The IARU Region 1 Youth Coordinator, Lisa Leenders, PA1LS reports on the German Initiative AATIS which invites school stations to be active on May 5, 2014
This activity is supposed to bring contacts with and among school amateur radio club and training stations and school girls and boys with own callsigns as well as contacts with every other station from all over Europe.
The activity is a great way to get young operators on the air from their school shacks using their training call signs (or the school club’s call sign for irrelevant messages only – according to national law).
Very often a new operator will be intimidated by the fear of not knowing what to say to the stranger on the other side of the radio. The exchange of information helps to overcome this fear in a low pressure contest format, it should not be made a “5-9-contest”.
Operators are encouraged to take more time to chat beyond the exchange of the necessary details. A certificate of participation will be issued for stations that send an excerpt from the log of the day. There is also the chance of winning one of the fantastic prizes issued by AATiS.
More information is available at
http://www.iaru-r1.org/index.php?option=com_remository
&Itemid=173&func=startdown&id=513
IARU Region 1
http://www.iaru-r1.org/