After Youngsters On The Air 2012, Johan SM5F, Swedish Youth Coordinator of SSA, had the idea to participate with a youth team from “big gun station” SK3W. The choice went to the CQWPXSSB contest in Multi/Multi mode. This weekend, 30 – 31 March 2013, 16 young HAMs (under the age of 25) from Sweden, Belgium, Finland, Estonia and The Netherlands will travel to SK3W. Also a few youngsters without radio license will join us. We met them during Youngsters On The Air (as example the YOTA-cook). We all know you have to come in contact with the “radio-virus” first.
Piotr SO9DXX, currently 12 years old, received his Novice license one year ago in February 2012 when he was 11 years old. His interest in amateur radio had been aroused by his father SP9UPK. Read the interview with Piotr about his experiencse of last Kids Day, which was held on 6 January 2013.
What was your Kids Day location? I prefer field activity, I went with my daddy by car to the nearby Protected Landscape Area “Wzgorze Doroty” (Dorothy Hill – eng.). It is just 365 meters above sea level with a wonderful view. We did set up our equipment on the hill .
What was your favourite QSO during Kids day? I remember a QSO with a Russian station RA3PCI, because we talked with Sergiusz in my native language. I am also very satisfied with RTTYQSO on 30 meters band with Marek SP3GVX, probably the propagation was not so good in this day due to the short distance — his signal was very low but the QSO was ok.
How was Kids Day? Kids Day is a really cool event for having fun with Amateur Radio. It was a fantastic day to use the radio equipment which I prepared the day before together with daddy. In this year the weather was quite just about zero degrees Celsius and a small snow was falling down. I met lots of interesting people on the air and improved my skills, also English. Special thanks to my mum for delicious cake and hot chocolate.
You are also a member of the radio club SP9YFF, in what kind of activities are you participating with your club and what do you like about the club? In my spare time, apart from schoolwork, I participate in the main club activities such as working from castles, national and nature parks in the World Castles Award and WFF program. I like being in the nature. Trying to make wire antenna’s with my dad, making QSO’s with the antenna’s and being active in the field area.
Besides Kids Day and your club, in which way are you active with the radio hobby? Apart from club activities I try a little DX-ing, my goal in this year is to have 100 countries from the DXCC-list confirmed. I would also like to start learning Morse code.
During the summer of 2013, a youth radio camp “Youngsters On The Air” will be held in Estonia, organized by the Estonian Radio Amateurs Union. During this week teams of young radio amateurs from 10 different European countries will be participating in different activities: presentations, competitions, visiting radio stations, observatory, etc…
As two previous events in Romania and Belgium/Netherlands have shown, it will be a great experience for the young hams which they will never forget.
When: 5 – 12 August 2013
Participants: 10 teams from different European member associations of IARUR1. A team consists of a team leader, who could be an older person, and 4 team members in the age between 14 – 25 years.
Location: Near the city of Tartu, Estonia.
Fees: Participants pay 30% of the travel costs, plus a participation fee of €50. All other costs will be covered by the Youth in Action programme of the European Commission.
If your organization is interested to participate, please respond NLT 20 December 2012, by means of the downloadable form, as the full application should be ready before 1 February 2013.
Below an overview of JOTA-JOTI at several scoutings in IARUR1.
V55JAM – Namibia — Otjiwarongo
On the 18th of October it was time for me (Mike, V51Q) to drive again up to the north to take part at the yearly scout JOTA event. This time the Jota event took place at the Otjiwarongo Scout HQ. For me it was a very special event course I was last active at this Scout HQ 18 years ago.
It was really a great feeling being back, seeing the howl, all the old scout camp photos….
