ON3YH

Here comes Dante, back on the air! What we have on the menu is Thursday at Marina di Massa. A day like all others. Well at some point yes, and at some point different because we all felt that the day to say goodbye is closing in.

As usual, breakfast at 8:00. Not all people were present, some of our friends were still enjoying the hug of their bed, they stayed a bit longer the previous night. As they have said: “There is no time for sleeping at YOTA, take a nap when you get home”.

We got ourselves energized by OH team. Interesting game, but some were snoring a bit after the game (maybe our friend Ger from EI, not sure).  Later our traditional, and in opinion of many youngsters, the most favorite activity, “Good Morsing” led by our friend Jurek SP3SLU. On this Good Morsing, we had a little presentation of CW software by Goran YT7AW, our high-speed man. He showed us that old fashioned Morse code can be used in some interesting ways.

Andrès, EA1IFF, starting the presentation about SDR

Later on, we followed the same routine, presentations, beach, swimming pool, presentations, beach, swimming pool, and so on. We have learned what a Yagi antenna (one of the most frequent words in the radio business) is, we also learned a few things about the possibilities with an SDR- Software Defined Radio.

One of the highlights of the day was the off-air contest, by Kris ES7GM (P33W in the contests held at the camp). Very interesting and dynamic thing, just as exciting as the real deal. Huge pile-ups on our 20, 40, and 80 meter benches. Some handled it like professionals, while some others were feeling a bit uncomfortable, they were nostalgic for that beautiful noise of the radio receivers. (We were not so nostalgic about QRM, we had enough of it even off air thanks to our QRM-makers ON3YH and ON2TD).

ON2TD playing some SSTV signals through a speaker as ‘QRM’.

In the night, we had a lottery, where the main prize was the little beauty, a paddle for telegraphy called Begali Simplex, donated by Mr Piero Begali I2RTF, legend of key-making business. He also donated another key, Begali Signature, to be used as official key of the YOTA program. The lucky winner of Begali Simplex was Tauri ES5HTA, while the Signature key was given for one-year period to the camp mascot Duško, E77CW. (Both of the guys were happy. YOTA participants, guess which one was more thrilled).

Tauri ES5HTA and Dusko E77CW holding their Begali keyers

Quite a busy day indeed. In the night, we continued the party on the beach. Yeah! We enjoyed it very much. Some preferred they chairs while other were on their feet trying to make it fun to the others (burying in the sand for example).  Mr. Murphy had to put his fingers in, he had to spoil the fun. We had to say goodbye to our Estonian friends, since they had to leave tomorrow morning. It’s needless to say how sad we were. Thank you Eerik, Kris and Tauri for a lovely time.

That would be it about our Thursday. Thank you for reading this humble blog.

73 de Dante on the Air.

Hello to all readers! The “Dante On The Air” team is back after a little break.

The things at YOTA camp are going on perfectly. Our Tuesday started with some energizer led by our friends from EA. After getting energized (some were still sleeping I guess), youngsters went on to the shack for some Good Moooooooorsing activity by Jurek SP3SLU, where they were introduced to the beauties of the world called “Telegraphy”.

Tuesday – Good Morsing

Following the Good Morsing, we divided into two groups. One group had the presentation of ARDF by LZ1US Panayot and his youngsters Neli, Gergana LZ1ZYL and Stanimir. Since the ARDF was new to many youngsters, they enjoyed looking for some strange low and high sounds that are very similar to the good old Morse (I personally enjoyed my first time on ARDF).

Tuesday – ARDF

At that time the other group had been playing some games led by our host Alex IV3KKW. We also had a presentation from our friend Flo, OE3FTA who gave us a few tips for SSB operating and contesting. Thanks Flo 😉

Our official day included another presentation, a technical one, about one of the most important parts of a good station: the coax cables. Our presenter was one of the owners of the company called Messi & Paoloni, Mr Messi (Not the footballer Lionel) Stefano. OK, he may not be the football superstar, but he is equally popular in amateur radio world as the other one in the world of sport.

Tuesday – Messi & Paoloni

After ending the presentations part, we went to have some fun. Some had fun on the bands like 20m and 40m, while others had fun on the bands like the beach or the swimming pool. And in the night time, the most interesting part of the day: The treasure hunt, organized by PA team. Oh boy, that was a dynamic one. We were searching the grounds of the Torre Marina for little orange balloons just like the detectives in the novels. Some were more successful, some less. At the end the winner team was awarded with some biscuits.

Tuesday – Treasure hunt

That’s it for Tuesday. Keep your eyes on our blog for some new stories 😉

All pictures from today can be found here!

On the behalf of Dante on the Air,

73 de E77CW (a.k.a. Echo-DuŠko)

As almost every day of the YOTA-week, the morning started with an energizer to help us wake up (especially after the Intercultural evening which, for some of us, lasted till the early hours). Todays energizer was organized by Team G.

After waking up we got our first lesson of “Good Morsing” by Jerzy SP3SLU. We got to know the “CQ Serenade” song. We learned how to “spell” CQ and YOTA in CW along with some other abbreviations. After the “Good Morsing” lesson, it was time for some ARDF. We got divided into two groups, one who would do ARDF today and one who would do it tomorrow. After the ARDF, Florian OE3FTA gave a small presentation about DXing, contesting and the DO’s and DON’Ts. The group that wasn’t participating in the ARDF did some beachgames or played the Kubb game. As last, just before lunch, we got a presentation about the Italian ARISS (Amateur Radio on the ISS) program by IK5EHI. A lot of youngsters were interested, some of them got a new waypoint in Amateur Radio!

Video: Monday – Good Morsing

After lunch, the “Golf Team” showed us how to build a HF wire antenna to be used at the camp.
Afterwards, Tommy ON2TD gave a presentation about Geocaching. You can see it as a worldwide ARDF game. Small “logbooks” are hidden in little boxes all over the world (over two million by now). You can go search them and log them yourself. Finding the caches can be done with the help of a GPS or just a normal smartphone.

Monday – Geocaching

We closed the evening with a dive in the sea. It was fresh, unlike the tempratures around here… After our swim, Silvio IZ5DIY and Alex IV3KKW suprised us with a box full of Chinese lanterns. We had an amazing evening, got to know many new friends and had a good laugh together when some of the lamps took a dive into the sea. There were even some competitions between teams to modify the lanterns to go as far as possible.

All pictures from today can be found here!

Monday – Chinese Lanterns

Best 73′
Yentel – ON3YH