# F - France Member Society: [REF](https://web.r-e-f.org) Instagram: [yota\_france](https://www.instagram.com/yota_france) Website: [YOTA F](https://yota-france.r-e-f.org) # 2019 # Post LZ Camp Report # LZ Post Camp TTT Report For the past two months, few things happen in France. Back from Sofia, I wrote first a CR for the REF society and the administrators who were convinced about the fact that what they did for me this year has to continue the next few years with me but not only, with the objective to see a YOTA France born. Then I have the ascent of the REF to write an article for RadioRef Mag, who is the only and the most read by the French amateur community radio magazine. At mid-October I met F5DJL President of REF and F1AGR who is the “coordinator” of the youth activities. I made two proposal who were quickly accepted. First, creating a website/page in French with goals to explain what YOTA is to the 15-26 population of F licenced, and to let know to the French amateur community that there are some youngsters involved in this hobby in their own country. The other goal of this page is to allow everyone who is interested by YOTA to get directly a contact with someone who knows what he is talking about (not someone who’ll ask someone else and then no answer). The last goal comes with the second initiative I took, create a Telegram YOTA France, a unique group, not one on WhatsApp, not one on snapchat, a unique Telegram group where all Youngsters from France can start to speak and organise events together (so inform that there is a formal group of discussion for those who don’t think that it could be exist or don’t find the person who can enter it in the group). If they are interested by the international part of the YOTA Group, of course they’ll be added on the Gen Group. So, after LZ YOTA : -CR to the REF -Article -Meeting with the REF -Building the website (simple but functional) -Creating the unique known place of chat to bring together the France youngsters After that, using every social media and our Website to encourage everyone interested to be added to the group. It’s just starting. By the way for the next activities, we will be active as TM19YOTA, I’ll represent Youngsters in the French contest commission at the end of November, and I have been contacted by F4GKR to be with him in Serbia next year for the IARU meeting. For the Website and the Group, I hope that before December it will be operational. I think that this is doable. Just for information : REF has a list of potential 26 youngsters in France (in age of being selected). We have no information about those who are in age but not in the REF list. Best regards, CU perhaps in the WE during the WW, Tom F4HWS. # 2020 # TTT Report # Train The Trainer Report As we all know is has been difficult to organize something or even to imagine the future. News here are good, one of the F youngsters left France in January to study in South Korea, the others obtains degrees and achieved their studies. Each youngsters enjoyed “on-air” time on their own (a bit sad by the way). I took part in the ARRL DX SSB from LX7I, then enjoyed the WPX SSB in 9A remotely from France and then I will have the opportunity for the second time to join HQ team during the upcoming IARU. YOTA F activities are down, and for the next five years I really hope that we will have more and more young licenced in France. There will be events as each year to promote local clubstation and society where each youngsters will be present to promote their activity. There is also the science weeks (october) where we have at the local clubstation 4 days of presentation of the hobby to boys and girls (from 7 to 10 years old). Next year as we should have organized that activity this year, we will try to meet during a week end, as well as taking part together in a contest, and being at the SummerCamp ! Something that I want to try is to make a couple of articles with fresh descriptions, pictures and explanations of what is hamradio and why there is still interest in this hobby even in the youth sphere – and then to diffuse them. We all saw too much articles where old ham get a place in press, with an ugly picture, where the journalist restitution of what said that guy about radio ever sound annoying.. So we will try to get this up! For the rest with a little group it’s difficult to impulse something, find something new, try to get the rest involved or interested but, no worries that we will get that group running well ! Tom F4HWS # TTT Report - January 2020 # Report 2020 I created a telegram group where we are now 13 guys (no girls for the moment). These youngsters are very happy to have been contacted to join that kind of group. They are motivated to enjoy the radio together, there are a lot of great discussions. We know the existence of some others youngs ops, but they haven’t joined the group yet for unknown reasons. The group has been created before the DYM to allow the good organisation of the activation and to maximise the pleasure of sharing the moment with other youngsters, even if we are all far from the others. For legal reasons we had to respect a 15 days restriction for special event station activity where OnAir time were concentrate during Wenk-ends and holydays period. We manage to make some 2400 QSO’s, those who were very new really enjoyed their beginning behind the mike or the key, those