Special activations

I thought I’d asked this question of the collective SOTA wisdom, but I think only in my head so far!

Has there ever been, or consideration given to, special activations? By this I mean activations of special locations that aren’t SOTA summits but are true to the competition?

OK, so a scenario might work best. I have a plan to activate Pillar Rock in the Lake District, UK. It isn’t a SOTA summit but it would be great to have the SOTA resources available for a 0-point but ‘highly interesting’ location.

Without the backing of the SOTA spotting system or indeed the dedicated chasers I would anticipate it being hard work to get contacts from what I think otherwise would prove to be an interesting contact for those into SOTA.

I can’t help but think this question has come up before?

Regards, Mark.
M0NOM

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GE Mark,
It’s always worth checking whether some of these are HuMPs or Wainwrights though I don’t think Pillar Rock will be either. I agree, it’s unfortunate that some of the classics like Scafell or Bow Fell do not qualify for our attentions but they just don’t have the prominence.

The Summitsbase website supported these other classifications but it is now sadly defunct. The SOTA organization won’t be taking that over any time soon I feel. They have more than enough to do and they do a fine job.

Perhaps the best you could do would be to post an upcoming sortie on here under ‘off topic’ or do Pillar Rock in conjunction with Pillar LD6 and mention it in the notes of a SOTA alert. LD6 is always popular, as it’s a bit ‘out of the way’ and gets done less often. There’s always the DX Cluster and don’t forget WAB have a reflector and PR/ Pillar are in NY11.

As an aside, I once activated Scafell in error after doing Scafell Pike. After twelve 2m-FM QSO’s someone on Red Pike drew my attention to the date it was withdrawn - 6th March 2002 after only 4 days as a SOTA. To avoid total disappointment Gt.Gable was added on the way back on a hot day in Summer 2002. What a day!

Like you, I have an inkling that this is covered in another thread somewhere?

Good luck with Pillar Rock. Don’t fall!
73, John.

I would guess that you would be activating with a handy, because the Old West Route doesn’t give much opportunity for an HF antenna! It is a great classic with a LOT of history and I would love to work you on it but sad to say I’m too far away for VHF FM.

I doubt that SOTA would divert resourses to documenting such summits, after all with fifteen new Associations last year and sixteen so far this year a lot of work is going into expanding SOTA. However, you might give some thought to starting your own scheme. To keep the work load low you could confine it to the classic rock summits, such as the Napes Needle or the Pisgah on Scafell. Just a fun thought!

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Whilst we don’t have the spotting resources of SOTA, WAB would be happy to publicise the activity through it’s .io group and Facebook page, it can also be spotted through the FB chat group. The associated Trig Point would be of more than just passing interest!

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However,
http://www.hema.org.uk/indexSpotting.jsp
has replaced it.
73,
Rod

The plan will be to activate with my AlexLoop so we are potentially looking at any band between 40m and 10m.

Thanks very much for all the replies - I guess my question was a little tongue in cheek :grinning: - I know all too well what a PITA special cases can be in any software system!

Maybe it’s time I started working on an Android spot aggregation application which would mitigate some of these issues. My thoughts on this subject very much revolve around how useful the SOTA Spotter Android application is and how it has such a big impact on the quality of my contacts when activating (and chasing!)

Regards, Mark.

…for the lucky few. Those of us not so fortunate have been booted out and had all our activator logs deleted due to the heinous crime of being SOTA MT.

I’m sure Rob G7LAS who runs the HEMA scheme, would be delighted to address EYP’s concerns, unfortunately, he’s banned from SOTA.

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A small number of hams are excluded from some SOTA facilities for the simple reason that they refuse to abide by the Acceptable Use Policy. The use of SOTA facilities would be restored to them if they agree to abide by the AUP. A few others have been excluded from the Reflector for repeated breaches of the AUP despite warnings. During my tenure on the MT just one person has been permanently excluded from all facilities. This was because of evidence of cheating.

Individual cases can not be discussed on the reflector, they are a private matter between the individual and the MT. Any posts attempting to discuss individual cases will be removed.

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