What is "spotting"?
A spot is a short public note that a station is active right now, so other amateurs can find and work them: who's on the air, on what frequency, in what mode, and (for award-chasing) which reference(s) they're activating — a castle, a mill, a tower, a lighthouse, a bunker, a summit, a nature reserve, and so on. This is exactly how a traditional "DX cluster" works, just focused on BOS!'s own award programmes and the outdoor programmes BOS! interoperates with.
How BOS Spots itself works
BOS Spots is a shared board, not a personal list — anyone can read it without logging in, same as a real DX cluster. To post a spot you log in with your existing BCA, TOTA, BLHA or BELMOTA account (one login works for all four, and for Spots). A spot can cover more than one programme at once — e.g. a mill that's also inside a castle park — just add more than one programme and reference to the same spot.
- Spots are kept visible for 6 hours, then quietly expire — this is a live board, not a permanent log (your actual activation stays recorded via the normal ADIF upload on each system, as always).
- You can edit or remove your own spot at any time while it's still listed, e.g. after a QSY to a new frequency.
- Adding
QRT(or(QRT), any case) anywhere in your comment and saving the spot hides it from the board immediately for everyone — a quick way to say "I've gone off the air" without having to delete the spot outright.
Programmes on the board — world-wide
The board uses the world-wide programme names, so activations from every country fit in. BOS!'s own Belgian programmes are simply the Belgian part of them, and you can spot any country's reference, not only Belgian ones.
| Badge | Programme | Reference looks like |
|---|---|---|
| WCA | Castles — World Castles Award (Belgium = BCA) | ON-00045, DL-01234 |
| MOTA | Mills On The Air (Belgium = BELMOTA) | X05977 |
| TOTA | Towers On The Air | ONR-0104 |
| LH | Lighthouses — ARLHS / ILLW (Belgium = BLHA) | BEL 001, ITA 360, FRA-123; BE0003 only with the word ILLW / lighthouse in the comment |
| IOTA | Islands On The Air | EU-005, NA-123 |
| POTA | Parks On The Air | BE-0506, US-1234 |
| SOTA | Summits On The Air | ON/ON-001, DM/BW-123 |
| WWFF | World Wide Flora & Fauna (Belgium = ONFF) | ONFF-0048, DLFF-0123, 9AFF-0001 |
| WWBOTA | Worldwide Bunkers On The Air (Belgium = ONBOTA) | B/ON-0001 |
| GMA | Global Mountain Activity | DM/BW-123 |
Where spots shown on the board come from
Besides spots posted directly here on BOS!, the board automatically pulls in live spots from outside networks too, so you see everything relevant in one place instead of having to check several sites. These are refreshed in the background every 30–90 seconds (each network's own preferred rate) and merged in next to BOS!'s own spots — look for the little badge (e.g. WWBOTA) to see where a spot came from.
| Network | Pulled in from | Status |
|---|---|---|
| WWBOTA Worldwide Bunkers On The Air |
api.wwbota.org — their own live spot feed | Live |
| GMA Global Mountain Activity |
gma.rocks — their own Spot Read API | Live |
| WWFF World Wide Flora & Fauna |
spots.wwff.co — their public spots.json feed | Live |
| HamQTH World-wide DX cluster |
hamqth.com — the world-wide DX cluster. Only spots whose comment contains a recognisable programme reference are shown (shapes as in the table above: WCA, MOTA, TOTA, LH, IOTA, POTA, SOTA, WWFF, WWBOTA, GMA); the badge is set from that reference. A comment with references of several programmes gets several badges. Data provided by HamQTH.com. | Live |
| DX Summit OH2AQ web DX cluster |
dxsummit.fi — the largest European web cluster. Same rule as HamQTH: only spots whose comment contains a recognisable programme reference. The same activation seen on both clusters is shown once. | Live |
No duplicates: the same activator on the same frequency (±1 kHz) within 30 minutes is shown once. Priority: a spot posted here on BOS! > WWBOTA > WWFF > GMA > DX cluster (HamQTH / DX Summit). When one activation comes in through two programme feeds (e.g. a WWFF park that is also a GMA reference), it becomes one line with both badges.
A GMA spot isn't necessarily a summit specifically — the same reference can also be a castle, mill, lighthouse or tower, so GMA's badge is shown on its own (its full name is available on hover) rather than with a category word that might mislead.
Where your own spot gets sent to
If you tag your spot with one of these programmes (and fill in its reference), BOS! also pushes it out to that network's own cluster in the background — so activators and hunters watching their site see it too, not just people on BOS!.
| Programme | Pushed out to | Status |
|---|---|---|
| WWBOTA | api.wwbota.org — created, and kept in sync: editing or marking the spot
QRT on BOS! updates the same spot there too, and deleting it on BOS! removes
it there as well. |
Live |
| WWFF | spots.wwff.co — submitted as a new spot each time. | Live |
| GMA | gma.rocks — submitted as a new spot each time. | Live |
| WCA, MOTA, LH, TOTA, POTA | gma.rocks — GMA also lists these programmes, so the spot is sent there too (one spot per reference). | Live |
Spots tagged SOTA, IOTA (or left as "Other") stay on BOS!'s own board only — there's no outside network for BOS! to push those to.
Questions?
Contact the BOS! team via the usual channels if something looks wrong on the board, or if you'd like another network added.