As I close in on the end of my “every POTA park within 20 miles” challenge, and start writing it up, I have noticed there were a few gaps in the list of activation reports. When I first started outdoor amateur radio, I breathlessly documented every single trip, somehow even managing to extract 600 words out of 15 minutes sat in the rain at a park 10 minutes’ walk down the road. But as time went on, I started only documenting the special ones—the joint activations, the roves, the contests, the places that were important to me.

This page is for the ones that fell through the cracks; the single park activations where little of interest happened, now brought together for completeness.

25th June 2025: GB-4461 Knighton Reserve SANG Nature Reserve

A weird place. Gives “Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace”, already a fairly dystopian concept, a bad name. Knighton Reserve has a lake with lush green surroundings; it is private and only accessible to fishermen. The rest of the site is nominally a dog park. On this hot June day, the chalky ground was cracked and baked hard, offering no support for an antenna. The strange new housing development is omnipresent in the distance, and the sky is streaked by the high-voltage cables that power it.

Not recommended for POTA, dog walking, or feeling like you are still on Earth.

3rd August 2025: GB-5146 Redhill Common Local Nature Reserve

Redhill Park has plenty of nice open space for antennas. It’s not on POTA. This is Redhill Common, a thin strip of land between the houses and the main road. It’s nice enough for a quick walk, but there’s precious little space off the paths. Struggled with SWR here for some reason.

6th August 2025: GB-5150 Pine Springs Local Nature Reserve

This is a weird corner of Upton Heath that I never knew had a different name; it’s hard to tell where it begins and ends compared to the rest of the heath. I found one promising-looking path, but after a few hundred metres it ended up a dead-end next to the back of some houses. I activated there anyway, as there didn’t seem much other choice, and confused the hell out of a dog walker. There’s a hill to the south-east, which probably didn’t help with propagation on this slow after-work activation.

16th September 2025: GB-4632 Bransgore Park

A playing field. I set up in the corner furthest from the kids’ playground but I suspect I was still getting weird looks from a distance. There was a major solar storm that day, and it was a real stretch to get 10 contacts in half an hour, despite having 100W at my disposal.

2nd October 2025: GB-1282 Burton Common Site of Significant Scientific Interest

Honestly, Burton Common is lovely, it just didn’t stand out amongst all the dozens of other heathland POTA activations. It was hard to find, not least because the POTA marker was in the wrong place. The main part of the site is across a stream from the entrance; in October this was no problem but in March I would have my doubts.

I did take one of my best POTA kit photos here though.

8th November 2025: GB-0177 Dorset Heathlands - Arne Reedbeds National Nature Reserve

A joint activation with my logging assistant. It’s an RSPB site, at which the chap at the entrance asked if we were here for anything specific like birdwatching. I mumbled “not really” while carrying a 12 kg 40 litre rucksack, which I’m not sure he found convincing. About the only open space for antennas here is Shipstal Beach, which is very popular with walkers and birdwatchers alike. But don’t skip out on it, on a calm cold day the view and the vibe are incredible.

I took no photos of the antenna here at all, but you know what a JPC-12 looks like by now. Lots of photos of the logging assistant enjoying himself, plus some artsy ones for the photo album. High levels of QRN from shorbs.

23rd December 2025: GB-5861 Leigh Common & Bytheway Field SANG Park Reserve

Is it “Bythe way” or “By the way”? I think the latter, but I’d never been here before, and the sign wasn’t particularly forthcoming. Another edge-of-town park with lots of open space and little else. It was cold and the light was rapidly fading, but the hunters were out in force to wish us a Merry Christmas, and us them.

31st December 2025: GB-5230 Stephen’s Castle Wildlife Reserve

A quick New Year’s Eve visit that turned into a long slog, picking our way through ankle-deep mud. Logging assistant only had his trainers, so we didn’t make it to Stephen’s Stone, and a miscalculated route left us with a tricky path back to the castle. A beautful sunset through the trees. After the activation, we skipped stones across the frozen pond.

11th March 2026: GB-5974 Wareham Common Scenic Site

A brief opportunity to celebrate Spring and the receding flood waters it brings. (Believe it or not, the water level in this photo is much lower than it had been for the previous three months.) High levels of QRM from some nearby source, plus loud nearby stations, a slightly flaky QMX and a home-made antenna all contributed to making this a bit of a challenge, but I perservered. Only nine real QSOs in the log, but a park-to-park with Carl M9HPI activating a 4-fer got me over the threshold.

28th March 2026: GB-6364 Slop Bog

This was supposed to be part of a rove (which didn’t happen), plus it was CQ WPX contest weekend, so I kept it quick here. Water level wasn’t too bad for a place called “Slop Bog” in late March, but I wouldn’t suggest going much earlier in the year. The wooded section of the site has recently been cleared of about 70% of its trees, supposedly in order for the boggy heathland to take over the remainder of the site. In future years, it may become even wetter.

And that’s it! With any luck, stand by for the challenge completion post soon.