Balkans On The Air, the first YOTA sub-regional camp in Serbia, is cancelled due to Covid-19 virus. Like the previous cancellations, also this event might be postponed to a later moment this year. We will keep you updated when a new date will be announced.
Hungary 2020 – a YOTA sub-regional ham camp – open for all youngsters
Following many years of participation in YOTA programs, this time Hungarian youngsters are going to host a subregional camp, supported by MRASZ, Hungarian Radio Amateur Society and several well-known local hams. We are enthusiastic and hopeful about this event held in South-West Hungary, to where we would like to invite Central and Eastern European youngsters to participate, meet each other and enjoy a long weekend full of ham radio related programs in a hospitable, close-to-nature environment.
If you’re 15–25 years old and interested in amateur radio, you are welcome to this event. Newcomers to radio hobby are invited as well as more experienced youngsters such as traditional ham operators, ARDF or HST participants. We only ask you to be a member of one of the IARU member societies.
Just at the beginning of the summer season: 11-15 June 2020.
Venue: Cseresznyéskert Erdei Iskola https://www.facebook.com/cseresznyeskerterdeiiskola/
Location: https://goo.gl/maps/J3DsrsuSTH7EQzwt9
Coordinates: 46.6396722N, 18.7895224E
QRA: JN96JP43
Getting to the site: Car, or public transport buses. If coming by public transport, there will be local hams waiting for arriving participants preferably in Budapestand helping to find the regional bus station from where there are regular buses to the city of Paks. From Paks, we can take participants to the venue.
We are working on the full program right now, but we can say it’s going to be exciting. It will include interesting workshops and tests, continuous operation on 2 HF, 1 VHF and 1SAT stations, the possibility of learning basics of morse code in 3 days, and visiting the Paks Nuclear Power Plant.
In case of early arrival / late departure please send us a notification. It is possible to spend a night at MRASZ HQ guest rooms, in Budapest.
Most of the event is funded by IARU R1 and the MRASZ funds. We are asking 30 EUR from each participant. Accommodation, 3 meals a day and activities are all covered.
You can apply via the following link: https://forms.gle/WHpkC641EoZsh8Es6 until 15 April 2020. If you register for the event, you will automatically receive bulletins after the deadline and invitation to a Telegram group where we can discuss questions and share more information.
Nordics On The Air in Norway Easter 2020 – a YOTA sub-regional ham camp – open for all youngsters
This year, the annual Nordics On The Air ham youth camp will be held in Norway during Easter, the 10th-13th of April 2020. We invite all the Nordic youngsters to take part in a fun weekend full of radio related activities, meeting new friends and having a great time! Since this is a sub-regional YOTA camp, we have a few seats reserved also for you outside of the Nordic countries!
What will we do?
The program is mainly centered around amateur radio activities, introducing newcomers to the hobby as well as advanced exercises for seasoned radio amateurs. In addition to get the opportunity to go on air from the LA1YOTA station the program also includes an Intercultural Evening – one of the most beloved activities known from former annual Youngsters On The Air events. Do you want to advance your knowledge about the hobby? What about operating LA1YOTA? If that sounds exciting we encourage you to join us!
Where?
The event will take place in Camp Killingen, Killingsholmen, an islet south-west of Oslo. The campsite is on the south side of the islet where we are mostly to ourselves, surrounded by nature.
We want you to come!
NOTA is a camp for youngsters by youngsters. You all are welcome to join us. If this is your first youngster activity in the hobby we especially encourage you to apply and also if you have never been to a NOTA or YOTA sub-regional camp before! You don’t need to already have an amateur radio license, just be enthusiastic about the hobby! The goal of camps such as these is to activate youngsters in the sub-region. Please note that we prioritize participants under 26 years of age.
Applying through your own IARU member society
The application to participate has to go through your country’s member society (e.g. SRAL, SSA, NRRL, ÍRA, EDR). Applications are accepted from January 9th to February 9th. The amount of attendees is limited, so we recommend contacting your member society quickly if you are wondering whether to participate! If you are not yet a member, now is a good chance to join!1 Some of you might be contacted about NOTA by your association.
Please contact your national member society for applying.
Fees and further info
There is a symbolic participation fee of 20 euros / 200 NOK including all meals and accommodation. We recommend participating members’ societies to cover their participants’ travel costs.
