We are glad to announce that DARC is once again hosting its famous HamCamp during upcoming Friedrichshafen fair in Germany from 22nd – 25th June 2023. There will be 160 beds available for youngsters up to 27 years of age and their attendants.
Please find all necessary information and registration from here. In case of any occuring questions, please reach out to the organizers at hamcamp@darc.de directly.
We had about 37 operators from not just the United States, but all over the world. For the first time ever, we welcomed many operators from outside of the U.S. that not only were amateurs in their respective countries, but had U.S. callsigns, meaning they could run remotely into U.S. stations using the K8* callsigns without violating any CEPT agreements. With many youths hooked up with the Remote Ham Radio Youth Program, this made it very easy for them to get on the air.
We were active on pretty much all modes, including satellites, with KE8RJU and others activating the satellites when necessary. In the past, we had many repeat volunteers to operate the callsigns, but this year saw many new licensees and youth willing to participate. We definitely advertised more this year that we were looking for more new operators, which definitely helped our cause to get more youth on the air. This increase of the number of operators from different areas of the United States and the world made it difficult to schedule operators to operate at particular times. Therefore, we pretty much just sent schedules out via Google Sheets to the interested operators that wanted to participate, making the process more automated and up to the youth operators on when they wanted to get on the air.
It was fun to get to know many of these youths that have the same interests as me, and I can’t wait for this year’s DYM 2023.
“Overall, this December YOTA Month was a great experience for me. I had plenty of opportunities to have fun on the air. So much that I took part in… 7 special calls! In France, I used to operate TM22YOTA during weekends and TM4YOTA during weekdays from my local radio club station or my school. When I was at home, I managed to use the four american special calls K8Y/O/T/A and 9A0YOTA remote stations. Besides, I was in charge of organizing the YOTA contest with this 9A0YOTA special call. It sounded like a mess at first but it actually went pretty well. There were 3 operators: me, Darije 9A3BYW and Ryan EI8KW. As I was on vacation, I also had to set up a log server remotely a few days before and between two ski slopes ^^. The craziest part of this contest was during my shift turns, I had to do most of the contacts in my car, laptop on knees while going back home! The whole month was an amazing adventure with a lot of surprises, friends heard on the air, experimental modes (SSTV, FREEDV, PSK31…) and last but not least, massive pileups! My hype was so high for this year and all went so well that I hope to get the same hype for next year.”
– Jules F4IEY / K4IEY
Erasmus in Sweden of Maxime F4IQN
“I was in Sweden in Erasmus during December YOTA month so I couldn’t take part in the french DYM calls. During my stay, I was a member of ETA, Chalmers university radioclub and electronic club (SK6AB). It seems the club is not connected to YOTA activities organized by the national member society so I didn’t get to participate in the DYM in Sweden. The members are more interested in the DIY side of things and not the operating part. This is due to the very old and half functioning equipment of the station; it appears that the hobby is generating more interest among members after a prolonged period of disinterest. I participated a bit in DYM using remote stations in the US and Croatia but I was seriously limited by the slow wifi in my room and the exam and project reviews period in december/january.”
– Maxime F4IQN
The downside of this year was the lack of people operating the French callsigns due to something really relevant for a semester’s end: exams! Even if there were more activities in general than in previous years, the French young team mostly studied for an engineering degree and everyone was not available because of this exam period. Furthermore, adding the fact that most radioclubs are closed during holidays and because of the lack of personal HF gear, people cannot operate at all! A solution to this downside could be setting up an HF remote station, available 24/7 so that French operators can use it anytime, anywhere.
For the December YOTA Month in 2023, we tried to contact as many Youngsters as we could. From the about 25 contacted, about 8 were interested to participate in the DYM. With these 8 people, I was regularly in contact throughout the whole month of December and I tried to set up some meetings. On different occasions, I met with 2 licensed young Hams to go to the local club station of HB9W and do some QSOs under our special call sign HB9YOTA. Also, I met with 2 people interested in ham radio to inform them about what exactly ham radio is and how it’s done. Also, I explained to them how to get their license.
On December 15, 2022, I held a presentation about ham radio at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. This evening, I exchanged contact information with several interested fellows, with some of whom I’m still in contact. Some of them are going to take their ham radio exam at the Federal Office of Communications this February. I’m looking forward to introducing them to other young hams and doing some activities with them also.
From December 16 to December 17, 2022, Philipp DK6SP from the IARU Youth Team visited us in Switzerland. We went to HB9W and did about 860 QSOs in SSB, CW, FT4, and FT8. On December 17, 2022, Andy HB9JOE, Head of Radiosports of the USKA, visited us at the club station and we talked a lot about the future of ham radio in Switzerland as well as all over Europe. Furthermore, on several occasions, I activated the HB9YOTA call from the HB9W club station as well as my home station.
