The chase is on: US BOTA - that's Bunkers on the Air - is now a part of Worldwide BOTA. The popular awards scheme that began in the UK is now active in 23 countries. The US recently became one of those active nations. Rem O'Donnelley, K6BBQ, the US national coordinator, told Newsline that his POTA activations inspired him to establish a US presence on the BOTA map. He said that many bunkers are inside parks in his part of California -- so activating those bunkers seemed to be the next logical move.

Worldwide BOTA's Jason Dale, 2EØJIV, told Newsline that, as with other nations, US BOTA is closely modeled after the one in the UK. With some bunker sites still considered sensitive areas, BOTA established an activation zone giving plenty of room for permitted activations without having to infringe on the bunker itself. In the UK and the US and several other countries, that's 1,000 meters from the center of the bunker itself.

The worldwide platform hosts each country's available awards and bunker databases as well as lists of new countries - and newly added bunkers. Specific rules and local maps are available on each country's individual site. Best of all, said Jason, some portable loggers, such as Ham2K, have also gotten into the act and have already added BOTA into their software.

To visit both the new US BOTA website and the site for worldwide BOTA, see the links in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org