Following the creation of a Youth Co-ordinator portfolio during the Region 1 General Conference at Sun City in August 2011, the Region called for nominations for a Region 1 Youth Co-ordinator. Three nominations were received, namely Mari Nikkilae, OH2FPK, Lisa Leenders, PA2LS and Georgi Atanasov Vodenicharov, LZ1ZF.
During the teleconference of the Region 1 Executive Committee held on 10 October 2011, it was decided to appoint Lisa Leenders, PA2LS, as the Region 1 Youth Co-ordinator. Lisa will be working with the Youth Co-ordinators from the various member societies to promote amateur radio amongst the youth in Region 1.
Sweden’s local Amateur Radio clubs conducts various activities involved in introduction to amateur radio and education of prospective radio amateurs on a regular basis.
Presently there are two scout camps active on amateur radio: SC6EFS and SJ22S. SJ22S is the 22nd World Scout Jamboree. Check the Photo Gallery for pictures related to event.
Some schools have been involved in radio communication with the Swedish astronaut Christer Fugelsang as well as meeting him personally.
In the last few years, UNIONDERADIOAFICIONADOSESPANOLES (URE) promoted several editions of the activity named Radio Day in the Schools (May/June) where the students are allowed to operate an amateur station in their school under supervision of a licensed EA operator.The URE Sections promotes amateur activities in summer youth camps and organize sometimes demonstrations for students.
Listed below are links of youth related material and articles published by URE:
Talking about hams we often classify us in two categories – operators, also called communicators, and tweakers. The first group of hams is almost obsessed in making QSOs, the more the better, the faster or longer the better, the rarer the better. Often these hams are engaged in DXing or contesting but they could as well enjoy ragchewing for hours. The second group of hams are the quiet type possessing enormous ability to focus their attention to a technical problem as long as needed to solve it. There is a frequent rumour that a third type exists – a combination of the two types described above – but I strongly suspect that this is an anomaly or exception from the general rule. Well, enough joking around!
It is quite easy to detect to which group a school class of youth belongs. After the introduction or presentation of Amateur Radio we usually have three positions which may be freely chosen by the pupils to participate: electronics constructing position, CW key with a training oscillator and a working radio station. The result: the class will be divided into three equally sized groups. Obviously the first group is formed by tweakers and the two other groups are made of communicators. It is also true that CW attracts musically talented youths. Especially young female violin players have shown remarkable success in quickly mastering the correct way to send with a straight key. To have a fist like that underlines that CW is music.
In Finland we have several national contests organised by SRAL or local clubs. The easiest to participate is the monthly Basic Contest aimed at newcomers. It only lasts one hour both on phone and CW. The contest rules favour the Basic class licensees in such a way that they are entitled to free use both segments of the 80 metre CW or phone sub-band while the Extra class licensees can call CQ only in the upper segment. In the lower segment the latter can only call the Basic class licensees running the pileup on their own frequencies. This makes it easy for a newcomer to choose an unoccupied frequency in the lower sub-band and enjoy a nice pileup without reverting to making QSOs in the Search-and-Pounce mode.
I have made several tests with youths showing some interest in Amateur Radio by introducing the Basic contest to them. As a rule, they have liked the contest very much. After a slow start they have been taken by the flow of adrenalin in their veins so that the typical expression after the contest is “Hey, this is really cool!”
Some young operators have found contesting to answer their need to compete in order to be the winners among the peers. There are several young contesters in Finland today as witnessed by the popularity of contest stations like OH8Xwww.radioarcala.com or OH0Zwww.qsl.net/oh0z/ among youth. Many young OH hams want to be part of a top contest team but in order to reach their goal they have to start from the bottom, i.e. Basic contest, and progress through smaller international contests until they are ready to be invited to join a top team.
Contesting is a suitable challenge for competitive types of young hams. It gives them ample opportunities to develop their operating talent to a level where the deep feeling for an accomplishment is the best reward. In Finland, many contest stations welcome young operators and guide them through the process of building their skills into perfection.
My most frequent and reliable partner in the school presentation team has been Arska, OH2EC. He has been a constructor all his life. He retired from Nokia Mobile Phones some years ago after having installed dozens of mobile networks around the globe. Arska and I share devotion in youth training. It is a happy coincidence that his experience and skills in the art of electronics construction add to my assets in operating and DXing. We strongly feel that together we can cover different aspects of Amateur Radio much better in our presentations than doing it separately.
Arska lives in a small town Järvenpää about 40 km NE from Helsinki. There is an active club OH2AP. After more than a year of visiting schools in different towns we decided to try to establish an electronics construction and Amateur radio club in a school quite near of Arska´s home. His son had been a pupil of that school so he knew it quite well. In May 2010, I sent an email to the headmaster and to our delight she took very positive stand to our proposal. The vice-headmaster, who also was a teacher of technical work (wood and metal crafting), assumed the responsibility to contact the parents and get their permission to allow the kids to participate in the club. He sent out the inquiries in October after the school building had been repaired. Serious damages to the roof were found as a result of heavy snow load during the winter, hence the delay in starting the club.
We were quite astonished when the vice-headmaster told that he had received 19 applications from parents asking their children to be admitted in the club. It was good that Esa, OH2AWG, who lives very close to the school, joined our team. Now we had three instructors which was a reallygood thing. Nevertheless, the sheer number of pupils was quite frightening – how could we maintain discipline in the class with 19 kids asking for our attention to their needs and problems?
The club started after the autumn holidays and 11 pupils showed up. We had agreed to have the club open every Wednesday from 3 to 5 pm, right after school day. First I showed the interesting RSGB video “What is Amateur Radio?” and showed what it really is by letting every pupil make at least one QSO on the radio. Some were very brave and we could see that we had potential radio operators in the club. Others were not so brave at the radio but they came forward when we asked everybody about earlier experience in electronics constructing. There were several who had got electronics kits as Christmas gifts but had experienced some problems in getting them working properly.
Now we had the stage ready for serious club meetings. Arska and Esa took care of the electronics part of our programme while I told about Amateur Radio in general terms. I had received lots of colourful QSL cards from different countries from some older hams who did not collect QSLs anymore. The cards instantly became much sought-after items among the young members of the club.
After some months, in February 2011, I organized an intensive training course at the local club OH2AP during the skiing holiday. The most active member of the school club, 9‑year old Oliver, joined the course. After five long days of studying he was ready to take the Basic class exam and yes, he became the youngest ham in Finland as OH2FYA his call sign – quite a feat! The school club continued till the end of May and another 10-year member of the club, Tommi, had passed the Radio Law, Amateur Radio Regulations and Traffic module of the Basic class exam while having a break in electronics kit assembling. The fifth SRAL youth training camp was organized right after school ended and we were pleased to have three members of the club — Oliver, Tommi and Joona — joining the camp. Tommi became OH2FYY in the end of the camp and Oliver did it again – he passed the Amateur Extra exam and became the youngest Extra class ham in Finland.
There is an explanation behind this success: both Oliver and Tommi are students of SRAL youth instructor Mari, OH2FPK, who devotes her time also to teaching young boys the martial art of taido. They all share the principle of doing everything in their life at the highest possible level. This quality of character is called determination and may be found among people whatever their age is. Welcome Oliver and Tommi in our ranks!
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