Jan C. Helfenberger, HB9GWQ
Youth Coordinator USKA, The Experimental Wireless Technology Society of Switzerland
In 2022 Team Bosnia and Herzegovina had a record amount of youth stations on the air, 9 stations! In the report, team tells about their experiences in DYM 2022 including a presentation in a local high school and future plans. Read more from the report down below!
Team Thailand participated in December YOTA Month 2022 in multiple ways such as by offering youngsters a chance to operate from stations, and to take part in the 3rd round of the YOTA Contest 2022. They also offered trainings and workshops to local youth.
It is our great honor to announce our next YOTA Subregional Camp coming up shortly. We are very grateful to have URE aboard in organizing this edition in Spain.
The event itself will be held from 30th April to 2nd May 2023 in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Madrid). The Spanish Team will be able to host around 30 participants overall. Please keep in mind that a subregional camp is favoring participants from their neighboring countries. If there are any leftover places to fill, these will be granted towards other IARU R1 member societies.
If your Member Society is considering sending national YOTA representatives to this event, please fill out the attached form reachable here. You will also find all necessary participant requirements and information there as well. The final confirmation of participants will be announced after the application deadline on 13th March 2023. Afterwards you will be given more time to name your participants using another online form.
In case of any questions please do not hesitate to contact us directly at youth@iaru-r1.org.
IARU Region 1 Youth Coordinators were informed about this Call for Applications on 6th March 2023 accordingly.
Announcement by the IARU Region 1 Youth Working Group 28th January 2023
It is our great honor to announce the YOTA Summer Camp 2023. We are very grateful to have MRASZ aboard in organizing this 11th edition in Hungary.
The event itself will be held from 5th to 12th August 2023 in the town of Győr. Once again it is possible to host 100 ambitious youngsters from around IARU Region 1 including guest teams from Regions 2 and 3.
If your Member Society is considering sending a national YOTA Team to this event, please fill out the attached form reachable here. You will also find all necessary participant requirements and information there as well. The final team size of each member society will be announced after the application deadline on February 28th 2023. Afterwards you will be given more time to name your participants using another online form.
In case of any questions please do not hesitate to contact us directly at youth@iaru-r1.org.
IARU Youth Coordinators in Regions 1, 2 and 3 were informed about this Call for Applications including a first Bulletin on 28th January 2023 accordingly.
The IARUR1 Youth Working Group recently got invited by the Union Schweizerischer Kurzwellen-Amateure (USKA) into HB9W club station in Winterthur.
Philipp Springer (DK6SP — Chair, IARUR1 Youth Working Group) took up the opportunity and introduced the newly appointed youth coordinator HB9GWQ into the IARU youth initiative, Youngsters On The Air, as well as other related youth topics. Great discussions summed up the visit.
Many thanks to Andy Thiemann (HB9JOE — USKA, Head of Radio Sports | IARUR1, Treasurer) as well as Youth Coordinator Jan C. Helfenberger (HB9GWQ) for making this visit possible.
Press Release by International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 – Youth Working Group
Erding, Germany – Tuesday, 20.12.2022
2022 is coming to an end already but we are still going strong within the currently ongoing December YOTA Month. Within this event, we will also hold the 3rd session of our well-known YOTA Contest on 30th December from 1200 – 2359 UTC. Thus, we are looking forward to seeing you all participating and working the worldwide youngsters on the bands.
Further, we are happy to announce that we will have three (3) more YOTA Contest sessions coming up in 2023 again. Lots of participants enjoyed the 2022 sessions already and thus we hope to get even more people involved into the events this year.
The upcoming three sessions will be taking place on the following days:
1st round22nd April 2023 0800 – 1959 UTC
2nd round 22nd July 2023 1000 – 2159 UTC
3rd round 30th December 2023 1200 – 2359 UTC
So, are you ready to compete within the next YOTA Contest? Everyone in the ham radio community can take part, it takes place three times per year and only lasts 12 hours. Its aim is to increase the youngsters’ activity on the air, strengthening the reputation of the YOTA program and demonstrate the support for youngsters across the world.
We have implemented 8 different categories which also include special ones for youngsters (≤ 25 years old) only. Covering the 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m bands the competition will take place in CW and SSB modes.
The contest exchange used will be the age of the participating operators. Different ages also serve as multipliers during the contest.
Contacts between the own continent are worth 1 point, working DX is worth 3 points but the most points will be achieved by working youngsters. The younger the operator the more points one will get for the QSO.
During the past year we have received several rule translations into various languages. A big thank you to the contributors! So, if you are not that fluent in English, check them out here.
If you have any further questions after reading through the rules, please go to our FAQ page to see if your question has been answered already. If you still have a question, feel free to drop the YOTA Contest Committee an email at contest@ham-yota.com and we are happy to reply.
On behalf of the YOTA Contest Committee,
— Kind regards | 73
Philipp Springer, DK6SP Chair Youth Working Group International Amateur Radio Union Region 1
