NOTA is an amateur radio award scheme for activating and hunting natural biomes across the UK and Ireland callsign areas - woodland, water, sand, grassland and summits. Every biome has a reference made of its country (UK- or IE- for the Republic of Ireland), a letter for its type and a number, like UK-W-3330 or IE-T-0012.
You're considered to be at a biome when you're within 30 metres of its boundary (or, for a point-type biome like a summit, within 30 metres of the point itself). Log your contacts from there and upload the log afterwards to record the activation.
An activation can only be dated on or after the day you registered on NOTA, so a log from before you joined isn't accepted. That only applies to logs you upload yourself: hunter credit for contacts other members logged before you registered is still back-dated, and so is your credit as an operator in a club or special event log uploaded by someone who was already registered (see Club and special event callsigns below).
If you return to the same biome later in the same UTC day and upload a separate log, it's merged with any earlier one from that day into a single activation - it doesn't count as a second one. This is per operator, whichever callsign you used (see Club and special event callsigns below).
Only activate from land you're legally allowed to be on - being within 30 metres of a boundary doesn't override trespass laws or access restrictions on the ground.
A spot tells hunters you're on air: the biome, the frequency and the mode. Any member can post one for any registered NOTA callsign - from the Spots page or a biome's own page - so you can spot someone you've heard as well as yourself. A spot stays live for an hour from the last time it was posted or re-spotted (a hunter who has just worked you can re-spot to confirm you're still there), then shows dimmed as QRT for another hour. Only the activator, logged in, can end a spot early with QRT.
Spotting from MeshCore. If you have a MeshCore node you can spot without a phone signal or internet. First add the #nota hashtag channel in your MeshCore app. Then send your spot to the #nota channel - not as a direct message and not in any other channel, or NOTA will never see it. The message looks like this:
M0ABC UK-W-3330 14.285 SSB
That is the activator's callsign, the biome reference, the frequency in MHz and the mode (SSB, CW, FM, AM, FT8, FT4, JS8, RTTY or OTHER). All four are needed; they can be in any order and any case, and anything else you add to the message is ignored. The callsign has to be registered to a NOTA member. The spot appears on the Spots page marked "Spotted via MeshCore".
Spotting an Ecotone from MeshCore. If you're on the boundary where two or three different biome types meet (see Ecotone Activations), list every reference in the one message, again sent to the #nota channel - the first is the main spot and the others are the extras:
M0ABC UK-T-5879 UK-G-1325 14.285 SSB
That is M0ABC on 14.285 MHz SSB, spotted at a summit (UK-T-5879) and the grassland beside it (UK-G-1325) at the same time. You can list up to three references, in any order after the callsign, as long as each is a different biome type and you could stand within 30 metres of every one of them. Hunters see the spot with its Ecotone badge. If the references don't qualify as an Ecotone, the spot is still posted - with just the first reference - so check the Spots page to see it came out as you intended.
Messages reach NOTA through observer nodes - MeshCore nodes that listen and upload what they hear - so a spot only arrives if an observer hears your message, directly or through repeaters. Nothing is sent back over MeshCore, so check the Spots page to see it landed. As with spots on the website, it takes anyone's word for it, and it can't be ended from MeshCore: QRT it on the website, or it times out on its own.
Spotting from APRS and LoRa-APRS. The same message works from an APRS radio or app, LoRa-APRS included: send it as an APRS message to NOTA (the addressee, like sending a text to a callsign):
M0ABC UK-W-3330 14.285 SSB
It follows the same rules as the MeshCore message above, Ecotones included. With APRS the sender is already in the packet, so you can leave your own callsign out - UK-W-3330 14.285 SSB spots you - or put a callsign in to spot someone else. It only arrives if an iGate hears your message and passes it on to APRS-IS. NOTA answers every numbered message: an ack means the spot was posted, and a rej means it couldn't be used - it wasn't a spot, or the callsign isn't a NOTA member or the biome reference isn't known - so your radio stops retrying either way. If you hear nothing, it hasn't arrived. The spot appears on the Spots page marked "Spotted via APRS".
