HEMA has come to South Germany

Expansion to the HEMA award scheme!, 5th April 2021 marked the start of HEMA (Humps Excluding Marilyns Award) in Southern Germany.

HEMA stands for HuMPs Excluding Marilyns Award. To the uninitiated, that might look like gobbledegook. A HuMP is a summit that has Hundred Metre Prominence, meaning that it sticks up above the surrounding land by at least 100m. A Marilyn is a summit with 150m prominence. HEMA then is an award for HuMPs with a prominence of less than 150m. Marilyns have their own award scheme through SOTA

HEMA - the somewhat different mountain award scheme for summits with a prominence between 100 and 150 metres is expanding again. This time into the Southern Bavaria, Alpine "DL" area.

In a scheme that happily co-exists with SOTA and GMA but fits the niche in between the two, the HEMA scheme is more about getting contacts with new DXCC entities from summits and contacts with or between summits than purely collecting summit points. If "completes", "Uniques", "firsts" are terms that are unusual to you then check out the HEMA website at hema.org.uk.

HEMA is operable on any amateur band and mode (just not any kind of repeater) but of course, to get the new HEMA-DXCC from abroad you are going to need to be operating on the HF bands, watching the HEMA spotting page for that first self spot from one of the 41 newly authorised summits by an activator.

HEMA - http://hema.org.uk/

Friendship on the Air Award

The RSGB is delighted to launch a new Award that is designed to celebrate the friendship of amateur radio over the airwaves.

Radio amateurs are encouraged to exchange the four-letter identifier of their club and accumulate points for each qualifying QSO. Through this, you can gain the award.

However, the main purpose of the award is to contact other people in a friendly and non-competitive way, connecting with them rather than simply making a quick QSO and moving on. If you’re not a club member but are a member of the RSGB, you can use the RSGB identifier “RSGB”.

There will be monthly and annual awards for individuals, clubs and the highest-scoring club in each region. The points system is simply an encouragement to get on the air, represent your club and have a chat with radio amateurs across the airwaves.

The award is part of the RSGB-NHS ‘Get on the air to care’ campaign which was created at the start of the pandemic. Its aim has been to support radio amateurs living in social isolation, promote mental wellbeing and raise the profile of amateur radio in the mainstream media to help people looking for something to do during the lockdowns.

We hope that the Friendship on the Air award will continue to support the radio amateur community as restrictions lift over the coming months.

RSGB Youth Team Launches New Award

The RSGB Youth team has created a new award aimed at younger people but it is also open to anyone to try.

Called the Radio Surfer Award, it encourages experimentation with all types of radio communications.

There is a list of possible activities, each with a points value, and all you have to do is get the same number of points as your age.

You don’t have to be licensed to take part although having a licence will give you more options.

For more information about this and the RSGB Youth Award, see the RSGB website - http://www.rsgb.org/youth-award