| Islands On The Air
“IOTA or Islands on the Air to give it its full name, has encouraged thousands of amateurs in recent years to get active or become more active on the amateur bands. It has created an additional real live interest in "ham radio", particularly for the many amateurs who live on islands. The aim of the programme, after all, is to encourage contacts with island stations around the world and, since so many people live on islands, its appeal has been wide-ranging and perhaps a little seductive. The advent of light, easily transportable equipment has offered a wider amateur community possibilities for having fun with pile-ups that were seldom available to them 20 or more years ago.”
IOTA was created in 1964 by Geoff Watts and taken over by the RSGB in 1985. It’s aim, as stated above, is to encourage contact with island stations worldwide, the islands having been grouped into some 1200 IOTA groups. It is a fun pastime giving much enjoyment to it’s 20,000 followers and for those interested in award chasing, 18 separate certificates, graded in order of difficulty, are available to the “island chaser.”
Information about the rules, island groups , QSL requirements etc are available from the IOTA website which may be found at http://www.rsgbiota.org/index.php Updated 14 June, 2010 11:04:44 GMT | |