YOTA Month a Success in the Americas Youth-operated amateur radio stations in the western hemisphere contribute 14,000+ QSOs to the worldwide special event celebrating youth in amateur radio during the month of December. December YOTA Month 2020 was a great success in the Americas! Twenty-four operators under the age of twenty-five utilized special event callsigns to promote youth in amateur radio here in the Americas. In the USA, four 1x1 special event callsigns were used: K8Y, K8O, K8T, and K8A (Y O T A). Twenty-four youth operators across the USA rotated these calls throughout the month of December. They made 14,699 QSOs using SSB, CW, digital modes, and satellites. This is an 11.3% increase in QSOs from their total in 2019 (12,487). Some operators used the callsigns during contests such as CWops CWTs, FT Roundup, and the RAC Winter contest. We asked USA operators for their favorite aspect of YOTA Month. Michael, W3MLJ said, "My favorite part of YOTA month was running 5 radios at once. They were all on digital modes. Running the big FT8 pileups was very fun and to see the rate of the contacts being logged was really cool.” Calin, K8MTJ commented, “In general I liked making a bunch of QSOs in a short period of time. In particular, I had a really nice conversation with KC9CUK, Erich, on 40M. I also got a kick out of working ZR1ADI, South Africa, on 20M FT8.” Youth from the Americas enthusiastically spread the word about youth in amateur radio and made 14,699 QSOs in the process. The event was a great prelude for the first ever camp to be hosted in the western hemisphere, which is still planned for July 11-16, 2021. Bryant Rascoll, KG5HVO, who coordinated the efforts of the twenty-four operators and the logs for the USA stations, said, “Using lessons from YOTA Month 2019 made organizing more streamlined and flexible for our operators this year.” As part of his responsibilities, Bryant also managed Logbook of the World accounts for the US stations, the QRZ.com pages for all the callsigns, maintained an operator schedule, worked with YOTA month manager Tomi, HA8RT, and reported in to the YOTA camp committee in the Americas. Globally, over 137,000 contacts were logged using 46 callsigns, all operated by hams under the age of 26. That total surpassed last year’s record number of 129,029. The USA placed second, behind Croatia, in the total number of contacts made during the event. Over 2,100 operators (both youth and adults) requested and received an award based on the number of YOTA contacts made as of January 19. Awards that have not yet been claimed can be downloaded at events.ham-yota.com. Additional statistics are also available at events.ham-yota.com. All YOTA Month QSL cards should be requested by OQRS. More information about YOTA in the Americas can be found at YouthOnTheAir.org. Audrey, KM4BUN operates SSB during a shift as K8O from the McElroy home near Atlanta, GA, USA Calin, K8MTJ enjoyed his time using the K8O callsign on FT8 from his station in Columbus, OH, USA.
I had a blast operating the YOTA station here in the US, glad to see the enthusiasm of other youngsters like myself and most importantly the older operators who took the time to work us.
Congrats to all of the YOTA operators! As you are learning, Amateur Radio is something you can do 'just for fun' while you learn valuable lessons along the way. Our hobby is so many things rolled into one: Acquiring and improving technical skills, people skills, knowledge of the world far beyond your personal space, engaging in competitive pursuits, pure relaxation, and the unique ability to communicate with like minded individuals, world-wide, with relatively simple equipment. It is extremely satisfying! I wish you all many years of success ahead.
I love to see our hobby continuing thru our youth. Congratulation to all that got on the air De. N4GHP
They are the future of ham radio, we should give them as much support as possible! Congrats you guys!
Fabulous! Congratulations to all the participants. And a special shout-out to Bryant Rascoll, KG5HVO, who coordinated the efforts of the twenty-four operators. That's quite impressive, Bryant. Well done!
It was terrific to have an event like this. I hope there are many more as conditions improve. Congratulations to all the young operators and their mentors!
