I loved my small foray into SOTA last summer, only 2 summits in G/NP, but now have a plan to do all the UK summits level 4&5 and then work on the higher ones after. Great day out for me and the dog although living in Norfolk means a lot of travelling! hi hi.
My question is, am I right in thinking you get so many activator points per summit depending on the summit level and extra for S2S?
My measly 5 points for 2 summits ( a 1 and a 4 ) will mean me completing about 400 summits for mountain goat (1000 activator points) and take many years. , I’m not even sure if there that many summits in the UK, makes me think I read the rules wrong…
I have nearly 300 chaser points already after only a few months last year of chasing, The mountain Goat and shack sloth award do seem to require vastly different time and effort, is this right or did I read it wrong?
I’ve had a quick look through the rules and I don’t see a rule about getting more points for S2S, but I’m sure someone will clarify this.
As far as I can see, each summit is allocated a number of points, and some have a ‘winter bonus’, and that’s the number of points that you get as long as you make more than the minimum number of contacts.
So far I’ve accumulated just 4 points in total so I have a long way to go to get to Mountain Goat and may never actually complete it at the rate I’m going at present.
In rule 3.8 you can claim Chaser points, as an Activator, for Summit-to-Summit contacts, but I can’t see an equivalent score for being an Activator. So, from what I read, the extra S2S points would count towards Shack Sloth but not Mountain Goat.
Welcome onboard Iain.
You have it more or less correct.
Each summit you activate and qualify (minimum of 4 contacts for qualification) scores the points assigned to that summit; in your case last year, 4+1. Some of the higher summits during the winter period (Dec- Mar) also attract a winter bonus of 3 points (your 4 pointer would have scored 7 points had you not done it in the summer!).
You can only claim points for a summit once per calendar year.
S2S is a chaser award and is unrelated to qualification to MG.
You just happen to be chasing other activators from a summit. It has it’s own individual award.
You can accumulate points from the same summit on a daily basis (see rules for clarification).
Yes, living in Norfolk means a lot of travel.
In my first year of activating I managed to accumulate 11 points in total so understand where you are coming from.
I decided in year 2 to travel long distances, especially during the winter months to improve my scoring rate. After 3 years I’m now sitting with 400 points and the long term goal of MG is at least 3 years away.
Yes, there is a huge disparity between Shack sloth and MG.
I acquired (without any real effort) SS within 6 months. Many have done it in a few weeks.
MG takes real work and dedication and, unless you’re lucky to live in an area with a huge number of closely packed 10 pointers (that’s a different thread ) , then it can take years to reach the goal.
Be warned it is addictive and you’ll walk in some fantastic countryside which you’d probably never have considered before
Have fun and keep asking questions.
73
Pete
No, S2S is a totally separate award. You can count S2S contacts as chases, of course, but they don’t affect your activator score.
There are more than enough summits in the UK to achieve Mountain Goat, even without activating summits more than once. You can claim points for a summit once per year anyway, so the number of summits does not limit the score you can reach.
IMHO At least 3 to 1 even if you are a keen walker and live near some decent hills. A lot bigger ratio living in Norfolk; bad luck, but there it is.
I think there are over 1500 eligible summits in UK; not sure if this includes GI or not.
It’s addictive once you get going, though I might have escaped if I lived where you do. Lots of easy to get to summits near Hereford but the Goat still took 3 years (and a few summits I never knew existed) of, mostly, fun
There are 176 in England, 5 in Isle of Man, 65 in Northern Ireland, 1218 in Scotland and 158 in Wales.
So, if you exclude Northern Ireland, that’s a total of 1557 summits in the rest of the UK. However, some of the 153 in Northern Scotland might be as challenging to get to as getting the ferry to Northern Ireland.
If you activate every currently valid UK summit once outside the winter bonus period you’ll have 4950 points. There are an additional 3021 bonus points available, making 7971 points per year theoretically possible in the UK alone.
We’re a victim of our own success Iain. When SOTA started there were few chasers and activators. It could be dicey to get your 4 contacts. But the effort needed in walking to get MG in the UK is the same in 2015 as 2002, it can be very much easier to get the 4 contacts. When chasing started there were few activators to chase, it was hard work collecting points. Today has been quiet but there have been 44 points on offer to chasers by 1730 and the US is just waking up
So with the vast increase in activators it’s much easier to get to 1000 points. Which puts us in a quandary… how can we adequately reflect the effort the early chasers put in to get SS compare with now? And the answer is we can’t. So we have left the awards as they were when the scheme started.
As for travelling about the UK to get your points, don’t forget it’s not really that far to France/Holland/Belgium from Norfolk and there are many summits there to activate.
Hello,
OK, many thanks for the replies, has clarified it for me, now I have a sense of scale.
I am also after DXCC honour role, which will also need several years dedication to accomplish so no worries.
Just received my narrow CW filter for my FT857D and planning to travel down to Devon this weekend to start my UK level 4-5 mission.
I am well behind in chasing to activating… but I only use amateur radio on the hills or 2M FM in the car. No shack at home. Hoping to become a very unslothful sloth at some point!
) , then it can take years to reach the goal.