An Ecotone is a boundary where two or three different biome types meet - a woodland/water edge, a dune/beach transition, and so on. If you operate within 30 metres of a boundary between 2-3 different biome types at once, upload a separate ADIF log per qualifying reference (same session, just re-exported with the MY_SIG_INFO field changed each time) - uploads for the same reference on the same UTC day still merge as normal.
This is honour-system, the same as the rest of NOTA - the app can check the references are genuinely close enough together for you to be within 30m of each, but can't verify exactly where you stood.
Each contact is worth 1 point, multiplied together by three rarity multipliers - the biome, the band, and the mode it was worked on. Working the same operator again on a different band or mode still counts as a new, points-earning contact - but working them again on the same band and mode doesn't earn a second helping of points. Only the earliest of those repeats counts; the rest don't appear as separate contacts at all.
Every biome carries a rarity multiplier between 1x and 2x, based on how many times it's ever been activated, ranked against every other biome. This is refreshed monthly - the fewer activations a biome has, the higher its multiplier.
An activation's multiplier is locked in from the biome's rarity at the moment its log is first uploaded, so your score doesn't change retroactively if that biome's rarity shifts later.
The band and mode each contact was worked on carry their own rarity multipliers too - 1x, 1.25x or 1.5x, based on how often each has been logged across every activation, refreshed monthly the same way as biome rarity. Fewer tiers than biome rarity, since there are only a couple of dozen bands and modes to rank rather than thousands of biomes.
Each contact's band and mode multipliers are locked in the moment its log is uploaded, same as biome rarity. See the current tiers on the Band/Mode Rarity page (also linked from the bottom of the sidebar) to plan an activation around the rarer end.
Three milestone tracks - Total Activations, Silver Activations, and Gold Activations - share the same tier thresholds: 1, 5, 10, 25, then every 25 after that, for as long as you keep going. Only your current tier (and any earlier one still ahead on a specific biome endorsement) shows on your profile - every tier you've ever crossed stays on record regardless. Bronze, Silver and Gold badges are awarded per activation at 15, 40 and 100 points. The tracks aren't rebalanced to take equal effort - Gold Activations are naturally rarer than any activation at all, so the higher Gold/Silver tiers are a deliberately longer chase.
Awards are checked and granted automatically on every log upload, based on your totals across all activations - there's no separate claim step.
An award can also carry extra endorsement tags for meeting a stricter condition - for example, a biome-type endorsement if enough of the qualifying activations were all the same biome type (Woodland, Water, Sand, Air or Grassland). A single award can carry several independent endorsements at once.
Ecotone Explorer uses the same milestone ladder, earned by activating an Ecotone (see above). It doesn't carry the usual biome-type endorsements. Its only endorsements are four named combos: Riparian (Woodland + Water), Coastal (Sand + Water, or Grassland + Sand), Wetland (Grassland + Water), and Apex Ecotone (any 3 distinct biome types at once). A genuine triple earns its contained pair endorsement(s) and Apex Ecotone together, not one or the other. Any other qualifying pair (Woodland + Grassland, say, or anything with a summit) still counts towards your Ecotone Explorer total - it just has no combo endorsement.
The Total Hunted track uses the same tiers and biome endorsements as the activator tracks, but counts distinct activations you were worked at - your callsign appearing in someone else's uploaded log - rather than ones you activated yourself. It's checked whenever a contact gets newly tied to your callsign, whether that's on the activator's log upload, or retroactively at signup if the contact was logged before you joined.
The Hunter Points track is measured against your total hunter points instead - the sum of every contact's points (biome x band x mode multiplier) across everything you've been worked at, per QSO rather than per activation. It's deliberately the harder hunter track - the same idea as Silver/Gold Activations on the activator side - with its own, higher tier thresholds: 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, then every 250 after that, rather than reusing Total Hunted's.
