The station was in the old domain grounds on the left as you approach the outskirts of Culverden township. Located 96 km by road from Christchurch, it is located inland from the sea and ringed by hills on all sides. G.P.S location (Metric) E 172,50,39.2 seconds S 42,46,34.2 seconds. The Station assembled by Paul Layt ZL3TPA, Harvey Cook ZL3CH, and Jim Nelson ZL3ND.

Participants were 16 brownies aged 7 – 9 years, and 2 guides, aged 11 – 13 years. They were very excited about the whole idea and were really looking forward to it. They arrived at 5:00pm on Saturday to camp for the night. Parents provided supper, breakfast, morning tea and lunch for all of us and the camp wrapped up 3:00pm on Sunday.

There were a number of structured activities for the kids to complete at the end of which they received a certificate. Activities included

• Learning about radio and how to transmit. PRS CB sets were used for this. Three base stations and two portable sets were set up around the campsite and everyone had a go practicing what to say and how to press the PTT button
• Writing out questions to ask person on the radio
• Learning about Q codes, the J code and the phonetic alphabet
• Morse code sending. The history of Morse code and learning how to send their names.
• Creating QSL cards. Using a large rubber stamp for the ZL3CAR
• CARDS club call sign and drawing their own cards and messages.
• Logging contacts on laminated world map and finding stations geographically based on their call signs. Drawing the weather on the map.
• Used a laptop computer to receive SSTV pictures

Many of the activities fitted in really well with the brownie Technofunk badge and the Tuned In theme. The leaders also had a range of activities from these for the girls to do. This allowed us to take small groups of three into the station so things were not to hectic or crowded.

Certificates were handed out for, Chatter Box, Longest distance contact x2 (Belgium), Best operator, Best Morse sender. All participants received a JOTA 2002 QSL style card from Scout Association.

The VHF station used an 8 element beam into the CARDS 720 IRLP repeater. HF was on a FT757GX2. Aerials used were a trapped 80/40/15 dipole and a 20 metres extended zepp. Two laptops were used to provide satellite tracking, PSK31, SSTV, RTTY, FAX. Best picture received was from Nth Carolina which was a puppy dog. The kids loved it.

Stations worked included: Belgium, ON4AAE Eric Roeselare, Australia, VK2SBB, VK2XR, VK2SAS, VK2SHD, VK3KHS, VK2SBF, VK2NBT Newcastle, VK3SAB, VK2SBF, New Zealand, ZL4FZ, ZL2DS Levin, ZL4OO Alexandria, ZL3VV Omaka Christchurch , ZL4AA Aromoana Dunedin, ZL1ROT, ZL2ROG Rotorua, ZL3RJ Pine Acres Christchurch , ZL3RR Woodend Christchurch.

An excellent time was had by all.

Paul ZL3TPA