This week, we visit a Web site that helps Boy Scouts get the Radio merit badge--and maybe gives them a little push into Amateur Radio.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a Boy Scout and work toward a Radio merit badge, but I did not know where to turn. If there was an Internet back then, maybe I'd be telling a different story, because I would have had a place to turn!

AA6J's Radio Merit Badge Web page assists Boy Scouts in getting a merit badge.

Bill Jeffrey is an assistant scoutmaster and Boy Scout merit badge counselor, not to mention a ham (AA6J). He built a Web page to help the Boy Scouts in his troop get the Radio merit badge. The page worked so well that he opened his "Radio Merit Badge" Web page to the public to help Boy Scouts in other troops get their Radio merit badges, too.

The page has eight main links to help the Scouts. For example, there are links to pages that answer questions like "What is radio?" and "How do radio waves travel?" Each answer page is amply illustrated and contains links to related information that expand the information contained on the answer page. In addition to helping Boy Scouts, the Web site also helps Scout leaders by providing links to Radio merit badge instructor's manuals and workbooks.

By the way, you do not have to be a licensed Amateur Radio operator to get the Radio merit badge. According to Bill, however, "if you are a ham, it is a lot easier." Bill hopes that once the Scouts see how much fun hams have, they will want to get a license, too.

Until next time, keep on surfin.'

Editor's note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, of downtown Wolcott, Connecticut, is an ARRL Life Member and an incessant contributor to QST and QEX (569 pieces in 23 years), not to mention the author of five ARRL books and contributor to a bevy of other ARRL titles. First licensed in 1969 as WN1LOU, he upgraded to WA1LOU in 1971. Stan began using computers with Amateur Radio in 1978 when he bought a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I computer and wrote BASIC programs to dupe contests and calculate antenna bearings. A virtual beach boy, Stan has been surfing the radio dials as long as he can remember, however, instead of surfing all over Manhattan and down Doheny way, he now surfs the Internet searching for that perfect page. To contact Stan, send email to wa1lou@arrl.net.

Figure caption: AA6J's Radio Merit Badge Web page assists Boy Scouts in getting a merit badge.

Figure: Use http://www.qsl.net/aa6j/radiomb/

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