Lank Rigg 2m & 40m 07/04/2026

[M8XGO]

A very warm and windy day on the summit .

I usually only work HF on summits which are also SOTA , but as we are showing up on clusters like fieldspotter etc I thought I would try a few activations this year on the Wainwrights . A lot of people visiting the area for SOTA don’t seem to log the WOTA ref and I assume people outside VHF range are not used to hearing WOTA stations . As a lot of amateurs enjoy chasing things like parks , castles bunkers , trigs , and WAB squares , I’d assume 200+ WOTAS would also be worth people chasing from round the UK and farther afield . Some of them must be in WAB squares people would be interested in ?

I did Lank Rigg as it’s got trig point TP4359 it’s a HEMA and the WAB square .

Started on 2m as usual , working Derek 2E0MIX who was line of sight and I could probably have contacted without the antenna plugged in and Daz M0MKU in Dearham who was about 55 but he was struggling with me . I heard nothing else and got no more response assuming people had other things to do , so took the flowerpot down and saw it was broken , I put the spare one up the mast and the band was unsurprisingly much busier .

I then changed over to 40m . I got little response on 40 , though I had some nice qsos rather than a pile up , and the UK contacts were interested in the WOTA aspect and the WAB squares but it may have been conditions ? Apart from Geoff in Carlisle ( he wasn’t in London as shown on the map below) the contacts came from farther away Inverness and SW England and a couple of ON stations .

A nice day out .

Richard.

2M contacts.

40m contacts

[G8CPZ]

Whenever it seems appropriate, e.g. before a forthcoming SOTA G/LD Weekend event, I often put in a ‘plug’ on the SOTA reflector for the WOTA scheme and point out that visiting activators can use the same SOTA CSV or ADIF log file to upload to both the SOTA and WOTA websites [for joint SOTA/WOTA summits]. However, I imagine unless they visit the Lake District on a regular basis, they may think that it’s not worth their participating in an award scheme once or twice a year.

As for out-of-area HF chasers, as you say, as most G/LD activators are calling CQ SOTA (and not CQ SOTA WOTA) they will be unaware of the parallel WOTA scheme.

[M8XGO]

No Andy I suppose people are not used to hearing WOTA from outside the VHF range . I always try to make a point of calling CQ SOTA / WOTA and giving both refferences when possible . I know Reg 2E0LDF does when I’ve been with him also.

I think the skip was a bit long yesterday or the band may not have been the best , so as it was not a situation with pile up I took a bit of time to give some info about WOTA to the couple of UK stations who seemed interested , and I directed them to the link on my qrz page .

It coild be more of interest to chasers as there are over 200 summits to log plus the WABs and trig points ? When you think how the BOTA scheme has taken off . As you say maybe visiting SOTA activators don’t think it worth signing up for the one or two visits . Mind you , Graham M9IPU seems to have taken nicely to the WOTAs !

Richard