Publication

This blog post is written by Team Germany!

After a long arrival day for some teams, the first day was rather kept short. For the second day of YOTA Summer Camp 2022 many activities had been planned. The day started with breakfast at 7 am. Due to the great weather conditions in Croatia during summer, the food at the camp is served outside. Since everyone gathered for breakfast, the chance has been taken to make a few announcements for everyone. After a short team leader meeting for further alignment, the activities started at 8.30 o’clock with energising games.

For the energisers, the participants gathered in their group for the first time. Each country is assigned to one of four groups and many activities throughout the week will be done within these smaller groups.

After getting to know the group members better as well as getting awake through the energisers, it was time to start with the first workshops. There have been four different workshops each of the same length, so each group was rotating along.

In the first workshop, the youngsters have been thinking about sustainability in ham radio. They have been thinking about sharing a station and that working remotely will help overcome some issues of sustainability. But they also came up with limitations of it. Nevertheless, they were interested in the opportunities it offers them. Especially, since many youngsters are limited in space and money if it comes to setting up a station. They have practically experienced the delay arising from being on air remotely.

After a break, the groups continued with the next workshop. In another one, FT8 has been introduced. The first part consisted of a lecture where they learned about what you need and what to take care of in order to do FT8. Besides the necessary hardware, they learned about WSJT, such that they are well prepared for the practical part. The lecture was continued outside at the station such that the youngsters could also experience the theory at hand!

Before the groups continued with the third activity, there was time for some well-deserved lunch. After some food and a longer lunch break, the workshops continued.

The next part for the group was to learn about the history of the first overall satellites as well as ham radio satellites. Through a combination of theory and practice, the group was learning how to work on satellites, their orbit, and which equipment is needed. The group also learned about the satellite QO-100, a Qatari geostationary. It is reachable from nearly all home countries of the youngsters attending.

After a break, the last workshop for the day has been a soldering project. Each participant was given a “wabbit”, a small ARDF beacon setup. It is a self-designed kit based on an Arduino component. The main part of it has been assembled in the workshop. All youngsters enjoyed the kit building quite much. It was also great to see that not only did supervisors help if something within the kit-building was unclear, but also the participants did so among themselves. The workshop finished with the built main part and the microcontroller will follow in an upcoming workshop.

After all the workshops the youngsters had another well-deserved break. Before the dinner, it was time for the first TTT session.

It started with some history about how TTT started. Of course, also a general introduction has been given and a short overview of the TTT Web page, such that everyone understands the concept behind it better. In order to give more concrete hands-on examples, two teams gave a presentation about youth activities in their country.

Last but not least, it was finally time for the traditional intercultural evening! Every team brought various national food or something that is typical for their countries. To get a rough idea, every team shortly introduced what they have on their table. After that, everyone could walk around to check out everything themselves! Some stayed at their booth while others started to walk around. So that way everyone could get in touch with each other throughout the evening.

And simultaneously you got to know many different peculiarities, some even brought some souvenirs or wear their traditional clothing, and QSL cards were exchanged. And with all these different flavors and impressions, the second day of YOTA summer camp came to an end.

The long awaited and unfortunately twice postponed 10^th edition of a YOTA Summer Camp has finally started this evening. From August 6th to August 13th the event will be held in Karlovac, Croatia, in the south of Zagreb. After two long years of no in-person events, we are more than happy that the Croatian Amateur Radio Society (HRS) in cooperation with the IARU Region 1 Youth Working Group put all the effort once again into making a YOTA Summer Camp in 2022 finally possible. The camp is now attended by nearly 100 participants from 24 countries.

Throughout the week, several workshops and activities have been planned for the participants. They will learn a lot about various topics of our common ham radio hobby as well as being able to directly connect with mind-liked youngsters in the same age group.

The first day was dedicated to three main activities.

Firstly, teams travelled from their home countries to the venue in Croatia by train, bus, car or plane. After their arrival they were greeted and picked up by a big group of volunteers at the various locations around the Zagreb area. Shuttle busses then carried the participants towards their final destination, the YOTA Summer Camp. Thus, lots of smaller groups arrived in Karlovac throughout the entire day and checked-in to their rooms. Every participant received a YOTA 2022 branded backpack with lots of useful and needed gear for the upcoming week and its activities upon arrival.

In the afternoon the first presentation with an introduction of the earth-surrounding planets and the in the radio world well-known sunspots took place. The youngsters were able to observe all these planets and the sun later in the outside area as well.

From 8pm local time sponsors as well as guests of the camp were welcomed to the venue to tour the camp location including the set up radio stations. Afterwards they were invited to attend the official Opening Ceremony which was streamed live to the YOTA YouTube channel. You can re-watch the event here. Guests and speakers were Mr. Tomić (Croatian Association of Technical Culture), Mr. Vincetić (Croatian Amateur Radio Society), Mrs. Šćulac (Karlovac County) and Mrs. Fočić (City of Karlovac). The whole evening was moderated by Croatian organizing committee members Mihaela Šišul (9A3WW) and Petar Papoči (9A7PP). After a short welcome by Philipp Springer (DK6SP), Chair of the IARU Region 1 Youth Working Group, Emil Balen (9A9A), Head of the Croatian Organizing Committee, announced the 10^th edition of YOTA Summer Camp 2022 open.

The evening ended with more stargazing at the location and social activities among all the youngsters. First contacts and even more QSOs were made, and we are looking forward to an amazing week ahead.