9M LLOTA: Malaysia Joins Lakes and Lagoons On The Air

There is a particular kind of calm that only shows up at the water’s edge. The antenna wire is strung between two coconut palms, the radio is balanced on a folding table, the lake in front of you is doing absolutely nothing, and the band is open to Europe. You work ten stations, pack up, and drive home with a log full of contacts and a head full of quiet.

Malaysian hams have been doing that for years, of course, but always informally. We never had a proper program that named the lakes, gave them reference codes, tracked who activated them, and handed out awards for it. SOTA covers our summits, POTA covers our parks, WWFF covers our forests, IOTA covers our islands. The lakes, reservoirs, dams and lagoons, the still-water places that make up so much of the Malaysian landscape, were sitting there with no program of their own.

That changes now. 9M LLOTA, Malaysia Lakes and Lagoons On The Air, is live, with a growing list of eligible references spread across every one of our 13 states and 3 federal territories, an interactive map, a searchable directory, and the reference list.

Last updated: August 2026.

What Is LLOTA?

LLOTA (Lakes and Lagoons On The Air) is an amateur radio activation and hunting program focused on lakes, lagoons, and inland water bodies. It was created in Chile and is expanding worldwide, country by country, with local Country Managers curating the reference lists for their own territory.

LLOTA centres exclusively on lentic (still) water ecosystems: natural lakes, lagoons, reservoirs, dams, and brackish coastal lagoons. Rivers and streams (lotic systems) are deliberately excluded, that is what keeps LLOTA distinct from other programs and what makes the reference list finite and meaningful.

If you already know SOTA (Summits On The Air), POTA (Parks On The Air), WWFF (World Wide Flora & Fauna) or IOTA (Islands On The Air), then LLOTA needs no introduction. It is the same idea, applied to still water. You pick a registered reference, travel to it, set up near the shore, make contacts, and submit your log. Hunters work you from anywhere. Both sides earn credit, and the platform issues digital diplomas automatically when you cross the thresholds.

The official platform provides a reference map, a live cluster for spotting, digital awards, and statistics. Each eligible water body carries a unique reference code that activators include in their ADIF log submissions. For Malaysia that code looks like LLMY-0001 onwards, with new references added as the program grows.

Official LLOTA website: https://llota.app/
Official rules: https://llota.app/reglas.html
Official documentation: https://llota.app/documentacion.html
Official reference map: https://llota.app/referencias.html
9M LLOTA (Malaysia directory): https://llota.hamradio.my/

Why a Lakes Program for Malaysia?

Malaysia is unusually rich in still water. We have the largest reservoir in Southeast Asia (Lake Kenyir, 260 km²), the largest reservoir in the country (Bakun, 695 km²), a Ramsar-listed natural lake (Tasik Bera), a legendary “Loch Ness of Malaysia” (Tasik Chini), a freshwater lake on a Langkawi island set inside the mangroves (Dayang Bunting), crater lakes in Sabah, oxbow lakes in Perak, and a whole chain of charming former mining lakes turned into urban parks in the Klang Valley and Perak.

Until now, none of those places had a name in any activation program. You could activate a SOTA summit overlooking Lake Kenyir and a POTA park next to Taiping Lake Gardens, but the lake itself was just scenery. LLOTA turns the scenery into the point of the trip.

For Malaysian operators it gives us a fresh excuse to get outdoors with a radio, and a structured list of destinations that already exist, already have public access, and already span the country from Perlis to Sabah. For DXers overseas it adds a new set of Malaysian references to chase, on top of our SOTA summits, POTA parks and IOTA islands. Everybody wins.

The 9M LLOTA Website

The 9M LLOTA site at https://llota.hamradio.my/ is the planning tool for the program in Malaysia. It is a single-page, mobile-friendly web app built and maintained by 9M2PJU.

What it gives you:

Interactive Leaflet map with every reference plotted, each marker clickable for code, name, state, type, coordinates and area.
Searchable, filterable directory of every reference, filter by state, filter by type, or free-text search by name, code, state or type.
Card view and table view of the full reference list, with sortable columns.
Per-reference detail including coordinates, water-surface area, type, and a direct link to Google Maps so you can plan the drive.
Dark and light theme toggle, because field activations happen at all hours.
Installable PWA, add 9M LLOTA to your phone’s home screen and the directory launches instantly, even offline, with the reference list cached on the device.
Direct links to the official LLOTA website, rules, documentation and reference map.

The site is the easiest way to find a reference near you. Open it on your phone, filter to your state, pick the closest lake, tap through to Google Maps, and go.