More detailed info will be sent to the participants soon after the application deadline. With any further questions, please contact us at nota@nrrl.no.
Stay tuned!
73, we hope to see you in April!
The Nordic NOTA organizing team
1 About International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) member societies
IARU member societies in the Nordic countries are:
Denmark: EDR, edr.dk
Faroe Islands: FRA, fra.fo
Iceland: ÍRA, ira.is, e-mail: ira@ira.is
Norway: NRRL, nrrl.no, e-mail: yota@nrrl.no
Finland: SRAL, sral.fi, e-mail: nuoriso@sral.fi
Sweden: SSA, ssa.se, e-mail: youth@ssa.se
All other IARU member societies worldwide can be found at iaru.org/member-societies.html. See the web page of your home country’s association on how to join it. Youth memberships are usually not costly and IARU member societies warmly welcome you aboard! If you have trouble contacting your association or need any assistance with applying to NOTA, don’t hesitate to drop us an email. We’d be glad to help.
We are happy to announce the third Subregional Camp in 2020.
From 03.04. – 06.04. youngsters will be hosted by IARU member society SRS in Serbia.
Furthermore the dates for the other two camps:
NOTA camp in Norway will be held from 10.04. – 13.04. by NRRL.
The camp in Hungary will take place from 11.06. – 15.06. by MRASZ.
Stay tuned for the upcoming opening of the applications.
73 YOTA PR Team
We are happy to announce two of our upcoming Subregional Camps in 2020.
First host will be NRRL in Norway and the other one MRASZ in Hungary.
Stay tuned for more info and the opening of applications soon.
73 YOTA PR Team
Sunday marked the day of departure from the winter YOTA camp in Oosterhout. During the morning the participants were shuttled to the train station from where they made their way home.
Over the last 3 days the youngsters learnt a lot about the amateur radio hobby. Many of them discovered new things to delve into, like satellite communications. Many had the opportunity to have their first QSOs on HF with the special event callsign PA6YOTA. But this week was also about learning activities and skills which the youngsters can take home to their country and use to get more youngsters fascinated by the hobby. Combining amateur radio with fun activities with like-minded youngsters is the key to spreading the hobby among young people.
On the previous evening the sponsors of Winter YOTA were invited to the camp. The participants presented all the activities they had done over the last days and what they had learnt. The presentations included a short recap of each activity. For example, the satellite workshops, off-air contest and QRM finder kit. The highlight of the evening was the announcement of the winter YOTA games. The teams could accumulate points during all the activities of the camp, such as the treasure hunt and pub quiz. Furthermore, points were awarded to the team with the most QSOs and the team with the furthest QSO.
Special thanks to all those who made this unforgettable camp possible. Thanks to the crew and to the sponsors, without them it would not have been possible.
After a fun day yesterday, the last day of winter YOTA started with a fun energising game. Day 3 was “QRM day”. The day kicked off with a presentation about sources of QRM by Edwin Vos PA3GVQ, it was fascinating to see how a small fault in a power supply for example can cause significant QRM. But this knowledge would be useless without knowing how to locate the source and being able to prevent the QRM. Furthermore, we learnt how to best work together with your neighbours when complaints about interference come up. Edwin works for the Dutch telecommunications agency, so he knows QRM better than anyone.
After lunch we took the traditional group pictures with all participants. The afternoon activities were started off by a treasure hunt. The youngsters had to answer amateur radio related questions in order to find the location of the next question. For example: “Which country has the most DXCC entities?”. The weather was “Dutch dry”, it only rained lightly but this did not stop the youngster’s enthusiasm. Then it was time to continue with QRM day. First of all, the participants built a signal finder kit which can be used to detect sources of QRM. The instructions can be found on www.kitbuilding.org. For many it was the first time soldering such a kit. It was great to see the more experienced youngsters helping the ones who had less experience. Once the kit had been assembled a test bench was set up to try out the detectors. At the same time Edwin demonstrated the vehicle used by the Dutch telecom agency to find QRM sources, both for amateur radio and commercial operations. The sensitive technology and directional antennas were impressive. Yet another career in amateur radio.
The day ended by the participants presenting what they had done and learnt to some of the camp’s sponsors, more about this in tomorrow’s blog.
