I had an activation back in 2014 where I did activate one summit with a friend. He brought his own equipment I did mine, but honestly I lent him my shack, as he had trouble on the peak - so I think we were considered a team after all.
When we finished, he went down the hill with the group (it was not a HAM group, and I had to take down the wires, etc), so I stayed in Activation Zone, while he did descend already down the hill out of AZ. We made a QSO via handhelds (2m) and logged (I did log as Activator, and he as Chaser).
The questions are:
(1) did it violate any rules in 2014?
(2) And does it violate any current SOTA rules or spirit in the scenario mentioned above?
If so, I am ready to correct the log by erasing the QSO, but if it does not violate any rule or spirit, I would maintain it as my friend wanted to “chase” the summit acc. to then-available rules.
Thank you in advance for your views, esp. from the MT or long time experts. I like to be 100% compliant and since the subject was brought up by my friend, I would like to have an honest and independent opinion. I think it will be also useful opinion for others, thus I am asking about current rules as well.
Konrad, it’s perfectly acceptable to do this. Both of you activate together, then one descends out of the AZ to chase the other. However, some SOTA activators/chasers do not consider it OK and wont do it themselves. But that is a personal choice. I have done it myself in some locations, typically on an island when I know there may be no more activators for years and years.
Yes, I agree and also do not practice this normally. That time my friend insisted on this to get a complete and since it was not violating the rules, I agreed to be “chased”. On the other hand I declined his offer him coming back and myself “chasing”, as I thought it was not what the SOTA Complete was invented for.
Ok, so my understanding is - neither the Activator nor the Chaser violate any rule, however the value of the SOTA Complete becomes a personal judgment of the Chaser…
Hello Konrad,
It is absolutely OK (for me).
Yesterday, 03/09/2017 we were climbing Mont Bego F/AM-758 2872m asl and 24km walk, (F4HOD, F4HPV and me F6HBI.
Michel F4HPV was climbing much more faster than me, and when he reached the summit (about 15mn before me)
we had a Qso on 145.500, it was aware for me, so i can claim for a “complete” as i did activate on the rool.
May be someone found it is not really fair?
Best 73 and carry on climbing and activate summits.
Gerald F6HBI
Gerald. Sorry if I might have sounded as negative towards logging such a QSO - I didn’t mean to. All I said was that my friend then coming back on the summit just to allow me a Complete was not fine with me. I do not mind having a QSO if it complies with the rules and the spirit. I just did not want to do an “artificial” Complete when my friend returns to the AZ just for that.
With Andy’s comment I feel now 100% comfortable with the log. My friend only made a mistake by logging the QSO as an Activator instead as Chaser - which he will correct later today.
Ok Konrad, i understant your feeling about artificial complete, (that it is not).
Anyway, Sota is not Olympic Games, it is just a mine to play radio in the mountains.
Hope to meet you from summit.
Gerald
Hi Konrad,
It is of course personal choice but actually you could have both gone down to the edge of the AZ and then simply swapped sides of the imaginary line and have your chaser/activator and activator/chaser QSOs.
If one of you only had 3 contacts up to this point and you needed the extra one contact to get the points for the activation, I don’t have a problem with this. Other activators have different feelings on this but I believe I have correctly interpretted the rules here.
It is of course personal choice but actually you could have both gone down to the edge of the AZ and then simply swapped sides of the imaginary line and have your chaser/activator and activator/chaser QSOs.
Yes, Ed - that is what I understood from the above mentioned. All I meant was I did not choose to do this, but at the same time I do not criticize, if someone chooses opposite. I treat it as personal choice and I am glad Andy confirmed it, as one of our friends in SOTA SP goes a bit further and does not treat it as ethical, while I thought it is ok and Andy confirmed so.
