Oh we don’t have any problems like that here Matt 
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Shared language, no doubt, and cheaper labor costs IMO.
Have you seen the cost of brie and Camembert nowadays? I blame Brexit.
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Rather than individual activators trying to sort out these issues of access, is this something the SOTA organisation should consider taking on when a ‘discussion’ takes place on a summit?
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The MT has discussed this several times. The majority opinion is that opening a formal discussion carries the risk that a formal ban might be imposed, and it is better to not take the risk.
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I have worked for and with our NP for several years.
I would not expect a full time member of staff to have behaved or have spoken to a member of the public like you stated. Certainly non of the full time national park staff I’ve ever come across would have behaved like that.
However, my experience of some volunteer rangers, is different. Some of them can behave rather arrogantly and may well be on a little power trip. Do this nature reserve use volunteers?
Dave
Do you know whether she was a volunteer?
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I was wondering the same thing… In my experience full-time wardens jobs are hard-won, and their incumbents are generally experts on the habitats they are curating. I find it very unlikely one would come out with the nonsense this one is reported to have done…
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Mmmm… If all this was in one of the adventure stories I grew up reading, the ‘ranger’ would actually be an imposter, probably part of a gang of smugglers, and the story about birds nesting was just a handy excuse to get any passing people out of the way!
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Now, why would we need smugglers between parts of the United Kingdom? 
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Black market cheese …
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Hello Dave,
I do not know if she was a volunteer or a paid employee.
She asked if we had permission to be there and then before we could answer said I know you don’t or my boss would have informed me.
We were just off the public footpath on a pile of rocks. Anyway, next time we will use earphones even if the place is empty and hopefully no one will notice us.
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Using earphones and working CW is the less impacting way of activating SOTA.
73,
Guru
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A lot worse things going on in the world - jobs worth no doubt!! Live and let live I say!
I have to use earphones with CW anyway so I can hear those 329 and 429 chasers above even a bit of wind noise. Last time I activated in a gale I couldn’t hear them at all [with the tent noise] so next time it’s that windy I’m going to take my Bose noise-cancelling BT headphones with an audio lead to my rig.
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Using headphones is good practice, but why do you think that CW is less impacting?
I think Guru meant that using headphones makes CW less impacting. The sound of Morse code from the loudspeaker can be heard further away and might be more irritating to passers-by than the sound of voices.
But CW has the advantage that there’s no activator’s voice as there would be with SSB or FM modes.
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Change your breakfast
Seriously, CW tends to attract people who are intrigued. If they hear voices and they are older they think CB. It’s scary now how many people do not know of amateur radio.
Only once had someone who seemed annoyed I was on the summit of Beinn Mhic Mhonaidh. I wasn’t making much noise TBH. He was furious as he finished his ascent and walked up to me and moaned that someone else was sat near the cairn and went on about how you should be able to get peace and quiet on a Corbett. I offered to turn everything off whilst he had his piece at the summit but he wandered off muttering to himself. As he never answered me about stopping operating, I stopped the CW VOX working and left the keyer calling CQ on repeat with no RF going out hoping to see if the noise would make his head assplode. If he had said yes, I’d have stopped and taken more photos as the ones I have are rubbish for the sweat invested in climbing it.
Normally people are fascinated both with HF working the world or uwaves on same frequency as Wifi going hundreds of km when they can’t get wifi to fill their houses. I guess the moral in his case is don’t climb steep Corbetts if your Michael Miles are giving you gyp.
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That sense of entitlement is more common than one might think but most don’t vocalise it. It reminds of the photo-taking woman who, being annoyed to find anyone already at the summit before she got there [in this case, me], said that they are a ‘summit hogger’.
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I have to use headphones with CW in the quiet shack. I need the sound inside my head to have any chance of decoding it.
I’m always cautious of making any noise on a quiet summit - unless I’m alone - because I enjoy those rare moments these days when you can hear no human activity at all. I assume others do too.
The only complaint I’ve had was from a lady who arrived beside me, looked at the antenna and equipment, and said crossly “well I didn’t expect to see that here” showed no interest in what I was doing and stalked off.
Overwhelmingly, though, interaction has been curiosity and friendly conversation.
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