In reply to G3CWI:
I was thinking more in terms of locating the summit in something like Google, going to high resolution, putting the cursor on the summit and reading off the co-ordinates, though this may not work well for the more obscure or indeterminate summits.
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G3CWI:
True.
But at my age confusion is normality 
(or is it?)
Roger G4OWG
In reply to G3CWI:
Dear Richard!
That is not as bad, as you think. The problem is that probably you operate only at HF… I am QRV up to 10 GHz 
therefore I know more about the soul of WW QTH locator… We use the 6 character WW locator in general, since it provides sufficient accuracy for the everyday applications. However it has a 8 and 10 digit vesrion as well! Have a look at this please: http://gyalogradio.ham.hu/ Choose “Csúcslista” = summit list at the left edge of the screen then click on a discretional HA/xx SOTA region You may see that our summits are positioned by 8 character locators, but no doubt that we could have specified it using 10 character locators is if it were requested.
Since you’re an Englishman, let’s take an example in IO91 square, where the majority of London is located. This is a globe trapezium of 111 km height in N-S direction and 139 km wide into E-W direction at the middle. (For the sake of simplicity I rounded the decimals.) The 6 digit WW locator (at London’s latitude) specifies a 5.8 km wide and 4.6 km high square. (The higher latitude you are located at the Nothrern semisphere, the better the E-W direction accuracy becomes.) This commonly known locator square, however, can be divided into 10 x 10 sub-squares using characters 7 and 8 and this can be divide it into additional 24x24 sub-squares by characters 9 and 10. So you get a total of 240 x240 pieces of 24.13 m x 19.29 m size subsquares. Is this not good enough for you? If you wish, you can become more accurate creating 12 or 14 character locators analogously!
A practical example: I spent my holiday in JN73RX01KF. ( QTH lokátor - térképen ) This exactly defines the house in Sveti Jakov i Filip, Zadary county, Croatia where I spent my last week holiday. Another example: QTH lokátor - térképen here you can see my house with my A4S yagi beaming towards Venesuela on top of that.
73: Joska, HA5CW
In reply to HA5CW:
“That is not as bad, as you think. The problem is that probably you operate only at HF… I am QRV up to 10 GHz 
therefore I know more about the soul of WW QTH locator… :-)”
Joska
Again, you really should do proper research before commenting. The Italians are only using the locator form AA99BB.
Also, as far as I’m aware, I’m SOTA’s top 10GHz activator having activated 24 summits on that band - including one today. That’s 24 more than you I think!
It is perhaps a little unwise to assume that you know more than someone else without research.
73
Richard
G3CWI
In reply to G3CWI:
Hi Ric,
Again, you really should do proper research before commenting. The
Italians are only using the locator form AA99BB.
Yes Ric they use the 6 digit form, but in most italian SOTA regions, they also give lat/long summits coordinates.
And is it realy a problem to locate a summit with only its locator and its name ?
This is certainly not the reason why Italians do not join your SOTA
73 Alain F6ENO
In reply to F6ENO:
This is certainly not the reason why Italians do not join your SOTA
It is the reason that the Italians have given - see Brian G8ADD’s earlier post!
Do you have further information that contradicts their statement?
On a more positive note, we are surely all in agreement that having Italy in SOTA would be a good thing.
73
Richard
G3CWI
In reply to G8ADD:
I am told that the “sticking point” was
that the Italians had located their summits by the IARU locator system
Hmm… the general rule requiring ARMs to specify decimal latitude and longitude seems to be conspicuously disregarded by the UK and Ireland associations.
In reply to M1MAJ:
The ngr was suitably accurate, but you will be pleased to know that this is indeed being put right at present, subject to holiday QRM.
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G3CWI:
Dear Richard!
I’m sorry, regarding my fault regarding your 10GHz activity. It’s really a peerless performance. I’m sorry once more! However this does not influence the basic question itself.
It’s not quite that simple. Have you seen how large a locator square is? … For example, in the Lakes, High Street, Stoney Cove Pike and Harter Fell are all in IO84jn. <<<
You are both right and wrong regarding this issue! Again, you picked out a (part of a) sentence out of my note and built an appealing argumentation around that refutating my alleged statement though that would obviously not fit considering (quoting) the rest of my note as well!
Yes, a 6 character locator sub-squares is really big. Juts as you also demonstrated and I have also added. It is 5.8 x 4.6 km in your case. But please read the rest of my note as well! A few sentences later I demonstrated (or deduced) for you that an accuracy of 24.13 m x 19.29 m could be obtained by means of using the 10 character locator system instead of the commonly used 6 character version.
Please, don’t spoon-feed statements that I did not tell! I did not tell any statement about the accuracy or consistency of the Italian summit database. Especially not because I have not seen it!
I do not make a fetish of QTH locators! I merely stated that a position can be described accurately not only by specifying the latitude and longitude coordinates, but also WW (Maidenhead) locator. In order to avoid any misunderstanding, let me put it with a different wording as well: The due accuracy could have been obtained by any SOTA association using any of the aforementioned 2 versions!
And what is more, both of the methods can be either accurate or inaccurate for our purpose! Please note, that the coordinate based positioning can also be at least as inaccurate as the 6 character locators are, supposing that it is specified only in xx.xx° or xx° yy’ format! It is a must to use xx° yy" zz" or xx.xxxx° format!
The only condition of using WW locators is that the Italian (or whatever other nation’s) database manager have collected suitably high resolution maps or used Google Earth and (s)he would have invested sufficient work and time and (s)he had extend the locators from 6 to 8 or 10 characters, as e.g. the Hungarian SOTA managers did it.
No more and no less; this is what I meant to say for you.
73: Joska, HA5CW