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What is WWBOTA?

What is WWBOTA?

Worldwide Bunkers on the Air (WWBOTA) is an amateur radio activity that brings together two powerful human instincts — the desire to communicate across borders, and the impulse to understand and preserve our shared history. Bunkers are among the most visceral physical remnants of the conflicts and tensions that shaped the modern world. From coastal fortifications to Cold War command centres, from anti-aircraft emplacements to civil defence shelters, they exist in almost every country — silent witnesses to moments of national and international significance. WWBOTA exists to draw attention to these structures, to promote interest in them as part of our collective heritage, and to connect the amateur radio community across the international boundaries that those bunkers were so often built to defend.

WWBOTA is not a competitive programme. We do not publish league tables or rankings. What we do is driven by the spirit of shared endeavour rather than  a contest. WWBOTA is about more than numbers.

WWBOTA operates as a two-tier system. At the international tier, WWBOTA rewards and promotes cross-border bunker activity — contacts between operators in different countries, activations across multiple nations, and the building of relationships across the worldwide bunker community. At the national tier, affiliated schemes provide domestic awards and activities calibrated to the realities of their own country’s bunker landscape. Together, the two tiers form a complete ecosystem — one that welcomes the newest activator visiting their first local bunker, and the most experienced operator chasing contacts across continents.

Every activation is an act of historical engagement. We invite you to join us — and to know a little about the bunker you visit, not just its reference number.

How to get started as a Bunker Activator

If your country already has a scheme that is part of WWBOTA then it’s relatively straight forward.

✅ Check the country Bunkers on the Air website for information specific to the country you will activate in, for example any local variations to general rules and national scheme logging requirements (if applicable).
✅ You not have to be resident in the country, if your licence permits you to operate in the country then you may operate as a visitor.
✅ To find suitable bunkers to activate a good start point is the map and list on this website (see menu links above). Thanks go to Steve Hiscocks, M1SDH for the WWBOTA map,
✅ Many bunker activators enjoy to, and are encouraged to, activate bunkers at the same time as references for other schemes, e.g. POTA.
✅ Note that each bunker ‘reference’ begins with a ‘B’ and a ‘/’ followed by a country code and then a four digit number. For example, the country code for Belgium in ‘ON’, so a typical bunker in Belgian will have a reference ‘code’ like ‘B/ON-0123’.
✅ Most bunker operations centre on 40m and 20m SSB but other bands are increasingly popular including the higher HF bands, and also VHF and above. CW, FT8 and other modes are also popular – give it a go and call “CQ Bunkers on the Air”. There have been bunker activations in SSB, CW, FT8,FT4, RTTY, PSK and SSTV!
✅ You will find it useful to ‘spot’ yourself (or have someone spot you) when you activate. There are various way to do this either through our internal ‘cluster’, which requires registration to spot but not to view (see the menu above). Many like to use the ‘cluster’ version with the embedded (and quite excellent) fieldspotter.radio map (by Ian Renton, M0TRT) which gives an excellent visualization of WWBOTA spots (as well as POTA and other schemes) and a handy band map for finding other bunkers and having a ‘bunker to bunker’ (B2B) QSO.
✅ Spots made on the WWBOTA ‘cluster’ are automatically forwarded to our bespoke WhatsApp Spots and Alerts Group. The WhatsApp group is here. Please note that group is just for spots and alerts, not general chat.
✅ Self-spots, which are automatically forwarded to our internal ‘cluster’ and the WhatsApp Spots and Alerts Group, may be made using the excellent Ham2K Portable Logger.

⚠️ ⛔ Note that neither WWBOTA or any national scheme takes responsibility for safety or right of access issues. If you are unsure then check with a land owner and never activate inside a bunker, or enter private property, or restricted areas, unless you have permission and it is safe to do so.

If your country does not yet have a WWBOTA then unfortunately you are unable to participate as an Activator the present time. However, perhaps you might consider volunteering to run a national scheme and ‘get your country’ on the bunker map? All radio amateurs (and listeners) can participate in the WWBOTA scheme as hunters (chasers) irrespective of whether their country has a national bunkers scheme, see below.

How to get started as a Bunker Hunter or SWL

All radio amateurs and shortwave listeners, worldwide, are very welcome to participate in WWBOTA as hunters (chasers) and to claim free awards.

✅ Find stations calling “CQ Bunkers on the Air” and work them! It’s really that simple!
✅ For WWBOTA Award information see the Awards page linked at the menu at the top of this page
✅ For national Awards (and any logging requirements, if applicable) then see the national webpages linked on this page. Note that not all national Bunkers on the Air members currently offer national awards
✅ Consider using our internal ‘cluster’ linked above to help you find bunker activations. Note that you do not need to register to view the WWBOTA ‘cluster’ or fieldspotter.radio
✅ Read the Bunker Activator guide, much of that information will also be useful to you.

WWBOTA MEMBERS

WWBOTA DONATIONS
Click the link here or the image below.

NEW COUNTRY?
Is your country not part of WWBOTA yet?
Would you like it to be?
Contact Andrei YO3GNU our new countries liaison for details.

CONTACT US

CONTACT US
General Enquiries
coord@wwbota.org

Awards Enquiries
awards@wwbota.org

Comms & Outreach
comms@wwbota.org

 New Country Enquiries
yo3gnu@gmail.com
(Andrei)

WWBOTA MT

The WWBOTA Management Team:

WWBOTA Coordination
YO3GNU (Andrei)

WWBOTA Awards
M0XIC (Mark)


WWBOTA Website
M0ICR (Carl)

API Magic/Sys Admin
M1SDH(Steven)


Communications and outreach
M9JSD (Jason)

New country liaison
YO3GNU (Andrei)

* Assists with the coordination of national Bunkers on The Air schemes,
* Maintains the WWBOTA ‘Master List’ and map of bunker references,
* Manages an internal WWBOTA ‘cluster’ and manages the software integration with certain applications and tools,
* Manages WWBOTA awards (see the link in the top menu),
* Offer advice and assistance to potential future national representatives (or teams) wishing to start their own national schemes (email: coord@wwbota.org),
* Drink a lot of coffee and the occasional red wine.


Links we like!

M0TRT (Ian) page, the home of fieldspotter.radio and other useful applications here

Ham2K portable logger (PoLo) here

G5STU (Stuart) Station Master page here
Station Master Portable here

G5TM (Tim) YouTube channel, lots of antenna and portable operation ideas here

K4OGO (Salty Walt) YouTube channel, more antenna and portable operation ideas here

(C) 2026 WWBOTA – Worldwide Bunkers on the Air

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