Unfortunately this weekend was school holydays so only a few scouts (4) could come but this was more than enough to build a multiband dipole antenna. With a bit of help from the outside we dug a deep hole for a 15m high antenna tower. After a few hours most of the work was done. Later that night Reinward arrived taking a quick look how far we were. The next day (Friday) the tower was raised and the antenna (attached to a rope) was pulled up. Now we had to cut the antenna to the right length so that we had a good SWR on the different bands near the scout frequencies. This took a couple of hours but in the end at 05h00 in the morning all was perfect. We tested the antenna and made after a few minutes a few QSO´s (contacts) with a station in Ohio and one in Toronto. Our signal reports were 5⁄9, 5⁄8. So the Antenna was working 100%.
At the back: Reinward From L to R Michael (Rambo), Moritz (Tu), Matthieu (Mult)
Saturday finally! At 10h00 in the morning a last few adjustments were made before we went on the air. 2 Scouts showed up. But this was just fine. They had so much energy they could have filled a whole scout troop with it. The next 24 hours we had lots of fun. We made 188 QSO´s and a lot of them were also Scout stations. To name just a few he spoke with scouts from the US, Germany, Malaysia, Netherlands, Chile a.s.o. Our two scouts that were there and took part in this event amazed me every day. After showing them how to use the equipment and what they had to say, they started to work the station good. It was a pleasure seeing these boys talking with other scouts from all over the world.
Our equipment used: ICOM 756 Pro III, SM20 Microphone, ICOMSP 23, OM2000HF Amp, Daiwa NS660PSWR& Power meter. 100m Coax and for the multiband antenna we used 100m 10mm² copper wire.
Sunday At 12h00 we ended our JOTA event. We had a great time and it was a big pleasure for me taking part at the Jota event in my old Scout HQ in Otjiwarongo.
ON6JOTA – Belgium – Lokeren Several radio amateurs of UBA section WLD were guests at the scouts in Lokeren for the second year in row. At the scouting two stations were built with the callsign ON6JOTA to make contacts in VHF and HF. Many contacts with other JOTA stations were made on HF and even the JOTA headquarter was heard. On VHF there were made several contacts with the JOTA station in Gent ON9JOTA.
On the site was a course with obstacles plotted. A blindfolded scout with a helmet camera was guided through the camera images which were received in the 2 meter shack and the right instructions were given trough a portable set. Fun for all ages where especially the youngest didn’t want to stop. On 300m outside the scout area was a 70cm fox placed in the forest park. After a successful hunt everyone came back on the scouting place to close the pleasant and successful JOTA-JOTA day. Thanks to the scouting group of Lokeren and the help of UBA section WLD, Waasland.
LZ44WFF – Bulgaria – Shumen
On 21st of October 2012 scouts from Bulgarian Scout Organization held Jota – Jamboree in Shumen. The Jamboree was supported by Bulgarian Federation of Radio Amateurs – BFRA and by Zlati Dimitrov LZ4ZD, licensed radio amateur, with whose help we installed two transceivers / Yaesu FT-920 and Yaesu FT-857D /, antennas and other equipment needed for the event. Shumen scouts received temporary call sign LZ44WFF through which participated in the Jamboree on the air. During the event were made QSO’s with three other scout organizations: Croatia – 9A6BLM/QRP, Italy – IN3ADW and Japan – JE7YSS. The latter is definitely the most significant due to the long distance between the stations – 8620kg. In addition to the international QSO’s the scouts made contacts with radio amateurs from Bulgarian towns Shumen, Yambol, Karnobat, Sofia, Kyrdjali , Veliko Tyrnovo, Targovishte and other ones. Click here for a movie about our JOTA.
PI9TP/J – The Netherlands – Prinsenbeek During the JOTA of 2012 about 100 scouts were present at the scouting in Prinsenbeek to participate in different activities. Making QSO’s on VHF, HF, building electronic kits, making milkshakes and marshmallows at the campfire. The scouts painted the QSL cards, so every radio station we made a contact with will receive a unique QSL card. In the night between Saturday and Sunday the scouts participated in the JOTA Nightcontest on 2m. They made through the whole night a lot of radio contacts.
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