Those interest in youth in contesting may be interested to read April CQ
Magazine's Contesting Column, in which I look at what is being done in IARU
Region 1 to promote ham radio and contesting. There is additional
information in the May column.
Programs and actions started 5-6 years ago in Europe. When I searched for
contest-specific youth programs in Region 2 (the Americas), I didn't find
anything other than Kid's Day. Kid's Day is great, but its goals are other
than geared to developing contesters.
To get an idea of what's going on, listen for ES5TV in the Italian (ARI)
contest in May. All operators will be youth 26 and under, including two
from ET3AA and others from at least 4 different countries. All will be at
a first-class station generously offered them as a training ground.
Last year Ranko, 4O3A, was the first to offer his station for the same
purpose, a video is here:
http://www.ham-yota.com/video-of-youth-team-at-4o3a/
9A1A followed up on 4O3A's success with youth operating in the SAC Phone
last year. This year their station again will be used by a youth team in
May's CQ-M. 9A1A, by the way, operates under 9A1RBZ when youth are in
control for a contest. 9A1RBZ is the call at the technical school where
the 9A1A operators introduce ham radio to high schoolers and mentor those
interested in contesting. They periodically turn their super-station over
to the youth so that they can obtain the practical experience of how to
contest, and now several of the 9A1RBZ operators have graduated to being
full members of 9A1A.
Martti OH2BH and friends at Radio Arcala also have been pushing the buttons
for getting more youth involved for several years. This weekend he will be
helping train youth at Z60A during the WPX.
Exciting things ARE happening in other places, and youth are signing up.
Hopefully some of what is working elsewhere, and some new ideas, will take
hold over here too.
73, Dave K3ZJ
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