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Youth Contesting Program

February 19, 2024
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Apply for Youth Contesting Program – TM4Y (@F6KOP)

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After years of sleep, the Youth Contesting Program is back for new adventures. For this fresh new start, we are planning a full team of young operators to make some noise with the call TM4Y, during CQ WPX SSB (March 30-31), in one of the best “big gun” stations of France: F6KOP 🇫🇷

From simple transceiver usage to committed contester, any level goes! Although having very basic knowledge of French would also be a plus!

If you are interested in joining the fun, please contact Jules F4IEY (mail on QRZ.com) for more info.

Note: Keep in mind that you will have to travel there by your own means and places are very limited (10) due to the nature of the event. The applications will close on March 1st for organization purposes but feel free to show your interest after this date!

73 DE F4IEY / K4IEY Jules

April 7, 2020
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Youth Contest Program 2020 – LX7I + LX20I

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Report by YCP team member Tom (F4HWS):

How the ARRL DX SSB 2020 has been managed by youngsters at LX7I ?

Arriving in the farm, you are already excited by everything you see, stacks, TX, amp, anything you see motivates you a lot to enjoy the upcoming contest by doing your best.

This year was special, we were only two, Simon DL3SPS (first time at LX7I) and me, Tom F4HWS (from the 2019 YCP team!).

Because we were two, we reflected with Phillipe LX2A about the category we should enter.
The choice was quick, I would enter in SOHP40 signing as LX20I while Simon would be SOLP20 signing as LX7I.

I already said this last year, but it was one more time, the first time for me as SOSB. Because I really enjoy contesting, I looked for previous logs, previous SOHP40 ops., and previous results, in mind that in 2019 as M2 we managed to put 900 US stations on 40 in the log.

The contest itself :

At 0000 UTC, I started the contest, signing as LX20I, a special call for the 20 years anniversary of the station. Everything was great, rates were good with 200 Qs/h during the two first hours but limiting myself to go faster to avoid wrong spots and tons of dupes (seen spots as LX0I-LX2CI-LX2ZI).

At 0900 Saturday I decided to have a nap with a satisfying number of 923 Qs in the log and 54 mults. The second night was interesting, always up 7175 to get a maximum of novices in the log, even if signals were very light, the low level of noise and the tremendous propagation conditions allowed me to run few hours at 160 Qs/h without any break time, what a pleasure!

On the Sunday morning 2054 Qs were in the log, with 62 mults, fun night with sometimes hard fight with other big guns to keep my frequency clear, with always a win from the LX one, secret weapon hi.

Monday morning at 0000 UTC, LX20I end the contest with 2384 Qs (206 dupes, not included) and 62 mults. I’m pretty satisfied. During the contest even if the first place was not my goal, I had the feeling that it was not very far. It was a very interesting but hard fight against CR6T and I4VEQ, finding them on the band and listening to a pile that I couldn’t hear, especially in the morning with CR6T. After the claimed, I saw myself at the rank #2, between CR6T and I4VEQ, congrats to them for this intense run 😊.

Around the contest :

Having some extra time behind the TX giving LX to YV, KP, CM, PJ, LU, JA, and VK was cool! When you’re not in the shack, you discuss with locals and teammate Simon who was not a contester before, but he managed to put around 480 US guys in the log! We spoke during break time when he was not on the air and I was not sleeping. That represents lots of nice moments.

Around the contest, there was also support from Phillipe LX2A and other awesome club members. Speaking with them about the club, the ham activity in the area, and of course, talking with Phillipe about contesting, contests experiences and station evolution puts you lots of stars in the eyes!

To finish, I strongly recommend to those who already had a few experiences in their area, to those who don’t have access in their country to some big stations and want to compete from that kind of place, to apply asap to be the next YCP contesters!

CU in the next, LX20I op. Tom F4HWS.

March 23, 2020
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Cancelled – IARU R3 Summer Camp, Subregional Camp HA, YCP at EC2DX

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Unfortunately, we have to announce more cancellations of upcoming YOTA events due to COVID-19 also known as Corona-Virus.

This includes the upcoming IARU Region 3 Summer Camp in Thailand, the YOTA Subregional Camp in Hungary as well as the Youth Contest Program at EC2DX in Spain.

The mentioned events are all postponed to a later moment already when spreading of the virus calms down.
Participants will be directly contacted by the organizers.

Currently cancelled YOTA Events:

  • BOTA Subregional Camp in Serbia
  • NOTA Subregional Camp in Norway
  • Subregional Camp in Hungary
  • IARU Region 3 Summer Camp in Thailand
  • YCP at 9A1A in Croatia
  • YCP at EC2DX in Spain

Info:
We are in close contact with the organizers to check possibilities to postpone these youth events to a later date!

Thanks for your understanding and stay safe at your homes around the world!

