I spent May 13 through May 19 in Dayton, Ohio, at the Miami Valley Scout Council’s Cricket Holler Training Center. We had rented their facility to host 20 staff members for the K2BSA Jamboree set up event. We called it the Dayton Drill @ Cricket Holler.
The facility provided lots of space, a complete training center with large and small classroom, plus four cabins where we could bunk for the evening. We had a local caterer provide breakfast and lunch as well as an opening and closing dinner. On arrival on Monday, everyone set immediately to work unpacking and setting up all the equipment sent by our sponsors Icom America, SteppIR, and Array Solutions. Later in the week, Ed Dudley WA4ISI arrived with a trailer load of gear from previous Jamborees.
The full week was spent in intensive efforts at getting everything sorted out and prepared for the Jamboree. We also got to know each other and build a core team that will be heading to the Jamboree to join with another 30 staff members there to make things happen for the Scouts at K2BSA. At the end of the week, we were all able to spend time at the Dayton Hamvention, purchasing stuff for our own ham shacks and the items we still needed for the K2BSA operation.
You can see a full run down of the event along with a slide show at K2BSA Dayton Drill. A highlight for me, among so many highlights, was receiving the Sledge Hammer Award from the team at the closing dinner. The placque says “K2BSA — why use a tack driver when a sledge hammer will do?” I had used this phrase to exhort the team to going full out in setting up the K2BSA Jamboree Operation.
This was a real adventure in ham radio!
