What is IOTA?

IOTA is an award programme in which participants “collect” contacts with islands worldwide. These contacts count towards 18 separate certificates, graded in difficulty, for island chasers, as well as two prestigious awards for high achievement. The awards can be claimed by any eligible licensed radio amateur who can produce evidence of sufficient two-way communications with islands. For the purposes of IOTA, the world’s islands have been corralled into some 1200 groups with varying numbers of qualifying islands (or counters) 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. For the DXpeditioner, the objective is to provide such island contacts. The basic award is for working stations in 100 IOTA groups. The IOTA Programme also produces an annual Honour Roll and other performance tables that are published on the IOTA web-site and the IOTA Directory. For both the island chaser and the island activator, IOTA is a fun pastime, adding much enjoyment to on the air activity. IOTA has an estimated 15,000-20,000 followers, making it one of the most popular award programmes in amateur radio.

15/09/2006