who were interested by being the DX were surprised of the pile they generated and surprised about the success of their own little pistol stations. We also had an article to promote and encourage F stations to be on the air and to welcome the newcomers behind the TM19YOTA call. For our media, the website is not yet online, we are trying to move on that project to put it online very soon. Some adjustments with the society are needed but we hope it will soon move forward. After some discussions with the society and the group, it appears that it would be great to organise an event with the youngsters in France who won’t be able to go in Croatia for the SummerCamp. We are reflecting about a 24h contest weekend who could be good to share a great radio time, an eyeball meets to know each other. That’s a summary of what’s happen here since October. Next months objectives : -Website hosting discussion with society -Media strategy discussion -RREF article in February -Organisation of a YOTA F weekend -Beginning of the organisation of the F team for the 9ASC ! Tom F4HWS # 2021 # TTT Report # Train The Trainer Report 2021 Beginning from 2021 there are some changes to Train the Trainer reports. The biggest of them being that the participating countries are from now on asked direct questions in order to make answering the report easier. The answers in this particular report are from member(s) of YOTA team France ## Main Questions: **How was the last summer in your country when it comes to youth work within ham radio? Did you come up with any new exciting ideas?** Everything has been down here. There was a plan to organize a YOTA WE, as well as maybe oganizing a contest WE. Difficulty came with C19. We had talk with the society about the group who is actually not growing for many reasons. We also had a talk about representativity of the youth from France in the hobby by me with a notice of maybe a lack of it especially with some different views and intersts. It can be hard to find ourselves in a “deadlock” way. **How have your activities changed in the past six months? Have you been able to hold e.g. online events or activities within a smaller group of people?** We kept being active online with talks and many exchanges about how to develop and promote our hobby towards the youth sphere. **What kind of activities and operating possibilities did you have during the recent December YOTA Month? How did your activities differ from last year, and how did people respond to them?** Activating a special call was mainly the goal of those interested in On Air fun. Unfortunately as a small group, in C19 restrictions time, with a limit of 15 days a month of special call possibility of activity, it was a light operation. I personnaly had a great time, few of us tried to be activ as well and I think they enjoyed their time. I had the chance to be apart of 9A0YOTA crew (thanks to 9A1TT!) as well who was such a nice experience to be on, especially during that lockdown period ! ## Other Questions: **What kind of problems are you facing with youth work in your member society?** 15 “members” in the small group of YOTA F on the maybe 30 hams in F under the age of 26. The main difficulty is the non-adequacy between all the interests and the necessity of finding a representativ leader (wich I think I am beginning to not be). Anything else that comes to your mind or you want to share? Starting from nowhere is pretty hard, we keep trying! # 2022 # 9A Summer Camp Report # TTT Report The YOTA Summer Camp in Croatia was a great success! The young radio amateurs who attended learned a lot and had a great time. Some of the highlights of the camp included workshops on topics such as carbon-neutral operation, antenna assembling, electronics, digital modes, etc. There were also talks from guest speakers (e.g 2 Japan operators: JE6WUD & JO4ISY), and excursions (IOTA, COTA, SOTA...) to interesting places around Croatia. We released 2 articles about our surprising activities in the camp: one about operating the stations at 4AM and another showing a QRP setup and some information on the 4m band. > This first YOTA summer camp was a game changer for me and all my team. The organization was huge and insanely well managed by a brave team of 9A operators and workshop volunteers. My favorite workshop was programming ARDF Wabbit Beacons. It was super fun and I was happy to help people in difficulty. That’s why I shared my wabbit program into a repo, so everyone could use it and customize it to their own needs. Also, I made interesting exchanges about digital protocols: it was a win-win between team Spain and team France. A huge thanks to team Spain for their help in setting up my TETRA radios for amateur use. This camp was awesome. I really hope to see all the friends I met next year. > > Jules F4IEY > I have waited since 2020 to do the YOTA summer camp, and this week was way beyond my expectations. I was able to learn exciting new things, like soldering (my first time) and the use of FT8 mode. I'm very interested in radio propagation (it is what excites me the most in radio) and FT8 is a good way to understand how it changes with time, solar activity and frequencies. Indeed, we just need to receive weak signals to make a QSO in FT8 mode, even if propagation is poor. Moreover, it has been two years since I have done radio because of my studies. I was able to rediscover