2023 will be celebrated by ARRL as “The Year of the Volunteer.” More information will be available throughout the year as the details are confirmed. However, the first adventure has been announced as a project called “Volunteers On The Air (VOTA).” Here we get ‘points’ for each contact made with another ARRL volunteer. So, if two ARRL members contact each other, they will each receive a point for that QSO. No special codes, sequence numbers, or section information needs to be passed. Make contact with a fellow ARRL member, and you each receive a point. Each of you must upload the contact to the Logbook of The World (LoTW), and your points are calculated when the QSO is matched. This could be an FT8 contact, a CW contact, a simplex 2M FM contact, an RTTY contact, or an SSB rag-chew.

To add more interest to the contest and help demonstrate the ARRL volunteers’ value, each level of volunteer activity has been assigned a point level, shown in the table below.

So, get your HF gear running, make sure your LoTW connection is working, and see you on the air!!!

VOTA Program Rules

I’m sure these rules will be extended or revised, so please return here to check for updates.

• This contest starts January 1, 2023, at 0000Z.
• This contest ends December 31, 2023, at 0000Z.
• You must be an ARRL member. You can join or renew at https://arrl.org/join/.
• All QSOs must be uploaded to the ARRL QSO matching system, Logbook of The World (LoTW).
• No repeater contacts are allowed.
• Contacts can be made on any band (except the WARC bands of 12M, 17M, and 30M).
• Contacts can be made on any legal mode of operation.
• You receive ‘points’ based on the volunteer level of the ARRL member you contact. Points range from 1 point for an ARRL member to 300 points for Rick Roderick K5UR. The point levels are listed below. (Your favorite Section Managers are worth 175 points.)
• Each QSO will get only one point value. For example, someone who is a member, a life member, and an Assistant Section Manager will be worth the value of the highest role, 35 points for the ASM role.

Logbook of The World (LoTW)

All of the reporting for this VOTA effort will be handled automatically by the ARRL Logbook of The World (LoTD) QSO matching system. If you already log your QSOs from your favorite logging software and it uploads them to LoTW, you will automatically be enrolled in the project. Your QSOs will be verified normally, and the callsigns of the people you work will be searched to find the appropriate points (table shown below) that you receive for each QSO.

But, if you aren’t set up to use LoTW, now is the time to set it up. The LoTW quick-start page is a great place to start, and the “What is LoTW Document” explains the whole process. You must authenticate yourself with the system by receiving a postcard mailed to your FCC-registered address. You’ll run a program called TSQL that is used by your logging program, N3FJP, N1MM, DX Lab Suite, or something else to authenticate and upload to LoTW. You can start the setup process now, and you’ll be ready on January 1st! Or, hold your logs until you get LoTW set up, and you can upload them when you get it all sorted.

Volunteers Point Value Table

Note: These appointments are for current appointees unless otherwise noted. Eg: Assistant Director (AD) is only for the current Assistant Directors. Past office-holders and appointees are only eligible if the title listed includes the word “Past,” such as “Past Section Manager (PSM).”