AMENDMENT TO IOTA RULES ON REMOTE OPERATION The IOTA Board agreed at its meeting on 25 May 2023 a number of amendments to IOTA Programme Rules B.3.8 and 3.9. Both have been rewritten to clarify whether they refer to contacts made by remote operating at the chaser end or at the island operator end. The main change at the chaser end is to increase the maximum acceptable distance between the home station and the remote station from 100 kilometres to 500 kilometres (310 statute miles). Both will still need to be located in the same DXCC entity and use of more than one remote site or a network using multiple remote sites will still not be permitted for credit. The same changes have been made at the activator end but with the additional one that removes the requirement that the station functioning as the control should be located also on a qualifying island within the same IOTA group (it would have no IOTA status). The transmitting/receiving station and antennas should always be land-based on the IOTA island to count for credit and, of course, in the same DXCC entity as the control station.
The Board has also agreed an exception to the rules in B.3.6 to B.3.9 that may apply in special circumstances to an expedition operating from an IOTA island by remote operation in a force majeur situation. This is where the target island cannot be activated in the normal way with a land-based operation because the local government refuses permission for an operation from the island or any other islands listed as valid for IOTA in the same group. The coverage of this exception is very restricted extending only to operations from islands located within an IOTA group credited to less than 20% of total IOTA members included in the 5 years list in the Most Wanted IOTA Groups Annex or within a DXCC island entity valid for IOTA listed in the Top 20 most wanted in the latest Most Wanted DXCC List. On production of evidence that this is the case but that permission would be given for a station to be set up and left on the island unmanned for operation by a sea-based control station for a time-limited period, IOTA Management may agree to accept the operation for IOTA subject to full compliance with its requirements. These set a maximum distance of 5 kilometres between the land-based station including the transmitter/receiver/antennas and the sea-based control station and the operation not lasting for more than 30 days.
G3KMA and the IOTA Board, 5 June 2023
The Board has also agreed an exception to the rules in B.3.6 to B.3.9 that may apply in special circumstances to an expedition operating from an IOTA island by remote operation in a force majeur situation. This is where the target island cannot be activated in the normal way with a land-based operation because the local government refuses permission for an operation from the island or any other islands listed as valid for IOTA in the same group. The coverage of this exception is very restricted extending only to operations from islands located within an IOTA group credited to less than 20% of total IOTA members included in the 5 years list in the Most Wanted IOTA Groups Annex or within a DXCC island entity valid for IOTA listed in the Top 20 most wanted in the latest Most Wanted DXCC List. On production of evidence that this is the case but that permission would be given for a station to be set up and left on the island unmanned for operation by a sea-based control station for a time-limited period, IOTA Management may agree to accept the operation for IOTA subject to full compliance with its requirements. These set a maximum distance of 5 kilometres between the land-based station including the transmitter/receiver/antennas and the sea-based control station and the operation not lasting for more than 30 days.
G3KMA and the IOTA Board, 5 June 2023