The Malaysian References

The reference list runs from LLMY-0001 onwards and covers all 13 states plus the 3 federal territories, with new references added as the program grows. Here is how the current list breaks down by state:

State / Territory	References
Perak	22
Selangor	18
Pahang	15
Kedah	13
Johor	11
Sarawak	8
Kuala Lumpur	7
Terengganu	6
Sabah	6
Penang	5
Negeri Sembilan	4
Melaka	4
Kelantan	4
Labuan	3
Perlis	2
Putrajaya	1

And by type, the list spans:

Reservoirs and dams (the largest group, 46 references plus hydro reservoirs), from the giants like Kenyir, Bakun and Murum down to small dam reservoirs on Labuan.
Recreational lake parks (26 references), the urban and suburban lake gardens that make easy first activations, places like Taiping Lake Gardens, Titiwangsa, Permaisuri, and the Metropolitan Kepong Lake Park.
Former mining lakes, including tin mine lakes in Perak and the Klang Valley, an iron mine lake, a gold mine lake, and quarry lakes in Penang.
Natural lakes, including Tasik Bera (Ramsar), Tasik Chini, Dayang Bunting, crater lakes in Sabah, and natural oxbow lakes in Perak.
Coastal lagoons, the brackish lentic systems that qualify under the LLOTA rules.

A few references worth knowing

LLMY-0106, Lake Kenyir, Terengganu, the largest reservoir in Southeast Asia at 260 km², the headline reference of the whole program.
LLMY-0120, Bakun Reservoir, Sarawak, the largest reservoir in Malaysia at 695 km², deep in Sarawak and a genuine DXpedition-style activation.
LLMY-0123, Murum Reservoir, Sarawak, 245 km², another serious remote Sarawak target.
LLMY-0121, Batang Ai Dam, Sarawak, 85 km² hydro reservoir in the Lun Bawang heartland.
LLMY-0099, Lake Bera, Pahang, 62 km², Malaysia’s only Ramsar-listed natural lake, a peat swamp system.
LLMY-0101, Lake Chini, Pahang, 5,085 ha, the legendary “Loch Ness of Malaysia” in Pahang.
LLMY-0025, Lake Dayang Bunting, Kedah, a 10 ha natural freshwater lake on the island of Langkawi, set inside the mangroves.
LLMY-0044, Taiping Lake Gardens, Perak, 64 ha of historic former mining lakes, one of the oldest lake gardens in the country and an easy, beautiful first activation.
LLMY-0008, Lake Putrajaya, Putrajaya, 400 ha man-made lake right in the federal capital, the most accessible reference in the program.
LLMY-0013, Timah Tasoh Lake, Perlis, 1,300 ha reservoir at the northern tip of the peninsula.
LLMY-0046, Lake Banding, Perak, 152 km², an arm of the Temenggor reservoir system, surrounded by the Royal Belum forest.
LLMY-0118, Lake Impian, Sabah, a natural crater lake, one of the rarer geological types in the list.

Whether you want an easy afternoon activation at a city lake park or a multi-day DXpedition to a Sarawak reservoir, the list has a reference for it.

How LLOTA Works

The mechanics are deliberately simple, and they will be familiar to anyone who has done SOTA or POTA.

Activators

Pick a reference from the 9M LLOTA directory.
Travel to the lake, lagoon, reservoir or dam.
Set up your station within 200 m of the water’s edge (or operate /MM from a boat on the water itself).
Make at least 10 QSOs to complete a valid activation.
Upload your log in ADIF format within 30 days, with <MY_SIG>LLOTA</MY_SIG> and <MY_SIG_INFO>LLMY-xxxx</MY_SIG_INFO> fields populated so the platform can match your contacts to the reference.

That is it. Every valid activation earns credit, and every unique reference you activate counts towards the activator awards.

Hunters

Hunters contact activators from anywhere, no special location required, no need to be near water. Your QSOs are validated automatically when the activator uploads their log, so the burden of paperwork sits with the person who travelled, not the person who worked them from a home station.

Spots

Spots are posted to the live LLOTA cluster so the community knows when and where activations are happening. Self-spotting is allowed, which is a practical courtesy for a program built around remote, often single-operator activations where nobody else is going to spot you.

Awards

The platform generates digital diplomas automatically when you meet the requirements. No paperwork, no waiting for a manager to approve a claim, the log upload does the work.

There are several award categories:

Unique Ref Activator: counts how many different references you have activated. Re-activating the same lake does not add to this counter.
Repeat Ref Activator (Volume): counts the total number of valid activations, even if they are from the same reference. Ideal for operators who frequently activate their local lake.
Unique Ref Hunter: counts how many different references you have worked.
Repeat Ref Hunter (Total Hunts): counts the total number of distinct activations you have hunted. If a friend activates the same lake on three different days and you work them all three times, that is 3 points.
Lake-to-Lake (L2L): the hardcore award. When two activators contact each other while both are at a valid reference, on the same day, same band, with the contact confirmed bilaterally in both logs. This is the LLOTA equivalent of a summit-to-summit in SOTA.
Seasonal Events: time-limited mixed diplomas. If you activate at least one valid lake during the event window, you earn the diploma automatically. If you only hunt, you need to work a minimum number of references (typically 5 or 10) during the event.

