Interactive mapping of IOTA groups and islands for radio amateurs

iotamaps.com - Interactive mapping of IOTA groups and islands for radio amateurs

Welcome to iotamaps.com

iotamaps.com is the premier mapping site of IOTA groups and islands, for radio amateurs, short-wave listeners, CB'ers and all who have an interest in IOTA, the Islands On The Air award scheme.

The IOTA award scheme has been in existence for over 60 years since its' inception in 1964, and expeditions to IOTA islands are followed closely by tens of thousands world-wide. By using our mapping page, you can quickly identify in which IOTA islands group or individual island^* an expedition is based.

The maps we provide

The maps provided by this site are based on open-source Leaflet technology, and are dynamic, zoomable, pannable, and customizable for your convenience:

Fig.1 - Mapping page screenshot

The mapping you need - interactive and flexible

You can choose any one of several mapping overlays to show you the detail you need to see.
A dynamic terminator (day/night shadow) layer is provided, which is updated every ten seconds, and which can be toggled on or off.
Two dynamic grid layers are provided, which can be toggled on or off, showing greater detail when the map is zoomed in:
- a Maidenhead locator grid to display labeled grid squares in the map,
- a latitude / longitude grid to display labeled latitude and longitude lines in the map.
A position indicator is built-in, showing the latitude, longitude and 6-character locator (example: JO65jr) at the mouse-position.
You can store your own QTH or home position by using the "Preferences..." item in the menu above the map: this opens a dialog where you can enter your ham radio or CB callsign, and set your QTH / home position. Doing this will enable:
- an icon to appear in the map at the chosen position;
- distances and bearings to and from any particular IOTA group to be calculated and displayed.

Getting started

Navigate directly to the map: Click here to load the map in your browser or by clicking on the "mapping" link in the top or bottom menus. Happy island bagging!

How to get the most from our maps

When in the mapping page, activate the "Options" map control, and choose the "Show User Guide dialog" item to learn how to use the controls in that page to get the best from the map. See a preview of the User Guide dialog right here

How the data are organized

The data are organized heirarchically:

All island groups belong to a particular continent: Europe, North America, Asia, etc.
Within each continent are several amateur radio DXCC entities, which may or may not be identical with a particular country or political entity. Some examples of DXCC entities:
- France (DXCC 227)
- Corsica (DXCC 214), which is an island belonging to France
- Greece (DXCC 236)
- Dodecanese (DXCC 045), an island group belonging to Greece, but considered a separate DXCC entity for amateur radio puposes
- Maldives (DXCC 159)
- etc...
Within each DXCC entity, there are one or more IOTA island groups. For example, within New Zealand (DXCC 170) there are five IOTA island groups:
- OC-036 North Island, containing one island
- OC-068 Snares Islands, containing one collectively-named group of islands
- OC-134 South Island, containing one island
- OC-201 North Island's Coastal Islands, containing 48 islands
- OC-203 South Island's Coastal Islands, containing 29 islands
Each IOTA island group has one or more islands within it.

How to use the data

Start by choosing a continent from the "Continent" dropdown list - this will:

load all DXCC entities in that continent into the "DXCC Entities" dropdown;
also load all island groups in all the DXCC entities in that continent into the "IOTA groups" dropdown. At the same time, rectangles appear in the map, one for each island group.

You can then either

directly choose an IOTA island group from the "IOTA groups" dropdown;
or choose a DXCC from the "DXCC Entities" dropdown: this will populate the "IOTA groups" dropdown with all of the IOTA groups in the chosen DXCC entity.

Footnote

^* The listings of islands provided by the IOTA organization contain NO islands' positions data - none at all! A few people have tried to ascertain such positions, with varying degrees of success; however, there are over 13 thousand islands in the list!

We at iotamaps have taken great care to identify, and obtain positions for, as many islands in the IOTA listings as possible. We have already identified most of them , and we're working continually to identify those few percent which are still "missing" or yet to be identified.

Perhaps you can help? If you have local knowledge of such "missing" islands in a particular geographical area (Finland, S. and N. Korea for example), we'd be glad to hear from you: use our contact form to let us know.

Mapping - User Guide

Mapping Page - User Guide

Viewing IOTA Groups in one continent

Select a continent from the "Continent" dropdown above the map:

all DXCC entities in that continent will be loaded into the "DXCC Entities" dropdown;
all IOTA groups in that continent will be loaded into the "IOTA Groups" dropdown;
rectangles representing these IOTA groups will be displayed in the map.

Once the dropdowns are loaded, you can choose either a single DXCC entity, or a single IOTA group, in the chosen continent.

Viewing IOTA Groups in one DXCC entity

Select a continent from the "Continents" dropdown above the map:

all DXCC entities in that continent will be loaded into the "DXCC Entities" dropdown;
select the desired entity from the "DXCC Entities" dropdown;
rectangles representing all IOTA groups in the chosen DXCC entity will be displayed in the map.

Viewing islands in one IOTA Group

This can be done in one of two ways:

select an IOTA group from the "IOTA Groups" dropdown above the map, or
if multiple IOTA group rectangles are displayed in the map, zoom in until the rectangles' titles become visible (zoom level 6 or above). Double-clicking on the title of the desired IOTA group will cause that group to be loaded, and its' islands will be displayed.

In both cases, a dialog will also appear, displaying details of the IOTA group, plus a listing of all islands in that group.

Search for a particular IOTA Group or island

Click on the "Options" control in the upper right-hand corner of the map.

select the "Show Search dialog" check-box - the Search dialog will appear;
use the controls in the Search dialog to start a search on either IOTA group or island name.

Activate a map icon showing your position

Click on the "Options" control in the upper right-hand corner of the map.

select the "Show Preferences dialog" check-box - the Preferences dialog will appear
use the controls in the Preferences dialog to:
- enter your callsign or nickname (optional);
- enter latitude and longitude of your location - you may pick this from the map using the controls provided.

An icon will be displayed in the map, showing your position at all times. These details will be stored in the Local Storage area of your browser, and nowhere else - your details will not be used for any purpose other than to enable the program to place an icon in the map at your location.

Choosing a map-type

Click on the Layers control in the upper right-hand corner of the map.

select a map-type from the dropdown list - these are arranged in groups:
- OSM map-types based on OpenStreetMap;
- ESRI map-types provided by ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute)

The map area will update to show the map-type you have chosen.

Using the map overlays

Click on the Layers control in the upper right-hand corner of the map.

select one of the map overlays at the bottom of the dropdown list - these are:
- a Terminator overlay, which displays day/night shading around the globe. This overlay is updated every 10 seconds, and hence will show the sunrise/sunset border and night-time shading dynamically;
- a Locator Grid, which will display a Maidenhead locators grid plus labels at various levels of detail, depending on the map zoom-level;
- a Latitude/Longitude Grid, which will display latitude and longitude lines and labels at various levels of detail, depending on the map zoom-level;

A user will typically activate only one of these at any one time, although any combination of these three overlays can be shown if desired.

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