We are proud to announce that the 9^th edition of Youngsters On The Air will be held in Bulgaria, close to the capital city Sofia. BFRA (Bulgarian Federation of Radioamateurs) will be hosting the event, which will take place in the summer of 2019.
In this YOTA Camp we will be continuing with our train-the-trainer (TTT) program, which will be the main theme of the week. Participants will be working on the future of amateur radio and will be involved in workshops where they gain skills to start similar amateur radio youth events when they are back home. With this we are aiming to create a snowball effect, there will be more and more YOTA events all over the world. This also allows other youngsters and newcomers to enjoy amateur radio.
Last YOTA we kicked off our train-the-trainer program, the first outcomes are available on the TTT website.

TTT will not be the only topic of the event, there will be time to enjoy amateur radio as well, think about visiting LZ9W, kit-building or visiting the factory of ACOM. We will be enjoying Bulgaria and get the opportunity to see a part of the beautiful country. Since there are many nationalities visiting the event, there will cultural elements in the event. One of them will be the intercultural evening, where all participants bring foods and drinks from their home country.

Previous events have shown that all participants are having an unforgettable week, where many new friendships are started. To obtain a better understanding of such an event you are encouraged to have a look at the gallery and video clips from previous YOTA camps at www​.ham​-yota​.com.

Participants
Each IARU R1 member society is invited to take part with a team, of maximum 5 persons. The final team size will be dependent on the number of total applications. A team consist of a team leader and team members. We request member societies to select motivated youngsters with an organisational and hands-on mindset. This request requires a commitment from member societies to support these youngsters when they return home after the event.

Team leader
- Age 18 – 30 years, since we are highly focussing on a train-the-trainer program, it is preferred to select a youth coordinator or person who is eager to organize amateur radio youth events.
A person that already attended to a previous YOTA Camp is preferable.

Team member
- Age 15 – 25 years
- Have not been on previous YOTA summer camps
If a member society has a valid reason to select a participant who has been to a previous YOTA event, the IARU R1 Youth WG needs to be aware of this and will make the final decision.

All participants, including team leaders, should take part in the entire program.

When: 11 to 17 August 2019
Location: surrounding of Sofia, Bulgaria
Fees: €25 per participant
All other costs (accommodation, food, activities) are covered.
Teams will be picked up at the airport/railway station and transported to the venue, or shall come the venue with own transportation.

After the event
It is expected from all participants to take after the event actively part in the TTT program of IARU R1 and that they submit their youth programs and plans. This will be shared as well on the TTT website. All participating teams are committing to write an article about the event for the magazine and/or website of their member society.

Should your member society be interested to participate, please respond by filling in the form (https://​goo​.gl/​f​o​r​m​s​/​E​z​e​j​a​q​n​T​i​T​A​Y​v​h​t83) before 1 February 2019. Remember, there is a limit of 80 participants. Make sure that you apply in time. We will announce the participating countries, including number of team members, shortly after the deadline date.

December YOTA Month application is open at: https://​events​.ham​-yota​.com/ Make sure to register before December starts!

The last few months of 2018 are approaching and we are excited to announce that our famous December YOTA Month will happen this year. We would like to invite you to take part with a callsign with YOTA as the suffix, for example, HA6YOTA. The idea for this is to show the amateur radio hobby to young people and to encourage youngsters to be active on the amateur bands.

This is a great moment to show amateur radio to the world and to invite newcomers. Give a demonstration in a school, local club or scouting group, gather together with your friends, grab a pizza and make some QSOs or enjoy a great pile-up. Feel free to make a QSO with the youngsters, they are happy to get some attention and exchange information. Licensed and unlicensed youth will be making QSOs, be aware this could be their first radio contact ever and give them a chance to experience a possible new hobby.

This year we will have new diplomas and rules!
Diplomas can be achieved by working our YOTA suffix special stations which are run by young operators throughout December! We changed a bit on the general rules; 2 points can be achieved per worked stations and 1 extra point for every valid (not dupe) QSO per band per mode! This is of course not a contest, but getting many youngsters on air from many countries. Be helpful on the bands, maybe these young operators are just making their first ever contacts! The aim is that YOTA stations are in general operated by young people, with the age of maximum 25 years. The event will take place from 1 December 2018 00:00 UTC till 31 December 2018 23:59 UTC. Are you interested? Would you like to take part or want to know more about the new diploma rules? Find more information on https://​events​.ham​-yota​.com/

You can also find us on social media platforms, like #hamyota on Facebook and @hamyota Twitter. You can also join our Facebook group by facebook​.com/​g​r​o​u​p​s​/​y​o​u​n​g​s​t​e​r​s​o​n​t​h​e​air where you can find up-to-date information during December.

