Japan's Participation in YOTA
(Youngsters on the Air)
JR2KHB Riku SUDA (jr2khb@jarl.com)
JE1XUZ Seiya KATO (je1xuz@jarl.com)
August 3, 2018
Abstract
Youngsters on the Air, or YOTA, is a large project under the IARU R1 committee which
encourages and nurtures young amateurs.
YOTA started as a volunteer group in 2011 targeting Europe, with its basic idea: “BY
youngsters, FOR youngsters, FROM the VIEWPOINT of youngsters." It has been really
successful in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East in recent years.
In August 2017, two Japanese young amateurs, JE1XUZ S. Kato and JR2KHB R. Suda
visited London to participate in YOTA UK summer camp, as the first YOTA participants fromAsia & Pacific region (IARU Region 3). Inspired by vivid experiences during the event, theylaunched "YOTA Japan" in December 2017 to import YOTA's idea into Japan and Asia & Pacificregion, and to welcome new young hams and encourage them to be sophisticated amateurs
suitable for the 21st century. YOTA Japan is now discovering novel ideas from young amateursand making a sketch of new ham radio world throughout its events and activities.

1About YOTAYOTA (Youngsters On The Air) is a youth cultivation project for radio amateurs mainly
under the age of 26, sponsored by the IARU Region 1 (Fig. 1.1).
YOTA holds the world convention called "YOTA Summer Camp" each year in different
countries in IARU R1. Along with the curriculum developed by experts in education, theparticipants experience as many kinds of ham radio activities as possible in 7 days, such as
ARDF, DX, contesting, digital modes, contacts via satellites, kit building, and ARISS contact.
Sightseeing in the host country and some intercultural activities are also scheduled during
the summer camp. The summer camp "YOTA South Africa 2018" is going to be held on
August 8 - 15 at Johannesburg.
They consider the concept “BY youngsters, FOR youngsters, FROM the VIEWPOINT ofyoungsters" as the key to success. YOTA has skilled youngsters be leaders. The youngleaders train other young participants and play core roles of planning and management in
YOTA events. YOTA places great importance on listening to youngsters' voice and onunderstanding their ideas and the subjects of their interest.

Figure 1.1: The logo of YOTA 11© RSGB & HAM-YOTA

22

YOTA UK 2017 Summer CampOn August 5-12, 2017, the summer camp "YOTA UK 2017" were held at Gilwell Park locatedin the suburb of London. In addition to 78 participants from 26 countries in IARU R1, 2
young hams from Japan, JE1XUZ S. Kato (24 y/o at that time) and JR2KHB R. Suda (20y/o at that time), were invited to this camp (Fig. 2.1, 2.2). While some participants werequite skilled amateurs, others were newcomers who were interested in electronics but didn't
have amateur license. Most of the participants were under the age of 26.
The host society, RSGB (Radio Society of Great Britain), established a special event
station GB17YOTA (Fig. 2.3). All the participants were exceptionally permitted by U.K.
administration, Ofcom (Office of Communications), to operate it on 80 - 4m bands with 500
W power under supervision, regardless of their radio licenses. GB17YOTA made more than
10,000 QSOs during whole the event period.
Every YOTA camp gains a lot of support from adults in all aspects of human resources,money and supplies. Besides the cooperation from national radio societies of the hostcountry, several huge DX funds and companies related to ham radio donates to YOTA
activities. As a result, the participation fee can be reasonable. The participation fee for
YOTA UK (excluding transportation costs to the site) was only 44 British Pounds (58 USD)
per person. We appreciate that we could receive various kinds of cooperation from several
elder Japanese hams, and subsidy from JARL (Japan Amateur Radio League) fortransportation.
To create this large movement, YOTA and RSGB make a great effort for promotion. They
have been making good use of YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Daily reports of the summer
camp had been uploaded for the whole seven days (see "the RSGB" channel on YouTube.)

