. They had the opportunity to see views of the Earth beamed down from the International Space Station and a video from the 3rd Alton Scout headquarters sent to the Radio Society repeater at Farnham and then sent worldwide via the Amateur Repeater Network.

Contact with Basingstoke Hospital allowed the youngsters to talk about Scouting in Alton, to give their best wishes to district badge secretary Monica Spiers in hospital, and also to draw the winning token for a hospital radio competition.