Youngsters On The Air

October 14, 2019

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Train the Trainer report – Italy – October 2019

By Monty | Train the trainer | No Comments

YOTA Italy

October 2019

TTT Report October 2019

The Italian situation is quite stable and waiting for the new national committee to set up (we had ARI committee election in this summer), the group of youngsters has slightly increased with a new member from Bologna. One of the goals of the new committee is to change some details in the way that ARI sees the YOTA project and the youth in general, they created a “radio club” allowing all young guys (YOTA, Scouts and school) to take part at the ARI events. The next step (we hope) will be to make a dedicated reduced fee to take part of the national association, as for today is quite expensive (around 70 euros).

The summer was mostly dedicated to the preparation of the LZ19 camp, we then had a meeting in Prato (the hometown of Amelia IU5LVM – the Italian lady that went to the camp) explaining the camp, the activities that has been done and our feelings after the camp.

YOTA Italy October 2019

Other Projects:

– Some Youngsters took place in big ham radio stations during the last contest, such as IO2HQ
– A significative amount of youngsters participated to the “alpe adria VHF/UHF contest” which now
has a specific chart for young people. Future Projects:

– From 17th to the 20th of October YOTA Italia will be present at the Maker Faire in Rome, a big event which will give us the opportunity to meet a huge number of young guys interested in electronics and informatics, our goal (in partnership with the national association) is to try to give some interest in ham radio to more people which basically shares our hobby.
– In the last weekend of November there will be a big fair in Pescara (center of Italy) and we’re looking forward to be there
– In December we have 7 youngsters that are going to be in the PA19 subregional camp

October 12, 2019

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Train the Trainer report – Iceland – October 2019

By Monty | Train the trainer | No Comments

First off, Iceland is small. Like tiny. My ham radio license is number 434, from the beginning. I am the 18th YL to have a callsign, since 1960ish. We are very few but also very close. The Icelandic way of doing things is “Doing a lot but no planning involved because that’ll scare people off.”

The youth team in Iceland is technically just me and TF8RN. But in reality it is us and mainly radioscouts. There are 1-4 people involved and they have a supporting network of IRA members, scouts and family around them.

Next week is going to be the biggest JOTA/JOTI of the past 10ish years. There’s a team of YLs and IRA members that will help the scouts with the shack and TF8RN is going to try and activate TF3YOTA from his own station. This is solely planned by scouts, a lot of people who attended the JOTA/JOTI last year and saw its potential (it hadn’t been very active in a long time).

I plan activities by calling one person and asking if they’d like to do something, like would they be up for activating TF3YOTA with me from the IRA club station in December? If yes, then we let other people in the society know when and where and invite them to come and meet us there.

Second, I live in the Netherlands and I have voiced my concern to the IRA of how I can help there by being here but I have their full support and say that they actually think being in mainland Europe gives me more opportunity to network, which is true.

Next year, I plan to assist in any way I can with NOTA 2020, I am also laying groundwork for NOTA Iceland 2021. This will be presented at the IRA main meeting in February and I will propose that a % of the membership fee goes solely towards youth activities.

The main focus now is to build up events in a consistent manner so that the environment for youth activities is there if anyone is interested. Planning NOTA 2021 is a big step in doing that. Getting youth into the hobby in Iceland is still an issue that needs to be addressed. I have inquired about holding presentations in schools but so far they have fallen through since I am only there about a month of the year.

I discussed this with the head of the IRA and I regret to say that I will not be making bi-monthly reports when there is nothing to report. I will of course inform you when we have news but for now it’s going to be sporadic.

YOTA summer camp was on the front page of the CQ TF this month.. if that helps. And there will be an extended article on what I’ve done in the past year in the next magazine. (I attended NOTA/FHN/YOTA Bulgaria and will participate in PI4DEC/J next week)

73 de Elín, PA/TF2EQ

October 12, 2019

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Train the Trainer report – Czech Republic – October 2019

By Monty | Train the trainer | No Comments

Maker Faire Prague June 13th-14th Prague

Czech Radio Club took place in the biggest maker fair in the Czech Republic. Because of the large number of parents with children we decided to prepare games for youngsters together with the National Technic Museum. They had the opportunity to try out morse code or their task was to light up as many lightbulbs as possible using different circuits and other fun activities. At the fair we met two boys who are interested in and excited about HAM radio, we are still in contact with them. One of them has already done the license, the other wants to take the exam soon.

