UKBOTA NEWS JANUARY 2026

A Big Start to the Year: January Updates from UKBOTA

January has kicked off with energy, ambition, and some exciting developments for UKBOTA and our ongoing partnership with WWBOTA. As we step into a new year of activity, community, and bunker‑hunting adventure, we’re thrilled to share what’s new—and how you can get involved.

News at a glance! 

  1. BB2 & WWBOTA INTEGRATION
  2. BUNKERTEER 2026 LAUNCH
  3. NEW YEAR, NEW REFERENCES
  4. UKBOTA PROCAST TOOL
  5. WWBOTA SCORING
  6. WWBOTA TRACKER TO ADIF
  7. USA JOIN WWBOTA

BB2 & WWBOTA INTEGRATION

BUNKERTEER 2026

BB2 & WWBOTA Integration Goes Live: A Major Step Toward a Unified Logging Experience

January has been a month of big developments for UKBOTA, and one of the most impactful changes is now officially live: full integration between BB2 and the WWBOTA Logger. This upgrade streamlines logging for both hunters and activators, reduces duplication, and brings us closer to a unified global system.

Thanks to the combined work of Carl M0ICR and Steven M1SDH, operators can now enjoy a smoother, smarter workflow across platforms.

What’s New for Hunters?

If you’re a hunter using BB2, you’ll notice some immediate improvements:

  • You can now spot and log non‑UKBOTA bunkers directly to your WWBOTA log from the BB2 Hunter Dashboard.
  • The submit button has been updated to reflect this new functionality.
  • No more hopping between systems — BB2 now handles the forwarding automatically.

What’s New for UK Activators?

Activators also benefit from the new integration:

  • When you upload an ADIF file via the BB2 Activator Dashboard, your qualifying data is now automatically sent to your WWBOTA log.
  • Hunter QSOs are extracted and forwarded too, meaning everything flows through cleanly and consistently.

In short:

Anything you enter into BB2 now flows directly into WWBOTA.

This is currently a one‑way connection, so we strongly recommend continuing to enter all your data through BB2. The WWBOTA Logger and WF26 Logger remain the best places to view your log, check stats, and track award progress.

You can access them here:

Behind the Scenes: Historic Data Imports

Work is already underway to bring older records into the new system:

  • Historic BB2 UK Hunter QSOs are currently being imported into WWBOTA.
  • Activator legacy records and B2B (UK) records will follow shortly.

This ensures continuity and accuracy as we move toward a more unified logging environment.

A Mid‑Way Point to a Bigger Vision

This integration represents a significant milestone — a solid “mid‑way point” toward a fully unified global BOTA ecosystem. The heavy lifting has been made possible by Steven’s work on the WWBOTA API, with Carl providing the front‑end refinement that ties everything together.

And there’s more to come.

Looking Ahead

Early in the new year, a new tool will be added to allow operators to import their existing official WWBOTA Hunter and Activator logs directly into the WWBOTA Logger. This will help consolidate records and simplify long‑term tracking.

Other national schemes are also welcome to connect to the WWBOTA API, opening the door to broader international collaboration.

We’re Live — Start Logging Today

The integration is now fully live. You can enter all your WWBOTA QSOs via BB2 and view your progress on both the WF26 and WWBOTA loggers.

This is just the beginning — with more exciting developments planned for the year ahead, 2024 is shaping up to be a transformative year for UKBOTA and WWBOTA alike.

Bunkerteer26: A New Annual Challenge Begins

On the 1st of January, we officially launched Bunkerteer26, a brand‑new annual award scheme created to push operators beyond their comfort zones and encourage fresh, varied activity throughout the year.

Thanks to the hard work of Michael, 2E0MKH, and his design team, Bunkerteer26 is open not only to activators and hunters, but also to SWLs, making this one of our most inclusive special award programmes yet.

A Smarter Way to Track Your Progress

To support the new award, we’ve introduced an online Bunkerteer26 Tracker—a simple, user‑friendly way to:

  • Tick off completed missions
  • Submit mission completions
  • View your running points total
  • Track which awards you’ve earned or are close to earning

The tracker is designed to make participation easier than ever. However, we do need to reinforce one important point:

Missions should only be submitted once they are fully completed.

For example, if a task requires a hunter to work 500 UK bunkers, the mission should only be submitted after all 500 contacts have been achieved—not after each individual contact. Submitting incomplete missions causes delays and confusion for everyone, so we kindly ask all participants to double‑check the guidance before submitting.

Growing Pains & Improvements

As with any new system, we’ve experienced a few teething issues—mostly around misunderstanding how and when to submit missions. We’ve received valuable feedback from the community and are already reviewing improvements. While we don’t have a confirmed timeline for updates, we’ll keep everyone informed as things progress. In the meantime, we strongly encourage all users to read the tracker guides carefully to avoid invalid submissions.

And just to be absolutely clear:

The tracker is a tracker—not a logging system.

Please continue to use your usual logging tools for QSO records.

Monthly Bonus Tasks

Looking ahead, monthly bonus tasks will now be published in good time, giving operators plenty of opportunity to plan their activity and make the most of each month’s challenges.

