Apologies, I am not really sure which category this should go under.
I was recently randomly using the app to find SOTA sites in England and came across the above named hill. It rang a bell.. I realised that I had previously visited this hill top (II just confirmed the date as 3rd April 2025). At that time I was actually making a POTA activation of GB-4397 and GB-4400.
It was a longish walk from the housing estate, but the weather was nice. I passed by the brick deserted building at the top and setup my POTA station, making 22 QSOs on 20m.
So I am wondering if this was also actually a SOTA activation?
The top of this hill is rather flat and so I would be surprised if II wasn’t in the 25m zone.
Are there any web based tools which shade the area of the 25m activation zone? I have used Google maps and know more or less exactly where I was. I have previously only made one activation back in 2005, so it would be nice to claim a new one.
Technically you should call “CQ SOTA” and give the summit reference according to the general SOTA rules from time to time. I am surprised that no chaser asked if you were on the summit and recommened to use the SOTA ref too.
So you can only judge yourself how it went (or feels). But not judge, no jury
This tool as it states is an estimator. It relies on the DEM digital elevation data. So take it with a grain of salt especially on ‘real’ mountains with rocks and sharp ridgelines. There it fails horribly.
I am happy that I am A-OK here. As I mentioned the top is very flat. I didn’t bother finding the trig point as I wasn’t interested,however it appears that I was very close to the trig point.
I was cream-crackered from the walk up so I wanted to get my POTA activation (2-fer) done quickly. I used a website tool called Kwirk to check that I was in both SSSI zones. This overlap falls within the area highlighted by the website.
It was a nice memorable activation, but I really must remember to bring water next time :-).
