October 2, 2019

Subregional camp Czech Republic – Sunday

By Monty | Community Written, Czech Republic 2019, Publication, Subregional Activities | No Comments

The last day of our camp started with presentation about PMR followed by a PMR contest. The youngsters made huge progress in their operation skills, many of them could soon take part in a real contest! After lunch there was a presentation about DX on VHF, UHF and microwave by Petr OK2ULQ. Those youngsters who were relatively new to hamradio were amazed at how far one can reach using only simple equipment. We finished our camp with the awarding the winners of the Of-Air contest and PMR contest.

During the whole weekend there was a competition to paint OL19CAMP QSL cards. The most beautiful one will be used as an official QSL card and will be distributed via bureau.

October 2, 2019

Subregional camp Czech Republic – Saturday

By Monty | Community Written, Czech Republic 2019, Publication, Subregional Activities | No Comments

On Saturday the program started at 6 a.m. – kids are unstoppable! A lot of them couldn’t stay in bed and started to operate the radio in the early morning. The official program started with workshops. The participants were divided into 4 groups which rotated between five stands –

1) Fox hunting theory

2) J-Pole antenna building workshop

3) Electronics basics (taught by using a game)

4) Satellite operation

5) DX and contest basics

Dividing the participants into groups allowed the presenters to make their presentations more interactive and interesting for the participants, for example by using a game.

After lunch we went out and tried ARDF, this was connected to the SOTA activation. Each youngster was given a receiver and their task was to find the fox hidden three kilometers from the camp. Despite our assurance that there is no need to leave the roads, of course the youngsters decided to follow the signal exactly and set off straight into the impassable forest! The finish was close to the look-out tower where the HF and VHF SOTA set-ups were prepared in advance. The lookout tower was the perfect place to test the J-pole antennas made in the morning. Unfortunately, it started to rain very heavily on the way back, the outside activities scheduled for the rest of the day were cancelled.

In the evening there was an “Off-Air contest”. First the participants learned how to make a contest QSO and how to log it correctly. After some time practicing, Honza OK1JD announced that he is satisfied with the contesters performance and that the big Off-Air contest could start. It was a great success! Considering that most of the youngsters had never had a QSO before the start of the camp, it was simply unbelievable how they were suddenly able to make 3 – 4 QSOs per minute.

The day ended with a presentation about all the activities organized by YOTA, for example the December YOTA Month, the Youth Contesting Program and the summer camps by Martina OK2YLQ. The participants were enthusiastic about participating in more of the YOTA activities in the future.

October 2, 2019

Subregional camp Czech Republic – Friday

By Monty | Community Written, Czech Republic 2019, Publication, Subregional Activities | No Comments

The first Czech YOTA Subregional camp started in the afternoon of Friday the 27^th, with the arrival of the first participants. The registration of newcomers lasted until 7 p.m.. The program was started by Martin OK1VHB who made a presentation to introduce the participants who are new to hamradio to HAM radio and the HAM spirit. The program continued with a lecture by Honza OK1JD about physics, antennas, radios and QSO basics. All of the participants learned how to make a SSB contactsand in the end of the day everybody was able to understand the principles, so during the night 80 m operation using OL19CAMP could follow.

After a little stress before the first CQ calls, the small expectations of the organisers were quickly exceeded. The Youngsters were really comfortable operating the radio and their enthusiasm and open mind were a big surprise.What makes this camp different to previous YOTA subregional camps is that a large part of the participants were not yet ,for many of them it was the first time learning about amateur radio.

August 14, 2019

OL19CAMP – YOTA Subregional Camp

By PA2LS | Czech Republic 2019, Publication, Subregional Activities | No Comments

Radio amateur adventure weekend of Western Slavs.
The camp is mostly meant to get to know each other.

When? from 27.9. to 29.9.2019
Where? www.vyhlidka-blansko.cz
Why? Do you want your youngster to experience the unforgettable magic of amateur radio? Send them to the Czech Radio Club for the weekend! They get to know new friends and get to know what radio and electronics are and how it works. We tell him about radio broadcasting and it’s up to them if they’ll use this new information and skill in their next lives. These days it’s an easily available hobby that a lot of kids dream about. Your youngster will develop a totally new view on computers, mobile phones and all the modern electronics.
To who? We welcome both girls and boys from 10 to 25 years old.
How much does it cost? Since the IARU and the CRK financially support the event, the participation fee is 500 Kč (Czech currency) – we offer accommodation, catering, drinks and professional lectures.
If we have not a car. Transport will be solved individually depending on our agreement.
If I have more questions. If anything is unclear, just write an email to crk@crk.cz
Where can I register? Send an e-mail to crk@crk.cz with request for registration form. Keep in mind that we only have 30 seats.

