The 27th European School Stations Day once again saw a significant increase in logs and participants. Despite the poor shortwave conditions, which have become almost customary for Europe Day, Class A saw the greatest increase. The fact that school stations from seven countries took part and that 24% of the participating school stations were not from DL demonstrates the growing European dimension of this event.

The logs also revealed 4 school stations (2 schools + 2 universities) that had not submitted a log by the deadline (19 May). 43 of the 69 stations listed in the ‘AATiS List of Active School Stations’ were ‘on the air’ during Europe Day. The AATiS List of Active School Stations proved to be an important tool for identifying the school stations, as 39 of the 42 participating school stations were listed there with their call signs. Thankfully, a number of OMs took the initiative to activate school stations, even though no student team was currently available to man them. Although these were not included in the scoring for the student teams as individual operators, they were nevertheless counted as school stations in the additional scoring for the counterpart station. Here are a few comments from those who submitted logs:

“Pocking has a new mayor, and he took nearly an hour to have amateur radio explained to him. The local repeater was out of action and our QO100 OM had an appointment…… and it was good fun too!” Silvio DD1RK, Wilhelm-Diess-Gymnasium Pocking DL0WDG

“It’s always lovely to see how much enthusiasm can be sparked in young people when they begin to understand the connections and delve a little deeper into the subject of wireless communication. Follow-up questions arise all by themselves and time flies by!” Wolfgang, DJ4QV, Markgraf-Georg-Friedrich-Gymnasium, Kulmbach, DK0MGF

“Thank you very much for your excellent organisation and the adapted rules. I think the steadily increasing number of school stations proves you right.” Jens DM4JH, Liborius-Gymnasium Dessau DK0LG

“Unfortunately, we didn’t manage very many QSOs, as we had reception problems on shortwave and the students also had a lot of questions. But we still had a lot of fun.” Michael DL3DAE, Gesamtschule Hattingen DK0OW

“This year, too, we struggled with the conditions on shortwave. In future, we want to install a QO-100 station.” Martin DL3SFB, University Stuttgart DK0SU

“The propagation conditions here in southern Germany were so poor that we could only reach one school station in Trier this morning. …But the school was thrilled and is already looking forward to the next event! So, in a way, we’ve achieved our goal!” Bert DJ0MEW, Herzog-Ludwig-Realschule Altötting, DK0BGK

At many stations, the young operators’ sound technical skills came as a surprise. Unfortunately, when reviewing the logs, it was often found that the terms and conditions of participation had clearly not been read, which led to queries and logs being returned for correction. Some entrants did not make use of the opportunity to correct their logs at all, which resulted in lower rankings. Logs were also sent to the wrong email address, in the wrong format, or the calculation of distances and points was left entirely to the evaluator. Here is an urgent request to supervisors and instructors: please read through the rules with your team beforehand. Otherwise, as the number of participants increases, so does the number of incorrect logs, and the evaluator’s willingness to correct them leniently decreases. The HAM EU-Tag software, which has once again been kindly provided as freeware by ARCOMM, should make this easier, especially as a tutorial on how to use it has also been created.

Here is the overall results table (HS marks rankings for university stations):

Class A (HF)

Klasse B (VHF/UHF)

Klasse C (Sat/QO100)

Additional awards (in the form of a European Star sticker on the certificate of participation) by category and participation Classes:

For the longest single-contact distance (including outside Europe)

• A: DK0SU, University of Stuttgart, 11927 km (YB8AO)
• B: DK0BSN, Vocational School 1, Nuremberg, 6039 km (VU2EHB)
• C: DN3PH, Kranich Gymnasium Salzgitter, 9942 km (PYSFY)

For the most cross-border QSOs

• A: YO9KBZ, Asociatia Radio Stiinta, 53
• B: not applicable, as no station > 1
• C: IU3PUB Istituto don Bosco, Padova, 20

For the lowest average age of operators in the team

• A: DN1WDG, Wilhelm-Diess-Gymnasium Pocking, 10.0 years
• B: DN1WDG, Wilhelm-Diess-Gymnasium Pocking, 10.3 years
• C: DN1BK, Technikforum Backnang, 10.0 years

For the most Council of Europe member states contacted

• A: DK0PT, OTH Regensburg, 17
• B: not applicable, as no station > 2
• C: DL0RGE/T, Reichenbach-Gymnasium, Ennepetal, 8

For the most school stations reached

• A: DL0RGE/T, Reichenbach-Gymnasium, Ennepetal, 10
• B: not applicable, as no station > 1
• C: DN1RMG, Robert-Mayer-Gymnasium, Heilbronn, 11
• DN3GG, Goethe-Gymnasium, Lichterfelde, 11

QSL cards from some participants