Rules clarifications

• Operator presence. For the purposes of UKBOTA awards, a valid QSO requires that the licensed operator whose callsign is being used is the person physically operating the radio equipment and conducting the full exchange themselves.
• Multiple personal callsigns. An operator may use any of their own legally-held personal callsigns for activating or hunting — multiple-personal-callsign use is permitted in line with the terms of your licence when hunting to help an activator “over the line”, i.e. the minimum QSO threshold . However, only one QSO per band/mode combination will be credited to the hunter’s UKBOTA account, regardless of which of the operator’s personal callsigns was used for each contact.
• Multi-user callsigns The use of club callsigns and special event callsigns is permitted. The operator must either be the Notice of Variation holder (NoV holder, or national equivalent) themselves, or hold explicit, specific permission from them to use that callsign. Note: club callsigns and special event callsigns must not be added as an additional callsign on a personal account, regardless of current or intended usage. A separate account must be created for each such such mutli-operator callsign. This is because special event callsigns may be reissued to different operators over time, and club callsigns by definition are used by more than one operator, so single-operator use at any given point cannot be relied upon as a permanent property of the current callsign user. Using a separate account ensures award credit always reflects either the operator who actually made each QSO, or the club itself — rather than being misattributed to whichever individual happens to hold the account.
• Callsign prefixes — regional callsign prefixes The use of regional callsign prefixes is optional (with the exception of UK intermediate ‘2’ callsigns). For example, an operator licensed in England may activate a bunker in Scotland without adopting the Scottish ‘M’ designation (e.g. operating as M0ABC rather than MM0ABC). This applies equally to all UK and Crown Dependency callsign variants, including those for England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. Note: this optionality applies only to UK domestic regional prefixes. It does not apply to reciprocal or CEPT visiting operation, where use of the host country’s mandatory callsign prefix, in accordance with CEPT T/R 61-01 as implemented by Ofcom, is required and is not optional.
• Remote Operation Note: hunters have no location requirement, so remote operation is permitted provided the station functions as a single coherent unit. Activators must be physically present within the bunker’s activation zone at all times; this requirement cannot be satisfied by any remote arrangement, however configured. Hunters are permitted to use a remotely operated station to work bunker activators, provided the transmitter and receiver are co-located with each other (i.e. operated as a single remote station). Using a WebSDR, or any other internet-based remote receiver, to complete part of a QSO is not permitted — this applies whether the remote element is the receiving side, the transmitting side, or both. Activators are not permitted to use a remote connection to activate a bunker. This includes, but is not limited to:

  a. Connecting remotely to a station located at the bunker — e.g. using a mobile (eg. cellular/WiFi/Internet) connection from home to operate a fixed club station sited at the bunker.
  b. Connecting remotely from within the bunker’s activation zone to a station located elsewhere — e.g. using a mobile (eg. cellular/WiFi/Intenet)connection from the bunker to transmit and receive via a home station. c
  c. Completing the contact via an internet-linked repeater or gateway (e.g. EchoLink, IRLP, or similar) rather than a direct RF path, even where the activator’s own transmitter and receiver are both physically present at the bunker.
  d. Any other arrangement where either the transmitter or the receiver used for the activation is not physically present within the bunker’s activation zone.

UKBOTA Operating Tips and Guidelines

These are not formal rules — those exist elsewhere, in our published UKBOTA Rules (see here) — but guidance, tips and reminders developed by and for the community, in the spirit of the DX Code of Conduct. The aim is clear: To make activations go more smoothly and keep things fair for everyone involved, including those not interested in bunkers elsewhere on the bands – ie. reinforcing and protecting the UKBOTA image and reputation whilst being respectful of those who do not share our passion.

Bunker History

UKBOTA is an amateur radio activity that brings together portable amateur radio and a respect for our shared heritage — it is more than simply reference numbers. Every activation is an act of historical engagement.

As an activator it is good practice to know a little about what you are activating and be able to explain it if asked by a curious hunter. You don’t need to be a historian — a sentence or two on what the site was, when it was built, and what it was used for is usually enough to bring a location to life, and it’s often what makes an activation memorable for both activator and hunter alike.

Many bunkers have fascinating, sometimes surprising stories — Cold War communications posts, Royal Observer Corps monitoring stations, wartime radar sites, civil defence shelters built for a threat that thankfully never came. If you don’t know the history of a particular site before you arrive, the UKBOTA Atlas bunker card is a good place to start, and contributing what you learn back to that card helps the next activator too.

A little context shared on air costs nothing, takes moments, and is often what turns a routine contact into something a hunter remembers.

Multi-Scheme Activations

UKBOTA welcome bunkers being activated simultaneously with other awards schemes such as POTA and SOTA. If you are activating a bunker as part of a multi-scheme activation it is good practice to mention that during your QSOs. It is not good practice to ‘silently’ activate a bunker whilst only mentioning another scheme.

An activator is under no obligation to activate everything available to them at a location — whether that’s a Worked All Britain (WAB) square, a park, or indeed a bunker. Choosing not to activate a particular reference, or particular scheme, is entirely their right.

It is not sufficient for a hunter to extrapolate that an activation should count for a scheme the activator never claimed.

Example 1: Knowing that a bunker exists at an airfield is not, on its own, grounds for logging that contact as a bunker QSO — unless the bunker is being positively and clearly activated as such.

Example 2: Most activators actively collect and support WAB and will gladly give out WAB squares, but if an activator does not know — or does not wish to participate in WAB — please do not press them for their square.

