Since the flanking paragraphs to the above were addressed to me, I want to make it clear that I do not share the belief referred to. In fact the second FAQ on the website is explicit on the subject:
"Q: As an activator am I only able to count contacts to SOTA chasers or is contact to any amateur operator acceptable?
A: Any legal contact from a summit is acceptable."
Actually it was my previous paragraph that was addressed to you Brian. The quoted paragraph was more in response to the ideas voiced by Gerald and Walt. Nonetheless, the excerpt you quote from the GR is key.
Hi
Iāve tended to stop doing SOTA because I felt that folk have forgotten that SOTA is just a part of hilltopping not the other way round. I work Tom from Tinto on 2m SSB contest night usually at 519 and am happy to continue to give points or speak to anyone whenever I hear a hapless soul on a hill! SOTA should, as part of amateur radio, be about generating activity and having fun however that is done, shouldnāt it?
I sometimes feel that SOTA has been become a myopic club and is losing sight of what the hobby is about, namely an experimental hobby inclusive of everyone.
SOTA is an excellent part of the hobby, make sure you dont exclude others, I have heard people on all sorts of bands simply clear off irritated by the rabble rather than give someone points for all the effort they have put in to get up a hill.
This is meant to be a helpful comment having been active in SOTA in the past rather then getting at anyone so I hope you will take my observation in that way.
73 Robert GM4GUF
Really? Just ask Mickey. He routinely makes far more than 50 QSOs outside of a contest period ā¦ in fact he does so on almost every activation, using both SSB (HF) and FM (2m).
Hi Robert - everyone to their own beliefs, however I wouldnāt be fighting my way up hills and mountains unless I am doing a SOTA activation. So in my case SOTA is the reason, the hill walking exercise and great views are a bonus.
I also constantly try to improve my portable station, again without SOTA it would not be as important to develop better, lighter equipment. The SOTA-Bag is automatically a āGo-Bagā if needed in times of emergency and served as my main station for the first 6 months I was in Germany ( before my main station arrived with the rest of the household removals from Australia).
The primary purpose of you being on the summit was the contest, not SOTA. Therefore I read that as a contest activity, not a SOTA activity.
I just hope that the situation is not moving towards a position whereby the only way to carry a successful SOTA activation on 2m SSB will be to activate a summit during a contest period. If that were the case, then I will definitely not be carrying 2m kit up the hills which would be a great shame as I achieved MG on 2m / 70cm. Thankfully it hasnāt come to that yet, but the possibility is real.
Hmm, fun yesā¦not. My nearest SOTA summit is a 100 mile round trip to either CE-004 or CE-005. Hardly fun and it just wouldnāt float my boat sitting on the same summit time after time. I donāt feel restricted by choosing a totally new experience each time, in fact rather the opposite. Yes, it is my choice and I am happy with it. If I need a new experience closer to home, then I activate a HuMP.
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Hi Walt and all,
In 2012 I had not yet heard about SOTA but I was active as Iāve always tried to be since I got first licensed.
I made a QSO with a Scotish station on May 12th 2012 and the operator, named Andy, gave me some sort of reference number together with my signal report. I had not idea of what that reference was about. I guessed it was about some of the many awards, contest and special event activities taking place nowadays, but I wrote it down anyway and put it on my log without any more thought.
At the end of the summer of 2013 I was told about SOTA for the first time and I finally got officially introduced into SOTA with my first activation on November 1st of that same year.
I started reading and participating on this Reflector and by pure chance, I found one day that I already had in my log a QSO with Andy MM0FMF and I saw that the weird sensless to me reference number I had written down on my log was, in fact, a SOTA reference number, so it turned out that my QSO with that Scottish station that May 12th of 2012 was my very 1st SOTA chase.
When I found that, I introduced the QSO into the SOTA database and now I can show you the 4 points I earned before being aware of the SOTA programme.
Maybe people are choosing to use different bands and modes for similar reasonsā¦
Each to his/her own. Iām grateful to accept 4 QSOs on any band or mode to qualify a summit, and after that, every QSO is just relaxing fun. I donāt mind whether the good people who contact me are Chasers or not. It is nice to feel that I have shared some points with a fellow SOTA-ist, but it is also nice to chat with others and maybe explain about SOTA.