December 13th 2019: Day 2
After breakfast the organisers gave a short presentation about what would happen today. The program changed a little due to the weather but was still packed with interesting and fun activities. We started the morning of with a short game to wake up and get to know each other better. After this, the first workshop of the day started. Han Jenniskens PA0JEN gave a presentation about the satellite QO-100. The youngsters learnt about the different systems that can be used and how easy it is to listen to the satellite via SDR. After learning about this fascinating type of amateur radio the youngsters had the opportunity to make QSOs via the satellite themselves. After a short break Lennart Kieft PA2LEN continued with a presentation about other amateur radio satellites. Satellites such as SO-50 are easy to work with a handheld radio and homemade yagi-antenna. A great way for youngsters to get into satellite operation. In the evening the youngsters got an opportunity to practice their contest skills in a fun way. The “off-air” contest is a classic at YOTA camps. Benches are set up to represent the HF bands. By sitting on the bench, you occupy a frequency and can call CQ. Other participants are running between the bands making QSOs with those occupying the band. Other people (mostly crew) were creating QRM by playing SSTV recordings and other sounds found on the real bands. It was an organized fun chaos. The logs were checked meticulously. The 2 best stations had 40 contacts in 2 10-minute periods. After dinner it was time for a pub quiz. The topics ranged from DXCCs and technical questions to questions about the host country and the IARU.
Of course, the call PA6YOTA was on air nearly the entire day and late into the night. The youngsters were eager to get on the air with the ICOM radios. Everybody is looking forward to the next day and many more interesting and fun activities.
December 12th 2019: Finally the day has come, winter YOTA has begun.
Today the participants arrived at the location of the first ever Winter YOTA camp held in Oosterhout in the region of Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands. Teams from 10 countries across Europe arrived during the course of the afternoon. As more and more motivated youngsters arrived there were a number of activities to get to know each other. For many of the youngsters this was the first ever YOTA event, but there were also some familiar faces. Once all the participants had arrived it was time for a traditional Dutch dinner. After which the organisers of the event introduced the activities we would be doing in the upcoming days. The participants are divided into groups of 5, named after famous inventors and scientists: Hertz, Tesla, Morse, Maxwell and Marcconi. Every team can gain points by winning different competitions such as the off-air contest. There will also be points for the team with the most QSOs and the QSO with the furthest distance. The organisers of the camp prepared a tight schedule of interesting and educational activities, for example kit building, working satellites and a workshop about QRM by the Dutch telecommunications agency. All the participants are looking forward to the upcoming days. The highlight of the evening was the intercultural evening which has become a YOTA tradition. Each countries team brought traditional food and drinks from their country. We spent the rest of the evening enjoying international food and getting to know each other better. Tomorrow the first workshops start, everybody is excited to start learning!
During the entire weekend, the youngsters will be on the air with the callsign PA6YOTA on HF and VHF, we hope to see you on the band.
First of all, I would like to thank all the organizers because the preparation and implementation has been a great effort and time. With the participants, we planned to go through the theory of radioamateur broadcasting, after testing without transmitting to a practical radio contest with radio stations. In the form of competitions and questions we went through all the corners of amateur radio operations. Children could then try all of these types of supervised operations, either through satellite and shortwave operation, or even FM operation including DSTAR and DMR. In the end we thanked all participants and rewarded the winners in the individual competitions.
Martin Černý OK1VHB, IARU R1 Youth coordinator
YOTA in the Czech Republic was my fourth YOTA event and the first one on a subregional level. Therefore, I found myself not knowing what to expect, because I knew there would be much younger attendees compared to the big YOTA summer camps. However, during the whole weekend, every participant, without exception, was focused on learning the basics of ham-radio operation and finding their own joy in it. I really liked how all activities were in a form of competition, which motivated the new potential future operators to always do their best and create new friendships. The days at the camp flew by, due to the very packed program the organisers of Czech Radio Club prepared for us. In three days, they managed to enlighten the participants in all of the areas which ham-radio offers, such as fox-hunting or connections through satellites. At the end of the weekend, I felt really happy about spending time among all of the curious minds and look forward to the next YOTA events.
Bety OM1DP
I’ve really enjoyed this Subregional camp. The program was just perfect. I learned a lot about ham radio and made new friends there too. Trainers at the camp were well experienced and they explained everything you wanted to know. The hotel we stayed at was a really good pick, because the rooms were in good shape and the food was good too. Everything was just great and I’m looking forward to another Czech Radio Club event.
Michal
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