73 de YOTA Staff

March 12, 2020
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Cancelled — YCP at 9A1A, NOTA and BOTA 2020

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Unfortunately, we have to announce the cancellation of the upcoming Youth Contest Program at 9A1A contest station in Croatia, the Nordics On The Air Sub-regional camp in Norway  and the Balkans On The Air Sub-regional camp in Serbia due to COVID-19 virus.
The mentioned events might be postponed to a later moment when spreading of the virus calms down.
Participants will be directly contacted by the organizers.

March 14, 2019
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Youth Contesting Program 2019 – ARRL SSB @LX7I

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At the beginning of February, I saw that LX7I will host the YCP for the ARRL DX SSB. I immediately applied after checking transportation. Three weeks after I was notified that I had been selected to be one of the youngsters to go to LX land. We all arrived on Friday afternoon and after a first get-together, we start to get sorted in the shack.

For this experience I met the other team members: HA8RT, DK4EE, DL8GM, DC2CL or Tomi, Louis, Markus and Claudia. It was a really good time with them at the station, sharing experiences, discussing the hobby in our own respective countries and enjoying simple off-air time or pile-up time.

As expected from a Multi-one, Multi-two and Multi-Multi (all in one HI), LX7I station is well organized, the antenna dispatch system is great.

The 22 antennas on the 6 towers, full sized beams, stacked beams, fixed or not, dipoles, verticals, (plus the RX beverages) were awesome for me. As a fan of large antennas, stacking methods, performance comparison, speaking with LX2A Phillipe, the owner of the station, was a great pleasure. It was also very interesting to see the background of a big gun station and its evolution.

It was not my first experience in contesting, but there have been lots of first times @LX7I for me: my first radio operation outside F land as LX/F4HWS, my first ARRL DX SSB, my first time operating monobander Yagi on 40 and stacks on upper bands and my first time in M2 category.
I love the feeling of challenge operation though the friendship relation that you can create on the air and in the shack of course!

The best memories of this WE in LX was the arrival with the meeting of everyone, the warming up session with good pile up from LX/F4HWS, LX/DK3EE, LX/DC2CL, the off times with the group, and the last minutes of the contest at night, fingers crossed, with all the team in the shack, behind Tomi on 80M and Louis on 160M fighting for our last QSO: a new multiplier on the top band!

Finally, competition with ED1R, E7DX and LZ5R was intense and excitement has increased with the live score sharing web site, “cqcontest.net”.

I think that every youngster of the YOTA group who is interested by this type of event or contests should definitely apply. This is a great opportunity to operate big stations, get more experience with ham radio, meet great people, contesters, and friends, and finally to have fun in what they like.

Thanks to everyone, see you for the next one.

LX7I YCP Team, Tom F4HWS.

November 11, 2018
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Youth Contesting Program 2018 – DQ5M (@DM9EE)

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After seeing posts about the YCP at DM9EE I immediately applied, eager to be able to take part in
the CQWW SSB contest from a big contest station. My contest experience was limited, having only
participated at smaller stations and once at 9A1A as part of the YCP program. I was eager to gain
experience and learn more about contest techniques and strategies.
Six youngsters were selected to go to DM9EE for the contest, 4 of them coming from various
regions of Germany, one from Sweden and myself from Austria. It was an interesting combination
of people, with different skill levels, some having only operated QRP stations whilst others had
been to large contest stations before.
On Friday we arrived at the DX-Hotel in Holzminden in the north of Germany owned by Carsten
Dauer, DM9EE. The DX-Hotel (see dm9ee.de for more information) is a normal hotel, only that in
the garden there are two high masts with yagi antennas on top and a 4 square for the 80 meter
band. The station itself consisted of two IC-7851 transceivers with an OM-Power and an ACOM
amplifier. One thing some of us had never seen before was the micro ham system which connects
all parts of the station. The functionality it provided was impressive, however before we could get
started some tweaking was required so we got right to work to make sure everything was working
flawlessly. Thankfully we arrived early before contest begin so we had enough time. At the last
minute we had to solder a new control cable for one of the amplifiers as we changed the set up a
little to optimise the station.
The antenna systems were great, an opti beam ob-17-4 (3 element on 40m, 4ele on 20m, 4ele on
15m and 6ele on 10m), a 4 square for 80 meters and an inverted L wire antenna for 160 meters. All
of this concealed in the garden of the hotel. A big thank you to Carsten, DM9EE who not only
provided the station and his experience but also housed us in his luxurious hotel. I am sure no
other contest team lived and ate as well as we did during the contest.
We operated using the call DQ5M, a special youth contesting callsign. During the contest we
changed operators approximately every 3 hours, however sometimes we operated for 4 or 5 hours
and other times we changed more frequently. There was no tight schedule, if an operator wanted
to be replaced, one of us would jump at the opportunity to operate again. The contest itself was
very interesting, we had never seen the bands so extremely full. It was an interesting experience
and a challenge to call on a frequency when you can hear and even understand the station above
and below you. We quickly noticed that we were able to achieve better rates using search and
pounce, especially for multipliers. Towards the end of the contest we had to resort to calling on a
frequency as we had already worked all stations which we were able to hear on the band, the band
map became very empty. Occasionally a new multiplier would pop up in he cluster and we would
immediately try to work it before resuming to calling.
The social aspect of this event can not be overlooked, new friendships were made and we all
share an enthusiasm for youth work and will work together to spread our hobby among young
people in the future. I have noticed that one of the key factors which makes it difficult to get new
youngsters into the hobby is that there is a lack of other people their age who they can practice the
hobby with, then they quickly loose interest and become inactive. Small events like the YCP events
are perfect to change this. Even though there are quite a few youngsters in Austria, they do not
know each other, they have to be connected at events such as this one. Furthermore a weekend
activity together is the perfect opportunity to get to know each other, the team which met at DQ5M
will stay connected and work together in youth work. Amateur radio needs more events like these
to grow and to pass the hobby on to the next generation.