Most diplomas are progressive, meaning you can upgrade your award as you accumulate more credits. The typical tiers are:

Tier	Typical Threshold
Bronze	10 references
Silver	25 references
Gold	50 references
Platinum	100 references

So your first bronze diploma arrives after 10 unique activations, silver at 25, and so on. The system tracks everything from your uploaded ADIF logs, so the moment you cross a threshold the next diploma is yours.

Reference Criteria: What Makes a Valid LLOTA Reference

LLOTA’s eligibility rules are what keep the reference list meaningful and finite. The full text lives on the official rules page; here is the detailed breakdown.

The lentic water rule

LLOTA centres exclusively on lentic (still) water ecosystems. The word lentic comes from the Latin lentus, meaning slow or sluggish, and it describes bodies of water where the water is essentially stationary. This is the single most important rule in the program, and it is what makes LLOTA distinct from every other activation program.

Accepted water body types:

Natural lakes, including tectonic, volcanic crater, oxbow, and glacial lakes.
Lagoons, including brackish coastal lagoons where seawater and freshwater mix behind a barrier.
Reservoirs, man-made lakes created by damming a river or valley.
Dams and dam lakes, the impounded water behind a dam structure.
Marshes, permanent wetland areas with standing water.
Natural ponds above the minimum size threshold.

Excluded water body types:

Rivers and streams (lotic systems). Moving water is the defining exclusion. If the water flows in a directional current, it is not LLOTA-eligible, no matter how scenic the river is. This is what separates LLOTA from any future “rivers on the air” program.
Temporary pools, seasonal water bodies that dry up for part of the year. The reference must be permanent.
Purely ornamental or industrial facilities, decorative fountains, industrial settling ponds, and similar structures that are not natural or semi-natural water bodies.

The minimum size rule

A water body must have at least 400 m² of surface area (approximately 0.1 acre or 0.04 ha) to qualify. This threshold is deliberately small, it excludes tiny garden ponds and decorative pools while accepting even modest recreational lakes. For context, a 20 m by 20 m body of water just meets the threshold.

The public access rule

The shoreline must be accessible to the public. Access can be:

Free, open public land such as a municipal lake park.
Paid, entry fee required, such as a national park or recreation park.
Permit-based, where you need a permit or permission that is available to anyone who asks.

Access that requires a personal invitation is not eligible. The reference must be reachable by any licensed operator who decides to activate it, not gated behind private membership or personal connections. This keeps the program fair and open.

The coordinate rule

The published coordinates for each reference must point to a location on the water surface itself, not to a car park, a gate, a lookout point, or the nearest road. This is important for two reasons:

It allows the platform to verify that an activator was within the 200 m activation zone using their logged grid locator.
It keeps the reference map honest, every marker on the map sits on actual water.

How the Malaysian list was curated

All Malaysian references were curated against these rules. Each candidate was checked for:

Water type, confirming it is lentic, not lotic. Rivers and streams were excluded outright.
Permanence, confirming the water body is permanent and does not dry up seasonally.
Surface area, confirming it meets or exceeds the 400 m² minimum.
Public access, confirming the shoreline is reachable without a personal invitation.
Coordinates, verified against satellite imagery and mapped to a point on the water surface.

Wetlands were removed from the list during curation. Although marshes are technically eligible under the LLOTA rules, the curation process for Malaysia focused on clearly defined lakes, reservoirs, dams, and lagoons with identifiable shorelines and reliable public access. Wetland areas, which often have ambiguous boundaries and restricted access, were excluded to keep the reference list practical and unambiguous.

Always verify public access on the ground before you activate. A reference being on the list means it qualifies on paper, not that the gate will be open the day you arrive. Nature reserves, water-catchment areas, and recreation parks may have opening hours, entry fees, or permit requirements that change with the seasons.

Program Rules: Activation, Hunting, and Logging

Activation rules

Location: the operator must be within 200 m of the water’s edge, measured from the shoreline of the reference. Alternatively, the operator may operate /MM (maritime mobile) from a boat on the water surface itself. Setting up in a car park 2 km away does not count, the reference is the water body, and you need to be next to it.
Minimum QSOs: at least 10 two-way contacts must be made during the activation for it to be valid. There is no mode, band, or distance restriction on the QSOs, they just need to be genuine two-way amateur radio contacts. A single callsign worked on multiple bands counts as multiple QSOs.
Log format: the log must be uploaded in ADIF (Amateur Data Interchange Format). The following two fields are mandatory in every QSO record:
- <MY_SIG>LLOTA</MY_SIG> marks the QSO as part of the LLOTA program.
- <MY_SIG_INFO>LLMY-xxxx</MY_SIG_INFO> identifies the specific reference, for example LLMY-0106 for Lake Kenyir.
Upload deadline: the log must be uploaded within 30 days of the activation. After that, the activation may still be recorded but may not count towards awards, so upload promptly.
Callsign: the activator must use a valid amateur radio callsign. Overseas visitors operating in Malaysia must hold a valid Malaysian reciprocal licence or operate under a recognised reciprocal arrangement.

