Show me an example please Andy. 
What an excellent challenge! Right up my street. It’s time to take the 70cm elements for my 2/70 yagi with me as I used to do.
It is a pity that the scoring system is over complicated. I’m sure that requesting a locator while fighting QSB in combination with horizontal sleet will add extra excitement to the challenge.
The number of summits x the number of contacts would have sufficed for a scoring system, after all the aim is to increase activity, not maximise the distances worked. Or have I got that wrong?
I for one won’t be carrying my 180W linear, multiple batteries and large yagi up the hills during contests to maximise the opportunity to work DX. Nor will I be watching the pressure charts to get the best from tropo or keeping an eye on the potential for sporadic E. In my opinion, that’s not what SOTA is about.
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Loving the positivity from folks on this one. I agree, adding in 70cm is a huge boon and I hope the challenge as a whole generates a lot more activity on SSB and CW for both bands.
I’ll chase as often as possible, but want to really get up some summits next year if possible too.
I hope in some way that the various manufacturers take note and consider making all moders again, not just the super expensive radios, but radios that are affordable to all.
2026, the year of 270 SSB and CW. Absolutely brilliant news. What a Christmas present! 
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It does feel like this challenge is biased towards contesters and those that can activate in and around populous areas. So, shall we just hand the UK prize to Tom @M1EYP?
Not sure if I’ll take part, in terms of log submissions, however I welcome any increase in 2m/70cm SSB activity.
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Hi Fraser. Some time ago you arranged quite a lot of 2m activity from ES. I remember going up Blencathra (G/LD-008) to try and join in but I think I was a bit late. Even so with 2m FM and a J Pole I managed a S2S to Schiehallion and I’m guessing that the combination of a short beam and SSB would have made that an easier QSO. To make this work well and to get some interesting S2S DX it may need a bit of co-ordination so we appear on hilltops at the same time with the same polarisation and mode….(With HF it is really just turn up and go!). (It also needs me to get my finger out and make that beam that I got the bits for ages ago…..)
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Summits X contacts would indeed suffice to increase activity, however any such increase would probably dissipate at the end of the challenge. One purpose of the challenge is to revive awareness of the potential of these bands for long distance operating and taking advantage of occasional anomalous propagation conditions. In the last couple of decades the dominance of FM has led to a reduction of awareness of the advantages of the other modes: it would perhaps be a surprise to many that on 2m SSB I could chase activations at about 400km in flat conditions, and multiples of that in openings. This challenge encourages people to seek and work DX as well as pick up the easy nearer stations.
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Here’s a CSV line example. This is for an activation by G3WGV on G/SC-008, 8th june 2003 at 1407Z, 7MHz CW working DL0DAN/P who is on DM/BW-019 and the comment is “This is a comment”
V2,G3WGV,G/SC-008,08/06/03,1407,7.0MHz,CW,DL0DAN/P,DM/BW-019,This is a comment
And here is a 2m example
V2,G3WGV,G/LD-008,24/04/03,1227,144MHz,FM,GW4GTE,,Dave
Again G3WGV on G/LD-008 24th April 2003 at 1227Z on 2m FM with Dave GW4GTE. Note carefully that there are two commas together meaning there is no data for this field.
See: Sotadata3
So for a 2m SSB QSO we could get this one for a QSO with me by you.
V2, MM0EFI, GM/ES-001, 26/02/23, 1325, 144MHz, SSB, GM4LLD,,%QRA%IO85FU%
So you’d have a file full of such lines to upload. If you can log and export as ADIF, do that. Then use Christophe’s ADIF to CSV web utility to make a CSV and the edit it with a TEXT editor or load the CSV into something like Libre Office as it’s free and runs on all operating systems and does all the spreadsheet stuff you would ever need.
EDIT, missing commas now being displayed Thanks to Colin for spotting that.
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Before the great desertion from 2m to HF in 2003, a fair number of people had 2m horizontally polarised beams. Now most people with a 2m antenna will only have some kind of white stick vertically polarised antenna. If you can do Blencathra to Schiehallion on FM with simple vertical to vertical antenna, then SSB using a vertical to people back in their shacks with simple verticals should give a good range as well. Sure having a beam you can run both ways will be a benefit but just a vertical antenna and 10W SSB each end will give, sucks teeth and sticks finger in the air, 200km range every day.
