This is the second year that the 1st Sun Valley Venturers, VE4SVV, have participated in JOTA. Last year we went to the Winnipeg Seniors Radio Club, but this year, since one of our Advisors (me) was HF qualified, we decided on a field day Jamboree experience on our own.

We headed out early Saturday morning to the group use area of Bird's Hill Provincial Park just north of Winnipeg. It was a cold, windy day and would prove to be a good test for our new mast and antenna system built by our newest Advisor, Don Schellenberg. We had hoped to put up a four section mast to about 40 feet but as we were erecting it, we had a minor problem. The aluminum pipe proved to be fairly flexible and one section folded in half. After a quick rebuild into a three section mast, we had our "inverted V" G5RV dipole antenna up and guyed at about 32 feet and it was rock solid. While all that was happening, two of the Venturers were setting up the inside of the radio tent with all the electronic equipment. We were on the air by noon and the radio and antenna system proved to work very well as several contacts were made throughout the day on the 20 metre band. We operated on generator power with the only downtime being when we refueled.

During the afternoon, we had youth and leaders from the 1st Sun Valley Scouts, 100th St. Vital Scouts and the 67th Winnipeg Scouts come out for a JOTA visit. Since we were not quite ready when they arrived, some of them went on a hike to pass some time. When they got back, they were treated to a basic explanation of Amateur Radio by Advisor Ken Barchuk,VE4KAB. Then two of our Venturers, Gordon, VE4JHJ, and Deirdre took them into the radio tent and showed them how to use and talk on the radio. The Scouts were excited to be able to talk on the air to a group of Girl Scouts (N8G) in Bowling Green, Ohio, U.S.A. All the Scouts got a chance to talk on the air and seemed to have a good time. Some were mike-shy at first but once they got going, they were hard to stop.

One of our 1st Sun Valley Scouts, Elizabeth (Gordon's sister), also came out for the day and was able to talk to a teacher in Missouri, U.S.A. She even received a QSL card about five days later.

Since we were camping overnight, our past president and newest sous-chef, Matt, VE4MAT, joined us just before supper and cooked us probably the best camp spaghetti we've had in a long time. It seems working in a restaurant has improved his skills, at least in the kitchen.

Throughout the day, we had many contacts in the U.S. and Canada. As evening approached, we started to hear European stations but were only able to contact two of them. They were EA3JE from Spain and DJ7AA from Germany.

After darkness settled in, the sky cleared and we started a campfire and did some star gazing. Ken Barchuk even pointed out the "Barchuk Comet" that he had "discovered" the week before. We even spotted the new International Space Station with the space shuttle moving along behind it. We then operated the radio until about midnight and when the generator ran out of gas again, everyone ended up going to bed after what was a very long day. Very few radio contacts were made after about 7:00pm as the bands were very noisy with static.

The morning dawned cool and clear but although radio conditions were good, there were few JOTA stations on the air. We did make some contacts though. We even made a contact with a HAM in Winnipeg, only 20 miles away. It's very unusual to get someone that close. He turned out to be our last contact of the day. As the weather warmed up, we spent a leisurely afternoon breaking camp and basking in the late fall sunshine.

When all was said and done, our 6 Venturers, 4 Advisors and 17 Scout and Leader visitors made 35 radio contacts and enjoyed themselves very much.

We believe we are the only Venturer Company in Canada with Amateur Radio as it's service/vocational focus. Hence our acronym, SC-ARES, Scouts Canada - Amateur Radio Emergency Service. We are always practicing for our role in an emergency situation as back-up communications.

Since last year's JOTA report, the 1st Sun Valley Venturers have volunteered many man hours providing communications at several different Scouting and community events including 7 of our licenced amateur Venturers and one Advisor being a part of the Winnipeg Fire Department's Y2K backup communications team. We took part in conjunction with the Winnipeg Amateur Radio Emergency Service.

The 1st Sun Valley Venturers will be providing the Amateur Radio display station at CJ'01 in Prince Edward Island and this was a great practice event for us. We learn something new every time out and should have lots more practice in by CJ time with several more events planned. If you are planning to attend CJ'01 make sure you drop by the X-Centre and say , "Hi! or even 73!". You can try your hand at being a HAM radio operator and may even find a new hobby to enjoy.

73. (That's "See ya later and best wishes" in HAM lingo.)