Train the trainer report – The Netherlands – January 2020
On the 3rd of November 2019 it was the day of the radio amateur in the Netherlands. It took place in ‘de IJsselhallen in Zwolle. The day of the radio amateur is a big event and known by every radio amateur. There are multiple stands which look exactly like any other radio market. Next to that there were a lot of stands for information. YOTA also had one. A few youngsters stood with the stand, giving information about what YOTA is and how you can get in touch. Some youth magazines were also handed out.
The Dutch sub regional camp (Winter YOTA) was held from the 12th of December until the 15th. This weekend, youngsters from 10 different countries attended. Many of them discovered different new topics to the hobby. Also, many of them had the opportunity to make their first QSO on HF and UHF with the special callsign PA6YOTA. During this week, lectures and workshops were given and many youngsters got a new skill and knowledge which they can take home and share with the youngsters there. The blogs can be found on https://www.ham-yota.com/category/pa2019/.
During the YOTA December month, youngsters all over the Netherlands were busy making contacts with PA6YOTA and PB6YOTA. All together 5732 QSO’s were made with these two callsigns. With all the YOTA stations 129020 QSO’s were made and 2579 awards were downloaded, a great result! When youngsters were on the air, they also invited friends into their homes to show them what it is like to be a young radio amateur. Some youngsters also went to PI4COM in Rotterdam and PI4UTR in Utrecht to make QSO’s there. They shared techniques on how to handle a pile up, it was a lot of fun and of course we hope to make more QSO’s next year!
On the 8th of January, the youngsters who went to Bulgaria YOTA 2019 had a meeting with the youth and youngsters committee of the VERON. Here, we discussed what kind of activities we can organize and how we can approach the youngsters in the Netherlands. We now made an Instagram account for YOTA in the Netherlands, which you can follow by searching yota_netherlands or via this link: https://www.instagram.com/yota_nederland/?hl=nl