Electro camp 1st-12th August 2019

As we already mentioned in past reports, Electro camps have been held every year since 2012. This year 48 youngsters 13 years and older participated. They soldered electronic kits, learned theory and also took part in a HAM radio contest. As always, it took place in Olbramkostel. Although we increased the capacity with a second camp date – Electro camp Junior which is for youngsters from 10 to 13 years old, the number of applicants was so great that we still had to refuse some of them. It’s a voluntary project organised for children to get them interested in and make them fall in love with (electro)technology and to show them the wonderful radio amateur world. Most participants are unlicensed, and have their first experience with amateur radio at the camp.

http://www.elektrotabor.cz/2019/

Summer Radio-electro camp Akademik 13th-17th July 2019

This camp is for youngsters 15 years of age and older, who are interested in electronics and radio technology. They learned the basics, met new friends and much more. We tried QSO by satellite and talked with people from all over the world, we built a light based walkie-talkie and learned the morse code. They had a lot of fun and made many memories. For some participants it was the first experience with amateur radio.

http://www.letni-tabory.info

YOTA Subregional OL19CAMP – Weekend of Experiences with Czech Radio Club 27th – 29th September 2019

The whole event was made possible by the youth commission: OK1VHB (IARU R1 Youth coordinator) and Líba OK1LYL (secretary). The decision to organise the YOTA subregional camp was made 3 months before the start of the event, which meant we had to work extremely hard and fast to get it ready in time. Because everyone lives somewhere else, we had to discuss everything by group chats and calls. First of all, we split the tasks among us. The most important things were finding a place where we could accommodate approximately 30 participants, come up with a program and find sponsors. We also contacted experts from different fields to make presentations for youngsters about HAM radio. After that the real work began, Honza OK1JD came up with different games for children and also prepared a presentation about the physics side of amateur radio, antennas, radios and QSO basics. Martin OK1VHB made an introduction presentation about HAM radio and the HAM spirit, showed them ARDF. Jindra OK1NOR did a J-Pole workshop in which each participant built their own antenna. Vlada OK2ZKR taught the kids basics about electronics in a form of a game and Leo OK2UUJ taught them how to make contacts via satellite. Liba OK1LYL and I decided to deal with the paperwork and I also had a presentation about all the events and activities which YOTA organises.

You can find more information about the event here.

We plan to do a weekend meeting during the December YOTA Month using the callsign OL19YOTA, on the weekend of 6th-8th December 2019. It will be a chance for youngsters to get together and get on the air. We will also organise other fun activities, more details about that in the next report.

We have a lot of plans for the future so stay tuned! We will talk about them in the next report once we have finalised them!

Martina OK2YLQ

October 12, 2019

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December YOTA Month activity – DYM 2019

By DL8GM | Publication, YOTA Month 2019 | No Comments

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

October 6, 2019

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OL19CAMP – YOTA Subregional camp (the full story)

By PA2LS | Czech Republic 2019, Publication | No Comments

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.

October 2, 2019

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Subregional camp Czech Republic – Feedback

By Monty | Community Written, Czech Republic 2019, Publication, Subregional Activities | No Comments

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

October 2, 2019

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Subregional camp Czech Republic – Sunday

By Monty | Community Written, Czech Republic 2019, Publication, Subregional Activities | No Comments

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.

October 2, 2019

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Subregional camp Czech Republic – Saturday

By Monty | Community Written, Czech Republic 2019, Publication, Subregional Activities | No Comments

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.

October 2, 2019

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Subregional camp Czech Republic – Friday

By Monty | Community Written, Czech Republic 2019, Publication, Subregional Activities | No Comments

The first Czech YOTA Subregional camp started in the afternoon of Friday the 27^th, 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.