26th European Hamadio School Stations Day 5th of May 2025
Last year, the European Hamradio School Stations Day celebrated its 25th anniversary. With 44 logs submitted, participation once again exceeded the previous year's result (39 logs). In addition, some stations also distributed the special DOK ‘25EUT’. In order to simplify participation in the 26th Europe Day and to make it more attractive in the European neighbourhood, the rules for participation were revised and simplified. To maximise time flexibility, all QSOs in the activity period can now be counted. Basically, Europe Day is an activity day, not a contest, so the focus is not on the competition but on personal (radio) contacts and QSO partners should take the time for a short exchange. The use of QO-100 for long-range connections has proved its worth due to the reliable propagation conditions. Anyone who has access to a satellite radio station should use it. If you want to make specific contacts from school to school, you can use the AATiS school station list to arrange skeds in advance. The list can be requested via schoolstations [at] aatis.de. Teachers without a school station should also feel encouraged to participate, as there is a special rating for teacher contacts with an RIA number (RIA = Red Ink Award). We look forward to seeing many schools, universities and training centres ‘on the air’ again on 5 May and encourage all OM/YL/XYL to make contact and thus make an active contribution to recruiting young talent in amateur radio.
Participation Rules 26th European Hamradio School Stations Day
1. Date:
Monday, May 5, 2025, 0700 to 1700 UTC.
2. Participation Classes:
(A) HF only
(B) VHF/UHF only, also via relay, echolink and digital voice (DV)
(C) Connections via QO-100 or other satellites
Pupils, students and individual OMs/YLs are distinguished.
3. Goal:
As many contacts as possible with stations from all over Europe, especially school stations or training stations. The connections can be made in phone or digital modes. Valid digital modes are only those for which keyboard input is necessary during the QSO (i.e. PSK31 yes, FT8/FT4 no), except digital voice.
It should be pointed out in the call that you are operating from a school station
4. Frequencies:
Centers of activity on HF (+/- band occupancy) for SSB: 80m - 3.770 MHz, 40m - 7.170 MHz, MHz, 20m - 14.270 MHz.
5. Exchange:
Callsign, RS(T), MH locator, first name, age, name of school, RIA number (if available)
6. Evaluation:
Class A, B and C: Calculation of the distance for each QSO with EU stations. Multiplication of this total with the number of EU countries reached (WAE list). For class C the terrestrial distance is valid.
The evaluation is carried out for the respective callsign under which the log was submitted. Additional scores will appear as stickers on the certificate of participation:
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for the longest single distance (outside Europe as well)
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for the most cross-border QSOs
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for the lowest average operator age in the team (each team member must have made at least 1 QSO!)
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for the most member countries of the Council of Europe reached
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for those with the most school stations reached
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for the most RIA* numbers (= teacher contacts)
7. Logs:
The use of computer programmes for evaluation and calculation of the distances is appreciated. We recommend the use of the programme HAM-EU-Tag from ARCOMM, which is available via https://www.qslonline.de/kontest.htm and can be downloaded and used free of charge.
Required information in the header are callsigns, Name(s) and age of the OPs, participation class, (high) school (name and type of school), location (MH locator), sender's postal address and current e-mail address.
Log entries for each connection:
Time (UTC), callsign, RS(T), QRG or band, op mode, MH locator, first name, age, name of school or university, RIA* number (if available). For Class B connections via Repater/Digital Voice also the repeater callsign has to be logged. Please calculate distance for each connection.
8. Submissions:
No later than two weeks after the Europe Day by e-mail to europatag [at] aatis.de, then you will receive the confirmation in electronic form (PDF certificates). Please send us photos of the OPs from the radio operation together with the log/evalution sheet so that each participant can be recognised on the certificate!
9. Prizes/Certificates:
All entrants will receive their certificates as PDF file by email. Prizes from the AATiS media and kit assortment will be raffled off among those who submit correctly created, valid logs Any legal recourse is excluded.
*)RIA = Red Ink Award (https://www.aatis.de/content/das-red-ink-award-ria)
**)Version for 2025 will be released in April.