IOTA Contest Looks For Good Band Conditions and Another Record Turnout In 2008 Test

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted July 20, 2009

If you are looking for an active contest weekend, then maybe the 2009 Islands On The Air Contest should be your choice, as it's clearly becoming more popular every year.

The depressed propagation conditions on the ham radio bands in recent years have not hurt the IOTA test, as the number of logs submitted in 2007 and 2008 were close to 2000 each year, well above the previous record of 1500.

Just one quick look at the ng3k.com page for IOTA demonstrates the growth in island contesting, as page after page of DXpeditions are listed, spanning the globe from the Phillippines to Turkey.

In the US, the winner of the Low Power North American expedition plaque will be back on the air again from the Outer Banks of North Carolina, which jut out into the Atlantic Ocean.

"This year, four of us will activate the Core Banks of NC (NA067) as N4A as an Island DXPEDITION class," says Nate Moreschi N4YDU.

"With a bigger crew, we are hoping for bigger results. Hopefully we will get better propagation than the past two years," Moreschi told radio-sport.net.

The bad propagation hasn't ruined their weekend, as two victories in a row made all the effort worthwhile.

"We would love to reach that goal again," Moreschi said. "IOTA is a very interesting contest and we have yet to master a strategy, but we have a few more ideas for this year. We are hoping to move mults this time around."

Across the pond in England, one group that took 2008 off will be back at it again in the 2009 IOTA, as the Cray Valley Radio Society will be returning to the Isles of Scilly as M8C from EU-011.

"All the gear including antennas will be taken in one car which is lifted by crane into the ship for the two and a half hour crossing," says Dave Lawley G4BUO, who will join a group of seven operators in the "most south-westerly island group in the UK."

"We use builder's scaffold poles to support the antennas and operate from a barn on a farm on the east coast of the main island," Lawley told radio-sport.net.

"In 2007 we were the only station to top 3,000 Q's in this 24 hour contest."

As for rules changes, while single operators were allowed to use Skimmer type technology in 2008, the IOTA rules now say any use of that will get you booted into another category.

"QSO alerting assistance of any kind (this includes, but is no limited to, packet, local or remote Skimmer and/or Skimmer-like technology, Internet) places the entrant in the Single-operator Assisted category," says the new line in the IOTA rules.