Here’s my QSO map. I was a tad disappointed not to get down into England - on my first activation of the hill in 2023 I got a S2S on FM with G6PNN/P in the LD.
When conditions are just right 2m SSB can be spectacular.
A log from a backpackers contest back in 2005 (4th September) from the summit of G/SP-010 located in the NW of England (IO83RO).
Of the 72 qsos recorded the following 24 were not on UK mainland. There was also GM and GW in the log but I havent listed those.
All with 5w (FT-817) and a 9 element beam at around 15 foot. Not a a bad return and probably more than I would have achieved on 40m.
DR9A
ON4KHG
ON4WY
PI4Z
DL1EJA
PA6NL
F6KQV/P
F8BRK
DL0DR
OR5A
PA2M
GJ4ZUK/P
F4DRU/P
F6BEE/P
OO4BAX
PI9CM
PE1OPK
F6KSL
DK5DQ
PC5T
PE1AHX
F1CVU/P
PI9A
2I0RPM/P
Its one of the reason I like 2m SSB and do like to give it a blast on the rare outings I make. You just never know 
Ian
That is truly amazing, Ian! My normal DX range on FM is rarely going over 300-400km ! Most recent was couple of weeks ago with Robin @GM7PKT at 440km. I barely recall making just over 500km contact once, but couldn’t remember a callsign, perhaps with G or GM couple of years back and that is all.
Dare i say that there is no excuse for a SOTA activator not being able to find their locator within seconds of being asked for it. It’s on the sota summit reference data page for each summit. And is in the summit details given by SOTAGoat. Once found (which of course could be done at home or before leaving the car) it can be written on the log page or saved in the logging device in use. Other than SOTA operators anyone on a hill in a contest is likely to be “in the contest” and organised for it. Their log sheets already have their locator written at the top of the page. Other operators on VHF, in the field, but not doing SOTA and not in the contest, do you have any of those?
No need to “know the locator” just find it once and then record it somewhere reliable, ready for use in the next contact.
Vk portalog software has an option to display the summit code, wwff code (if any) and locator in a continuous cycle near the top of the logging page. Unfortunately contests have different rules and it is not convenient to use that software for various contests as the serial number fields are missing and the received locator requires navigation down screen to find the field, but at least can be recorded. I have used comment fields for some short contests but I am hoping that a forthcoming version will provide a generalised contest exchange option.
In VK the vhf/uhf contests only occur once in spring, summer and winter, ie 3 times a year. So that gives only rare practice at using locators unless they are exchanged routinely, which the VHF dx ops do.
The slowest contacts are the ones with ops who first say “I’m not IN the contest therefore I am physically unable to give you a contact” whereas that is not due to wanting to be a nuisance usually, it is more that they are uncomfortable doing something new. They can sometimes be coached re the serial number but getting a locator out of them is a seriously difficult task depending on when the last shower was.
Good luck increasing interest in vhf/uhf contesting. It is the best in many ways.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
Or perhaps they just don’t want to be a ‘unique’ and not wishing to bother with a check log?
Very true and it’s important to entice these people in because next contest they may actually be seeking out contest stations to work them.
Yes, its days like that which make it special and worth the effort and they rarely come along.
Yes conditions were good, there was a big contest on with the large stations having big ears and being in the right place at the right time.
Its always worth putting a call out at anytime, and as someone once said , if you make enough noise about what you are doing, someone will be there listening for you.
Ian
Presumably that is the locator of the true summit. The operator’s locator is not necessarily the same.
Martyn M1MAJ
With a kilowatt and 4 bayed antennas!
I thought he was probably doing the heavy lifting on that one!
Hi Martyn,
That is true.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
One of the issues is that the number of different references that need to be taken these days makes getting them all together a task in itself. On a recent activation of my local 1 pointer there were several contests of various sorts going on at the time (2m backpackers, 40m WAB - worked all Britain and others on HF)
I used :-
G/SP-017 - The SOTA reference.
IO83PM - Locator Square
WN - 2 letter postcode - I had to look this up as I was unsure if I was still in WN
SD50 - the Worked all Britain square
B/G-0445 - Bunkers on the Air - ROC Billinge Hill
[TP1362/S3514] - Trig Point reference - only 1 is marked on the pillar and its the other one that most people want.
Other info required for large contests include :-
EU-005 - IOTA
14 - CQ WW Zone
27 - ITU Zone
Luckily, that summit is not POTA or WWFF.
Then there are those contests that require other extras, Power output, Age, 22nd letter of the address you lived at 23 years and 4 months ago.
Fortunately I knew most of them, being aware of major contest activity and knowing the summit well, but a casual activator might not even be aware that they need to have all the information on a particular day and decide not to bother and just stick to what they know.
Ian
What’s more, I realised (after posting) that it happened on my most recent activation (not yet uploaded to database). The activation was of G/TW-004, whose true summit is in IO94pa, but it’s not really a good spot to set up. My actual activation position, well within the activation area, was in IO93px. Even the “big square” was different!
Martyn M1MAJ
A nice bit of Sea path ducting today to GM4KNU/P GM/WS-065 who’s signal was peaking at 57 at times and was loud and clear down here for over an hour.483km or 300.2 miles.
Don’t most contests have a way to handle contacts with non-participants, whether it’s log “000” as the sequence number, or whatever?
For UK summits I know to go armed with the locator and WAB square, and to be able to say whether my activation location is close enough to a trig point to count, but I don’t use WAB to draw in contacts.
For other *OTA activities, it all depends on how much extra faff I’m prepared to deal with during an activation. As I understand it, quite a few of the schemes rely on the activator uploading a log to some site or other. I can handle that for POTA, but the WWFF procedure is Too Much Faff™. I handled the faff for IOTA on a one-off basis for the time I spent operating from Rottnest/Wadjemup back in April. I was asked by quite a few contacts I made whether I could jump through the necessary hoops, and the scheme relies on QSLs (paper or LotW), but that was on the back of a POTA activation, not a SOTA one, as the highest point on the island is somewhat less than 150 metres above sea level…
Use the app “Easy QTH Locator”
