WHAT IS WWBOTA

9ABOTA Rules and Guidance 2025

General RulesSafety and Permissions• Activators are strongly advised to seek permission from land owners and to conduct a personal safety assessment before conducting an activation.• The listing of of a bunker on our 9ABOTA reference list does not in anyway indicate that a bunker, or the vicinity of a bunker, is either safe or legal to enter. Always ask permission.• 9ABOTA accepts no responsibility for any issues arising from the activation of a bunker, eg. failing to ensure appropriate access to a site or for matters regarding personal safety.Terminology• For the purposes of 9ABOTA, a bunker is 20th Century fortified or hardened structure for the purposes of positional defence, observation or crisis management. Types of bunkers included in the 9ABOTA list include: Declassified military and civil defence bunkers, storage and utility bunkers, Airfield Battle HQ, blast shelters, air raid shelters. Many bunkers are undergound, but by no means all.• A 9ABOTA Bunker ‘reference’ is a bunker listed on the 9ABOTA Master List, the latest version of the list can be found at wwbota.net/list/ .• An activator is a station conducting amateur radio operations from a 9ABOTA referenced bunker.• A hunter is a station chasing activator stations, i.e. conducting QSOs with stations located at 9ABOTA bunkers as listed in the 9ABOTA Master List.• VHF in the context of 9ABOTA awards refers to any band above, and inclusive of, 6m (50MHz).• A QSO between two activators at two different bunkers is referred to as a ‘bunker to bunker QSO’ or ‘B2B’ for short.• In some cases it will be possible for an activator to activate more than one bunker at a time. The maximum permitted is 5 at a time. Multi-bunker activation, eg. an activation of 5 bunkers, is often shortened to ‘5fer’ etc.Valid 9ABOTA QSO• A valid 9ABOTA QSO must be unassisted. Both stations must be able to copy callsigns, signal reports, and confirmations without the assistance of a third-party station.• Whilst the QSO exchange above describes the minimum requirement for a QSO many activators will chose to give other information. Where possible it is often useful, and of interest to the hunter, to describe a little about the history/geography of the bunker(s) being activated.• The use of WebSDR to receive signal reports under poor band conditions is not permitted.• The use of remote stations by hunter is permitted.• The use of repeaters is not permitted.• Activators and hunters may use any amateur radio band and mode their licence permits.• Operating outside individual licence conditions will render a QSO invalid.• 9ABOTA strongly encourages participants to observe the DX Code of Conduct details of which can be found here: https://www.iaru-r1.org/on-the-air/spectrum-abuse/dx-code-of-conduct/Valid 9ABOTA Activation• Generally, an activator requires 25 QSOs on HF or mixed HF/VHF, or 5 on VHF only, to make an activation valid and these activations can be completed over different days. QSO on different bands with the same hunter count as an additional QSO towards the validation requirement. QSO using different modes with the same hunter do not count as an additional QSO towards the validation requirement (unless they occur on a different day). Whilst these general rules cover most awards specific award requirements should also be checked as they may differ.• An activator may not activate from the fixed home station even if it falls within the activation zone, there are two exceptions: 1. An activator may activate from their property if it falls within the activation zone if they are operating away from their main shack and using battery power and not using their main station antennas, eg. ‘garden portable’ or operating from your driveway in your car with mobile radio and antenna. 2. An activator may activate from a bunker activation zone, using mains power and a fixed antenna providing that either a Special Event Callsign or Club Callsign is used.• An activator must be ‘activating the bunker’, it is not sufficient to ‘know’ that a station is in an activation zone, if they are not specifically conducting a bunker activation, for it to count as a valid 9ABOTA QSO.• The activation zone for a 9ABOTA bunker is 1000m, ie. the activator must be within 1000m from the location of the bunker shown on the 9ABOTA list. Where possible many activators like to operate from as close to a bunker as possible, noting the importance of safety and site permissions.• A hunter and activator may be within the activation zone of the same bunker for a valid QSO.Activating more than one bunker at a time• Some bunkers are close together and where there activations zone intersect, ie. within the
‘overlap area’ it is possible to activate both bunkers. In some cases up 5 bunkers (the maximum 9ABOTA permit) by all overlap and in the area were they all overlap then all 5 may be activated for a 5fer.Activating other schemes at the same time as 9ABOTA• 9ABOTA strongly encourages multi-scheme activations, e.g. where the activation location allows, for the activation of a POTA Park, Lighthouse and 9ABOTA bunker simultaneously.• Activators are encouraged to check the rules of other schemes for their specific rules and guidelines.Where are the 9ABOTA Bunkers?The latest version of the 9ABOTA Bunker ‘reference’ list can be found via the link on the homepage.• New bunkers are added to the 9ABOTA list from time to time. A message will placed on social media and the WhatsApp group requesting proposals for new bunker reference (or amendments to existing ones) when updates are planned.Spotting and finding an activation• The best place to find current activations is by using the WWBOTA ‘Cluster’ tool (requires registration) available here: www.wwbota.org/cluster• Spots can be made using the WWBOTA cluster, or using the self spot function in Ham2K Portable Logger.• 9ABOTA bunkers spotted via Ham2K or on the cluster are automatically forwarded to the WWBOTA Spots and Alerts WhatsApp Group