In 2020, Roger VA3EGY and Harrie VE3HYS attended HamCation (Orlando) by Zoom, when the in-person event was cancelled due to COVID. There was a day-long series of presentations focused on YOUTH. We attended them all. And, we were further invited to participate in a bi-weekly zoom call by Youth-On-The-Air led by a group from the US but with participation from Argentina, Mexico, Dominica, and several other IARU Region 2 countries.
We decided to go to HamVention in 2022 to meet with these folks and coincidently, Phil McBride was also there. We asked both the YOTA group and RAC if they would support delivering a camp in Canada in 2023. We submitted a proposal in September 2022.
Our challenge was to decide where to have this camp in Canada. We felt that it would be important to do this in Ottawa because that’s where we both live and we knew that this would take at least 6 months of planning.
As a venue in Ottawa we identified Carleton University because it was close to the airport, and had the potential to provide rooms, meals, classrooms, lab space and is close to parks making outdoor operation feasible.
Our proposal was accepted by YOTA and we got the full support of RAC with Jason Tremblay, VE3JXT assigned as our liaison and with Alan Griffin providing Marketing and Communications support along the way.
We had a few meetings with Carleton University which had us quickly realize that we would not be able to get their attention easily with the sheer scope of their organization, how decisions are made and the relatively small size of our initiative – to support an external summer camp. That said, we were able to move ahead based on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which was presented to the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Design and then co-signed by Phil McBride, VA3QR (RAC President), Neil Rapp, WB9VPG (YOTA Camp Director) and Roger Egan, VA3EGY (YOTA Camp – Local Ottawa Co-host). That was at the end of December 2022.
From there, most of our discussions were around Risk Management, Safety. We learned that the work had to be done by Professional organizations who would sign off and take full responsibility for the work performed with high levels of restrictions on access and even higher requirements for Liability Insurance.
We even engaged Ward Silver (N0AX) the author of the ARRL publication on Bonding and Grounding because Lightning Protection became a pivotal issue to being able to proceed. Suffice to say that we had not started building the shack or installing the antennas on May 31, 2023. We were starting to panic! But the Dean of Engineering,
Larry Kostiuk, with the support of our champion Professor Alan Steele (VA3STL) helped us get everyone aligned to give us the green light.
It took just 6 weeks to have everything done and the Safety Code 6 testing and report were completed on Friday July 14th. The camp started on Sunday July 16th. We really had only tested SWR and had not operated any of the four (4) stations to that point.
On Sunday, 29 campers which included youth session leaders as well as another 10 adult chaperones and helpers came to Ottawa from around the world. There were 18 from the US, 7 from Canada, 1 from Argentina, and two from Europe (Germany and Croatia). They brought their own photographer and videographer to capture the highlights and another videographer back in the US who took raw footage and produced a highlights reel overnight which was published on YouTube by the following morning in time for our group meeting at 9:00am. You can view these 11 videos including opening ceremony, balloon launch, ARISS contact and the closing at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL16TZZ4ElQWHqa2LLpvE0dl1MpId6Qdc0
We were absolutely blown away with the level of expertise, enthusiasm and engagement that these young people had for Amateur Radio from the time they arrived until they climbed back on the bus to the airport on Friday July 21.
Our challenge now is to help Carleton University to make full use of this new Amateur Radio facility ongoing and for that we will establish a Volunteer Radio Group with an initial focus on Governance, Succession Planning and providing Amateur Radio courses to ensure a fresh group of new Radio Amateurs every year. We also plan to help the faculties to collaborate on bigger initiatives like is already being done at University of Alberta where Amateur Radio is just an enabler ( https://albertasat.ca/about-us/ )
We would like to thank our financial partners in this initiative including: OVMRC, OARC, The Yasme Foundation, ARDC, IEEE, DX Engineering and ICOM. In all, we raised about $60,000 Canadian and DX Engineering donated a further $6,000 worth of equipment. These donations were made for the Facility at Carleton University over and above the financial commitments that many of these same folks have made to YOTA Camp every year. In fact, ARDC just announced a multi-year grant to YOTA in the amount of $125K USD which ensures this camp will be able to double in size and continue to be offered in the Americas through the end of 2025 ( https://www.ardc.net/wp-content/uploads/yota-americas.pdf ).
A similar camp is delivered each year in IARU Region 1 (Europe, Middle East and Africa). This year the camp will be held August 5-12, 2023 in Hungary ( https://www.ham-yota.com ).
If you are in the business of selling Amateur Radio equipment or if you are a radio amateur having benefited from being in this great hobby whether for a few years or many decades, it is up to each and every one of us to step up to ensure the future of Amateur Radio in your own community.
None of us can do this alone but we can help each other when you are ready to commit to this important initiative. We need more Youth On The Air. It takes time and it will take a lot of money. What are you doing with yours?
Roger Egan VA3EGY and Harrie Jones VE3HYS