Broadcast Writer

By Vicki W. Kipp
Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) Chapter 24 Newsletter
March 1, 2023

The organization we knew as ‘Boy Scouts’ in our youth is now called ‘Scouts BSA.’

Starting in 2019, girls are allowed to join Scouts BSA troops and earn badges. There are separate boys’ troops and girls’ troops.

Did you know that Scouts BSA offers 135 merit badges, and a few of them relate to broadcast engineering?

For the Radio badge, Scouts can either learn about ham radio or tour a radio station. https://www.scouting.org/merit-badges/radio/

Every October, there’s a Scouts BSA worldwide ham radio Jamboree-on-the-Air (JOTA). https://www.scouting.org/international/jota-joti/jota/

In addition, Scouts BSA offers an Electricity badge and an Electronics badge.

https://www.scouting.org/merit-badges/electricity/

https://www.scouting.org/merit-badges/electronics/

Scouts BSA has a Morse code requirement in their Signs, Signals, and Codes badge. https://www.scouting.org/merit-badges/signs-signals-and-codes/

And if someone mentions Morse code, then, naturally, we’re going to talk about amateur radio.

One scout identified Last Man Standing as his favorite TV show. The ABC hit sitcom features a working ham shack with two Icom radios, QST magazine, an ARRL Handbook, a Morse code certificate, and a DXCC award. The leading man/ham, Mike Baxter (KA0-XTT), is played by Tim Allen. The Last Man Standing role inspired Tim Allen to get his ham radio license in real life.

I’m a ham, but I don’t know Morse code. So I recruited SBE Chapter 24 member Tom Weeden, WJ9H, to teach my son’s Scout Troop about Morse code.

Tom taught the boys about the origins of communication codes and let them try keying Morse code. The scouts got to choose a word and key that word for him to interpret. Tom decoded each ‘dit’ and ‘dah’ one letter at a time and wrote it on the board.

It can be a gamble to have adolescents make up a word for you to guess in front of an audience. But these are scouts we’re talking about. The scouts that Tom selected had him decode words like: “B-S-A,” “G-O-O-D-B-Y-E,” and “R-E-S-P-E-C-T.”

The scouts initially keyed on a Super Simple CPO kit designed by David Cripe, NMØS. The Super Simple CPO is a kit with a two-transistor astable multivibrator circuit. The CPO is a good practice tool, but the acoustics of a huge cinderblock meeting room and several dozen people made it a little hard to hear.

For that setting, we supplemented with a smartphone app called “MorseKey,” and cranked up the smartphone volume. The “MorseTyper” app would also work well.

For practicing Morse code, “MorseMania” is a free and friendly app and website. For decoding Morse code, there is the more complex “CG Morse” smartphone app.

Tom Weeden shared resources for learning ham radio, including the Four Lakes Amateur Radio Club’s (FLARC) in-person Technician class license course at the UW-Space Place https://w9jz.org/exam/tech-class/

The scouts learned, they keyed, and they may even become hams or ham ambassadors someday.

Suppose you want to become a Scouts BSA Merit Badge Counselor (MBC) for a broadcast engineering-related badge. In that case, you can be invited to apply by a specific troop, or you can apply independently with the local Scouts BSA Council to be approved to lead that badge for any area troop, if there is a request for an MBC for that badge.

Some MBCs lead badges at day-long merit badge academies. Scouts can choose between many badges and earn a badge or two at the academy, if the scout has completed all of the badge requirements by the end of the session. Scouts are often asked to complete some badge requirements at home before attending the merit badge day to fit everything in.

Scouts BSA has many enthused MBCs who volunteer to lead badges. But there’s not always a counselor in every troop for every technical or specialized badge.

For Scouts BSA, every volunteer must undergo a background check, complete two hours of Youth Protection Training every two years, and must never be alone with a scout. Scouts BSA practices “Two Deep Leadership.” Learn more about Scouts BSA at https://www.scouting.

When you teach a scout something new, you never know what may become of it down the road.