Putting this up here to prompt a bit of discussion about a WOTA group activation / activation day. Any thoughts or strong feelings about what, when, how etc?
I’ve got a few fells that are sitting out in limbo that need clearing off the to do list and Reg and I had a good time on Dent (well I did, Reg probably though my timing was off )
I’m off to Great and Little Mell Fells tomorrow for a bit of get out whilst the going looks good. All welcome to join me. Timings are roughly as per activations, they aren’t challenging walks, apart from the mud maybe.
It’s a great idea and one that we touted a few years ago. It would be good to get an NoV for that day and to run a VHF/HF station as well and possibly drum up a bit of interest, as well as providing an easy contact for stations out on the hills.
Activating remaining WOTAs on your list is good but the choice of summit needs to be one that attracts other activators. I’ve activated some fairly dull WOTAs in my time or ones that took a lot of driving to get to. IMO you probably need to suggest a shortlist that are not too far for participants to drive to and have interesting walk-ups (but not too long nor too strenuous) and good views [i.e. good VHF take-off]. And do it when the weather is good. I activated Little Mell Fell yesterday on my drive home from Scotland but in freezing temperature and light snow, it wouldn’t have made a fun group activity. But in late Spring in dry, warm-ish, sunny weather?
Secondly, how would the group activity work? Would it be just walking up and down together but then everyone doing their own radio thing? Or, would the radio activity be coordinated? e.g. round-robin activators on 2m FM or a (special callsign / special event) HF station manned by activators in rotation.
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