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Kayak Island, NA-157

Ashmore Reef, OC-216

Iony Island, AS-069

Bhola Island, AS-140

Viktoriya Island, EU-190

Arakamchechen Is., AS-071

Dobrzhanskogo Is., AS-203

St. John's Is., OC-101

Rathbone Is, NA-243

Ellesmere Is, NA-008

East Pen Is, NA-230

Axel Heilberg Is, NA-043

Lunga Is., EU-108

Sao Francisco Is., SA-027

Sandy Islet, OC-294

Gonzalo Is., SA-097

Isla Escondida, SA-096

Welcome. If you want to learn more about us, you have come to the right place.

The IOTA (Islands On The Air) Programme is an exciting and innovative activity programme that has caught the interest of thousands of radio amateurs worldwide. Established in 1964, it promotes radio contacts with stations located on islands around the world to enrich the experience of all active on the amateur bands and, to do this, it draws on the widespread mystique surrounding islands. It is administered by Islands On The Air (IOTA) Ltd (called here IOTA Management) in partnership with the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB).

IOTA Management has grouped the oceans' islands into some 1200 'IOTA groups' with, for reasons of geography, varying numbers of 'counters', i.e. qualifying islands, in each group and has published the listings in the IOTA Directory and on the IOTA website. The objective, for the IOTA Island Chaser, is to make radio contact with at least one counter in as many of these groups as possible and, for the IOTA Island Activator, to provide such island contacts. The programme has a strong rule structure. IOTA Management encourages friendly competition among chasers by publishing details of participants' performance in an Honour Roll and annual listings, as well as by recognising it with certificates and prestige awards.

Right, now you know the basic idea. This website will fill in the gaps. It has been designed by the IOTA IT Team to meet the specific needs of those participating in the programme. We are indebted to Michael Wells G7VJR for making Club Log available for QSO matching for IOTA awards.

IOTA Management thank the many IOTA enthusiasts who have contributed to IT development through Friends of IOTA.

Join Friends of IOTA and support the development of the IOTA Programme!

IOTA Group Level - GBP 500+ Archipelago Level - GBP 250-499
Island Level - GBP 100-249 Atoll Level - GBP 10-99

Click here for a list of donors.

Change to IOTA Programme Rules, provision E.1.2

To clarify its position on the conduct of operations put on for the IOTA Programme the IOTA Board has updated the text of provision E.1.2 in the IOTA Programme Rules as follows:

IOTA Management attaches importance to the maintenance of fair play as far as is practicable. From time to time a set of circumstances occurs where official intervention is considered justified. One such case is where there is seen to be apparent intentional unfair, even discriminatory, treatment of people in the making of contacts or issue of QSL cards or QSO matches. An example of this is where an expedition to a rare IOTA group follows a clear practice of discriminating against contacts with non-participants in the IOTA Programme or, post-event, of deleting them from the log. In this regard the cardinal principle to be followed must be that it is immaterial whether the contact is a known participant or not in IOTA. Failure to observe fair play in cases like this is sufficient justification for rejection of the operation for IOTA credit on grounds of it bringing the IOTA Programme into disrepute. All participants are asked to have regard for our long established tradition of acting in accordance with the best of ham spirit.

G3KMA, 11 September 2019

Updated Google Earth file available for download

Vincent, F4BKV, has updated the Google Earth file containing all IOTA groups including the 6 new ones.
The new version can be downloaded here.

PA3EXX, 17 August 2019

Transfer of old AS-025, EU-019, and EU-133 credits

All old credits issued for operations from islands which used to be at one time part of these island groups but are now within AS-204, EU-190, and EU-117, respectively, have been transferred. In case the respective chasers already had credits for the latter groups, their original credits were revoked. EU-117 and EU-133 have been re-organized after Malyy Visotsky Is. lost its DXCC status in 2012, but the credit transfer was postponed until now. Old operations from the above island groups which have logs at Club Log enabled for QSO matching, as well as old IOTA Contest logs which fall into this category have been appropriately amended to continue to be used toward IOTA credits. Please direct any questions you may have on this topic to info@iota-world.org.

VE3LYC, 14 Augustus 2019

Transfer of credits from AS-117 to AS-206

All old AS-117 credits issued for operations from islands which now belong to AS-206 have been transferred to AS-206. Additionally, old AS-117 operations from islands now within AS-206 which have logs at Club Log enabled for QSO matching, as well as old IOTA Contest logs which fall in this category have been appropriately amended to be used toward AS-206 credits. Please direct any questions you may have on this topic to info@iota-world.org.

VE3LYC, 8 Augustus 2019

Restructuring of AS-117/AS-206

Islands previously listed as qualifying for AS-117 that now fall within the co-ordinates box of the new group AS-206, Honshu’s Coastal Islands East, have now been transferred and are listed appropriately both in the application database scroll-down list and in the IOTA Directory online. Following several activations from AS-206 in the last few weeks with most already accepted for credit, the group number is now confirmed. Record-holders with credits for AS-117 that commence with prefixes JA0, 1, 2 and 7, will have their credits reviewed for transfer to AS-206. All chasers who logged into the IOTA system at least once during the last two years will be automatically informed by a credit re-allocation. This will alert them to the need to find a replacement card or QSO match for AS-117 with a prefix JA3, 4 or 9 to regain credit. Other record-holders for whom Management no longer retains an email address will have any necessary transfer made automatically. The intention is to transfer all credits to the correct IOTA group within a few weeks. As this is quite a big job, patience is requested.

G3KMA, 30 July 2019

Announcement of new IOTA groups at Ham Radio Friedrichshaven

Following the decision to split the 5 yearly review of the IOTA list into two parts, we announced the first tranche of six new IOTA groups at the RSGB Convention, Milton Keynes on 14 October 2018 (see Management News item of the same date). The plan mentioned at the time was to add the second tranche at Ham Radio Friedrichshafen in June 2019. At the event’s IOTA Forum on Saturday, 22 June this took place with the announcement of a further six new groups. The review has now completed its work; the next one is scheduled for 2024.

These new groups have provisional numbers. This means that they will need to be confirmed by an operation taking place after 22 June 2019 that meets the 1000 QSO and other normal validation requirements. Only after confirmation of the group number will credit for past operations be considered. Read the full list here.

The addition of these six groups takes the total of groups that have confirmed or provisional IOTA numbers to 1172. Of these 1131 have seen activity, the remaining 41 have not. The number of unnumbered groups remains at 33. A number of these will be withdrawn in due course to keep within the programme cap of 1200 groups set long ago by the Management Team as a firm policy decision.

G3KMA, 22 June 2019

IREF announces IOTA Expeditioner of the Year award winners

Hearty congratulations to Cezar Trifu, VE3LYC on being presented with the IREF IOTA Expeditioner of the Year award for 2018 at Dayton last weekend. This is especially significant as it is the first year that the award has been given. Cezar is well-known worldwide for mounting operations from some of the remotest islands listed in IOTA for the benefit of the IOTA community. The award related only to operations in 2018 but his record goes back over many years. Second place was awarded to Mikhail Zavarukhin, VE7ACN and the third went to David Deane, EI9FBB. All three well deserved the awards for the range of operations that they put on during the year. I am sure that IOTA enthusiasts everywhere will be delighted to see that they get this recognition and join us in sending them our congratulations and thanks.

G3KMA, 21 May 2019