JOTA-JOTI
Two million young people from around the world are expected to take part in this year’s Jamboree-On-The-Air-Jamboree-On-The-Internet (JOTA-JOTI), the world’s biggest Scouting event.

During JOTA-JOTI, which takes place this year from 19 – 21 October. Scouts and Guides will encounter numerous different languages and cultures in a worldwide learning experience that lasts all day and well into the night.
JOTA-JOTI is designed to make participants feel that they are truly part of a global Movement. Whatever their age, religion, colour, ability, or disability, everyone can join the annual travel-free Jamboree wherever they are in the world. JOTA-JOTI is always held on the third weekend of October.

Scouts use amateur radio and the Internet, to connect with each other over the JOTA-JOTI weekend. The initiative helps to promote cultural awareness, develop tolerance, and enhance sharing, collaboration and teamwork.

Some 20,000 licensed amateur radio operators put 12,000 radio stations on the air with state-of-the-art technology. This offers an excellent opportunity for young radio amateurs to inspire young Scouts with the charms of radio techniques. And for Scouts to share their world with radio amateurs of (nearly) their own age.
This could lead to follow-up activities during the Youngster month in December and field days e.g.

SSTV badges
One of the main activities for Scouts in this year’s JOTA is to exchange badges (as electronic pictures) via SSTV. With the target to let them experience a different technique combined with a well-known Scout activity to swap badges. SSTV has become so much more accessible with a laptop or smartphone and some software, combining the radio and the digital world. It is in particular for this activity that young amateur radio operators can play an important role in making the connections and discovering the possibilities of SSTV.

Join in
We invite all young amateur radio operators to get in touch with the nearest Scout group and join in the JOTA-JOTI. Likewise, we invite all local Scout group leaders to contact the amateur radio clubs in their region to ask for support by young amateurs for their JOTA-JOTI event.

To assist with finding a Scout group, radio operators may contact the National JOTA-JOTI Coordinator in their country. Email addresses are available at:
https://​www​.jotajoti​.info/​w​p​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​2​0​1​8​/​0​9​/​N​J​C​-​2​018 – 4.pdf

To assist with finding young radio amateurs, Scout groups leaders may contact the youth coordinator of your IARU member society:

Region 1 (Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and northern Asia):
https://​iaru​-r1​.org/​i​n​d​e​x​.​p​h​p​/​y​o​u​t​h​-​c​o​o​r​d​i​n​a​t​ors
Region 2 (Americas):
Gustavo de Faria, PT2ADM, pt2adm(@)pobox.com
Region 3 (Australia, South-East Asia, Pacific Islands):
Jakkree Hantongkom, HS1FVL, jakkree(@)iaru-r3.org

About the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU)
The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) is an organization consisting of over 160 national amateur radio societies around the world. Created in Paris, France, the International Amateur Radio Union has been the watchdog and spokesman for the world Amateur Radio community since 1925. The IARU Constitution, last amended in 1989, organizes the Union into three Regional Organizations that correspond to the three radio regions of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
The IARU represents the interests of the Amateur Radio Service worldwide to relevant international organizations, promoting the interests of amateur radio and seeking to protect and enhance its spectrum privileges. IARU is working for the future of amateur radio.

Youngsters On The Air (YOTA)
YOTA is an initiative of the Youth Working group of IARU Region 1. The program is focussing on bringing young radio amateurs together in events and on the air. YOTA is encouraging young radio amateurs to organize youth amateur radio events and to develop youth programs connected to amateur radio. Aim is to invite newcomers to the beautiful hobby and to show amateur radio to the world. Youngsters On The Air started in 2011 with an international youth summer camp and over the last years it developed to a program with activities spread over the entire year, on local, national and international level. Think about a yearly summer event with more then 30 international teams taking part, a sub-regional YOTA weekend or December YOTA month where many youth radio stations will become active on the air. This is just a bit of the YOTA program, it’s growing year by year! Join the YOTA train!

