We are happy to announce two of our upcoming Subregional Camps in 2020.
First host will be NRRL in Norway and the other one MRASZ in Hungary.
Stay tuned for more info and the opening of applications soon.
73 YOTA PR Team
Sunday marked the day of departure from the winter YOTA camp in Oosterhout. During the morning the participants were shuttled to the train station from where they made their way home.
Over the last 3 days the youngsters learnt a lot about the amateur radio hobby. Many of them discovered new things to delve into, like satellite communications. Many had the opportunity to have their first QSOs on HF with the special event callsign PA6YOTA. But this week was also about learning activities and skills which the youngsters can take home to their country and use to get more youngsters fascinated by the hobby. Combining amateur radio with fun activities with like-minded youngsters is the key to spreading the hobby among young people.
On the previous evening the sponsors of Winter YOTA were invited to the camp. The participants presented all the activities they had done over the last days and what they had learnt. The presentations included a short recap of each activity. For example, the satellite workshops, off-air contest and QRM finder kit. The highlight of the evening was the announcement of the winter YOTA games. The teams could accumulate points during all the activities of the camp, such as the treasure hunt and pub quiz. Furthermore, points were awarded to the team with the most QSOs and the team with the furthest QSO.
Special thanks to all those who made this unforgettable camp possible. Thanks to the crew and to the sponsors, without them it would not have been possible.
With only a few days left till Winter YOTA, we want to thank our sponsors to make this event possible! Young amateur radio enthusiasts coming from Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Austria, Romania, Serbia and The Netherlands will be travelling to Oosterhout, in the Southern part of The Netherlands. Listen for PA6YOTA 12-15 December and make a QSO with one of the youngsters. Follow the YOTA pages for updates on the event!
The first camp for young amateur radio operators in North, Central, and South America is coming to West Chester, Ohio in June, 2020.
A summer camp for licensed amateur radio operators ages 15 through 25 will take place June 21 through June 26, 2020 at the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting in West Chester Township (North Cincinnati), Ohio, according to an announcement today by the Youth on the Air (YOTA) committee in IARU Region 2. The camp is being hosted by the museum and the West Chester Amateur Radio Association (WC8VOA). The camp, a modified version of the popular Youngsters on the Air camps in IARU Region 1 covering Europe and Africa, is operated by Electronic Applications Radio Service, Inc. (EARS). EARS is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to wireless technologies and activities. IARU Region 2 covers North, Central and South America. The camp will focus on building peer & mentor relationships and learning how to take amateur radio to the next level. Campers will attend workshops and activities in multiple STEM-related subjects, such as Radio Contesting, Electronic Kit Building, D-STAR, APRS, Satellite Communications, Building Antennas, and Radio Direction Finding and Orienteering. Campers will also build teams and contesting skills by using amateur radio at nearby Kings Island Amusement Park. A high altitude balloon launch is also being planned. Social and team building activities include a pizza and pool party, a trip to Dave & Buster’s and operation of a special event station using the call sign W8Y. The event is a pilot for what hopefully will become a future series at other locations. This is the first camp specifically for youngsters 15 to 25 living in the Americas who already have their amateur licenses.
This camp could not take place without financial and equipment support. Campers will use the latest and greatest amateur radio equipment courtesy of ICOM America, Heil Sound, X-Tronic, and R&L Electronics. Major financial supporters at the time of this press release include: the Yasme Foundation, the World Wide Radio Operators Foundation, Orlando Hamcation and Orlando Amateur Radio Club (OARC), the Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF), Dayton Hamvention and Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA), the Huntsville Hamfest, the ARRL Foundation, Southwest Ohio DX Association (SWODXA), Radio Amateurs of Canada, and Gary West, K8DEV & Dee Dee West, KA8DXE. Their financial support makes it possible for these aspiring young amateur radio operators to attend the camp at a greatly reduced cost. Clubs and individuals who wish to donate to help further defray the costs of the camp can do so via PayPal by visiting YOTAregion2.org, and clicking on the donate button. Donations can also be made on GoFundMe. More information about YOTA in the Americas as well as the summer camp can be found at YOTAregion2.org, and on YOTAregion2 on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. YOTAregion2.org is also sponsored by ICOM America.
The entire month of December several youngsters under the age of 26 will become active with YOTA as suffix in the callsign. The idea for this is to show the amateur radio hobby to youth and to encourage youngsters to be active on the ham radio waves.
You won’t hear YOTA stations often during the year. Thus, the only chances are the camp stations during YOTA summer and subregional camps. And of course, an extended presence during the December YOTA Month activity. Over 40 stations signing YOTA suffixes will be qrv in about 2 months of time.
