Hi!
4 years just passed since I started my involvement with SOTA and now I just decided to definitively
end up with active “chasing”. I have always liked a QRP work and
I have hiked a lot in the mountains so SOTA seemed especially suitable for
me. Unfortunately, it was not easy to accept some “silly” SOTA
regulations, but I clenched my teeth. Time showed that not only the
regulations but also the management method of SOTA did not prove honest to the end.
I came to the conclusion that QRP should also be enough power
for chasing. Besides, I did mainly use low power anyway. I was not
mistaken with this assumption for some time. I needed less than half a year to be in
number 1 as a chaser in SP, but the World highest ranks cannot be overtaken because
they have been doing this much longer and I’m playing in SOTA for 4 years though I managed to
win in the yearly classifications. I am working from many different
locations but mainly from home and here I have the noise level on
average s7-8 to this distortion from dozens of my neighbours’ devices so
the problem is not my 5W but the reception of often weak SOTA
stations. QRP is enough but with propagation and location it will not
win (my G5RV is located literally in the attic …)
For at least 2 years, the propagation has been getting worse and the
signals strength keeps falling down and while my noises do not (I think they are even growing). It
is also becoming harder and harder to do so, as you start
using more and more power, so you override my signal easily … Dead zones on
the bands can be strangely long. The distribution of activity is also
such that near me there are more activations so you have can get more points, the
stations are often unobtainable to me though, because of too close distance to my location …
Stations EA, G or F also have an easier job, which they probably do
not even realize; they have a small part of these problems as we
experience here! Fish in the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea and Sahara
sands do not produce QRM! We here have QRM on all sides and the most
from the R, UA, I, DL; and kilowatts are also frequent strong military-nature disruptions
from the East, as well.
The attitude of some activators to hunters does not help in chasing;
without going into details; they go to the easy way forgetting that
SOTA is mutual cooperation of 2 groups … Unfortunately, SOTA regulations promote this behavior!
Yes, I remember what the English say: “Activator is a king” but
England is a monarchy but I do not feel “subject” and I am also an
activator from time to time!
I came to the conclusion that there is less and less satisfaction from
SOTA chasing ranking and you have to devote a lot of time to it (too
much). Unfortunately, this cannot be planned as well as SOTA activations or
work in contests. My family also tolerates it with increasing
difficulty, so I will keep chasing until the end of the year, I will
complete my logs with my paper logs (my bureaucracy is not my strength
at all) in the hope of crossing 100k line with my QRP.
I do not break with it completely, I will just not chase for points, for
example, I will not be tying my dog to a tree during a walk and
running back home (on the 3rd floor) to chase a station; similarly
if you are driving a car (or a bicycle!) I will not stop in the forest
to set the antenna … instead I will deal with something less stressful,
e.g. activations or I will return to the VHF contests or the work
"Meteor scatter".
I also have tried building 1- and 2-transistors transceivers on which
I would like to activate SOTA or GMA. Once, on 1 transistor at 7.032, I
heard a dozen or so hunters calling an activator! This will certainly
be a big challenge for colleagues with great powers and good ears, but
unfortunately it also requires better propagation which has been
difficult lately …
I would like to thank all activators for over 20,000. QSOs.
Especially Jan OK2PDT with whom I had most my contacts, who also recently became too close
to hear him / and many colleagues who proved to have big ear for my weak
QRP signal.
By the way, I wish all belivers Merry Christmas and for all the other
a good New Year and hope that it does not meet what results from the
logic of recent events in the world.
y 73 de Mariusz SP9AMH
)