Guitar String Turk's Head Woggle

Other than Scouting, one of my hobbies is music: I play bass guitar (like this one, and recently the one I made as well), and the other day when I changed bass strings I made this woggle (neckerchief slide) for my Scout scarf out of the thinnest string from my bass.

The knot is a Turk's Head, tied using the 'round the fingers' method which is commonly used to tie woggles in leather or cord.

Unlike leather or cord, steel wire tends to slip and jump open. It's worthwhile to make the first round of this woggle a little smaller than you intend it to be, as it will widen while you are weaving the following layers through. Steel is also difficult to fasten (superglue does a great job on leather), so I have twisted the two ends of the knot together with pliers.

Pioneered sculptures on the 49th floor

Dor Posner has reported on some enormous Scouting structure before (like these), and has been busy again, this time to celebrate the 90th year of Scouting in Israel, and the centenary of the founding of the city of Tel Aviv:

 

40 scouts (ages 16-18) built a model of the land of Israel on the roof of the Azrieli Towers, over 2 days.

the model includes four special things: the Underwater observatory in Eilat, the Azrieli Towers in Tel Aviv, the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem and the Golan Heights wind farm.

Over 900 poles had to be raised to the roof of this 193 metre (633 foot) tower before construction could begin. Thanks to Dor for these photos - the Israeli Scout Association also has a photo gallery (and a writeup) here (machine translated from Hebrew).

JOTI pioneering- the router lashing

I've featured a few JOTA towers, but no JOTI pioneering.. until now. :)

We were relying on a wireless internet connection this weekend, so the modem needed to be placed high up for good signal. So here is the modem, securely lashed to the wan router, both suspended from a window in our Scout hall.

JOTA Tower from the Netherlands - 2008 edition

Loy shared a great explanation of how his group built their radio tower last year.For JOTA this year, they have built another radio tower, and pictures of the tower, as well as the rest of their weekend, are available here. Thanks for sharing, Loy.

JOTI/JOTA this weekend

This weekend, Scouts and Guides from around the world will be gathering around the world for the annual Jamboree on the Air and Jamboree on the Internet. Around 570,000 Scouts and Guides took part last year, in 121 different countries. JOTA/JOTI is an opportunity to talk to other Scouts and Guides all over the world, using radios and internet chat.

Anyone with an Internet connection can participate in the Jamboree on the Internet. Details on how to get involved in internet chat, blogging and other activities is here.

To take part in JOTA, you will need some help from a licensed radio amateur ('ham'). Details about JOTA- including the frequencies used- are here. Most groups build pioneered towers for radio masts, and Loy's 13m tower was featured here last year.

For those taking part, enjoy the weekend, and feel free to share any news in the comments to this post (especially if you build a nice tower, of course).

Three years of Ropes and Poles

Next Monday, it will be three years since I published the first post on this blog- a small Scout trebuchet. Here are some highlights from the last three years:

Massive Israeli pioneering projects


It's been great to hear from Scouts around the world. I've learnt that Israeli Scouts can build anything - flaming, written-word sculptures, giant hedgehogs, even walking pioneering projects.

8m (24 foot) Treehouse


In December 2005 my troop built a treehouse in our local campsite, and I documented the whole project step-by-step here.

Tensegrity Tower

Tensegrity systems work by suspending rigid elements in a network of tension cables, and at first glance look like they should collapse, yet somehow they stand. Along with a fellow student at university, I designed and built this tensegrity tower, which has shown up in a few places on the web, most notably on the MAKE: magazine blog. I believe these were the first Scout tensegrity structures.


SketchUp resources

Along with a collection of models made for this site, I have written a series of lessons on using SketchUp, Google's free 3d modelling software.


Thanks to everyone who's contributed, written to me or offered encouragement.

Swingboat

8th Pretoria Saint Alban's built this Swingboat earlier this year at Gauteng Kontiki. Total construction time was around 4 hours, with a troop of approximately 20 (relatively young) scouts. The swing seat plank is suspended using a scaffold hitch. A complete list of equipment for a smaller version of this swing is available at the SA Scouting website (PDF).