Special Event Stations (SES) at bunker sites 

Many Special Event Stations will be happy to activate a bunker even if their primary purpose is not the bunker activation itself. However, a Special Event Station may be fully aware they are within a bunker activation zone, but choose not to activate the bunker because their focus is something else entirely — for example, a D-Day Remembrance commemoration or an ‘Airfield Activation’. That choice is entirely legitimate and should be respected. It is okay to ask, but please do not press the matter.

Calling Activators

Before calling a spotted station, please make sure you can actually hear them. There’s a good chance that if you can’t hear the activator, you may be transmitting over them including possibly a QSO that’s already in progress with another hunter — causing frustration for everyone involved. Please avoid ‘speculative calling’.

Relaying Information

It can feel helpful to pass on callsigns or signal reports to keep things moving — but doing so actually invalidates the contact for UKBOTA purposes. The best way to help is to stay patient and let stations try to complete a QSO, or not, under their own efforts. In practice everyone usually gets worked in the end, but sometimes a contact simply isn’t going to happen, and that’s fine too. Please resist the natural temptation to assist, however well-intentioned.

Pileup Behaviour

In a busy pileup, calling more than once doesn’t increase your chances — it reduces everyone else’s. Others are trying to get through too, and excessive calling creates a downward spiral that makes the activator’s job harder for everyone.

Timing is important — be very careful with late calls into the pileup. There’s a good chance you’ll be talking over a QSO already being established with another station.

When you do call, keep it brief until contact is established. Giving signal reports or additional information before the activator has come back to you flattens everyone else trying to call in the same gap.

Feel free to append “stroke something” where appropriate — but once only, otherwise you are simply preventing others from having a fair shout. For example, if you are portable, if you wish to then append “portable” once — not “portable, portable, M0ABC, portable, portable.” Do not append /QRP if you are not, as a means to beat the queue — it gets noticed and is unfair to others including those who are genuinely QRP.

Respect the activator’s right to run a pileup the way they’re most comfortable with. If they wish to have a short natter with each station, that’s their right — don’t call because you think the stations talking have been nattering long enough. If they chose to work by numbers or callsign areas – that is a legitimate technique and their choice, do not try and jump the queue when it’s not your turn. Equally, as activators: do not respond and allow the QSO with a queue jumper – if you do, you open the door for others and risk losing control of the pile up.

Nets

As an activator be respectful of the etiquette of a specific net if you call in with a bunker (eg. the WAB net), it will differ from net to net (and even from net controller to net controller). Please never spot yourself (or anyone else) as a bunker activation during a live net on the net frequency – it risks a controlled net becoming a free-for-all.

Directed Calls

If an activator asks for a specific station — “the GM4 again please”  or “the bunker to bunker only please” — that’s not an invitation for others to call. Please wait your turn. Usually everyone gets worked eventually, and sometimes it doesn’t work out and a bunker doesn’t make it into your log.

Band Plans — Knowing the Theory and the Reality

The official band plan tells you what’s legally permitted. It doesn’t always tell you where activity actually happens, or where you’ll cause unintended problems by operating “technically within the rules” but against established convention.

Digital mode segments (like FT8 calling frequencies) are tightly packed with narrow-bandwidth signals stacked close together. A voice transmission anywhere near one of these segments — even just below or beside it, technically within the legal allocation — can cause significant interference to multiple stations at once. Check where digital activity actually concentrates on a given band before calling CQ nearby, not just whether your chosen frequency is technically free.

Some segments carry strong, long-established convention beyond what the formal plan states. The 6m intercontinental DX window (50.100–50.130 MHz) is a good example — formally designated for DX between continents, but also actively, sometimes firmly, self-policed by the community if used for ordinary domestic contacts. Knowing a segment’s reputation matters as much as knowing its legal status.

If you’re unsure where the “real” activity sits on a band you don’t operate often, ask before assuming the textbook band plan tells the whole story. Most experienced operators are glad to point newcomers in the right direction.

And if you do end up causing accidental interference, the gracious response is simply to move — not to retaliate in kind. Two wrongs on a band help nobody, and it’s usually obvious to everyone listening which station handled it well.

60m — A Band With Extra Complexity

UK 60m access is channelised rather than a simple continuous allocation — operation is permitted only on specific designated channels, not anywhere across the band. Power limits and conditions can vary by channel and licence class, and the situation differs from many other countries’ 60m allocations, so don’t assume conventions learned elsewhere, or from non-UK operators, automatically apply here.

The band is shared internationally and, on some channels, with non-amateur services — so good discipline matters more here than on bands that are amateur-exclusive throughout. Listen carefully before transmitting, and don’t assume a frequency is clear just because nothing audible is present at that moment.

FT8 on 60m specifically needs extra care. Normal FT8 software behaviour (WSJT-X’s “Split” or “Fake It” rig control modes) deliberately shifts the radio’s actual transmit frequency slightly to keep the audio tone in the optimal part of the passband. On a wide, continuous band this is harmless — the whole transmission stays safely inside the allocation regardless. But on a channelised band like 60m, with a hard transmit bandwidth limit, that small shift can push your actual RF output outside the legal UK channel boundary entirely, even though everything looks normal on screen. For this reason, Split Operation should be set to “None” on 60m, so the radio’s transmit frequency stays fixed exactly where intended, regardless of where the audio tone sits.

If in doubt about current UK 60m channel arrangements or software settings, check the current RSGB band plan and your radio/software documentation directly rather than relying on habits formed on other bands — the rules and recommended settings here have changed more than once.

Remember, in the UK, 60m is only available (for transmissions) for those with a Full Licence.

Further guidance from the RSGB including the FT8 complexity is here: https://rsgb.org/main/operating/band-plans/hf/5mhz/