Hunting rules

No location requirement: hunters can be anywhere, home, mobile, portable, on a summit, in a park, at another lake. There is no need to be near water.
No log upload required: hunters do not upload logs. The system validates hunter QSOs automatically when the activator uploads their log. This is a deliberate design choice, the burden of paperwork sits with the person who travelled, not the person who worked them from a home station.
Spotting: monitor the LLOTA cluster for live activations. When you hear an activator, work them, and your contact counts the moment their log goes up.

Spotting rules

Self-spotting is allowed. This is a practical courtesy for a program built around remote, often single-operator activations where nobody else is going to spot you. If you change band or frequency, update your spot.
Spots expire automatically after 30 minutes of inactivity, so the cluster always reflects current activity, not stale spots from hours ago.
Spot content: include your callsign, frequency, mode, the reference code (e.g. LLMY-0106), and any comments that help hunters find you.

Conduct and environment

LLOTA is built around respect for nature. The official code of conduct asks operators to:

Leave no trace. Pack out everything you pack in. The lake shore is a sensitive ecosystem.
Respect wildlife. Do not disturb nesting birds, monkeys, or other animals near the water.
Respect access rules. If a site requires a permit, get one. If it has opening hours, honour them.
Be courteous to other visitors. Lakes and parks are shared spaces. Keep cables tidy, do not block paths, and be prepared to explain what you are doing to curious passers-by.

Malaysian lake shores are often home to monitor lizards, otters, hornbills, and occasionally elephants (especially around Temenggor and Belum). Give them right of way.

Who Can Participate?

Anyone with a valid amateur radio licence.

Malaysian operators can activate sites. With references spanning the country, you are never far from one.
Operators worldwide can hunt Malaysian LLOTA activations. If you hear a 9M station calling from a lake, work them, and your contact counts the moment their log goes up.
Equipment-wise, LLOTA is friendly. A simple HF transceiver, a wire antenna, and a battery are enough for a first activation. You do not need a kilowatt, a tower, or a beam. A QRP rig and an end-fed wire thrown into a tree by the lake will work the world on a good day.

Tips for Your First 9M LLOTA Activation

Start close to home. Pick a nearby recreational lake park for your first outing. The urban lake gardens in the Klang Valley, Perak and Penang are ideal shakedown runs.
Check public access before you go. Some references sit inside nature reserves, water-catchment areas or recreation parks that have opening hours, permits or entry fees.
Pack light but pack smart: radio, antenna, battery, water, sunscreen, insect repellent, and shelter. Malaysia’s weather can change fast and the lake shore is exactly where the rain finds you first.
Post your activation plan ahead of time so hunters know when to listen for you. Self-spotting is allowed, use it.
Mind the 200 m rule. Stay within 200 m of the water’s edge, or operate /MM from a boat. The reference is the water body, not the car park two kilometres away.
Log in ADIF with the SIG fields. <MY_SIG>LLOTA</MY_SIG> and <MY_SIG_INFO>LLMY-xxxx</MY_SIG_INFO>. Without those, the platform cannot match your QSOs to the reference and your activation will not count.
Have fun. This is about enjoying radio and the outdoors. The contacts are the excuse; the lake is the point.

World Lakes Day, 29 to 30 August

LLOTA runs an annual World Lakes Day activation weekend, and the 9M LLOTA plan is to be on the air for it. If you have been waiting for an excuse to do your first lake activation, this is it. Pick a reference, post your plan, and let us fill the Malaysian bands with lake-shore signals that weekend.

Share your activation plans in your club WhatsApp and Telegram groups, on Facebook and X with the #9MLLOTA hashtag, and on the LLOTA cluster. The more activations on the air, the more fun for everyone, activators and hunters alike.

Spread the Word

9M LLOTA only works if people know about it. Tell your club members. Share the website in your WhatsApp and Telegram groups. Post your activations on Facebook, X, and the local club nets. Tag them #9MLLOTA so we can find them.

If you run a ham radio club in Malaysia, consider adding a 9M LLOTA activation day to your calendar. A club outing to a nearby lake, with two or three stations on the air from the same reference, is one of the most enjoyable field events you can run, and it puts your club’s callsigns on the LLOTA map.

Let us put Malaysian lakes and lagoons on the air.

73, and good hunting.