the pleasure of communicating with the whole world and performing pile ups with extraordinary equipment. Contacting the Aussies early in the morning gave me incredible emotions that I hadn't felt in years! Sharing my emotions with young people of my age, all passionate about the same hobby was a unique experience. I plan to come back next year ;) > > Paul F4ILV > I wasn’t expecting to have such a fun week. It was the first time I met youngsters with the same hobby. I enjoyed getting to know what other youngsters do in other countries, especially niche parts of the hobby. We showed P25 radios to other teams and the Spanish showed us their Tetra infrastructure. I also enjoyed having access to all of these stations. It was my first time operating on QO-100 and operating the 40m 4el beam at 4am from the remote station was truly amazing. I never got such a pileup of Americans on 40m. I also enjoyed my first time at ARDF even though the power of the TX was lacking a bit. The best presentation was the solar setup. I’ve learnt a lot on the subject with Vex, as the ham community online hasn’t dug up much on the subject. > > Maxime F4IQN To be honest, thoughts about the TTT program are mixed in our French team. On one hand, there were some excellent presentations with clear and relevant content. On the other hand, there were also topics that could have been simplified, less rigid and more “straight to the point” to get more attention. But overall, the three of us got the ideas about what is needed in France to promote amateur radio activity. In France, the situation is critical: we do not know how to promote amateur radio activity in general. There is a weak if non-existent communication on social media about what is done in various radio clubs, which is a shame because if we dig further in this mess, some really great quality content can be found. Therefore, the most important thing to do right now is starting with the basics: * **Visibility on social media:** by creating an Instagram and/or a simple blog page dedicated to general activities for both youngsters and OMs (and the national amateur radio website also needs a complete relifting, it looks so old…) * **Presentation platforms:** As the Japanese demonstrated in their “presentation about presentation”, a good start could also be trying to meet up with radio related topics to talk about. In France, this is the activity that works best. For years, we have been organizing events such as technical Saturdays called “Samedis Techniques” at F6KGL radio club. And just like the Japanese team did during the pandemic lockdown, we started using Discord to expand the audience of these presentations and it worked very well! We are now convinced that we need to carry on with this activity. * **Gather French young operators:** as we only are a small group of 15 people for now, the ideas could be to schedule minor events between us (such as we did with FSK challenge) and later take part of a regional or national camp near the french “top gun” station F6KOP. We are more than determined to make France stand out and we know this is going to take a long time. Great magic always begins with small things. Furthermore, with all the respect for amateur pioneers, we need to wipe out the bad image of old, grumpy, angry and conservative operators, preventing new people from wanting to get into the hobby. We need to renew this image that has been buried by this previous generation! The participants also had the opportunity to make new friends (so did we^^) and contacts from all over the world. Overall, it was a great experience for everyone involved. ### Special thanks I want to personally thank **Mihaela 9A3WW** for believing in us, her motivation and the courage she gave to our team. Of course, a very special thanks to **Philipp DK6SP** for making all this happen and making it an unforgettable experience. Also thanks to **Richard 9A1TT** for organizing and allowing us to use powerful HF rigs and remote stations for working people all around the world…And doing funny pranks by contacting the actual YOTA stations. Thanks to **Vedran 9A7PBV** for giving all his energy by showing us the whole potential of a solar panel setup. A huge thanks to the whole Tesla Team for being with us. Keep it up, you are the best! # DYM Report # France DYM 2022 Report >Overall, this December YOTA Month was a great experience for me. I had plenty of opportunities to have fun on the air. So much that I took part in… 7 special calls! In France, I used to operate TM22YOTA during weekends and TM4YOTA during weekdays from my local radio club station or my school. When I was at home, I managed to use the four american special calls K8Y/O/T/A and 9A0YOTA remote stations. Besides, I was in charge of organizing the YOTA contest with this 9A0YOTA special call. It sounded like a mess at first but it actually went pretty well. There were 3 operators: me, Darije 9A3BYW and Ryan EI8KW. As I was on vacation, I also had to set up a log server remotely a few days before and between two ski slopes ^^. The craziest part of this contest was during my shift turns, I had to do most of the contacts in my car, laptop on knees while going back home! The whole month was an amazing adventure with a lot of surprises, friends heard on the air, experimental modes (SSTV, FREEDV, PSK31…) and last but not least, massive pileups! My hype was so high for this year and all went so well that I hope to get the same hype for next year. > > – Jules F4IEY / K4IEY ### Erasmus in Sweden of Maxime F4IQN > I was in Sweden in Erasmus during December YOTA month so I couldn’t take part in the french DYM calls. During my stay, I was a member of ETA, Chalmers university radioclub and electronic club (SK6AB). It seems the club is not connected to YOTA activities organized by the national member society so I didn’t get to participate in the DYM in Sweden. The members are more interested in the DIY side of things and not the operating part. This is due to the very old and half functioning equipment of the station; it appears that the hobby is generating more interest among members after a prolonged period of disinterest. I participated a bit in DYM using remote stations in the US and Croatia but I was seriously limited by the slow wifi in my room and the exam and project reviews period in december/january.” > > – Maxime F4IQN The downside of this year was the lack of people operating the French callsigns due to something really relevant for a semester’s end: exams! Even if there were more activities in general than in previous years, the French young team mostly studied for an engineering degree and everyone was not available because of this exam period. Furthermore, adding the fact that most radioclubs are closed during holidays and because of the lack of personal HF gear, people cannot operate at all! A solution to this downside could be setting up an HF remote station, available 24/7 so that French operators can use it anytime, anywhere. # 2023 # AO4YOTA - Spain Subregional Camp # AO4YOTA >I had previously attended a YOTA camp in 9A and was excited to experience a subregional camp in Spain. The following report details my experiences at the camp. > >Jules F4IEY ## Participants The subregional camp was designed for 30-50 participants, but unfortunately, only 6 individuals attended the camp. These participants were * 4K6VS: Valia * DL8GM: Marcus * EA1JAY: Mario * EA1JBE (now EA1MZ): Dario * EA3HUJ: Daniel * and F4IEY: Jules. ## Antennas Two antennas were already installed when I arrived at the campsite. One was a multi-band hexbeam linked to a 100 W Kenwood TS480, and the other was a dual-band vertical antenna. However, the vertical antenna was not used due to issues with the FT897 behaving strangely and high SWR. Therefore, we only had one HF station for all participants, which was a significant difference from the antenna farm and FlexRadio transceivers we had at the previous camp. ## Activities Despite the limited equipment, we had fun together operating the station, attending workshops, and doing outside QRP activities. We even installed a dipole at night to use 40m. My favorite workshop was on APRS, presented by Mario EA1JAY and Dario EA1JBE. However, the other workshops were not as interesting, and the presenters relied on full textual slideshows that were barely readable. ## Station Operation I was excited about operating the special call to make some noise on the air, and I was the only operator who could run CW. I made approximately 275 QSOs, mostly in CW and a few in SSB, including a few DX stations from Japan, Trinidad, and Australia. ## Conclusion The YOTA subregional camp in Spain was a nice experience, despite the low number of participants and limited equipment. The weekend gave me many ideas and a clear vision of what to do next, especially if I want to organize a subregional camp in France. I enjoyed meeting the main URE members and reconnecting with Mario and Marcus, and this experience will be added to my list of great moments. # TM45KOP # TM45KOP Event *For the first time ever, the French youngsters met each other in one place to make a series of amateur radio related activities around an event in Provins, for the 45th anniversary of the biggest radio club in France, F6KOP* This 3 day weekend was not part of an official subregional camp, but more like a beta test to see what can be done in France in the near future. The team were composed of: * Romain F4IDF * Jules F4IEY * Maxime F4IQN * Damien F4JBS * Lucy F4JSW * Pierre F4JJZ The radioclub infrastructures allowed us to sleep in the bedrooms, just aside of the station, so we were definitely able to work american pileups until 4:30AM ! The main activity was, of course, activating the special call TM45KOP, using the “top gun” station. As it is a contest focused station, they have one rig per band…Yes, one per band! The bands worked by the youngsters went from 80m to 10m, including some QSOs on QO-100 satellite. In total, we made more than *4000 QSOs* in SSB and CW. There was also another activity: every youngster had to prepare a “technical presentation” of a radio related topic. A subject they want to talk about or simply a project they made. It was very instructive and interesting for everyone. For lunch and dinner, everything was set up to welcome more than 100 people on Sunday, with some stands, barnums and temporary structures. ## Conclusion Overall, this “test camp” was a nice experience for every one of us. Some operators learned how it feels to be working in a contest station and working pileups. This was an opportunity that we do not all have every day! ### Special Thanks We want to say a huge thank you to all the F6KOP team for animating the whole weekend and allowing us to use the whole station.