This award is administered by the IOSA Committee and is the creation of Les Hamilton GM3ITN with support from Gavin Taylor GMØGAV, Dave Warburton GMØLVI and Robert Ferguson GM3YTS.

Les Hamilton GM3ITN is one of the top UK stations on the Islands on the Air (IOTA) Honour Roll. He has devised an award that is extremely challenging; particularly the higher graded awards.

We hope this award will encourage amateur radio operators from around the world to contact or visit and activate some of the most beautiful and remote parts of Scotland.

The islands of Scotland are beautiful places to visit where you will always find a friendly welcome from these homely people. Some activators from abroad have already been to several islands and promise to return. So why not give it a try? You will not be disappointed.

During 1997 and 1998 the programme really took off - thanks to the consistent activity of several activators. It has perhaps suffered from growing pains in that about 90% of all the islands in the directory have already been activated and therefore new ones have been added.

To further your interest in the Scottish Islands there are several very informative publications which would be of assistance to the visitor, activator and chaser alike.

Some are:

• The Scottish Islands by Hamish Haswell-Smith (Publishers: Canongate Books Ltd of Edinburgh)
• The Western Islands Handbook (Publishers: Kittiwake Press)
• The Outer Hebrides Handbook and Guide (Publishers: Kittiwake Press)
• The Orkney Guide Book by Charles Tait of Orkney

Happy hunting and happy activating!

The IOSA Committee wish to thank the Radio Society of Great Britain for publishing details of the IOSA programme in the RSGB IOTA Directory and Yearbook and for their kind permission to extract some details of the IOTA rules, which have been adapted for use in the IOSA directory.