New Active Stations

[ted]

Two additional OS Active stations were installed earlier this year
but not yet added to T:UK

Details found in:
https://www.bigf.ac.uk/files/station_lo ... B_BIGF.zip

REDE (Rochester, Northumberland)
55°17'06.1"N 2°16'46.7"W
NY 82337 99022
Google maps indicates a weather station compound at this location
- station not visible; likely that the google visit predates it.

CHEW (Chew Magna)
51°20'40.5"N 2°37'23.2"W
ST 56698 60802
Google maps indicates the roof of Chew Valley Sailing Club at the W angle.

[agentmancuso]

Thanks Ted, added now as Chew Magna TP25943 & RedesdaleTP25944.

[ted]

Thanks.

I've added a few extra details to the wiki page:
https://trigpointing.uk/wiki/Active_station

But I think that the page could do with a better explanation of
how these devices work in practice - something I've never quite
understood. Contributions would be welcome.

I seem to recall that some enthusiasts with access to sophisticated
GPS receivers were able to collect data that, after processing,
allowed the height of certain hills to be established with
greater accuracy in order to determine if they were above or below
a particular threshold. Maybe that made use of the data from
Active Stations? But I doubt that a humble buried block bagger
witha hand-held Garmin could benefit.

[ted]

A summary of some recent changes to OS Active stations as noted in
https://www.bigf.ac.uk/files/station_lo ... B_BIGF.zip

Swansea (TP7753 - last T:UK log Dec 2022) station id SWAS states:
'Station destroyed 2024-12-04'

A new Swansea station, SWAE, was installed 2024-12-06 replacing SWAS
Some of the coordinates are tagged with '?' and so the following details
should be regarded as provisional.
The cartesian coords are given as:
X coordinate (m) 3959795.7030
Y coordinate (m) -281608.1695
Z coordinate (m) 4975576.0084
When converted via https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/gps/transformation/
this gives SS 56888 91335
Google maps for the grid ref indicates a building at Swansea Airport, approx
~7.25 km from SWAS but needs a visit to confirm the location of SWAE

The BIGF record for Padstow (TP7452) station id PADT states
'Site destroyed 2024-10-17'

The replacement for PADT is PAD2, installed 2024-10-22 The BIGF coordinate
details for the latter state 'this needs updating' and the Z component of the
Cartesian position is suspect. So the location of the new station is unknown.
However, if Z is changed from 490132.3209 to 4901312.321 (i.e. add a missing
digit) then this converts to a position very close to PADT, probably on the
same building. Need to wait for the BIGF record for PAD2 to be corrected
before updating T:UK

Wear Head (TP7495 - last T:UK log July 2023) station id WEAR states as follows:
** Site lost all power around 2023-10-18. Power
cannot be restored so site effectively destroyed
and data collection ended on 2023-10-18 **

A new station HAYD was installed at Haydon Bridge on 2025-01-14
This is possibly a replacement for Wear Head (WEAR)
Coordinates given as:
Latitude (N is +) : +545829.71
Longitude (E is +) : -0021433.71
which is approx NY 84563 64503
A site visit on 17 Feb confirmed the presence of an Active Station at
this location.

[ted1]

An additional OS Active Station has appeared on the BIGF list at
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/docume ... s-file.txt

Station OKEH, located near Okehampton in Devon, went live on 2025-11-04
with coordinates given as
Latitude +504306.16
Longitude +0040005.50
But that encodes degrees, minutes and seconds for which the
decimal equivalent is:
50+(43/60)+(06.16/3600) = 50.71837777
4+(00/60)+(05.50/3600) = -4.00152777
(Does anyone understand the reason for presenting the coords like this?)

I estimate that the National Grid reference for this is SX 58804 92884
and a satellite view shows this as a building near the S perimeter of
the military camp at Okehampton. According to the current OS paper maps
theres a public footpath nearby so maybe the location is accessible or
maybe not.

[agentmancuso]

Thanks Ted. I can't add new stations atm owing to the ongoing migration, but it's in my local database now so will appear on T:UK when that feature is available again.

No idea about the coords. I've never seen D/M/S coords presented like that anywhere else. It always takes me a while to remember how to unpick them when a new station is added

[Teasel]

What's the desired solution here?

Previously any T:UK user could create a new trigpoint record, and these would be routed to the admin team for refinement.

Have we reached the point where effectively all historic GB trigpoints are known, that ongoing churn of active stations can be directly managed by admins, and that the remaining Irish trigpoints are known in their entirety and can be bulk-inserted at some point? Or is there still a use-case for non-admin users to be able to submit new, previously unknown trigpoints for admin approval?

I'm happy to code-up whatever's best for you guys!

[ted1]

> is there still a use-case for non-admin users to be able to submit new, previously unknown trigpoints for admin approval?

Although rare, additional trig pillars have been found, for example
https://trigpointing.uk/trigs/25950 Drayton Park and its aux pillars
were spotted earlier this year.

So unless the occasional false-positive is causing the admins grief, I would suggest keep
this feature the same as before. But review in due course.

[agentmancuso]

It's very rare, now, for user-added stations to be genuine. Mostly it's just people inadvertently creating duplicates. So I have to merge the stations and email the user what's happening. One guy recently got very snipy about this, strangely

So for me it's a redundant feature; better that users are directed to submit whatever details directly to admin for consideration before a new TP record is created.

[ted1]

A new OS Active Station has appeared on the BIGF list at
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/docume ... s-file.txt

Station name is WALL, located at Walls in Shetland, installed 2025-12-18

X coordinate (m) : 3173812.3958
Y coordinate (m) : -86604.4826
Z coordinate (m) : 5513252.6277

OSGB36 424304.7128, 1149511.5062,

Lat/Lon 60°13'45.1"N 1°33'47.0"W

Google maps places this on the roof of Walls Public Hall.

Looks like a nice place to visit!