Volunteers On The Air
As announced in the January 2023 issue of QST, ARRL is holding the year-long operating event, Volunteers On The Air (VOTA), honoring all ARRL volunteers.
In similar fashion to the 2014 ARRL Centennial QSO Party and the 2018 International Grid Chase, this event will be exclusively driven by contacts uploaded to Logbook of The World (LoTW).
Highlights of the event include:
Earning points for contacting W1AW portable stations: There will be week-long activations of portable W1AW/# stations in all 50 states, and in several US possessions/territories, which will generate on-air activity to earn points. Each state will be activated twice. The schedule of when each state will be activated will be updated as changes and additions occur. See the Points Table at https://www.arrl.org/volunteers-on-the-air for the full list of points.
Contacting ARRL volunteers or members on the air: ARRL Officers, Directors, Section Managers (and their appointees), staff, and even domestic and DX members, can be contacted for points.
Using LoTW (https://www.arrl.org/logbook-of-the-world) as the contacts data source, the Volunteers On The Air event features W1AW activations from all 50 states (twice) and several territories during 2023. Weeks will begin on a Wednesday and end on a Tuesday. Some weeks will be shown as off weeks to avoid other major operating events.
Participants will work W1AW portable stations and ARRL volunteers to earn contact points.
Participants do not need to upload to, or participate in, LoTW. Uploads to LoTW by W1AW portable stations and by the volunteers will feed the points scoring system.
A leaderboard will be activated after the event ramps up, and certificates will be available during and after the event concludes. Once the year is completed, an annual summary will be released.
If you review the state activations list and notice your state is not yet indicating a host, and you have interest in activating your state, consider reaching out to your Division Director to express your club’s interest.
