Thursday 8 August 2013

YOTA continued

In day 2 of YOTA activities we began with some games for the kids to get to know each other in some small way i.e name or country.  The topic up for discussion was how we can get into the world of communications, how we got into the hobby as well as what study materials, if any, we available for the different countries and what could be done to make these more accessible or to assist the youngsters in any way.  This showed me that all countries have their own procedures (as to be expected) but that the materials they are supplied with are not always modern or current and this reflects in the exams questions.

In the afternoon, I didnt attend the scheduled activities as I wanted an chance to get on the air, so we went to the station which is situated in the park across the road.  One station between 80 hams is absolute murder, and trying to get a slot is trying to dig for gold.  A timetable has had to be drawn up to allow the hams get a chance to operate, however the timetable is set into teams so if you have 4-5 on your team, thats still about only 10-15 mins each (assuming everyone wishes to operate) which still isnt a lot of time considering.  However I still managed to get a number of QSO's in the log especially my own station (well my husbands station which sounded really well and managed to hear first time in the zoo) but the time was not enough for me and I had to allow someone else the chance after my 10 mins flew by.

In the evening there was a kit making class, the kids loved this one.  Ger EI4GXB helped the EI youngsters out with assembling the kit, explaining diodes, transistors, capacitors etc and showing them how to solder same.  They spent hours at this, even when the class had finished, so much so they were soldering util 10pm and still hadnt finished at that stage.

I had been invitied to my first leader meeting where all the leaders gathered to discuss the planning of hobbies, games, to express any issues etc.  I was a bit daunted about this as I wasnt the team leader, just a sub, but it was interesting to hear the background to the event activities, as well as upcoming plans for the days ahead.There were a few disagreements about certain things but in the end all was decided and delegated to the relevant participants.  I was excited to hear that the events for the following day were going to be of real interest to the youngsters as they appeared to love the hands on approach and this was perfect - antenna building and robotics.

It was another late one as noone seems to sleep in this place, huge groups of people outside, in the lobby etc just laughing and chatting, you couldnt say you had noone to talk to but I dont think it matters when the whole hotel is booked out by YOTA, so there is no need to consider anyone elses sleeping habits!  But what I find is that there always appears to be a supply of beer, I take it the local supermarket (which isnt very good but at least it has a good supply of beer), has been the root of this supply, in saying that though when you pay cheap prices for beer then I can see their attraction eg a bottle of Barcadi Breezer here is €1.59 where at home you pay at least €2.50 ish, scandalously cheap.  I have met some extremely fascinating ppl here though to include the girls

This morning (Thurs) we had a presentation by a Latvian team member on Free Energy.  To be honest, it didnt appeal to me very much as it appeared to be more about his belief in chakra and crystals, medicine circles and positive energy but Im sure some ppl found it interesting.  After that was the cool part - robots!!

The robots are cool little buggy type cars with sensors etc and we got to program them, which everyone loved, they were going back and forth, turning 360 degreees etc.  We then got an amount of time to try and program them to follow a set path, which I have to say was extremely funny and frustrating at the same time. We currently have use of them until Monday and you can find the geeks in the room building and changing same

In the afternoon we had the opportunity to build antennas out of measuring tapes and plastic pipes,  which were quite easy until it came to the soldering and adding the coax without sufficient tools. I decided to finish mine at home lol

However our presentation on our country is finally over, but although we had the projecter there was no sound so I had to totally wing it otherwise there would be silence which wouldn't be good. We got through it and even threatened to steal Ger "the leprechauns" crock of gold. 

Great night after all so looking forward to the next few

Ciao for now
Lisa

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