73 de Monty, OE3VVU
DQ5M YCP team

 

October 12, 2018
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Youth Contesting Program 2018 – 4O4YCP (@4O3A)

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I had heard of the YCP from my friends Fiodor IZ7YBG and Riccardo IV3CVN so I decided to apply myself to see a big contest station at work. I has been chosen for 4O3A, for CQWW RTTY 2018 contest, so I planned my travel by car to Montenegro. At the airport of Dubrovnik I met Florian PB8DX and together we reached the 4O3A peninsula, because we cannot use mobile phones in Montenegro we used 2 repeaters to talk with Marko who helped us with directions.

Finally, on the evening of Thursday we arrived at the meeting point where Marko 4O9TTT picked up us and took us to the station, it’s on a mountain so a 4×4 vehicle was needed to reach it, Marko is the president of the MARP and stayed with us for the contest to help us with FlexRadio, we met also Roby E77E, the chef, there was also Ljubomir YU5EEA who was testing the station with a pile up. During the next day Jahko YU3EEA joined us and the contest team was complete, we met Ranko 4O3A during the afternoon, he with Marko explained how to manage the station and use FlexRadio and also some suggestions for the contest.

During the contest we had planned shifts of 4 and 6 hours to work at the station and go to sleep, shifts were good and also sleep was needed to survive the 48hrs.

The Monday after the contest we went to the SKYLAB, the house of Ranko and also the laboratory where the FlexRadio are made, it was very interesting to see how a sdr radio is created. After a good lunch with ćevapčići I left for return to Italy which took 1 a day and a half.

I am very happy for this experience, it has given me the opportunity to improve my ham radio skills, meet new people and visit new countries. Many thanks again for the great opportunity and all the work of the team in 4O to make it all happen.

I suggest every youngster to apply for the YCP, you will not regret!

73 de Matteo, IU2GGL
team member 4O4YCP (@4O3A)

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June 9, 2018
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YCP 2018 – ARI International DX Contest @ES5TV

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When my Friend Fiodor IZ7YBG told me about his YCP experience I decided to apply myself.
I have been chosen for ES5TV station for ARI DX contest so I booked flights to Tallinn.

I met Tonno and he brought me to the station, where I met Oleg, YL3DW and Valeri, ES5QA. Tonno gave me a nice welcome to his station, he explained me how the station works. The Friday evening before the contest he let me use the station for practicing, I made some QSO’s together with his son Jasper, ES5JASS.

Other people joined us for the contest, and at 12:00Z Saturday the contest started. This was first Multi operator-Multi station contest for me and I learned many things, especially how big contest station works. I have been awake all night long as I was so enthusiastic about the contest. Even once the contest was finished, I could not get “ES9C CQ Contest” out of my head.

Tonno managed everything perfectly, he picked me up at the airport and provided food at the station. It had a lot of fun operating with the Latvian guys: Kristers YL3AJA, Oskars and Ritvars (from YL1ZT); I am also glad to have met Tarmo, ES5NHC, Tauri, ES5HTA and many other people.

The funniest thing was when I was speaking Italian to the Italians stations because they did not expect an Estonian station speaking their own language!

I am very happy for this experience, it has given me the opportunity to improve my ham radio skills, seeing a big gun station, but also meeting new people and visit a new country.
The day the contest finished I got the chance to take ferry to Helsinki (only 80km from Tallinn) and I visited Finland too.

I suggest every youngster to apply for the YCP, you will not regret!

73 de Riccardo, IV3CVN
(YCP member @ES5TV 2018)