Note: This is an English translation of the Czech version, which can be found on the Český Radioklub homepage

July 30, 2019

Winter YOTA – Let’s go PA

By PA2LS | Publication, Subregional Activities, Winter YOTA PA 2019 | One Comment

Winter-YOTA is a sub-regional Youngsters On The Air event, in The Netherlands as part of the VERON youth committee.
The Dutch version of this page can be found via this link.

This year, in the middle of December, it’s time for Winter YOTA. A fun radio camp especially for youngsters. Would you like to learn more about amateur radio? Did you just pass your radio license exam? Or have you been active already for a couple of years? You’re invited to take part in this unique event! Which is full of amateur radio activities and most important – a lot of fun!

Who?
Are you 16-25 years old and interested in amateur radio? Then you’re the perfect fit for this event. You don’t need to be a licensed radio amateur to take part, also newcomers to the radio hobby are welcome. We only ask you to be a member of one of the IARU member societies.

When?
Arrival: Thursday 12 December after 15:00
Departure: Sunday 15 December in the morning after breakfast

Where?
In the forest nearby Oosterhout (Noord-Brabant), The Netherlands. There is a camp building with all required facilities, such as sleeping places and space for activities.

Winter YOTA Programme
At the moment, we are working hard to finish the full program. However, we can inform you that it’s going to be very interesting. It will be packed full with workshops and all kind of activities regarding amateur radio. Since the location is in the middle of the forest, we will have activities outside in the woods.
December is also December YOTA month. Youngsters across the planet will be active with callsigns with YOTA in its suffix. We will be taking part in this event as well, using the callsign PA6YOTA.
In short, you won’t get bored, next to the program we will take care for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It will be fun event! If the weather is with us, we will have a winter-campfire evening.

Costs?
Biggest part of the event is funded by IARU R1 and the VERON funds. We ask all participants to contribute a fee of €25.
Accommodation, 3 meals a day and activities are covered.

How to apply?
You can apply via this link Keep in mind that we have a limited amount of spots available and thus might have to pick who can come.

When you register for the event, you will automatically apply for the newsletter.
Do you have any questions, or are you looking for more info? Feel free to send an email to: winteryota@ham-yota.com

April 25, 2019

Nordics On The Air Finland 2019 – Day 4

By DK6SP | Community Written, NOTA 2019, Publication, Subregional Activities | One Comment

Monday, 22nd of April

Monday, the departure day, started with a secret girls’ morning sauna. After breakfast, we listened to Hungary’s presentation about their youth activities. It was inspiring to hear how they are trying to change this hobby into more fitting for the youth.

After the presentation it was time for people to start packing and later on leave the camp. As you can imagine, it was pretty sad for everyone as we had had a nice camp and had met a lot of wonderful, new people from our hobby! It would take long before we would meet again. Luckily we have our Telegram group, and why not set up a sked on band too?

But of course we had time for our last lunch together. For the whole weekend we had excellent food prepared by our cook Tiiti OH3HNY with some help from other organizers.

Quickly after lunch, the bus departed for Helsinki airport and harbour. With it, it was time for everyone except Swedish and Finnish teams and our German to leave.

The bus trip may have been a fun one, but the Finns and the Swedes now had the best part of the camp ahead: the rest of the day was devoted to cleaning the venue. The station with the tower and antennas also got down during the day. What a job that was! Later on the evening it was time for team Sweden to leave. Which left only us, Finns (and the German) who left home on Tuesday.

All in all, the camp was a really successful sequel for NOTA 2018 in Sweden! This made a real challenge for the organizing country of NOTA 2020, whoever will it be?! Whatever happens, we hope to see you next year in some other Nordic country!

73 de OH2YOTA team

April 22, 2019

Nordics On The Air Finland 2019 – Day 3

By DK6SP | Community Written, NOTA 2019, Publication, Subregional Activities | One Comment

Sunday, 21st of April

Sunday, the third day of the camp started with the happening invented by the Swedish youth team. The challenge was to design a chosen type of CW paddle (straight, bug or sweeper) and build it out of a piece of plank, conducting tape, nails and the special rule, at least one fruit! The result was 8 keys with bananas an apples, even a Nokia phone! After the competition all the keys were tested on air and many youngsters got to try working CW for the first time.

