Wow, what a fun DYM 2022!

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.

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When we (AE4FH and WX4TV) arrived back in Florida from YOTA 2018, we immediately started Train the Trainer.  As soon as we got out of the airport, we drove for 12 hours to the Huntsville Alabama Hamfest to tell about our experiences at YOTA and encourage youth to get involved.  About a week later, Faith Hannah (AE4FH), spoke about YOTA at several club meetings that youth attend and tried to get the youth in those clubs active.  The most success we have achieved is with our YouTube channel, Ham Radio (dot) World, where we encourage more people to get into the hobby, many of them youth.  Since YOTA 2018, we have been able to inspire about ten people to get their license or upgrade.

In the next few months, we plan to participate in the December YOTA month with the callsign WK1DS/YOTA.  During December, this callsign will be active with hams and potential hams of all ages.  Read more

In the past few months, a lot has happened with Train the Trainer in the USA.  Our main focus these past few months has been the YOTA month and what we call “CQ Santa.”  CQ Santa is where we set up a station at a local hardware store and let kids of all ages talk to Santa over the air.  This year, fourteen kids got to talk to Santa and tell him what they wanted for Christmas, along with any questions they had about him or his reindeer.  Our plan is to do this in the coming years as well.

YOTA month was slower than we expected, but we were able to make over 1000 contacts.  Many of these contacts were made by young hams helping kids and kids at heart (a.k.a. adults) get on the air for the first time and experience amateur radio.  There is nothing like the feeling a kid gets when they call CQ for the first time and someone answers them from another country, or even just another state.

One other thing has contributed to Train the Trainer.  Faith Hannah (AE4FH and the author of this report), Hope (KM4IPF), and their dad James (WX4TV) did a four-day DXpedition to the Dry Tortugas (112 km off Key West, Florida in the USA) using the callsign N4T. Read more