SOTA is POTA with gravity. Summits are catalogued and scored by height and prominence, gear must be carried in, and no vehicle or mains power is allowed in the activation zone.
The rules that differ from POTA
- Four contacts make a valid activation, and the points are awarded per summit per calendar
- No motorised transport for the operating position, and no permanent facilities — battery
- You must be within the activation zone: the area within 25 vertical metres of the summit.
- Summits carry a reference like
W1/HA-001— association, region, number — and a point value from
year.
or solar only.
1 to 10 based on altitude.
Scoring and awards
- Activators earn the summit's points; chasers earn them too, once per summit per day.
- Winter bonus points on many summits between December and March.
- Milestones at 100, 250, 500 and 1,000 points; Mountain Goat at 1,000 activator points and
- Summit-to-summit contacts are separately tracked and highly prized.
Shack Sloth at 1,000 chaser points.
Kit, with weight in mind
Everything you carry, you carry uphill:
- A 5 W radio — KX2, KX3, MTR, QCX, (tr)uSDX, IC-705 if you accept the weight.
- 1–3 Ah LiFePO4 or a small lithium pack.
- Linked dipole or end-fed half-wave and a 20-foot
- Small paper log, pen, and a phone for spotting.
- Then the mountain kit: water, layers, headlamp, map, first aid, and someone who knows your route.
carbon or fibreglass pole.
Total station weight of 2–4 lb is normal. CW is popular here for a reason — it gets through at 5 W when SSB will not.
On the summit
- Post an alert on sotawatch.sota.org.uk before you leave, with your estimated time.
- Get inside the activation zone, set up clear of paths and other walkers.
- Self-spot on SOTAwatch (the SOTA Goat, VK port-a-log or Ham2K PoLo apps work offline-ish and
- Work four or more, then enjoy the view. Chasers will find you fast.
- Log to the SOTA database at sotadata.org.uk when you are back in signal.
queue spots).
VHF from a summit
Do not skip 2 m. A handheld with a small yagi from a 4,000-foot summit routinely works 100+ miles, and in many regions the local chasers are all on VHF. It is the cheapest possible entry to SOTA.
Safety
The radio is the easy part. Weather turns quickly at altitude, descents cause more injuries than ascents, and cell coverage is unreliable. Tell someone your route and expected return, carry more water than you think, and be willing to turn around — the summit will still be there next weekend.