Winter YOTA PA 2019

After a fun day yesterday, the last day of winter YOTA started with a fun energising game. Day 3 was “QRM day”. The day kicked off with a presentation about sources of QRM by Edwin Vos PA3GVQ, it was fascinating to see how a small fault in a power supply for example can cause significant QRM. But this knowledge would be useless without knowing how to locate the source and being able to prevent the QRM. Furthermore, we learnt how to best work together with your neighbours when complaints about interference come up. Edwin works for the Dutch telecommunications agency, so he knows QRM better than anyone.

After lunch we took the traditional group pictures with all participants. The afternoon activities were started off by a treasure hunt. The youngsters had to answer amateur radio related questions in order to find the location of the next question. For example: “Which country has the most DXCC entities?”. The weather was “Dutch dry”, it only rained lightly but this did not stop the youngster’s enthusiasm. Then it was time to continue with QRM day. First of all, the participants built a signal finder kit which can be used to detect sources of QRM. The instructions can be found on www.kitbuilding.org. For many it was the first time soldering such a kit. It was great to see the more experienced youngsters helping the ones who had less experience. Once the kit had been assembled a test bench was set up to try out the detectors. At the same time Edwin demonstrated the vehicle used by the Dutch telecom agency to find QRM sources, both for amateur radio and commercial operations. The sensitive technology and directional antennas were impressive. Yet another career in amateur radio.

The day ended by the participants presenting what they had done and learnt to some of the camp’s sponsors, more about this in tomorrow’s blog.

December 13^th 2019: Day 2

After breakfast the organisers gave a short presentation about what would happen today. The program changed a little due to the weather but was still packed with interesting and fun activities. We started the morning of with a short game to wake up and get to know each other better. After this, the first workshop of the day started. Han Jenniskens PA0JEN gave a presentation about the satellite QO-100. The youngsters learnt about the different systems that can be used and how easy it is to listen to the satellite via SDR. After learning about this fascinating type of amateur radio the youngsters had the opportunity to make QSOs via the satellite themselves. After a short break Lennart Kieft PA2LEN continued with a presentation about other amateur radio satellites. Satellites such as SO-50 are easy to work with a handheld radio and homemade yagi-antenna. A great way for youngsters to get into satellite operation. In the evening the youngsters got an opportunity to practice their contest skills in a fun way. The “off-air” contest is a classic at YOTA camps. Benches are set up to represent the HF bands. By sitting on the bench, you occupy a frequency and can call CQ. Other participants are running between the bands making QSOs with those occupying the band. Other people (mostly crew) were creating QRM by playing SSTV recordings and other sounds found on the real bands. It was an organized fun chaos. The logs were checked meticulously. The 2 best stations had 40 contacts in 2 10-minute periods. After dinner it was time for a pub quiz. The topics ranged from DXCCs and technical questions to questions about the host country and the IARU.

Of course, the call PA6YOTA was on air nearly the entire day and late into the night. The youngsters were eager to get on the air with the ICOM radios. Everybody is looking forward to the next day and many more interesting and fun activities.

December 12^th 2019: Finally the day has come, winter YOTA has begun.

Today the participants arrived at the location of the first ever Winter YOTA camp held in Oosterhout in the region of Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands. Teams from 10 countries across Europe arrived during the course of the afternoon. As more and more motivated youngsters arrived there were a number of activities to get to know each other. For many of the youngsters this was the first ever YOTA event, but there were also some familiar faces. Once all the participants had arrived it was time for a traditional Dutch dinner. After which the organisers of the event introduced the activities we would be doing in the upcoming days. The participants are divided into groups of 5, named after famous inventors and scientists: Hertz, Tesla, Morse, Maxwell and Marcconi. Every team can gain points by winning different competitions such as the off-air contest. There will also be points for the team with the most QSOs and the QSO with the furthest distance. The organisers of the camp prepared a tight schedule of interesting and educational activities, for example kit building, working satellites and a workshop about QRM by the Dutch telecommunications agency. All the participants are looking forward to the upcoming days. The highlight of the evening was the intercultural evening which has become a YOTA tradition. Each countries team brought traditional food and drinks from their country. We spent the rest of the evening enjoying international food and getting to know each other better. Tomorrow the first workshops start, everybody is excited to start learning!

During the entire weekend, the youngsters will be on the air with the callsign PA6YOTA on HF and VHF, we hope to see you on the band.