Figure 2.1: 80 youngsters from 27 countries gathered at YOTA UK 2017 2

Figure 2.2: Intercultural program2 © RSGB & HAM-YOTA
3 © RSGB & HAM-YOTA

Figure 2.3: GB17YOTA operation 3

33

Establishment and Activities of YOTA Japan

We, Kato and Suda, were greatly inspired by vivid experiences during YOTA UK summer
camp. We decided to import YOTA to Japan, or even to IARU R3, in order to cultivate youngamateurs in our area and to make ham radio world active, sophisticated, valuable, andsuitable for 21st century.
At Tokyo Ham Fair 2017, held in September, we invited PA2LS Lisa Leenders, who isthe chair of Youth WG of IARU R1 and overall YOTA coordinator (Fig. 3.1).
Kato, Suda, and some youngsters launched "YOTA Japan" in December 2017, together
with several famous DX'ers and contesters as supporters. We are to produce suitablecommunities for youngsters to achieve our goals described above.
First of all, we have been focusing on listening to youth, which is the most basic idea ofYOTA. We visit school ham clubs and make interviews to students, in order to discover andunderstand their opinions and ideas on ham radio. These reports are shared as articles on"CQ Hamradio" (by CQ Pub.), the most famous ham magazine in Japan (Fig. 3.2).
We have held small YOTA events as well, like "Youth Contesting Program (YCP)" thatgives youngsters opportunities to enjoy contesting.
Lots of young hams are active and keen on contesting. It is also true that, however, mostyoungsters have only few opportunities to enjoy contesting in wonderful environments (goodequipment, good members, and good location). Based on these facts, YOTA holds YCP eventsand invites youngsters to the so-called “super stations” which have great environments forcontesting. For example, 4O3A (Montenegro) and 9A1A (Croatia) are served as YCP stations
in Europe.
YOTA Japan have held 2 YCPs so far.
The first one was held on Mar 24-25 2018 (UTC) where 7 youngsters (16-25 y/o) gathered
at JE1CKA, a world-famous contest station, and enjoyed CQ WPX SSB Contest (Fig. 3.3).
Comments from the participants are available on the web site of YOTA Japan.
The second YCP was planned for relatively beginners and aimed to teach them basicskills for contesting or to improve their techniques. The participants took part in Shizuoka
Contest, one of local contests in Japan. Two large stations which locates in Shizuoka
prefecture were offering the cooperation, and young participants were able to operate there.
In addition, at some ham events in Japan, we have exhibitions and seminars to share
YOTA's ideas and our discovery that are gained through our YOTA events.

Figure 3.1: PA2LS lecturing
at Tokyo Hamfair 2017

4

Figure 3.2: Article introducing
a school ham club 4

CQ ham radio, vol.73 (2), 24-26. Feb 2018. Riku Suda.

Figure 3.3: YCP at JE1CKA in March 2018

44Suggestion

In order to overcome the crucial problem of the decline of amateur radio, we YOTA andYOTA Japan propose the followings:
4.1 Consider what we can do more to get youth interested in ham radio.
How should we advertise ham radio effectively to young people? What elements ofamateur radio can attracts youngsters living in 21st century? We never can make good
promotions of ham radio without reconsideration and essential discussion of its delights.
We might need to make the frame of amateur radio broader than it in 20th century. Today
there are many kinds of interests in the radio hobby which had not existed a few decadesago. Even if points of their interest are unfamiliar to oldsters, we should accept them as thecitizens of ham radio world. Listening to youngsters' voice could help us discover new
aspects of ham radio, which can be the trigger for amateurs' renaissance.
Furthermore, as many channels and aspects of amateur radio as possible should beoffered to youngsters, in order to prevent them from getting tired of ham radio easily. Youthalways gains interest fast, but loses it also fast.
4.2 Let youth organize youth events and projects.
It is necessary to stand on the viewpoint of youth in order to make effective projects foryouth. In some cases, quite novel ideas could be needed.
Youngsters are able to do it. That is the reason why YOTA is focusing mainly on "youth"
between the ages of 15 to 26, not on "children".
Youth is enthusiastic. Give an opportunity to youngsters to produce youth event. It
should be beneficial for both youngsters and oldsters. That is YOTA spirits.
4.3 Make YOTA participants ambassadors for amateur radio.
It should be meaningful as well that such enthusiastic youths with various ideas meet
together and make discussions beyond any borders, by that they can broaden not only theiramateur community but also ham radio world itself. YOTA events provide proper
environments for such spontaneous activities of youngsters.
We expect the youngsters to become "ambassadors for amateur radio" and to play coreroles to create the future of amateur radio.
4.4 Spread the word.
To realize YOTA's goal, we have to pick up more and more youngsters. We strongly hopeevery societies of radio amateurs to support, encourage, and cultivate young hams, and topay attention and listen to their ideas.
Spread this concept of 21st century's youth project that improves this marvelous radio
hobby and makes it sustainable. Youngsters have enough potential to solve our aging
problem.

See Also YOTA Japan (http://jouban.jp/yota-ja/)
 Youngsters on the Air (https://www.ham-yota.com/)