[CQ-Contest] Announcing: YARC Youth Contesting Program

[Sterling Mann]

(this posting can also be viewed at
http://n0ssc.com/posts/830-announcing-yarc-youth-contesting-program, and I
thought to announce it to this group since it may be quite relevant to your
interests!)

On behalf of the Young Amateurs Radio Club (YARC) I’m pleased to announce
the Youth Contesting Program!

YARC’s Youth Contesting Program (YCP) is an experimental weekend program
for groups of young amateur radio contesters throughout the US and Canada
to meet up at a nearby-as-possible “big gun stations” during the 2019 CQ
World-Wide WPX Contest taking place 30-31 March 2019. It will hopefully
enable a new dimension of the hobby to young hams who have contested a
little before, and set a new precedent for the welcoming of a new
generation of radiosport aficionados.

It works like this – we will attempt to pair a small group (up to 4) of
young contesters interested in operating with a “big gun” station owner
interested in hosting the youth group. The contesters will operate from the
station, and the host has the option to help the youth improve their
skills, provide advice, and even operate alongside. We will try to keep it
such that young hams will only require a relatively short drive (ideally no
more than 5 hours) to keep travel costs low. As such, this will require the
participation of as many operators and hosts as possible, but it might so
happen that a valid match may not exist. We will try our best and work to
make this a better program in the future!

YARC YCP is inspired by the efforts of YOTA’s YCP
<https://www.ham-yota.com/youth-contesting-program/>, as well as Team
Exuberance <https://www.gofundme.com/team-exuberance> and we hope to
inspire a big chunk of young hams into becoming the greatest contesters of
the 21st century.

If you’re a young ham (or know a young ham) (under age 27 or so) with at
least a little bit of contesting experience, and you’d be interested in
spending March 30-31 (CQ World-Wide WPX SSB) at a contest-grade ham radio
station, OR if you’re the owner of such a contest-grade station, sign up at
the Google form here: https://yarc.world/ycp/

Note – because we’re trying to keep costs low by making this a drivable
event for our young ops, we can’t promise that you’ll be selected as a host
or operator, especially if either no young ops signup nearby your station
or there’s no station near young operators. Since this is our first try, we
probably have a lot to learn about this, so bear with us!

Thanks,

Sterling, N0SSC
YARC Programs & Outreach Dude