It seems that a Yorkshire Dales SOTA event could be popular and well supported. I’d been sat on a desire to have a Dales SOTA do for years but never managed to think of an idea of suitable location and programme.
I do like Ben’s GW SOTA event format, with an activation in the morning and then a social gathering later on with food. I think some form of fundraising is also a good idea, like the GW SOTA event raffle (I never win at raffles, but there have been some genuinely great prizes at the Welsh event.).
Yorkshire Dales SOTA Weekend 2026
After so many weeks of dry sunny weather, it was rather disappointing that the weekend just gone was more akin to autumn rather than the start of the school summer holidays.
I’d requested, and collected, the 152bhp Morris Traveller for the weekend because I thought it would be fun to show a few folks the thing in the flesh after mentioning it on the reflector. In the end I left the Traveller safely tucked up in my garage in the dry.
1967 Traveller with Mazda 1.8 twin cam on a sunnier day with Ingleborough G/NP-005 on the horizon.
My son, Alex, M7GTU, had requested to use my FT-817 for the event. I never really use the FT-817 for voice modes and Alex had not used the FT-817 before, so we went up White Hill G/SP-006 on the Friday for a bit of practice. Due to the prolonged dry period, I was able to walk up the hill in just trainers and my feet remained dry, which is almost unheard of. I was amazed to see quite a number of round leaf sundew (drosera rotundifolia) plants, I’ve only ever seen them in Scotland before. Seeing the plants made my day.
Drosera Rotundifolia on White Hill G/SP-006 - Carnivorous plants!
I’d hastily packed my SOTAbeams 3 element 2m beam to use with the FT-817 but I’d forgot to pack guy lines and pegs for the pole! I opted to hold the pole for the duration of our activation, whilst Alex operated. Alex seemed to enjoy himself, he’d never used a beam before and I must admit, I also found it fun working in tandem, with me peaking the signals on the beam. We had a surprisingly good run of contacts for a Friday afternoon on 2FM, mostly S2S.
The Saturday arrived and it was fairly bright at first, but shortly the wind picked up and then the cloud and mist moved in. Me and Alex had opted to activate Fountains Fell G/NP-017 and we trudged up into the cloud and didn’t really see much until we came back down again. I’d decided to leave the pole and beam in the car as with the wind being so menacing, a beam would have been a nightmare.
Alex M7GTU admiring the view of Pen Y Ghent 
An old SOTAbeams Rucksack Special (AKA flowerpot) antenna was deployed using cable ties to a fence post whilst we sheltered from the weather.
Lunch break on Fountains Fell G/NP-017
I wasn’t feeling very enthusiastic, admittedly, so Alex did the operating and I just piggybacked the first QSOs to bag the activation points. I think Alex pretty much worked everybody heard, apart from M0EFI/P and M0NJH. We were just a touch late for Fraser - he wasn’t enjoying the atrocious weather and had gone QRT (a wise choice!). M0NJH was just a little too weak unfortunately. It seemed pretty obvious when the action had stopped, 2FM just seemed to go quiet, so we made our way back to car earlier than expected, but again I think it was the right decision.
We made a brief visit the campsite on Saturday evening, and spent a bit of time chatting to Fraser MM0EFI, Tim G5OLD and Ben GW4BML. The weather was still grim so we headed home after an hour.
Instead of SOTA on the Sunday, I met up with some Mountain Rescue friends to help out with a dog training session.
73, Colin