Regional Activities

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

Today (sunday) at YOTA camp was a day full of excitement. The temperature was making problems again, as G team said: “It was abnormally hot”. (thanks Rich 🙂 ). However, we have experience from yesterday and we know how to deal with it. Our day started with the presentation by Silvano I2YSB and his DXpedition team, famous for numerous activations of African DXCC entities. Mr Murphy visited us, and we had a little blackout. Being inventive, we found some other things to do, like hoisting up the flags of Italy, our host country, YOTA movement, and YOTA Italy 2015. Thanks our team leaders for helping in that.

After managing to drive Mr Murphy away (read: power came back), Silvano and his guys, gave us a glimpse of how it was to work an expedition from Democratic Republic of Kongo, 9Q. They were invited there officially by local Amateur radio union, to help training local hams in operating practices. They did that job perfectly, and also made some serious pile-ups. Well done team, 9Q0HQ 59(9)+ !

Following activity was a presentation of the YOTA month, by Lisa PA2LS, Yentel ON3YH, Tommy ON2TD and Robin. Yentel and Robin, our IT guys are putting a large effort into making YOTA month activity automatized, especially dealing with the logs and the awards. Lisa and Tommy were telling us a bit more about YOTA, and their effort to get more youngsters on the air, to help them make their first steps into the world of one and only, amateur radio.

The presentations finished, some went to the station, while others went for another big event of the entire YOTA camp: the US license exam. Many were anxious about the exam, just like every student before the big exam, and yet at the end everything was OK. The FCC is going to have to issue some licenses:

• 4 Technician
• 13 General
• 4 Extra

Unfortunately, 2 people did not pass 🙁 We wish them better luck next time. And we would also like to express our gratitude to the ARRL Volunteer Examiners Vinicio IK2CIO/N7CIO, Rinaldo IZ1MGH/K4AS and Mauro I1JQJ/K1JQJ, who were there to help our youngsters aquire their US licenses.

Sunday – US Exam

Sunday – US Exam

Sunday – US Exam

After the dinner, we started preparing for the biggest event: the intercultural evening. Every team had something interesting to show, to present to the others his country in the best possible way. Tasting food was fun, some was a bit hot, some not, but everyone found something to match his taste to a 1:1 SWR J The evening was mighty interesting. We were dancing together (EI and E7 demonstrated the art of waltz to the others), singing together, taking photos with other youngsters, exchanging QSL cards, souvenirs, different kinds of brochures, etc. The fun went on through the night. The more tired ones went to bed, while the less tired ones stayed up to have some more good time. Some pictures from today can be found here!

Sunday – Intercultural Evening

Sunday – Intercultural Evening

73 from Dante on the Air 😉