During this time, half a dozen people were out in the woods activating a OHFF area Teijo National Park (OHFF-0112). It is great that so many wanted to try to activate the park that was 28 km away from Leirisalo. For them the day started early, approximately at 6:30 and they, of course, made some coffee. Everybody didn’t get so excited but the fun part in this hobby is that there is something for everyone.

The view at Teijo National Park was awesome, there was a fireplace and some snacks made by Tiiti OH3HNY. The atmosphere was awesome and we had so much fun.

This time the group had a Yaesu FT-817 and end fed half wave antenna for 80-10m, a log book and five watts to work with. It was a little hard but they did it. Together. Almost sixty QSOs and 2,5h later the youngsters returned back to campsite for lunch.

After the delicious falafel lunch we had four presentations about scouting and JOTA/JOTI from the Netherlands PA3L, Norway LB4IH, Iceland TF2EQ and Finland OH1ESI & OH1UBO. Getting to know your fellow mates in the camp is easiest done by sharing your stories!

Then it was time for the traditional Off air contest. With huge amounts of QRM from several crazy finns our participants max QSO count ended on ca 20 in 9 minutes.

When our ears finally got to rest for a bit it was time for more participant presentations. This time Oliver SA5ODJ introduced all friends to the interesting online material available from Dayton contest university and spoke about yagi theory. After all the presentations everyone learned something, from newbie to pro.

During the evening there was shack operation, ABBA singstar, taco sunday, sauna time and a huge pile of Finnish pancakes. If you’ve followed us on Instagram (@nordicsontheair) you might have seen some fantastic footage from the singstar session…

73 de OH2YOTA NOTA crew

April 21, 2019

Nordics On The Air Finland 2019 – Day 2

By DK6SP | NOTA 2019, Publication, Subregional Activities | 2 Comments

Saturday, 20th of April

The Saturday morning dawned with a bit of rain. Apparently people had not been active at the OH2YOTA station late in the night because they started to gather at the main building way before the official wake-up call. We got a nice breakfast, a combination of traditional Finnish porridge and leftovers from the intercultural evening last night. Did you know that you can use the Norwegian Geitost as a topping to oatmeal porridge?

Today was the first day of real action. We started with two lectures about different ways of spending time outdoors with a radio: ARDF and OHFF. Keijo, OH2ETM, introduced us to ARDF, amateur radio direction finding, or casually: radio orienteering, or even more casually: fox hunting. Keijo was wearing the official Finnish team outfit from a world championship competition where he represented Finland. Anu, OH6ME, had prepared an introduction to OHFF, or how to activate nature sites on radio. OHFF would be on schedule tomorrow, but today we had a chance to try radio orienteering.

So after lunch everyone stuffed their pant legs into their socks (tick prevention action) and headed for the forest, to find the ‘foxes’ Keijo had planted there. Some guys had changed to real orienteering equipment, and they were the first to finish the track, too. The sweaty Swedes emerged from the forest, asking first for coffee and then for sauna. Others took it a bit more easy, a nice walk in the forest.

Every night ends with a relaxing sauna, and today we got to enjoy barbecue Makkara = sausage as well. Too bad the morning rain was not heavy enough to put an end to the grass fire warning, and we were not able to have a full experience of open-fire barbecue. Safety first, and so we used gas to burn the sausages.

Fun fact: In Finland (at least some parts of it) the mustard types are graded HF, VHF, UHF, and SHF, depending on the intensity of the taste!

73 de OH2YOTA crew

April 20, 2019

Nordics On The Air Finland 2019 – Day 1

By DK6SP | Community Written, NOTA 2019, Publication, Subregional Activities | One Comment

Friday, 19th of April

The organizers view …

The camp, that has been planned since last autumn, is finally here! Organizers of the camp including Finnish youth team with some active adults arrived at the venue, Leirisalo on Thursday. Thursday’s plan was to set up the station, print info papers, make food and make the final plans for the camp.

Friday morning was tough for every organizer. Some of us had been awake until 2, trying to get the station to work. The hours in the morning went fast finishing work from Thursday, and for the last briefings. The first team to arrive in Leirisalo was Sweden and the rest arrived in the afternoon.

The very first afternoon of the camp started with some instructions and going through the upcoming program. Also, we had ice-breaker games to get to know each other.

