IOTA – WHAT IS IOTA?

Created in 1964 by Geoff Watts, a leading English short wave listener, and taken on by the RSGB in 1985, IOTA is  an  amateur  radio  activity  programme  designed  to encourage contacts with island stations world-wide. The oceans’ islands have been grouped into some 1200 ‘IOTA groups’ with, for reasons of geography, varying numbers of ‘counters’, i.e.qualifying islands, in each. The objective, for the island chaser, is to make radio contact with at least one counter in as many of these groups as possible and, for the DXpeditioner, to provide such island contacts. For both it is a fun pastime adding much enjoyment  to on  the  air  activity.  22  separate certificates are currently available for island chasers, graded in difficulty, as well as  two prestigious awards for high achievement.   See IOTA Rules, Section A.

To count for IOTA islands need to meet a few simple rules relating to location. They must not lie in rivers, inland lakes or seas, or largely enclosed bays. They must be a minimum distance from the mainland. And they must be either 1 kilometre in length or shown on a 1:1,000,000 scale map. Islands world- wide that meet these requirements are listed in this Directory. They are grouped wherever possible since they are far too numerous to be allowed to count separately. If you cannot immediately find the island you want in the list, look for the officially recognised island group name, e.g. the Canary Islands if you want to find Lanzarote. Where there is no officially recognised group, an IOTA group name is often given to cover a range  of  islands  in  a  particular  geographical  sector.  Look through these, possibly with an atlas to hand. If the island qualifies for IOTA, it will be covered by a group in the list and will be named. See Section B.

For a specific island, it is not always possible to know or find out. The Directory indicates the IOTA groups that have been activated, not individual islands unless they constitute an IOTA group on their own. These are shown with a reference number, e.g. EU-001 for the Dodecanese. Such numbers are frequently quoted on the air or on QSL cards. IOTA groups with known qualifying islands that have yet to be activated are listed with a provisional number e.g. OC-288P. The number is confirmed as soon as a valid operation is judged to have taken place. See Section B.

For the standard category of application you count one credit for a confirmed contact made on any amateur band with each IOTA group listed. Additional credit is not given for a second confirmed contact either with the same island or another in the group. The only exception to this is if you are running a second record in the VHF / UHF category of application.

The basic award is the IOTA 100 Islands of the World and this is normally where to start. But, before doing anything, make sure you have to hand the latest issue of the IOTA Directory with current island listings and award application rules as it will not be easy to prepare an application without one. You can download the Directory from the RSGB IOTA web-site1. By far the most recommended way for applying is on-line on that web-site by means of the web-form provided. Complete your application and mark it as ready for processing. It will then be flagged up with 1 http://www.rsgbiota.org your Checkpoint (for a list of these, see Annex A) for checking prior to it being cleared for acceptance on the Central IOTA Database. This requires sight of your QSL cards. So, once you receive confirmation that your application is being processed, mail the cards, the appropriate fee and adequate return postage for the QSLs to your Checkpoint. If you do not have Internet access, see if you can use a friend’s Internet connection since submitting on paper will attract a much higher administration fee. See Section C and Annex B.

IOTA is a difficult award programme to administer. IOTA groups are not always distinguishable by the call-sign prefix or suffix and mistakes can easily be made. To maintain the integrity of the programme the person certifying the application needs to be thoroughly familiar with IOTA and its rules and to have access to the cards, the IOTA Directory and a good atlas during card- checking. It is felt unreasonable to expect busy national award managers or local radio club officials to take the time to carry out this function to the level of accuracy required. However, to meet a demand for local processing of IOTA applications, a number of Checkpoints have been appointed overseas.

The IOTA Honour Roll and other performance tables giving participants’ scores are regularly published on the official IOTA web-site. As a record of current achievement these listings are a popular feature of the IOTA Programme. See Section D.

If you are on Internet, there really is no problem. The IOTA web- site provides a wealth of information on island activity as do a number of excellent DX bulletins. If you are not on Internet, you can subscribe to one of the overseas DX bulletins distributed by post on a weekly or two weekly basis. RadCom, the RSGB’s house 

magazine, also features a bi-monthly IOTA column giving latest news and information from the Committee. Access to one of these sources is a ‘must’ for the keen IOTA island chaser. See Annex G.

The  main  frequency is  14.260MHz.  Other  ones on  SSB are 28.560, 28.460, 24.950, 21.260, 18.128, 7.055 and 3.755MHz. The  CW  frequencies  are  28.040,  24.920,  21.040,  18.098, 14.040, 10.115 and 3.530MHz. No specific frequency has been nominated for 7MHz CW but it is recommended that operations should include a frequency above 7.025 when the band is open to North America. The 14.260 frequency and other nominated frequencies are not reserved exclusively either for IOTA nets or for the making of island contacts but are shared with others on a normal non-interference basis.

