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IARU Region 1 President comments on Region 1 Workshop program
· News · Alex, IV3KKW

IARU Region 1 President Don Beattie, G3BJ, speaking about the meeting he chaired on Saturday 12th June as part of the IARU Region 1 Workshop Program on the future of amateur radio, has commented “I am pleased that we now have the Program underway, and have completed the first step in our work. The overall Program is an important process to take an honest look at amateur radio today and refocus us all on the priorities for the future. Building on the self-reflection questionnaire which member societies considered in 2020, we have now created a baseline of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats which our Member Societies see facing them.”

The session on 12th June involved some 34 member societies of Region 1 from South Africa in the South to Iceland in the North and Bahrain to the East. All contributed to working sessions to review the summary views of member societies on the issues facing amateur radio.

“Our next steps will be to consider where we would like amateur radio to be in, say, ten years’ time, and to work through the steps and the programs that will help take it there” said Beattie. “We are at a time of enormous change in the environment for amateur radio and this represents a big challenge for IARU and its member societies. With the commitment of our member societies through this workshop program, I believe we can rise to that challenge”

Workshop participants are now considering the output from the 12th June session, and beginning to build their inputs to discussions about the future shape of amateur radio, scheduled for the next steps of the program in Serbia in October.

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Minimum Age Novice- and Full-License in The Netherlands abolished
· News, Youth General · Mario, EA1JAY

Today is an important day regarding youth and amateur radio in The Netherlands. To gain more young active radio hams, it is a must that this age group actually has the ability to obtain an amateur radio license. Until today, the minimum age for a novice license was 12 years and for a full license 14 years. It has been published that the minimum age for both licenses will be abolished.

This all started a few years ago by the local VERON section of Breda, which made a proposal for the yearly general assembly of VERON. In this event in 2018 the proposal got accepted by the local departments. VERON continued with this proposal and collaborated successfully with the national regulator (Agentschap Telecom), which lead to this great change.

This example is also showing that it’s actual possible to make changes, volunteers are important in all levels to take amateur radio to the next step.

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UPCOMING: YOTA Contest – 18th July 2021
· Youth General · Mario, EA1JAY

Press Release
by International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 – Youth Working Group

Erding, Germany – Tuesday, 15.06.2021

The first YOTA Contest has already taken place and was a big success. Over 700 logs were received within the deadline and are currently worked on to provide the final results as soon as possible. Meanwhile, claimed results can be looked at on the YOTA Contest website. Further, we are very happy to have received over 100 YOTA logs, where operators have to be ≤ 25 years old.

The next second session will be taking place in about 1 month already. Due to unforeseen date collissions we had to shift the upcoming session from the previously announced Saturday (17th July) to Sunday, 18th July. The announced times will remain the same from 1000 – 2159 UTC. We are sorry for any inconveniences.

So, are you ready to compete within the next YOTA Contest? Everyone in the ham radio community can take part, it takes place three times per year and only lasts 12 hours. Its aim is to increase the youngsters activity on the air, strengthening the reputation of the YOTA program and demonstrate the support for youngsters across the world.

We have implemented 8 different categories which also include special ones for youngsters (≤ 25 years old) only. Covering the 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m bands the competition will take place in CW and SSB modes.
The contest exchange used will be the age of the participating operators. Different ages also serve as multipliers during the contest.
Contacts between the own continent are worth 1 point, working DX is worth 3 points but the most points will be achieved by working youngsters. The younger the operator the more points one will get for the QSO.

During the past month we have received several rule translations into various languages. A big thank you to the contributors! So, if you are not that fluent in english, check them out here.

If you have any further questions after reading through the rules please go to our FAQ page to see if your question has been answered already. If you still have a question, feel free to drop the YOTA Contest Committee an email at contest@​ham-​yota.​com and we are happy to reply.

On behalf of the YOTA Contest Committee,

73 Philipp, DK6SP

Youth WG Chair
IARU Region 1

Download Area

Feel free to use the following documents to share amongst your websites, social media channels etc.

Download the press release here:
Press_Release_YOTA_Contest_20210615

Download the YOTA Contest graphics here:

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Workshop Future of Amateur Radio continues with a session addressing Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
· General Conference · Lisa, PA2LS

Today, 12th of June, IARU Region 1 and its Member Societies continued the Workshop addressing the Future of Amateur Radio. Member Societies prepared SWOT analysis (including Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) on amateur radio. To get a significant outcome, many asked their members for extensive input. These results were shared in the meeting, showing that, over the Region, there are many common issues but also differences, dependent on the particular environment in which the society operates and its geographical location. To understand the differences on a more detailed level, South Africa (SARL), Serbia (SRS), Tunisia (ARAT) and Spain (URE) shared their findings in a more extensive manner.
In the afternoon, the session continued in break-out groups leading to interactive discussions, refining the outcome of the morning presentations. With this valuable information, a good foundation has been laid for the upcoming sessions including the final Workshop in October later this year.

*Picture: The SWOT summary is highlighting the common topics shared by IARU R1’s Member Societies.

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