Returning to topic, I came into SOTA expecting 2m SSB to be widely used, but early experience suggested otherwise. My first attempt at activating produced no contacts, and the second produced 1 contact. I have dabbled with 2m SSB since then, but 2m FM has been my staple, not least because a vertical omnidirectional antenna is so simple to use.
Iām up for an activity day, though, might dust off the Yagi
You seem remarkably confident as to Tomās motivation for activating the summit. Iām often not so sure of my own purpose when I do one!
I must admit that my 2-m SSB activations come only a few times a year for the 144-MHz Backpackers contests. I enjoy that. Itās different. Itās a good gauge of how well I operate (i.e. not so well, all too often!) and how good is the site (I often get that wrong too). The troposphere can bowl the odd googly, but itās not so variable and hard to anticipate as the ionosphere.
What I donāt like quite so much is my heavier kit - 4 sections of a Clansman mast and a 5-ele Innovantennas Yagi. Well, sometimes a touch of masochismā¦
Threads like this donāt hold my interest for very long, descending into argument. What I would enjoy more is discussion of how best to make 2m SSB actually work - things such as antenna design and other hardware issues. Iāve got a bunch of 3-mm Al welding rods and there is a Wickes just down the road, who I understand sell plastic tubing. But I keep changing my mind on how to bring these together to make an effective light-weight antenna. Thoughts welcomeā¦
Whether or not I gained any points is irrelevant to whether or not it was a SOTA activation - which it was.
Whether or not any chasers claimed any points is irrelevant to whether or not it was a SOTA activation - which it was. Any of the 68 I worked could claim that chaser point at any time in the future - as it was a SOTA activation.
There isnāt a sliding scale for how much of a SOTA activation it is. It either is or it isnāt. And it was. It was indeed a RSGB Contest Entry as well - no law against that. It was also valid for IOTA, WAB, DXCC and the Trigpoints award.
I was specifically referring to 2m SSB, which was the topic of conversation. There is no difficulty, generally, in making 50+ QSOs on an activation without that restriction, I agree.
Reading through this thread it strikes me that 2m SSB use does seem to be decline. The new generation of Amateur Radio Operators are possibly more interested in developing technologies such a DMR, D-Star and (a few) Fusion. I have yet to see a āspotā using any of these digital systems however ???
The fact that there isnāt one Multimode VHF/UHF rig on the market today also shows that it is out of favour with manufacturers who simply produce FM and or digital kit. There are only a small number āshack in a boxā rigs under a grand, 2 of which also have digital modes.
Although new into the hobby myself I do actually have a Trio TR751 2m Multimode only rig but the white stick on the chimney is not doing me any favours when it comes to SSB. And if @M1EYP looks though his log, he will not find a single contact from me using that mode on 2m - even though I have tried
I agree that it is a shame, but also think it is a shame that new technologies have yet to appear in any numbers on summits too.
Digital kit (likely) to be hitting this shack sometime this year
You are far too definate about that. I have failed to get replies on a few summits on 2m SSB: GW/MW-033 Mynnydd Carningli, G/DC-006 Carnmenellis and, perhaps more surprisingly, GW/SW-028 Mynnydd y Bettws. In the case of Carnmenellis I was running 50 watts. There may well be some summits where it will be relatively easy to qualify on 2m SSB but the outlying summits may well be difficult or impossible.
Canāt agree with that statement. Merryton Low is only popular because itās a drive on site where clubs can set up their trailer masts & multi antenna arrays.
Ah, itās those rose-tinted IO83 spectacles again!
I run 25W of 2m SSB to a 5 element yagi and on two of four summits on my last GM/SS trip (mainly in the Edinburgh area) had to resort to FM to qualify the summit on 2m. Only a few years ago it was totally differentā¦ as demonstrated by log extracts for two adjacent summits which have a similar take-off to the south where most of the chasers are / are expected to be:
This is no reflection upon the chasers that were worked in 2012, but not this year. It is a general decline in 2m SSB activity that is the problem. Oh, and if anyone was wondering, Don RQL had to go out when we were on the summit, so the 2016 log should be regarded as 2 SSB contacts.