For those of you activating Lake District Fells for SOTA in 2026, please consider also logging your contacts in the Wainwrights on the Air programme. Most SOTA summits in the Lake District are also WOTAs.
It can also be interesting to plan routes to SOTA summits that include Wainwrights, bagging a few contacts on the way. I like to combine local activations of Wainwrights via a handheld on-route to an all-singing-and-dancing VHF/HF activation of a SOTA summit, for example the Fairfield Horseshoe will gain a SOTA and 8 WOTAs.
We’ve been working hard to make it easier for activators and chasers. The new WOTA Data application supports uploading of files in both ADIF and SOTA CSV format.
There is also now a dedicated WOTA spotter application that makes it super-easy to add a spot when on a Wainwright. We continue to support pull-through of SOTA summit spots and alerts that are also Wainwrights.
The WOTA Mapping application has been enhanced to support filtering based on summits activated or chased.
The dedicated Discourse Server is for discussing all aspects of the programme.
Finally, we launched our own 2026 challenge (quite coincidentally as it happens!) to promote activity on 2m/70cm CW and SSB. So if you are interested in the SOTA challenge you’ll be gaining points on qualifying summits for the WOTA challenge too.
Cheers! Mark. M5TEA.