NEW YEAR, NEW REFERENCES

New Year, New References: UKBOTA Map Expands with 77 Fresh Locations

The 1st of January didn’t just bring fireworks — it also delivered a major expansion to the UKBOTA reference map and list. We’re excited to announce the addition of 77 brand‑new bunker locations across the UK, pushing our national total to an impressive 3,477 references. Among these new additions are three particularly intriguing entries:

Maritime forts located in the Solent — only accessible via Marine Mobile or Air Mobile stations.

These rare and challenging sites are waiting for their first activator and first hunter. Who will claim the honour?

Reference List 11 Now Available

The latest reference list (Ref List 11) is ready to download from UKBOTA.org in the Downloads section. You can choose from:

  • CSV format
  • KMZ mapping file for Google Earth

Perfect for planning your next outing or scouting potential new targets.

More Updates Coming Soon: A further update is planned for mid‑January to early February, adding even more references in time for the Mad March Hare event. There are still plenty of undiscovered sites out there — so get searching, get plotting, and get ready for an exciting year of activity.

UKBOTA PROPCAST TOOL

Introducing Propcast: Live Solar Weather at Your Fingertips

January also marked the debut of Propcast, a brand‑new propagation and solar weather tool now available directly from the WWBOTA homepage. Designed to give operators real‑time insight into band conditions, Propcast pulls live data from trusted sources including NOAA and GIRO Dourbes DB049, updating every 10 minutes.

Over a rolling seven‑day window, Propcast collects more than 1,000 live data scrapes, presenting a clear visual snapshot of current solar WX conditions. Among the metrics available are:

  • Sunspot Count
  • Kp Index
  • Solar Wind Speed
  • SFI
  • Alpha Index
  • Bz Value & Direction
  • X‑Ray Class
  • F0F2 (MHz)
  • Theoretical MUF (calculated from F0F2 over range)

Users can also switch to graphical views, selecting 2‑, 6‑, or 12‑hour time windows, with both tile and expanded layouts for deeper analysis.

To make things even easier, Propcast includes quick‑access tools:

  • PSK Reporter launch button
  • Band‑conditions view based on actual data, not predictions
  • NOAA Aurora Forecast shortcut

All of this is wrapped into a clean, lightweight widget that runs smoothly on both desktop and mobile devices.

UKBOTA Propcast is built to give operators the information they need, when they need it—live, accurate, and easy to understand. Another powerful addition to the growing WWBOTA toolkit.

WWBOTA SCORING

As promised, now that WF26 is (mostly!) wrapped up, we’ve begun rolling out scoring and award badges in the WWBOTA Logger. The first award—Hunter Lifetime—is already live. Over the next day or so, we’ll be adding the equivalent Activator B2B scoring.

You can view your Hunter Lifetime score by opening WWBOTA Logger and selecting the Awards tab.

The awards widget now displays:

  • ✅ Total foreign bunkers worked and total points
  • ✅ Your current award level
  • ✅ A progress bar showing how many points you need for the next level
  • ✅ A ranked table of countries worked, including your unique bunker count for each
  • ✅ A note explaining that each unique foreign bunker is worth 1 point, and that bunkers in your own country do not score and are not shown
  • ✅ Your award badges
  • Once both award types are in place, we’ll move on to adding award claims and certificates, following the same process used for WF26.

—Carl, M0ICR

WWBOTA TRACKER TO ADIF

USA JOIN WWBOTA

📢 NEW TOOL: WWBOTA Tracker → ADIF Converter 📢
We’re excited to roll out a brand new online tool designed to take the hassle out of submitting your WWBOTA logs.
You can now upload your official WWBOTA Hunter or Activator tracker (Excel) and instantly receive a clean, ready to submit ADIF file — no more manual editing, no more formatting headaches.
✅ What the tool does
• Fully supports both Official WWBOTA Hunter and Activator trackers
• Generates a minimal, perfectly formatted WWBOTA ADIF
• Automatically sets SIG = WWBOTA
• Correctly handles RST sent/received
• If no time is entered, it safely defaults to 12:00 UTC
• Enforces one bunker reference per QSO
• Built for single trackers (not combined workbooks)
📝 How it works
1. Select Hunter or Activator
2. Upload your Excel tracker
3. Download your WWBOTA ready ADIF
Done. Easy. Reliable. Consistent. 👍
The tool can be found at: ADIF Bulk Uploader – WWBOTA https://wwbota.net/adif-bulk-uploader/ or by clicking the orange button below the logger interface.
This should remove a lot of the friction around log formatting and help keep submissions smooth for everyone across the programme.
If you spot anything unusual or have ideas for improvements, please shout — your feedback genuinely helps shape the tools we build.

Update on USA Bunkers on the Air

🇺🇸 Great news is that we should be up and running with USBOTA by no later than the weekend, we are just putting the finishing touches to their initial list and a brief webpage. The initial list will not be massive (perhaps 50 references), but once it’s started they will be able to add more bunkers as they go along.

✅ USA Bunkers will use the syntax B/US-xxxx

✅USA Bunkers on the Air will be known as USBOTA

The have decided not to go with a USA flag on their logo, their logo will be similar to the FBOTA logo, but with the words “UNITED STATES” in the bottom outer text rather than FRANCE.

-Carl

(C) UKBOTA 2026