The IARU Region 2 (R2) Executive Committee is pleased to announce that Sterling Mann, N0SSC has agreed to be the region’s Liaison for Youth. IARU R2 will provide support and assistance to the Liaison in reaching out to young hams throughout the Americas and their member societies. The goal is to develop and promote interest in amateur radio on the part of young hams through self-sustaining groups and activities.

Mr. Mann can be contacted at youth@​iaru-​r2.​org and @r2youth on Twitter.

Background

Amateur radio is often viewed as a passion of an earlier generation. Features that attracted many current hams, such as providing a real-time social network, have been supplanted by advances in technology available to virtually anyone anywhere. Wireless communications is an important aspect of modern life with amateurs having the opportunity to experience it in a unique and personal way. Developing and promoting this experience is key to attracting interest from younger people of all genders and is key to ensuring the future of amateur radio.

The Liaison for Youth role is unique. It is NOT a coordinator of formalized, highly structured committee or set of working groups. This function implements a novel Young Ham Action Plan to connect with, engage, inspire, and mentor young hams throughout the Americas. The Liaison’s role is to be a point of contact for building links to and between the many groups already developing organically via internet discussion platforms, on-the-air nets, and virtual clusters of interest — even before the COVID-19 pandemic. The Liaison is to help set-up, develop, and grow self-sufficient communities of young hams connected through common cultural, lingual, and geographic backgrounds, assisted by IARU Region 2 and its member societies.

This initiative is builds on the successful examples of other youth groups, namely Youngsters on the Air (of IARU Region 1) and Youth on the Air (a youth ham radio camp in the Americas), as well as the Young Amateurs Radio Club (a large all-online community of young hams) among many. The goal of creating this Liaison position is to encourage and expand the level of peer to peer interaction among young hams all over IARU Region 2.

Along with on-the air activities, online meetups, workshops, competitions and mini-contests, brainstorming sessions, and speaking invitations are all envisioned as future events. When in-person gatherings are again possible, there can be summits, regional camps, and even conventions. The Liaison is there to assist by providing organizing documents and templates that will be useful for leaders to establish their own local communities of young hams.

Also available in Español (Spanish).