The Board of Directors of the Yasme Foundation (www​.yasme​.org) has announced the recipients of the Yasme Excellence Awards for 2014, and other actions.

IARU Region 1 is delighted to learn that Lisa Leenders, PA2LS, the Chair of the Region 1 Youth Working Group and Florin-Cristian Predescu, YO9CNU have been awarded a Yasme Excellence award for their work in organizing and promoting Youngsters on the Air (YOTA) and amateur radio youth activities.

The Yasme Excellence Award is presented to individuals who, through their own service, creativity, effort and dedication, have made a significant contribution to amateur radio. The contribution may be in recognition of technical, operating or organizational achievement, as all three are necessary for amateur radio to grow and prosper.

Furthermore, the Yasme Foundation has awarded IARU Region 1 a grant of $ 5,000 in support of youth activities in amateur radio.

In a separate action, the Yasme Foundation has awarded IARU Region 1 Member Society, the Egyptian Radio Amateurs Society for Development (ERASD) a grant of $ 2,000 in support of its activities.

In acknowledging the award to IARU Region 1 for its youth programme, the President of IARU Region 1, Don Beattie, G3BJ, said “We are delighted that Yasme has chosen to recognise and support the work we are doing here in IARU Region 1. The future of amateur radio lies in our ability to attract and retain high calibre entrants to our ranks. Whilst the march of communications technology might, to some, seem to cast a question-mark over “traditional” amateur radio, our view is that there is much to attract today’s youth into our ranks. With Yasme’s financial support, we will be able to work even more energetically to help our Member Societies bring focus to attracting the new blood which amateur radio needs so much”

It’s already time for the 5^th edition of the Youngsters On The Air summer event. In 2015 the youth radio camp will take place in Italy, organized by ARI (Associazione Radioamatori Italiani)
In this week teams of young radio amateurs from several countries will be participating in all kind of amateur radio activities. Think about workshops, contesting and ARDF, we will try to show many aspects of the radio hobby. Off course you will also get the chance to learn about other cultures, in the famous intercultural evening you will get the chance to try food and drinks from all participating countries. As we go to Italy, we will also show you the country and Italian traditions.
This is just a little bit about what we are going to do in this event. It will be a great experience for all participants which they will never forget. To get a better feeling about this, have a look at the gallery from previous events.

When: 18 – 25 July 2015
Participants: each IARU member society is invited to take part with a team. A team consist of maximum 5 persons, 4 Persons with the age 15 – 25 years and one person is dedicated as team leader.
Location: Marina di Massa, Tuscany
Fees: travel costs to Pisa airport and €25 per participant
All other costs (accomodation, food, activities) will be covered, main funder of the event is IARU R1.

If your member society is interested to participate, please respond to italy@​ham-​yota.​com by 27 January 2015 with sending in this application form. There is a limit of 75 participants. Make sure you will apply in time. We will announce the participating countries shortly after the deadline.

For any questions, please contact italy@​ham-​yota.​com