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Sounds good to me. I’ve always enjoyed the challenges, they add a bit of a focus and motivation - otherwise I have a tendency to dither over what equipment to take, and which bands to operate.
I don’t mind what the rules are as it isn’t a contest - I’m sure they have been thought through, and it will be fun anyway!
Good choice of bands / modes too, if only to feel the joy radiated by Ian @EI3LH 
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You forgot aircraft scatter, I love a bit of aircraft scatter.
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And if you don’t have a capable rig, you don’t need to spend a bunch of money on a discontinued FT817/857, IC7000, 706 Mk2, or transverter. The lowly $25 Quansheng UV-K5 can do it, and it’s good enough to have some fun and score points.
Adam
K6ARK
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500 km with 5 watts. Aircraft Enhancement on 2m, 70cm and 23cm SSB is practiced up and down the east coast of Australia each day between 0800 and 0900 hrs local. There’s nothing like a wide body A380 to enhance propagation
Andrew VK1AD
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At this point here is me hoping its 4M band!
Crushing dissapointment 
not 4M….
Still could be fun! Might chase a few eh!
Alan
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Re antenna polarisation:
Except for combining the occasional SOTA activation with the RSGB 2m Backpackers contest or other special events, I for one will not be dragging 2m/70cm Yagis, tripods or poles on the majority of my 2026 activations.
Many of us have long suspected that there are many amateurs who have VHF/UHF multimode rigs and (vertical) collinears at home that are being used nowadays only for FM. There lies the potential to have many more 2m and 70cm SSB/CW QSOs than with the fewer number of horizontally-polarised stations with either portable or (rotator-capable) home-based Yagis.
It has the added beauty that activators can use exactly the same VHF/UHF ‘V-pol’ station (FT817/RH770 in my case) as for FM mode, i.e. there is zero extra faff to work SSB and CW compated with FM. That is a major incentive for activators to take their VHF/UHF multimode rig on every activation.
Of course, serious VHF/UHF Dx’ers and will always be H-pol as they want to maximize their operating range and QSO rate and use their big horizontally-polarised Yagis for their events. No problem with that. But IMO the 2026 SOTA 2m/70cm SSB/CW should be about maximising the activity not the distance obtained for each QSO – hence I disagree with the ‘points per km’ award idea.
We know when operating from hilltops that pretty good range and many QSOs are to be had on 2m FM with vertical whips so 2m SSB or CW should do at least as well. We just need to encourage more chasers and activators.
Good point. I will definitely add “v-pol” or “h-pol” in the comment field of my self spots.
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A long time since I played with aircraft scatter! It should be a bit easier today when you can see where aircraft are using your mobile phone!
It occurs to me that we might see a bit of a run on the market for those legacy rigs discussed in an earlier thread!
I also just checked my log for 2004, using 5w SSB from an 817 and a 5el yagi at 9m I worked into France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and in brief Es openings Spain and Bulgaria - and to be clear, my QTH is not hilltop and is compromised by many trees. You won’t get that sort of DX on a daily basis, but such distances should be possible for a few days in any month of the year but particularly in spring and Autumn (but high summer for ES!)
You are welcome to your opinions, but it is what it is!
You can look forward to a 4m challenge when 4m becomes available globally!
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Thanks Brian.
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The SOTA rules say that a valid QSO only requires an exchange of callsigns and reports.
How then can you demand an exchange of locations bearing in mind that even the summit ref is not required!
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This sounds super fun but the location requirement may be insurmountable for me. It’s going to be difficult to get that information. I guess I can request it in the spot notes for CW.
- Can I use HAMRS and upload the Adif file it creates?
- Should an Adif be created with “only” the VHF UHF contacts? ie not combined with hf for a given activation?
- Confirming this requires a special submission or upload? My data isn’t pulled out of my logs automatically at end of the year?
I feel a bit similar but thankful for the challenge. “It is a pity that the scoring system is over complicated. I’m sure that requesting a locator while fighting QSB in combination with horizontal sleet will add extra excitement to the challenge.”
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Err… the doubled comma has been stomped by something I think … Did you mean
V2,G3WGV,G/LD-008,24/04/03,1227,144MHz,FM,GW4GTE,Dave
^
It was there but the system is removing it