[WWYC] IARU R1 HF committee meeting

[Lee Volante]

Hi all,

With apologies to lids and lidas outside IARU R1.....
The next interim meeting of the IARU Region 1 C4 HF Committee will be held 
in Vienna on 24 /25 February 2007. The papers that will be discussed at that 
meeting have now been put on the web and can be downloaded from 
http://www.iaru-r1.org/Vienna_C4.zip

There are lots of items for discussion about contesting, including the 
future of Field Days, HF contest guidelines, contest bandplanning, merging 
contests etc.  There is one item, raised by the DARC, about a European Youth 
Contest.  Below is the text of the proposal:

"In his speech during the opening ceremony of the HAMRADIO 2006 exhibition 
in Friedrichshafen Dick Harms, PA2DW, president of VERON reported about the 
outcome of questioning the very young radio amateurs in his country: 
Contests were named as the most popular and interesting part of amateur 
radio! Probably all national societies have the same problem to get and keep 
newcomers in the school age interested in amateur radio. Why not try to 
reach this objective by offering an own special contest event for them?

Such a contest, in which only participants up to a certain age limit are 
competing, allows these beginners to concentrate first on contest 
activities. It could keep them interested in amateur radio until they reach 
an age when technical items become better understood and more interesting. 
Although a new additional contest might be contrary to the aim to limit the 
number of contests, but at least it should be discussed whether it will be 
useful to have such an EYC.

Proposal: To organize an annual European Youth Contest (EYC).

A frame could be: 2 or 3 groups of up to a maximum age (to be defined), 
duration 6 hours, exchanging of their age, all modes and parallel with 
another contest (this allows them to gain also points by contacting 
participants of this other contest). To run the EYC parallel to the WAG, but 
is open to any other suggestion. DARC offers to start organizing the first 
EYC, and then the society with the highest numbers of logs should do it in 
the following year."

= = = = =

I've provided some feedback about a lot of the proposals to the RSGB 
representatives attending the meeting. On this particular topic about the 
Youth Contest, I said it would be sensible to ask the WWYC community what 
they thought about this idea. I've been asked to ask you what you think. 
I'm happy to collect any feedback, or please speak with IARU representatives 
in your own country.

My own thoughts:

A very very long time ago it was proposed to hold an 'internal' WWYC 
contest - but it didn't happen - and there doesn't seem to be a large demand 
now. Most WWYC activity and interest is based around the bigger events in 
the calendar already - the CQ WWs, WPXs, ARRL DXs, WAEs etc - even for our 
youngest members. The proposal for a standalone Youth contacts Youth event 
during the WAG contest may not be very appealing.

A better way to support youth contesting might be to persuade more guest 
operating, or club operating to happen. There's a lucky few who have access 
to a good home station, or a good club / friends station. There are lots 
more guys with very small or no stations at all - it's important to keep 
them all interested.

You may think differently - so please share your thoughts and ideas.

73,

Lee G0MTN  (OF)