Start of the youth exchange!

The arrival of the teams starts after 13:00 hours, when one participant from PA and the SM team arrive. At the same time team Finland is working very hard to build up the OH2YOTA station, get all there stuff out of the cars and make lot’s of phone calls to arrange many things and make sure everybody get’s on the bus from Helsinki airport.

In the late afternoon the bus with 90% of the teams left Helsinki airport for there trip to Virrat.

In two groups the teams enjoyed a lovely pizza dinner at the restaurant.

When the first team had just finished there meal, the bus with most countries arrives. At that time the weather changed and it starts to rain quite heavy, just when everybody wants to get off the bus. Mari and Kati do there best, to give everybody there keys as quick as possible, so everybody could check in there room. But due to the rain the list of rooms and participants got wet and it took longer and longer, but finally everybody had there rooms!

At around 21 hours we had a nice first meeting with all the teams and we got some explanation of the OH-team about some rules and the program for the evening. After that we made a short tour around the site and enjoyed a evening of meeting old friends and making LOT’s of new international friends, most went to bed when the new day started.

During the summer of 2014, a youth exchange “Youngsters on the Air” will be held in Finland, organized by the Finnish Radio Amateur League. During this week teams of young radio amateurs from 15 different European countries will be participating during different activities: presentations, competitions, visiting radio stations, workshops, ARDF etc… As three previous events in Romania, Belgium/Netherlands and Estonia have shown, for the young HAM’s it will be a great experience they will never forget.

When: 15-22 July 2014
Participants: 15 teams from different European member associations of IARU R1. A team consists of a team leader, who could be an older person over 18, and 4 team members between 15-25 years old.
Location: Virrat, Finland. Click here to view on the map. 
Fees: part of travel costs (calculated with a distance calculator by the European Commission), plus participation fee 50€/person. All other costs (accomodation, food, activities) will be covered by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission.

If your member society is interested to participate, please respond by 31st January 2014, as the full application should be ready for 15.03.2014. For questions and where to send the application, download the invitation document.