WHAT IS WWBOTA

9ABOTA is a part of WWBOTA scheme.

WWBOTA is an exciting mix of amateur radio and history enabling radio amateurs to ‘activate’ with portable and mobile operations from historic bunker locations and for hunters and chasers to have QSOs with those activating stations (and should they wish to, to ‘collect’ the special ‘bunker reference’ numbers). Free awards for activating and hunting bunkers are available but it’s also okay if you’re not interested in awards but just want to get involved by having a QSO or shortwave listening. Whatever your approach – have fun!

HOW TO ACTIVATE

If your country already has a scheme that is part of WWBOTA then it’s relatively straight forward.✅ Check the country Bunkers on the Air website for information specific to the country you will activate in, for example any local variations to general rules and national scheme logging requirements (if applicable).
✅ You not have to be resident in the country, if your licence permits you to operate in the country then you may operate as a visitor.
✅ To find suitable bunkers to activate a good start point is the map and list on this website (see menu links above). Thanks go to Steve Hiscocks, M1SDH for the WWBOTA map,
✅ Many bunker activators enjoy to, and are encouraged to, activate bunkers at the same time as references for other schemes, e.g. POTA.
✅ Note that each bunker ‘reference’ begins with a ‘B’ and a ‘/’ followed by a country code and then a four digit number. For example, the country code for Belgium iw ‘ON’, so a typical bunker in Belgian will have a reference ‘code’ like ‘B/ON-0123’.
✅ Most bunker operations centre on 40m and 20m SSB but other bands are increasingly popular including the higher HF bands, and also VHF and above. CW, FT8 and other modes are also popular – give it a go and call “CQ Bunkers on the Air”. There have been bunker activations in SSB, CW, FT8,FT4, RTTY, PSK and SSTV!
✅ You will find it useful to ‘spot’ yourself (or have someone spot you) when you activate. There are various way to do this either through our internal ‘cluster’, which requires registration to spot but not to view (see the menu above). Many like to use the ‘cluster’ version with the embedded (and quite excellent) fieldspotter.radio map (by Ian Renton, M0TRT) which gives an excellent visualization of WWBOTA spots (as well as POTA and other schemes) and a handy band map for finding other bunkers and having a ‘bunker to bunker’ (B2B) QSO.
✅ Spots made on the WWBOTA ‘cluster’ are automatically forwarded to our bespoke WhatsApp Spots and Alerts Group. The WhatsApp group is here. Please note that group is just for spots and alerts, not general chat.
✅ Self-spots, which are automatically forwarded to our internal ‘cluster’ and the WhatsApp Spots and Alerts Group, may be made using the excellent Ham2K Portable Logger.⚠️ ⛔ Note that neither WWBOTA or any national scheme takes responsibility for safety or right of access issues. If you are unsure then check with a land owner and never activate inside a bunker, or enter private property, or restricted areas, unless you have permission and it is safe to do so.

If your country does not yet have a WWBOTA then unfortunately you are unable to participate as an Activator the present time. However, perhaps you might consider volunteering to run a national scheme and ‘get your country’ on the bunker map? All radio amateurs (and listeners) can participate in the WWBOTA scheme as hunters (chasers) irrespective of whether their country has a national bunkers scheme, see below.

MAP