Also in GB2RS this week…
December is Youngsters on the Air (YOTA) month across Europe and Africa and the RSGB is coordinating the UK participants. Any Affiliated Club, school, college, university or youth group can apply to host the special call sign GB16YOTA for a day—or two—during December. The only stipulation is that the event must be aimed at getting youngsters on the air. We’re right on the deadline, so act NOW. To book the call sign, or for more information, email yota.month@rsgb.org.uk.
Leicester Radio Society will be hosting an RSGB Train the Trainers event on Saturday the 19th of November. If you are an RSGB Member and already train people for Foundation, Intermediate of Advanced – or would like to do so – this may be the event for you. The course must be pre-booked and there are a maximum of 25 places, allocated on a first coms first served basis. It runs from 9am to 5pm, with a break for you to eat your own packed lunch. Tea and coffee will be provided. For more information, or to book your place, contact John, G0IJM via email to john.g0ijm@btinternet.com.
Many Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) stations are active this weekend around the country and around the world, putting members of the Scouting movement on the air. Around 30 JOTA special event call signs were published in the October edition of RadCom, and there are likely to be many more. If you hear one please give them a call and be patient with young operators, as you could be their first ever contact on the air.
Members of the RSGB Board, the General Manager, the Exam Quality Manager and several Committee Chairs have all been involved in meetings with Ofcom in the last week. This was to establish more effective working relationships and to help develop a common understanding of amateur radio issues. The meetings have included senior Directors at Ofcom, Spectrum and Policy Managers, Engineers and new call centre staff who are engaged with amateur radio issues on a daily basis.
Canada marks the 150th anniversary of Canada’s confederation in 2017 and national, regional and local events will take place throughout the year. Radio Amateurs of Canada announced that it has secured permission for all Canadian radio amateurs to use special call sign prefixes to celebrate this landmark. At the discretion of the operators concerned, VAs will be able to sign CF, VEs will be able to sign CG, VO may use CH and VY stations will be able to use CI. For instance, VE4RAC will be able to use CG4RAC. For more information on Canada150 visit tinyurl.com/gb2rs-1610.
Polish radio amateurs are supporting UNICEF in its fight against child malnutrition. It is the intent of the Hams4KIDS initiative to help children in need, particularly in southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, by focusing the collective efforts of the global radio amateur community to provide meaningful financial support to UNICEF’s anti-malnutrition program. The initiative’s radio station, SN4KIDS, is on the air until 13 November 2016 on all the HF bands plus 6m. For every unique QSO with the station, the organisers will donate two cents to UNICEF. So, the more QSOs, the more money gets raised. For more information take a look at facebook.com/hams4kids or www.hams4kids.org.
Category: GB2RS Headlines