Give a demonstration in a school or local club, gather together with your friends, grab a pizza and make some QSOs or enjoy a great pile-up. Let us all show this great hobby to the world. Because we know that there is youth in hamradio!
Feel free to make a QSO with the youngsters, they are happy to get some attention and exchange information. Licensed and unlicensed youth will be making QSOs, be aware this could be their first radio contact ever and give them a chance to experience a possible new hobby.
There will be an award program available as well. Work as many YOTA stations on as many bands as possible and be eligible for your Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum award for free. This program promotes the radio activity on the air waves and shows that there is and will be activity in the future. Visit our website events.ham-yota.com for more information about the awards rules.
If you are under the age of 26 get in contact with your countries youth coordinators and get on the air with these special calls during upcoming December. It will be a pleasure to work a lot of new youngsters on the bands!
We hope to crack 100.000 QSOs this December for the first time ever, so help us to achieve this goal set by the future of amateur radio – the Youngsters On The Air!
Feel free to follow the activities on our homepage as well as on our social media channels @hamyota.
73 de YOTA PR Team
Czech radioclub “CRC” organized from 27. 9. to 29. 9. 2019 subregional YOTA camp called “Weekend of Experiencies” which took part in the souths part of Czech republic with participation of 18 youngsters and 9 lectors from OK and OM member societies.
The first Czech YOTA Subregional camp started on Friday nearly before 4 p.m. with the arrival of the first participants. Registration of newcomers lasted until 7 p.m. when Martin OK1VHB began with his introduction into HAM radio and HAM spirit. Program continued with a lecture of Honza OK1JD about physics, antennas, radios and QSO basics. All of the participants learned how to make a phone contact and in the end of the day everybody was able to understand the principles, so the night 80 m operation could follow. After a little stress before first CQs the small expectations of all lectors were quickly exceeded. Children were really outstanding and their honest enthusiasm and opened mind were a big surprise.
It’s important to say that this camp was for most of the kids their first touch with our hobby!
Believe me or not, our Saturday program started at 6 a.m. – kids are unstoppable! A lot of them couldn’t stay in bed and started to occupy the radio in the early morning.
Official Saturday’s program started with workshops. Participants were divided into 4 groups which rotated between five stands –
1) Fox hunting theory by Martin OK1VHB,
2) J-Pole workshop by Jindra OK1NOR,
3) Electronics basics (teached by game) by Vlada OK2ZKR,
4) Sattelite operation by Leo OK2UUJ, and
5) DX, DXCC and contest basics by Honza OK1JD
After lunch we went out and tried ARDF connected with the SOTA activation. Every kids got receivers and their task was to find the fox hidden approx. three kilometers far from the camp. Despite our assurance that there is no need to get out of the road, of course kids decided to follow the signal exactly and set off straight into the impassable forest! Finish was nearby the watchtower were the HF and VHF SOTA set-ups were in advance prepared. The lookout tower showed to be the perfect place were to test J-poles made in the morning. Unfortunately, it started to rain very heavily on the way back, so every kids had all of the clothes wet and the “responsible woman-part” of the organizational team (our CRC secretary Líba OK1LYL especially) made a decision to cancel all of the outside activities scheduled for the rest of the Saturday.
In the evening there was a OFF-air contest. At first it was necessary to teach the participants how to make a contest QSO. After two hours of practicing Honza OK1JD finally enounced that he is satisfied with the contesters performance and the big OFF-air contest could start. And it was amazing! Considering the most of the kids never heard about ham radio until Friday, it was simply unbelievable how they were suddenly able to make 3 – 4 QSO per minute.
The day ended with presentation about YOTA and YOTA summer camps by Martina OK2YLQ.
Last day of our camp started with presentation about PMR followed by PMR contest. Kids made a huge progress and it was joy to watch them how they are actually contesting so good they could in minute take part in the real ham contest.
After lunch we had a presentation “How to make DX on VHF, UHF and microwave” by Petr OK2ULQ.
We finished our camp with the awarding the winners of OFF-air contest and PMR contest. During the whole weekend there was a competition in painting OL19CAMP QSL card. The most beautiful one will be used as an official QSL card and will be distributed via bureau.
YOTA subregional is over and we must say everything went better than we expected! All of the kids were unbelievably enthusiastic and we could read in their faces, that ham radio impressed them enormously. We would like to thank our sponsors – IARU R1, Schrack Technik Martin a GES Electronics.
