Boats on the Air

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Peter G5AIB has had an extensive interview published in the latest edition of Powerboat and RIB Magazine. I mention it here because in it, Peter discusses Marine VHF radio, and refers to his other passion of SOTA - including combining his two hobbies by chasing SOTA activations from his boat!

On the above webpage, there is a link to subscribe to the free digital edition for anyone that wishes to take a look.

“Boats on the Air” is a relatively young programme, that I flirted with just over a year ago during 5 months working at sea. I note with some amusement that my “activation” from MV Spirit of Adventure is still listed without needing to go back particularly far in the archive!

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Hi Tom,
No result here:

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That’s right Eric. That’s because BOTA still hasn’t added a facility for bulk log import yet despite me proposing it well over 12 months ago. I made over 4000 QSOs from the ship, and I’ve no plan to enter them manually!

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Hi Tom,
It’s getting a little crazy. How do I differentiate between Boats on the Air and Bicycles on the Air also Parks on the Air and Pedestrians on the Air. There are others but these should suffice to illustrate the point that we have a bad case of runaway nomenclature and overused and ambiguous abbreviations.

It’s going to need more than an aspirin, a cup of tea and a lie down.

73
Ron
VK3AFW
Who identifies with he, him, you there, and not him again

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I thought BOTA was Beaches On The Air?

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Quite possibly. It was my own abbreviation, rather than any sense of an official acronym.

Edit: Boats on the Air does use the acronym BOTA on some of its webpages. As does Beaches on the Air. TMP.

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I’ve heard of this program however I never looked into it. It would make almost any of my operating an activation according to the rules ( Join us to activate any floating object on any body of water)… Signed up and we will see!

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Are there any SOTA summits with a lake in the AZ so you could do a combined SOTA/BOTA (and POTA) activation?

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I can’t think of any in G/LD that would be in the AZ, but Glasgwm GW/NW-015 and Freeholds Top G/SP-011 would be possibilities for this!

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Will you carry one of my canoes up then? :joy:

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If the lake has a beach it could be a SOTA/BOTA/BOTA/POTA activation.

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Also Beacon Hill GW/MW-009…

Would water wings count as being afloat…?

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It can’t be both BOTA and BOTA - that’s impossible.

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Tom, your activation doesn’t count. You were on a ship, not a boat. :smile:

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Boats on the Air says:

So if the boat is on the beach is that not moored or alongside? And so the activation could be both.

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Does this mean it has to be a VLF activation to count?

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Therefore SOTA.

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Taking a snorkel, we could start “Submarine On The Air”, then it would be possible to have SOTA and SOTA to SOTA and SOTA Qs
And if the Beaches extended below water level, and submarine counted as a boat, we could have
SOTA SOTA BOTA BOTA to…
Sigh, when does the bonus period start again…?

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This thread is turning into a November Classic
Meanwhile it is hammering it down outside. Just pleased I am not on my way down from a summit. :joy:

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My favourite local activation site (although I’ve not yet been there):

Tyrwhitt Peak (ZL3/OT-493), upon which is located Arethusa Pool (ZLL/0015) on Mou Waho Island (ZLI/OT-025) which is itself a park - Mou Waho Scenic Reserve (ZLP/OT-213) and lies within Lake Wanaka (ZLL/0830). The whole palimpsest is on New Zealand’s South Island (OC-134 or ZLI/ZZ-175). If you’re really after them all, the grid square is RE45mk!

Given the 500m proximity rule for ZL-Lakes award, you can simultaneously activate all 6.

Sadly, I just checked the limit of the summit activation zone and the lake itself is just outside it, so you could not claim the summit from a boat on a beach on the lake to make the exchange of references really tedious. But still, take a spare battery, I reckon.

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