But that was not all of it. The main program of the day was ahead of us. In this YOTA sub-regional camp we also had the famous YOTA-activity, Intercultural evening.

On the camp, we have participants from 8 different countries. So we had a lot of new interesting foods and drinks to try. Also, one of the organizers, Vilma, had just come from Taiwan with some exotic Asian foods to bring to us. After all, Intercultural evening on NOTA19 was a very successful and a lot of fun.

Rest of the evening went the Finnish way, going to the sauna! Despite the so-called “shyness” of Finns, everyone got along.

Very good start for the second NOTA, and the second YOTA sub-regional camp of the year!

The participants view …

This morning the Swedish NOTA team woke up in Åbo after a night spent on the ferry. After a short breakfast on a restaurant we all stuffed ourselves into the cars and went to Salo. After about 40 min (plus minus some navigation errors) we arrived in Leirisalo where the camp is held.
After arrival, we started mounting the Yagi-antenna and we got it half way up before lunch.
The lunch (a nice tasting soup) was extra nice tasting due to us being tired and hungry and because of the very good company. The tower work continued after lunch, but we still had a lot to do when the last bunch of people arrived by a charter bus.
It is amazing what the Finnish radio amateurs can do! We found out that everyone participating and organising the camp was a licensed amateur radio operator, from the cook to the bus driver. The Finnish youth team had done a great work in recruiting help for the camp.
The camp site, Leirisalo, comprises a main building, sleeping quarters, summer kitchen with cold eating facilities, and a sauna. The youth team had even delivered a lake next to the sauna, WOW. We were warned of snakes and mosquitoes, the former being poisonous but luckily the latter being the more probable ones to attack us. The place is surrounded by forest on one side and the lake on the other side. Today, the Finnish weather struck us really warm and pleasing, and we are hoping for it to continue so for the whole weekend.

We will be QRV on most short-wave bands during the weekend and we try to activate most modes as well.

We hope to hear you on the bands!
73 de OH2YOTA
(With keyboard ops OH3HNY, Tiiti and SA7GGO, Gustav)

March 17, 2019

YOTA Subregional Camp DL 2019 – Day 2

By DK6SP | Community Written, Germany 2019, Publication, Subregional Activities | No Comments

Saturday, March 16th

After a long day yesterday, the second day started early again. From 8 a.m. onwards all participants were present at breakfast in the hotel. Everyone strengthened themselves for the long day ahead. Afterwards the whole group went to the DARC Headquarters. There we were already friendly expected.

At the beginning three groups were divided which visited alternately the CQDL editor-in-chief Stefan (DH5FFL), the chief of the QSL sorting Dietmar (DL1ZAX) and in representation for the DARC management the DARC youth coordinator Gerrit (DH8GHH) and punched with questions to the respective topic areas. Thus the process of the CQDL – from the first contribution idea up to the finished CQDL -, the way of the QSL cards from our home QTH over Baunatal up to the receiver and the individual coworkers and their tasks in the DARC were presented.

After the question hours were over, we returned to the entrance area for a leisurely lunch. Participant Mathis (DL7MLP) programmed his own booking system for beverages with RFID chip cards – alias the camp name badges – and tried it out directly. Afterwards we went next door to the amateur radio centre, where we continued directly with a short guided tour through the camp rooms Alpha, Bravo, Charly, Delta, Echo, Foxtrott and Golf, as well as through the radio tower.

The rest of the day was explained afterwards. First, everyone who had offered a workshop should briefly introduce the content and find a suitable time slot and room for it. At the end a well filled program on the whiteboard resulted, so that everyone could get an individual overview, when the points of interest for everyone took place. At the same time DFØYOTA was activated from the tower. So there was a lot of radio work, SDRs were examined, Raspberry Pis were programmed, satellite QSOs were explained and done, DXPediton experiences were exchanged, lectures were held, (ARDF) foxes were hunted and much more! Everybody just had something to do and it definitely didn’t get boring. Due to the flexible programe everyone could pursue their own interests in amateur radio. The positive side effect was also that during the course of the day almost every one of the 60 participants talked to each other and got to know each other better.

Pizzas were delivered to the amateur radio centre just in time for dinner afterwards. So every youngster found something to his/her taste. Moreover, the evening continued freshly fortified and we let the day pass in review together. Everyone returned to the hotel with a smile on their faces. Unfortunately the departure from the YOTA Subregional Camp is scheduled for tomorrow … but more in the next report.