First of all, I would like to thank all the organizers because the preparation and implementation has been a great effort and time. With the participants, we planned to go through the theory of radioamateur broadcasting, after testing without transmitting to a practical radio contest with radio stations. In the form of competitions and questions we went through all the corners of amateur radio operations. Children could then try all of these types of supervised operations, either through satellite and shortwave operation, or even FM operation including DSTAR and DMR. In the end we thanked all participants and rewarded the winners in the individual competitions.
Martin Černý OK1VHB, IARU R1 Youth coordinator
YOTA in the Czech Republic was my fourth YOTA event and the first one on a subregional level. Therefore, I found myself not knowing what to expect, because I knew there would be much younger attendees compared to the big YOTA summer camps. However, during the whole weekend, every participant, without exception, was focused on learning the basics of ham-radio operation and finding their own joy in it. I really liked how all activities were in a form of competition, which motivated the new potential future operators to always do their best and create new friendships. The days at the camp flew by, due to the very packed program the organisers of Czech Radio Club prepared for us. In three days, they managed to enlighten the participants in all of the areas which ham-radio offers, such as fox-hunting or connections through satellites. At the end of the weekend, I felt really happy about spending time among all of the curious minds and look forward to the next YOTA events.
Bety OM1DP
I’ve really enjoyed this Subregional camp. The program was just perfect. I learned a lot about ham radio and made new friends there too. Trainers at the camp were well experienced and they explained everything you wanted to know. The hotel we stayed at was a really good pick, because the rooms were in good shape and the food was good too. Everything was just great and I’m looking forward to another Czech Radio Club event.
Michal
The last day of our camp started with presentation about PMR followed by a PMR contest. The youngsters made huge progress in their operation skills, many of them could soon take part in a real contest! After lunch there was a presentation about DX on VHF, UHF and microwave by Petr OK2ULQ. Those youngsters who were relatively new to hamradio were amazed at how far one can reach using only simple equipment. We finished our camp with the awarding the winners of the Of-Air contest and PMR contest.
During the whole weekend there was a competition to paint OL19CAMP QSL cards. The most beautiful one will be used as an official QSL card and will be distributed via bureau.
On Saturday the program started at 6 a.m. – kids are unstoppable! A lot of them couldn’t stay in bed and started to operate the radio in the early morning. The official program started with workshops. The participants were divided into 4 groups which rotated between five stands –
1) Fox hunting theory
2) J-Pole antenna building workshop
3) Electronics basics (taught by using a game)
4) Satellite operation
5) DX and contest basics
Dividing the participants into groups allowed the presenters to make their presentations more interactive and interesting for the participants, for example by using a game.
After lunch we went out and tried ARDF, this was connected to the SOTA activation. Each youngster was given a receiver and their task was to find the fox hidden three kilometers from the camp. Despite our assurance that there is no need to leave the roads, of course the youngsters decided to follow the signal exactly and set off straight into the impassable forest! The finish was close to the look-out tower where the HF and VHF SOTA set-ups were prepared in advance. The lookout tower was the perfect place to test the J-pole antennas made in the morning. Unfortunately, it started to rain very heavily on the way back, the outside activities scheduled for the rest of the day were cancelled.
In the evening there was an “Off-Air contest”. First the participants learned how to make a contest QSO and how to log it correctly. After some time practicing, Honza OK1JD announced that he is satisfied with the contesters performance and that the big Off-Air contest could start. It was a great success! Considering that most of the youngsters had never had a QSO before the start of the camp, it was simply unbelievable how they were suddenly able to make 3 – 4 QSOs per minute.
The day ended with a presentation about all the activities organized by YOTA, for example the December YOTA Month, the Youth Contesting Program and the summer camps by Martina OK2YLQ. The participants were enthusiastic about participating in more of the YOTA activities in the future.
The first Czech YOTA Subregional camp started in the afternoon of Friday the 27th, with the arrival of the first participants. The registration of newcomers lasted until 7 p.m.. The program was started by Martin OK1VHB who made a presentation to introduce the participants who are new to hamradio to HAM radio and the HAM spirit. The program continued with a lecture by Honza OK1JD about physics, antennas, radios and QSO basics. All of the participants learned how to make a SSB contactsand in the end of the day everybody was able to understand the principles, so during the night 80 m operation using OL19CAMP could follow.
After a little stress before the first CQ calls, the small expectations of the organisers were quickly exceeded. The Youngsters were really comfortable operating the radio and their enthusiasm and open mind were a big surprise.What makes this camp different to previous YOTA subregional camps is that a large part of the participants were not yet ,for many of them it was the first time learning about amateur radio.
