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Scouting and amateur radio

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Scouting and amateur radio
First radio badgeWireless merit badge, Boy Scouts of America, 1918
US badge todayRadio merit badge, Scouting America (requirements revised January 1, 2025)
Badge optionsAmateur radio, broadcasting, shortwave and medium-wave listening, or radio direction finding
Morse awardMorse Code Interpreter Strip (since 2012)
Stations and events
US Scouting stationK2BSA (call sign granted in 1971)
Girl ScoutsRadio and Wireless Technology patch, offered by the ARRL since 2016
World eventJOTA-JOTI, the third full weekend of October
OrganizerWorld Scouting, with national Scout organizations

Scouting and amateur radio have been linked for more than a century. The Boy Scouts of America created a Wireless merit badge in 1918, radio clubs regularly host Scouts for badge work and station visits, and many hams got their first taste of the hobby as Scouts. Around the world the biggest meeting point is the annual Jamboree on the Air, when Scouts and Guides in many countries talk with each other by radio. In the United States the relationship is formalized through the ARRL, which helped write the first badge requirements, and through K2BSA, the national Scouting amateur radio association.

Radio merit badge

The Boy Scouts of America introduced the Wireless merit badge in 1918. The ARRL helped set its early requirements and produced the first merit badge pamphlet,[1] and the badge later became the Radio merit badge. Its Morse code requirement was 10 words per minute in 1922, fell to 5 in 1930 and was dropped in 1984.[1] In 2011 the ARRL and the BSA signed a memorandum of understanding that formalized their long relationship,[2] and a National Radio Scouting Committee was formed the same year.[1]

The badge is now awarded by Scouting America, as the BSA is now called, and its requirements were revised on January 1, 2025.[3] Every Scout covers the basics, including call signs, the phonetic alphabet, the electromagnetic spectrum, modulation, radio safety and careers, and visits a radio installation approved by the counselor, such as an amateur station, a broadcast station or a public service communications center.[4] The Scout then completes one of four options: amateur radio, radio broadcasting, shortwave and medium-wave listening, or amateur radio direction finding, which includes building an antenna and taking part in a fox hunt.

The amateur radio option asks the Scout to explain the license classes, Q signals and how to make an emergency call, and to carry on a 10-minute contact, real or simulated, by voice, Morse code or a digital mode, then log it. A Scout who is already licensed may instead show QSL cards from five different operators.[4] Unlicensed Scouts make their contacts with a licensed control operator present, under the third-party rules described in the JOTA article.

Since May 2012 Scouts and leaders have also been able to earn the Morse Code Interpreter Strip, worn above the right uniform pocket.[1] At 5 words per minute, a candidate must hold a five-minute conversation, copy a two-minute message and send a 25-word message.[1]

K2BSA and the jamborees

The national Scouting station began in 1952 at the Schiff Scout Reservation in New Jersey, under the call sign K2BFW, licensed to the Boys' Life Amateur Radio Club. In the late 1960s Walter Maxwell, W2DU, worked with the BSA and the FCC to obtain a special call sign, and K2BSA was granted in 1971.[1] It is now held by the K2BSA Amateur Radio Association, a nonprofit that promotes radio in Scouting and exhibits at events such as the Dayton Hamvention.[5]

Amateur radio has been part of the national Scout jamborees, usually held every four years, since at least 1953, when K6BSA operated at Irvine, California.[1] According to the ARRL, K2BSA has operated at every national jamboree since 1977.[1] The jamborees moved in 2013 to the Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve in West Virginia, their permanent home.[1]

Girl Scouts

The Girl Scouts of the USA has no formal amateur radio program of its own, so troops set their own course.[3] In 2016 the ARRL introduced a Radio and Wireless Technology patch with requirements for Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors.[6] Girls learn the basics of radio and wireless technology, from broadcast stations to mobile phones, try hands-on amateur radio activities, and learn how radio serves the public. Leaders order the patches from the ARRL and report the troop's activities.[7] Girl Scouts also take part in Jamboree on the Air, and some clubs host activities around Thinking Day each February.[3]

Around the world

Main article: Jamboree on the Air

Jamboree on the Air began in 1958 and is now run with the online Jamboree on the Internet as JOTA-JOTI, which World Scouting calls the world's largest digital and radio Scout event.[8] It is held on the third full weekend of October; the 2026 event ran from October 16 to 18.[3] Each country organizes its own participation through a national JOTA-JOTI coordinator, and some national Scout associations have radio-scouting groups of their own, such as the Radioescutismo department of the Portuguese Scout association CNE.[9] Scouts in countries without a listed coordinator are pointed to their national amateur radio society, the local member of the International Amateur Radio Union.

Every Scout working on the Radio merit badge must visit a radio installation, so a club that opens its station to troops, or brings a portable station to a troop meeting, meets a real need. Let local troop leaders know the offer stands all year, not only during JOTA.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Radio Scouting, ARRL.
  2. ↑ Boy Scouts of America and ARRL Team Up to Help Scouts Learn Communications Skills, ARRL, February 2011.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Amateur Radio and Scouting, ARRL.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Radio Merit Badge, Scouting America.
  5. ↑ Hamvention 2026 – Booth Volunteers Needed!, K2BSA Amateur Radio Association, March 2026.
  6. ↑ ARRL Now Offering New "Radio and Wireless Technology" Patch Program for Girl Scouts, ARRL, June 2016.
  7. ↑ Girl Scouts Radio Patch, ARRL.
  8. ↑ JOTA-JOTI, World Scouting.
  9. ↑ Radio Scouting, JOTA-JOTI.
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