Cardiff & District RAYNET to link up with Youth Services for ARDF Project

Cardiff & District RAYNET have secured a Youth Led Grant to encourage young people to be involved in amateur radio activities. 

 The group will collaborate with Vale of Glamorgan and Cardiff Youth Services to set up and run ARDF events. 

 The aim is to encourage younger people to experience amateur radio through the great outdoors, learn skills including antenna construction and cross over skills that could lead to young people interested in animal conservation being able to track and pinpoint radio signals. 

 The group's hope is to create an interest in radio for those taking part in these amateur radio activities with a view offering the foundation training course and potentially volunteering with RAYNET in the future. 

 Part of the ARDF project will include the introduction to antenna construction by building tape measure Yagi antennas for the project, understanding matching to the frequency required for the chosen band, then making practical use of the antennas they have built to seek the transmitters which will be employed for the events. 

Included in the grant is the provision of a few dedicated micro transmitters, plus 10 handheld radios which will double as additional kit for use in any potential emergency and aid the group in providing practical radio experience in pursuing future foundation courses.

Group controller Dave Thomas said, " We are excited to deliver this project which has been in the planning since 2023. As a group, will also learn a lot from this project and look forward to introducing a new generation to Amateur Radio. We hope that this project will lead to a prolonged relationship with younger people and a legacy to the future of RAYNET in our area".

The funding was secured in collaboration with GVS ( Glamorgan Volunteer Services)  to which we owe our thanks to, for it's with their continued support in seeking out such funding opportunities that allow us to be able to deliver such projects.