Ecotone Chaser is the hunter-side mirror of Ecotone Explorer: it's for hunting activators who are operating from an Ecotone. You work them once, as normal - the activator's log credits that contact to each reference of the Ecotone, and that is what counts. It shares the same milestone ladder and the same four combo endorsements.
Awarded to both operators when a contact is mutually confirmed - you logged working them, and they separately logged working you, proving you were both activating at the same time. It doesn't count until the second of the two logs is uploaded, and can only ever be discovered by a fresh log upload from either side.
Matching requires the same band, the same mode, and QSO times within 5 minutes of each other. Its endorsements are stricter than the other tracks' - a "Water to Water" endorsement, for example, only fires when both operators were in a Water biome, not just one of them.
One off awards are single badges for reaching a particular goal. Unlike limited edition awards there is no cap - anyone who reaches the goal earns one, once, and it stays on your profile for good. They show in the One Off Awards section on My Awards, and each has its own certificate.
Better Luck Next Time - for an activation that fell short of Bronze. It is awarded the first time one of your activations doesn't quite make it, and keeping it doesn't depend on that activation staying unsuccessful.
Limited edition awards aren't tiered tracks - each is a single badge with a fixed number of places. They're handed out automatically to the first members to qualify, in order, and once you have one it stays on your profile for good. They show in their own section on My Awards.
Founding Activator - the first 100 members to log a successful activation (Bronze or above), in the order the logs are uploaded.
Founding Hunter - the first 100 members to register and appear as a worked contact in another operator's uploaded log, in the order each member first meets both conditions. A contact logged against your own account doesn't count.
You can add extra callsigns to your account from your profile. NOTA matches callsigns exactly as they are written, so a callsign with a suffix - M0ABC/P, M0ABC/M - counts as a different callsign from M0ABC, and needs adding as its own.
Activating: a log is only accepted if the callsign it was logged under (its STATION_CALLSIGN or OPERATOR field) is on your account at the time you upload it. If you activate as M0ABC/P, add M0ABC/P to your profile before you upload the log - it doesn't matter whether you add it before or after the activation itself.
Hunting: a contact is credited to you when the activator logged a callsign that is on your account. If you plan to be worked as M0ABC/P or M0ABC/M, add those too. Contacts already logged under a callsign are credited to you as soon as you add it. Activators should log the callsign they hear on air, so it's the one you sent that counts.
If you operate a club or special event station, register that callsign as an additional callsign on your own profile, or give the club its own account with the club callsign as its callsign. A callsign can only belong to one account.
Credit goes to the operator, not the station. When you upload a log, each contact is credited to the person named in its OPERATOR field (the STATION_CALLSIGN field is just the call that was on air). Contacts with no OPERATOR, or one that matches the station callsign, are credited to whoever uploads the log. The club or event owner uploads the log once, and every operator in it gets their own activation for that biome and day.
Each operator gets one activation per biome per UTC day, whichever callsign they were using. For example, 10 contacts made as GB100ABC with OPERATOR=M0ABC, plus 5 more later as M0ABC from the same biome, are a single 15-contact activation for M0ABC.
If an operator isn't a member yet, their contacts are held safely and hidden. When they register, or add that callsign to their profile, the activation is attached to them automatically and their awards are worked out as normal.
Hunters are credited for the station they worked: a hunter who works GB100ABCseveral times in one biome on one day counts it once towards Total Hunted, though every QSO still earns Hunter Points.
If a callsign changes hands, see Contact us below.
Found a problem, want a new area or biome added, or have a suggestion? Email support@notascheme.org.
Trouble registering a callsign? A callsign can only be registered to one account. If yours is already taken - for example it's a special event or club callsign, or it was previously held by someone else - email us with the callsign and a copy of your licence or Notice of Variation for it. We'll check it, and if it's yours we'll free it up from the previous account so you can register it.
Run a MeshCore observer? If you'd like to host an observer to help NOTA spotting reach more of the country, email us and we'll send you the connection details for our broker.
The shapes and places in NOTA are built from open data. Our thanks to everyone who maintains it: