Field Day + Kid's

[kj5t]

With Field Day over, I am curious how many had youth activity. That includes a youth operator on the "contest" end and youth visiting the GOTA station. I operated through the early morning hours into the morning on 20 and 15 for W5ZDN and Saturday afternoon/evening I was control op for the GOTA station in which we had several kids (8, 9 and 10 years old) talk on the radio. Also there was another guy who would still be considered "youth" (he was 20) who had just gotten his tech ticket. One of the YLs who tested was 15, and she passed. So W5ZDN (W5TSA for the GOTA station) had a great Field Day with a strong youth involvement.

How about your club? Did you have any youth operate at home with you? Did any youth test and did they pass?

[kc9fje]

I WAS our Youth that operated. Im the 2nd youngest in the club (17) and operated geting roughly 30-40 qso's before I passed out in the camper...lol Altogether we only had a state rep. who had his children with and they where runing around trying not to trip on our grounding wires everywhere... that was about it!

[NT5SM]

We had several (abt 10) kids including my own ages 7 to about 13. #Some just to try a contact on the GOTA station while a few others came back for more. #It was a pleasure to coach them as well as listen to the other stations acknowledge the kids with lots of patience. #We need to put continuous effort into helping more young operators get licensed. #Unfortunately, having the Tech. ticket as the first step into the hobby will make it much harder than it was when I earned my Novice in the '70's

[ae6yd]

We actually had a few young hams at our field day. I was one of them, we also had the club president's grandson, a tech (who I tried to coax into learning the code), and a few of the op's children who made it through a contact. We didn't have a GOTA station, but before 40 opened up W6LOV and KN6N's daughter Victoria, age 4, made a 40m SSB contact to northern California. I'm told she likes listening to CW... http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Oh, and FJE, only 30-40? C'mon! We young hams have to be the ones with the stamina to stay up after the OF's go to bed. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
I made about 30 on 20 phone, 5 on 40 CW (QRS but still a contact!), and I ran a pileup on 80 phone for about an hour for over 50. 20 and 40 as W6TJ, 80 as AA6SD. (We have two field days here, club politics and I don't ask questions...)

[KI4LFG]

Our FD was a big T-storm and rainy mess for several hours, no one came to visit except club members. Everyone left the park we where setup at. I was the only real person under 21 for the day I was there.

[kj5t]

Quote[/b] ]We young hams have to be the ones with the stamina to stay up after the OF's go to bed.

Yep, I was the only one who got to the site before Field Day started and stayed up the entire time while there and didn't leave until about an hour after it had ended. Even the other younger guy (Grant/KE5ERW he is 20) left a bit after midnight to go home and he didn't return until around 10:30 the next morning.

[KI4MRU]

At age 21, I don't know if I'm still considered "youth" or not, but we did have some Boy Scouts show up at our Field Day site to earn their radio merit badges. Each one of them had to make at least two contacts, and it was a lot of fun coaching them through that process, especially with the bands as crowded as they were. We basically just wrote out our callsign and exchange info for them on a sheet of paper for them to read, and we pointed to the appropriate lines on the page when it was time for them to transmit. The bands are confusing enough for an experienced operator on Field Day, not to mention somebody who's never heard that kind of mayhem before. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif One of the scouts enjoyed it so much he stayed longer and continued to make more contacts, so that was encouraging. But aside from me and a couple other people in their 20's, there was nobody younger than us at Field Day who actually held a license.

[KB3LIX]

OK,

Old guy here......

We had a Boy Scout troop visit, and all of them spent some time on the air. We had a GOTA station, but we did not limit their participation to the GOTA station. I had one young fellow sitting with me (he was about 10, maybe 12) that made 10 contacts. He did GREAT !!!!!!!!
The grin he had after he completed each one was enough to make the day worthwhile.
I heard 5 of the Scouts have committed to take the Technician licensing class in September.
I had occasion to speak to the Scoutmaster on the repeater last Wednesday night. He said the scouts really enjoyed the outing.


OK, Old Guy QRT !

[n4tia]

I am 18 and I had setup a "Young" Field Day of my own with several other younger hams (22, 25, 20, 26) We pretty much did more talking, joking... then we did talk on the radio but we had a real good time and managed to make a few contacts. Next year we are thinking of actually going into the local Nature Preserve and setting up shop in the middle of no where.
I did visit several other field day sites and signed the log for visiting, talked to some friends, meet some guy's I had talked to on the air and got the chance to put a face with the voice.

Alexander

[KE5GDB]

I'm 12 years old and I was on the air most of the time. I took a break from 1 to 4:30... I made the most contacts in our club - 80!

[AD5UT]

I was at FD Friday Morning to Sunday Afternoon, and worked the PSK31/RTTY station. We didn't make many contacts, but had fun operating. I believe there were some other youths at the site, but not sure if they operated any.

[ae6yd]

Methinks our club ought to reach out to the local Boy Scouts, sounds like they can be coaxed into interest easier than most groups.

As far as the OF's going to bed, my roommate Monty (KD6CAE) and I operated at one site until I had to pick up my wife, then went over to the other and operated there until they took the radios away, then we went home and tried to operate 2D, but that didn't work out so well... Damn my antenna. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Kb2RVL]

I'm glad and amazed to hear so many Boy Scout troops invovled with FD's. I was a Boy Scout still when I earned my ticket in '95 and I had to beg and pled with the troop to visit a Field Day with me. I brought my 2m radio with a portable dipole wherever we went camping, made a few contacts with it, and got nothing but glares from the scoutmasters who told me bringing a CB in the woods wasn't promoting "camping" to the younger boys. Hopefully some things have changed for the better in 10 short years.

[kb9lei]

We were in the middle of a technician class at a church and most of teh members of the class came out, most with kids and grandkids and they had a ball. We had one YL about 10 work 20M for about an hour with our club president and my son who is in the class was with the club VP on 80M well into the wee hours. They traded working and logging.

We had a blast. Going to do Scout camp in October.

[BG4KVE]

yes

[ve6wtf]

i was one of two, i was running the new icom all bander of the ladderline antenna ve6 nc 3aab