Another December came and went, and with it another edition of December YOTA Month did as well. We are happy to host an event which brings young people – licensed HAM radio operators and youngster who are new to the hobby and are making their first QSOs alike, and inspires them to be more active on the bands and shows them there are many people listening on the other side. For a better overlook on the past month we make sure to keep statistics; this is not to say that the joy isn’t in the experience, but rather to confirm it. This year as many as 44 participating stations made 82,938 QSOs in December, proving once again that neither the weather nor the holidays can keep a radio amateur away from the station. And while December YOTA Month is not a competition, for the truly devoted to catching as many special calls as they can, there were awards and in 2018 there were 1516 awards downloaded throughout the DYM period. Most active this December were II5YOTA with the whopping 8,387 QSOs made from their station, whereas the 28th of December proved to be the most active day for the participating stations as 5,326 QSOs were made on that day alone. The most popular mode remains SSB with 46,989 QSOs made in this mode, followed by 28,064 QSOs made in CW, while 40m (30,280 QSOs) and 20m (31,004 QSOs) were the preferred bands. You can find the respective charts under https://events.ham-yota.com/stats where a more detailed presentation might be entertaining for you, but while the numbers are important to keeping track of things, what has been the most important to us from the very first December YOTA Month and will keep being the prime goal for the future as well, is that it continues to be an event that is awaited with excitement and concentrates on bringing young people in a world they might have not known anything about, yet might find themselves mesmerised by. So to all of you who show them the way to their first QSOs, keep up the great job and we can’t wait to hear from you next December.
