Sota WAB Squares for UK

Worked an English sota today

Not know his WAB square
But good news one has spotted when you go to the lets say
Kitt Hill G/DC-003
you will see information Gird REF
in this case Kitt hill

Grid Reference: SX 374713

Take the first and fourth number and BINGO

SX-37 theres your WAB Square for Kitt Hill this works on all UK summits
So if said party does not know there WAB square number you can locate it like above.

One does like collecting the WAB squares

PS thanks to the said gent on air whom popped on air and told us the said WAB square was thanks again.

Hope this of help to those that require the WAB Square too

Karl
M3FEH

Hi Karl

This methodology will probably work for most activations but because of the 25m vertical height rule, it is possible that an activation may take place within the activation zone but not on the actual summit so could be in a different WAB square. So to be sure it would be wise to check your gps or map. For example: G/SB-004 Peel Fell could be activated from NT60 but the actual summit is in NY69. In this instance it would also give us the anomaly of using a GM prefix on a G SOTA summit!

(Typo corrected from NT69 to NY69 - thanks Dave G4IAR - 20/11/14)

73
Nick G4OOE

Interesting to see this award from WAB.

I can’t see anywhere to say if you can claim this with existing contacts, or how you’d determine they were within the 30m of the trig point rule.
Maybe both stations have to enter logs which correlate.

I now nothing about WAB :blush:

72
Pete

Yes, that does look interesting Pete. An award that might work well for us cycling radio folk perhaps? I wonder if it will catch on? As far as I’m aware there are very few WAB participants that use CW, but maybe that has changed?

Hello again

Just to inform you all one does not operate C/W as yet
But one day will be brave enough to do it
then start chasing C/W sotas will be interesting

Not on WAB awards ones self but enjoy collecting them

Karl
M3FEH

May I correct a slight slip of the keyboard, the summit of G/SB-004 is actually in NY69. NT69 is 90 km away from NT60!

As regards the WAB Trig Point Award, this does not commence until 1st January 2015 so any existing contacts will not count. WAB is run on trust so we’re trusting people to abide by the rule, as indeed must be the case with the SOTA 25m rule. We do not require logs to be submitted by activators, as stated it’s all on trust.

There has been a lot of interest shown in this forthcoming award both by WAB members and SOTA collectors/activators that we have spoken to at rallies. In fact many of the active stations are avid collectors of both award schemes. We are really hopeful that this one is going to take off and many of our members are already plotting routes to their local trig points!

73,

Dave, G4IAR
WAB Awards Manager

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got shown this site if any one wants help with there WAB squares and it appears what the WAB people use

https://data.nbn.org.uk/Reports/10km_Grid_Square/Selector/NZ

M3FEH /WAB SX-045

Actually, speaking as the WAB Awards Manager, I’ve never seen that site before, so I’m not sure how you can say that it appears to be what the WAB people use!

http://www.streetmap.co.uk is one good reference as are http://gridreferencefinder.com for Great Britain and http://irish.gridreferencefinder.com for Ireland. There are others along with several apps for mobile phones.

Please forgive the slight divergence from SOTA!

One was informed of this but one is checking out the other site you mentioned
The one presented shows the O/S map to which is very handy and you can see the area of which the square covers

Hi Dave

Are there many (any!) overseas CW WAB collectors? The Trig award would fit in nicely with SOTA and other related activities but CW on the higher bands (40m and up) is really the only practical mode that combines well with lightweight cycling.

73 Richard G3CWI

Hello there
I’ve been using the site for quite a long time and it is real good.
http://www.getamap.ordnancesurveyleisure.co.uk/
73 de CU3AA, Joao

Hi Richard,

There are a few that collect by any means going and their claims have a high proportion of CW in them. Ben DL7UCW and Sergei, RV9DC are probably the most avid, but there are quite a few others.

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I do hope that I’m not intruding too much here, but I’ve had an email from a SOTA regular asking if I would explain a little more about notification of activity, claims procedures etc… A lot of interest is being shown in this award amongst the SOTA fraternity and I hope that it’s a two way thing and will encourage some of our WAB activators to get a little higher than they’re used to for the benefit of both groups.

Briefly then: WAB has a Yahoo! Group, which, whilst it has other functions is primarily used as an email reflector to notify its over 400 members of forthcoming activity. It is also used as a means of spotting. For those wishing to join email: worked_all_britain-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Membership is moderated and you will not get spam from this reflector.

Operating: You can “do you own thing” and let stations come to you, your operating frequency will soon get around, as it already does with current SOTA operation. SOTA has provided many WAB members with rare squares in the past, for which they are duly grateful. You could call into an established net. As a portable station, you would be given priority and run down with the minimum of fuss. The choice is yours.

Claiming: There is an Excel “Tracker” available for download on the website. Simply fill in the date and one call sign worked, the Tracker will do everything else for you. Then just email it to myself when you attain an award level. There is no fee for activators and a modest one for collectors.

Sorry that is actually brief for me and thanks once again for your time.

73,

Dave, G4IAR

You could do with bringing WAB into the 20th Century and get some custom software sorted. I know just the man who can help you with this should you happen to have some silver with which you can cross his palm.

Thanks, but we’d be looking at 21st Century and since it’s inception 45 years ago, WAB has always been run on what its members have freely put into the grroup.

I didn’t want to suggest too great a culture shock by moving to the 21st Century in one bound! :smile:

This new award will nicely stroke my OCD and I’ll be picking summits with trigs where possible from now on.

WAB has, on a couple of summits, provided the contacts needed to qualify the hill for which I am eternally grateful.
I did activate a square, a few years ago when unitary authorities were included in the square detail, just after leaving a summit. The area was so small I had to use GPS to be certain I was in the tiny area while the ends of my antenna were outside it. Apart from the fun of that pile-up, which was immense, I spent most of my time watching a reindeer playing silly B’s in the snow.

I, for one, find the synergy between SOTA and WAB to be most satisfying

Barry GM4TOE

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