About the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM)
Scouting is one of the world’s leading educational youth movements, engaging millions of young people around the world to be active citizens and create positive change in their communities. Founded by Lord Baden-Powell in 1907, WOSM is a federation of 169 National Scout Organizations in a network of over 50 million Scouts in at least 224 countries and territories worldwide. The organisation is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

For more on JOTA-JOTI:
http://​www​.world​-jotajoti​.info

For more on YOTA:
https://​www​.ham​-yota​.com

Richard Middelkoop, PA3BAR
World JOTA-JOTI Organizer WOSM

Lisa Leenders, PA2LS
Youth WG Chair IARU R1

Can you imagine? 23 teams, from all over Africa, Europe and USA travelled to South-Africa to take part in the annual Youngsters On The Air event. Yes, it did happen. 74 Young radio amateurs found their way to Gauteng, close to Johannesburg. This made it also happen that we had in total 7 African countries taking part, more then ever. 25 Persons had the opportunity to take part, after an intensive training, in a HAREC license exam. 20 Of them passed, great achievement, especially if you are aware that most of them don’t have the opportunity to take part in an exam at their home country.
Enough numbers for now, the youngsters took part in many activities in the week itself. A programme was made which was showing amateur radio in South-Africa with focus of train-the-trainer. SARL is making good progress on youth and amateur radio. Think about Hammies, Jeugland radio club or JOTA/JOTA.

Train-the-trainer? This was the first event with our renewed focus. There were several sessions were teams showed their ideas on how to develop amateur radio and attract newcomers to the amateur radio hobby. With this we are creating a snowball-effect, organizing similar activities back at home will make it happen that more persons can join YOTA or amateur radio. The teams all got homework to do, in 2 months we expect from them an article in their national amateur radio magazine about the event and a plan on starting their own youth program or organizing new amateur radio events. They all are free to come up with their own ideas, but got inspired the entire week. 

A week has only 7 days, believe it or not, SARL made it happen to put more days in a week. Still being impressed about what we did in one week. There were many lectures and workshops, about contesting, DMR, Marconi and a demonstration of Marconi’s used equipment, a presentation on radio in wildlife (tracking animals) and much more. Starting with building own YAGI antenna’s and using this later to make satellite contacts, followed by a technical and hands-on SDR workshop. Working as a real project team to prepare a payload for a BACAR (Balloon Carrying Amateur Radio) balloon flight, we also launched the balloon, used the SDR and antenna to make contacts and gather data. After a good braai (South-African BBQ) all participants showed in a presentation the analysis of the recovered data of the payloads. 

The youngsters did kit building with QRP labs, some of them couldn’t get enough and kept on building late in the night. There was a radio shack were ZS9YOTA was activated in modes as SSB, CW and FT8.
With so many cultures taking part in the event, we continued our yearly tradition of the intercultural evening. All teams brought food, drinks and even traditional clothes from their home-country.
Luckily the youth got the chance to see a bit of the South-African beauty, the group went on safari to see the big five! The farewell party, including an African drumming session, was a great last goodbye.

All this organized by SARL, the South African Radio League, under lead of Nico van Rensburg ZS6QL (President of SARL) and Koos Fick ZR6KF (Youth Coordinator of SARL). They didn’t do this all alone, they had a great group of volunteers helping them out to make this all happen. A special thanks to the entire organizing team and SARL!

This is only a part of everything the youngsters took part in. Do you want to read more or see more of the event? It’s all covered, have a look here.

A popular question, where will YOTA 2019 take place? Unfortunately we still did not receive any application. Are you interested in organizing an unforgettable event which will change the life of many young radio amateurs and be part of the future of amateur radio? 

With only a few weeks to go to YOTA 2018 in South Africa, the SARL Events Team is hard at work to conclude preparations for a 7 day programme filled with a range of amateur radio related activities, excursions and lots of fun!

The event will be held in the beautiful central region of Gauteng at the Kopanong Hotel and Conference Centre easily accessible from the O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.

All teams and participants will be met at the airport with a traditional South African welcome and be transported to the venue.
Being in the Southern hemisphere and August in Gauteng, it will expectantly be a mild winter with sun-filled days with day time temperatures in the low 20 degrees C and will be a “pseudo-Summer” camp for the overseas visitors.

The week will offer many opportunities to learn more about amateur radio and getting to know fellow amateurs from various other countries.
Highlights planned for the week include learning about SDR technology with your own SDR dongle, build a mini CubeSat and experience launching it as well as tracking it into near space on a high altitude balloon. Learn about Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio (RaDAR) which is in essence amateur radio on the move and build a QRP HF transceiver kit.

A visit to a game reserve to view the Big Five including some cultural experiences like a traditional braaivleis in an open-air boma and operate the ZS9YOTA special events station.

The theme of “Train the Trainer” will be explored, to enable participants to return to their home countries, equipped and inspired to organize and promote radio amateur activities to other youth groups or ultimately starting a youth group.
Should you have any specific questions about travel arrangements, documentation or any other specific information, please do not hesitate to ask, we are happy to assist: info@​zs9yota.​co.​za.

The Events Team will keep participants informed in the next newsletter to be released soon. In the meantime bring your laptop, and if a licensed radio amateur your hand held radio and a copy of your amateur radio license.

We are looking forward to welcoming all teams in August this year!