1st September 2020 Association Uploads

Associations
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It’s a slightly quiet month, with some big additions not quite reaching maturement yet.

But we do have a new association:

PYF Brazil - Fernando de Noronha

(PY0F as the usual prefix)

I expect this will add some interest for IOTA expeditions (SA-003).

The island has just two summits, and one looks really tough:

Welcome to Marenga, PU0FDN, who has volunteered for the AM role.

PYF-SOTA-Map
PYF-SOTA-Map1235×841 63.8 KB

[With acknowledgement to original work by OSM for the base map.]

Coincidentally it has been reported that Fernando de Noronha is reopening to tourists, but only Covid convalescents:

HI Dominican Republic — New Region “AB”.

This new region has a single summit HI/AB-001
It’s an islet (Alto Velo) with a 152-m peak, forming the only summit in the HI1 call area, so AM Gerardo is very happy that we can add it.

Miscellaneous

The W7N 10-point band shift will apply from 1st September.

HL is getting summit names in Korean script.

We’ve also got some tweaks to some Japanese summits.

3 Likes
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Thank info Simon. Fernando de Noronha is not just IOTA, it’s a “sovereign” DXCC country as well, distinct from Brazil, so there is always a lot of interest and massive pile ups whenever someone comes on from there.

Sadly Covid-19 has meant chasing rare countries has virtually come to a stop for most ardent DXers, as few people are travelling to possible new ones just now.

HI Dominican Republic is not so rare. Most days there is a resident or two QRV from there on FT8.

73 Phil

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The updates for JA, JA6, JA8 are now in place. There are 5 new summits in JA plus quite a few deletions across these 3 associations along with some minor changes to positions and heights and names. JA5 is delayed slightly but should be up in a day or so.

HL/CB-053 was entered wrongly so it was marked as 4pts. It should be 6pts. The database should eventually automatically update everyone’s score who has activated/chased this.

W7N 10 point band was lowered slightly to better distribute the points bands and 81 summits are now worth 10pts not 8pts. Also quite a few regions in W7N have a summer bonus not winter bonus. Unlike the winter bonus, the summer bonus here applies to all summits in the regions.

Once more, go and check the database for changes. Map sites like SOTA maps project or SOTL.as normally run 12/24hrs behind the database in syncing the changes. So if you are off out soon in these associations check the SOTA database or SOTA summits site for the latest info until the other sites have caught up.