The standard answer is no. The IOTA Committee has set a limit of  1200 on the number of groups on the IOTA list. The reason for this is to prevent the IOTA ‘total’ becoming an unmanageable figure. QSL cards have to be submitted for each credit claimed and there has to be a limit on the work that we ask Checkpoints to  undertake.  For  every  island  that  seems  to  be  a  good candidate for a separate IOTA group, there are hundreds of other similar candidates elsewhere, each with its own ardent champion! A detailed set of criteria have been used to establish the present list and, while we don’t claim that different groupings might  not have  been  equally  feasible,  we  believe  that  the RSGB IOTA DIRECTORY present list is fair, provides a useful mix of easy and difficult groups to work and at the same time reflects decisions taken at earlier stages of IOTA Programme development. The IOTA Committee is however committed to reviewing the list every five

years, the next occasion being in 2014 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of IOTA’s launch. In the meantime, with the rare exception of the occasional new island DXCC entity group that might  qualify  under  the  rules  for  separate  listing  or  of  a previously  declared  ‘barren’ IOTA  group  found  to  possess  a valid island, no new groups will be added. As for the five year reviews, we can say only that, while we do not wish to bind the hands of future IOTA Committees, we do not currently expect any changes made to be more than minimal. See Section E.

There is no minimum required unless you are operating from a  provisionally numbered group and are expecting that number to be confirmed. In this case, see Section E.2.

No, it is normally not necessary. Just let the DX bulletins know your plans so that they can publicise the operation. However, this said, there are occasions when you need to be in contact with us. If you plan to operate from a new, i.e. provisionally numbered, or rare IOTA group or a group which geography, politics, or licensing or environmental restrictions make difficult to access, please contact us early in the planning stage as there is a procedure you will need to follow for your operation to be accepted for IOTA. For routine, i.e. not new, rare or difficult, operations you do not need to send any documentation to us – in fact we prefer you 

not to do so – but it is prudent to keep travel invoices, ticket stubs, permits and evidence of being on the island in case of subsequent challenge. See Section F.

Not directly. We have in the past allocated our small DXpedition support budget to the Island Radio Expedition Foundation, Inc. (IREF), an organisation set up with the primary function of assisting IOTA expeditions to operate from all-time new or very rare IOTA groups. If you are planning an operation that you think will qualify for support, contact IREF2. In the current absence of more than one or two other funding bodies, work on the basis, particularly for DXpeditions to easy or moderately rare groups, that you will probably have to finance by far the major part of your expedition costs from your own resources. By all means advertise for support in the DX bulletins – this has quite a good record of producing contributions from individual amateurs. If, however, external funding is essential to the expedition going ahead, you need seriously to consider whether to proceed or not.

The IOTA web-site shows for each group, by means of a search routine, the percentage of total record-holders who have the group credited. A ‘most wanted’ list is also provided showing, for each continent, very 

rare (defined as credited to less than 15% of record-holders) and moderately rare (defined as 15 to 35%) IOTA groups in descending order of rarity. See Annex H.

Yes, on the RSGB web-site. You are encouraged to enter details yourself via a web – form availablethere . This serviceis moderated so there may be a delay before the information appears. Please do not include queries about island validation, assistance with funding, etc. Don’t forget, you could also obtain useful publicity by forwarding this information directly to the DX bulletins. See Annex G.

It is always the last full weekend in July each year. 

All you can do is to publicise the fact that you are planning to operate from a particular island during the July contest. Do this through the normal publicity channels, including reflectors. See Annex G.

Yes, you can use the logo so long as you do not amend it in any way. It can be downloaded from the RSGB IOTA web-site.

Continuing growth in popularity of the IOTA Programme makes simplification of the card-checking procedure essential. Care on QSL design can help enormously if it removes all scope for ambiguity about the island location at time of contact. It is for this reason that we require the island name to be printed on the card and that the island be one that is recognised as valid for the programme   through   its listing   in   this   Directory.   Please, therefore, make sure that you print the island name, as well as, of course, your call-sign since failure to do this can invalidate your operation for IOTA. Also, although it is not as essential, please print the IOTA reference number on the card but first check it against the listing in this Directory as some numbers have changed from earlier listings. See Section C.4.

Headquarters3. Or you can check the web-site4  run by Veikko OH2MCN which covers the licence requirements of almost every country in the world. It is regularly updated and is undoubtedly the most comprehensive source of other countries’licensing available on the Internet.

Section C.5 and, in more detail, Annex C provide information on how  to  get  started,  including  the  registration  process  for preparing an award application. Go to the web-site and browse through it. Each screen is accompanied by a full explanation of the  features  available.  This has  been  translated  into  several languages with, it is planned, more translations to come.

Yes. You can claim credit for contacts made in IOTA contests from 2004 onwards without submitting QSL cards provided that the other station submitted a log and the contact details match. Each year, a few weeks after the contest has been adjudicated, the logs will be uploaded to the web-site to enable applicants to claim credit. Full details are available on the web-site.

We are continuing software development and one of our projects is to investigate the potential for linking up with ARRL’s LoTW. However, any project aimed at moving to paperless QSLing would have major financial and manpower implications which probably could be met only by help from the IOTA Community.

1 http://www.rsgbiota.org

2 http://www.islandradio.org

3 Iota_hq@rsgb.org.uk

4 http://www.qsl.net/oh2mcn/license.htm