What is Grids On The Air (GOTA)?

GOTA is a) an ongoing programme for HF DX enthusiasts who want to engage in a friendly competition aiming at contacting as many Maidenhead Grid Squares (IO75, FM42, etc.) as possible using legacy modes (CW and PHONE); and b) a series of awards meant to recognise exceptional performance.

What's the purpose?

In the broadest sense, the main purpose of GOTA is to promote activity on the HF bands, specifically using legacy modes, as a similar programme is available for digital modes. In particular, GOTA aims to give DXers (experienced - and possibly jaded - as well as newcomers) and all HF enthusiasts a reason to engage in a satisfying "hunting" activity and have QSOs with stations from all worldwide squares, near or far, important or not.

What is special about hunting gridsquares?

In a HAM world where most serious HF DXers have worked almost everything there is to work, grid hunting remains essentially an "open ended" activity - it is very unlikely that anybody will ever have a QSO with ALL the WW locator grids on the planet!

In grid hunting, especially at the beginning, every QSO counts - one single DXCC country may have dozens or even hundreds of different squares. They ALL count towards awards and challenge. This can be a great motivation to be on air, and make our favourite activity even more fun.

Grid hunting gets you to know more about your QSO partner and the country, region and continent he/she lives in. Once you get the bug, you will spend more time on the radio, and maybe even more time on maps and atlases!

Just like popular programmes such as SOTA or POTA (and even more so), grid hunting opens up great DXpedition/activation possibilities. Semi-rare and rare squares abound everywhere, in your country and region and in the most exotic DX locations alike.

Who can participate?

Any amateur in any country whose licence includes HF privileges. Participation is entirely free of charge.

How can I join?

Simply visit the join section of this website and provide some very basic information - that's all!

How do I determine a QSO partner's gridsquare?

- By far the easiest - and the most certain - way is... just ask the person you are in QSO with! This also helps getting away from the all-too-frequent "five and nine" QSOs that seem to dominate the bands nowadays.

- An effective way is to use the information provided by QRZ.com. The vast majority of call signs recorded in the giant database do include grid square information. You can look up individual call signs manually, or if you are a QRZ.com subscriber, many popular log programmes will do that automatically. However, you have to carefully check this information after each QSO before saving your log entry, for in a minority of cases the grid square provided by QRZ.com corresponds to the geographic centre of the country rather than to the location of your QSO partner.

- An interesting way to check the exact location is by using maps and atlases, based on the QTH information you were given during the QSO or the location listed on QRZ.com.

How do I take part in the ongoing challenge?

You simply have to submit your station log in ADIF format. The software on the GOTA server will discount all QSOs dated earlier than 1 January 2025 and, on the remaining ones, extract grid square, band and mode information. It will then calculate your totals by mode (mixed, CW and PHONE) and by band. Based on these calculations, the software will update the different leader boards. Please note that the server will only store the results of these calculations and not your log. You can submit your log - and see your position in the leader boards updated - as often as you want. Please also note that the ongoing challenge tracks all QSOs, regardless of whether they are confirmed or not. In this sense, the GOTA ongoing challenge is a programme which relies on trust and sportsmanship.

Important! The Grid Square must be present in the “Gridsquare” field of the uploaded ADIF file. Grid Squares found in any other fields, such as “GridSquareExt” or “GridSquareList,” will not be recognized, and credit will not be recorded.

How do I qualify for awards?

The awards details will be added later, once we have sufficient members and uploaded QSOs.

Which Bands and Modes are valid?

GOTA is intended only for legacy modes since there are already schemes and awards for digital modes. Therefore we are restricting valid QSO modes to SSB, CW, AM and FM. Similarly there are existing awards for grids on VHF/UHF, so the only bands valid for GOTA are 160m, 80m, 60m, 40m, 30m, 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m, 10m.