true Martin, I think that to be a chasser, first you have to be a mountain goat
73
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Some don’t like QRP or understand that Activator is King.
72 Chris M0RSF
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True, but if that was the case it would also work well on receive and they wouldn’t end up calling all over the activator, which happens far too often!
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If in a pileup, and as an activator, I ask for s2s, portable or qrp stations only from time to time, it works sometimes, others not so well, because some ops just dont listen.
But in the in the overall it´s worth a try.
Paulo, CT2IWW
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If you had to be a mountain goat before you could chase SOTA would never have started!
Its worth bearing in mind that just under 70% of activators are also chasers, so some of those unruly chasers may also be activators…
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As my activations are usually on weekdays so I seldom get the crazy pile-ups that happen at weekends, and the S2S chances are somewhat lower, too. My CW isn’t great, and there have been a few occasions in my recent activations when it’s taken many minutes to complete a QSO at least partly because other chasers were getting in the way ( for instance, see this post and replies ). I do listen out for QRP and S2S chasers, but in my limited experience the callers who cause trouble are also ones who don’t listen to requests giving partial calls or other limits that should exclude them. It seems my options in that situation are to:
- Try to work other callers while ignoring them, and hope they get the message
- QSY and pick up the callers who’re listening on the new QRG (or start working with a small split…)
- Send them NIL and hope they go away
- Work them to get them out of the way (and then, maybe, not log them)
With CW a small change in frequency can make a big difference. Just a matter of remembering that in the heat of an activation, and choosing the second rather than the first…
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You know, thinking about it, sometimes activators do not help chasers as much as perhaps they should. My favourite hate is the phone man who never says QRZ, in fact he says nothing, ends a contact with 73 and then - silence. Is he writing in his log, has he QSYd, has he packed up and gone home? Then after a loooong pause he calls CQ again and gets several replies. Rinse and repeat! He might be king, but some of his subjects get fed up and go away, there is often several other stations worth chasing, why waste time?
Another nuisance is the guy who calls “station ending in ZZ”, gets called by a station ending in YY on top of the ZZ, and works him. That is just begging for an unruly pile-up!
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Nature shows us that many things are “normally distributed” as the statisticians say. One can argue about the share of the leading and tailing end of the Gaussian distribution but it can be applied in many cases. In the positioning towards innovation you find fast followers, those who tend to wait and the ones who block (“we tried this before and it never worked…”). Musicians, motorists, managers, football coaches, politicians may be other examples.
I leave it up to you to make your own choice. 
But let’s face it, the majority is more or less average (around the mean) and there are some in the leading end (playing the game close to perfection) and some in the tailing end (struggling). As a rule of thumb and according to my experience, both ends contribute with around 20 % each and the middle fraction with around 60 %. As said, shares may differ depending on the use case, but I have a suspicion that this general rule can also be applied to ham radio operators in general, regardles of their role (activator / chaser) in the SOTA programme. 
The way to cope with it?
Tolerance and a common understanding that we all want to have fun with our hobby.
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Sometimes I forget in the hustle and bustle of working a pile-up, but I usually throw in a “/P ?” here and there to give the portable stations a better chance. 99.9% of the chasers are a good bunch and understand this and patiently wait.
73, Martin, PE1EEC
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That’s how I understand it too.
For example, when I was traveling with Kurt@HB9AFI in the pre-s2s SOTA time (he is a die-hard dxer and IOTAer), we always laughed heartily about such “outliers”, of course not without making fun of them a bit.
This somewhat sporty attitude hasn’t changed for me after the introduction of the s2s category.
So I could never understand why there is such an outcry over the last few years about the handling of s2s QSOs.
Why must s2s QSOs be offered to interested parties on the silver platter and always with first priority and always without any noise whatsoever?
For me, such s2s QSOs “degenerate” into pure routine and thus lose all excitement and all charm.
Seen from Gauss’ point of view, the topic addressed here may only be a “problem” for a few, which, however, make it all the more noticeable.
Please do not understand my thoughts as a reproach or instruction, but simply as a slightly different view.
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Just a quick Thank You!.. Today I worked 27 S2Ss. On quite a few QSOs, chasers alerted activators that I was trying to get through. It really helped and was really appreciated. My 10w went a long way!
73s
Martin
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The S2S category was more or less invented by the activators. It was seen as something rather special in the days when often there were fewer than ten activations in a day, and chasers willingly stood by to help the contacts along. The MT brought in the award because the activators wanted it. To my mind it is still special, two QRP stations with simple antennas contacting each other rather than the usually better equipped chasers. It may be a bit more routine now there are hundreds of activations per day, but it still has more flavour!
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At this time of year I have done all my local summits so I can’t get any more activation points. But I can still collect S2S points. I enjoy all the contacts with chasers but the S2S contacts always seem special.
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I think it’s all a matter of experience. With experience, it all gets easier.
I can remember the days when I too felt that frustration of not being able to get through with my QRP, and having to wait a long time to make a S2S. Nowadays, I seem to find it quite easy - yet I’m still operating with 5 watts and a homemade antenna! The only difference is that I am a more experienced and (hopefully) better operator.
Chasers responding to partials that don’t match is rather antisocial in my opinion. As an activator, I ignore them and persist in trying to complete with the station I’ve (partially) asked for. As Brian @g8add says, if you don’t do that, and instead call in the non-matching QRO station, you quickly lose control of your pile-up - as well as it being unfair on the stations operating considerately.
However, when I have heard this going on recently, it has involved activators newly licensed and new to SOTA. They are learning, and we need to cut them a bit of slack (and offer guidance).
In terms of the numbers it’s easier. In terms of the demand from chasers and even the competition from other currently-activating stations (especially at weekends), it’s tougher. My own numbers suggests that it is indeed easier now with big S2S totals being achieved from weekend activations - but then I also have the benefit of over 3700 activations behind me. I suspect I would have really struggled to make S2S contacts with current activity levels back in the days of my first few hundred activations!
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I feel the same way, Richard. 
The S2S contacts are all the more important to me. Over 3000 S2S points in the last three months 
73 Chris
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I feel this is a issue that will continue forever and really there no right or wrong answer,to start with it is not just activator that demand respect there are chasers also involved some who run low power aswell, I have previously posted on this subject and suggested that when an activator encounters a massive pile up of disrespect I’ve chasers he is the person in control and therefore should take call signs in numerical order there was an opinion was that I wished that due to my call number being 1 (I just laughed that off as I may join when the call signs with number 2were being called meaning a long wait) but at least there would be some form of control this is what happens with rare dx stations, another opinion on my post was that some activators enjoyed the wall of noise. All I can say the poor operating practices are encouraging this and I include myself because if you don’t get into the ring you can’t win the fight. What I can’t stand are the people who do not have a mirror in their house and tramp all over everyone as if this qso was their last breath and then complain when somebody else dose it. We are in a never ending circle.
MM1HMZ
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I don’t know if it’s coincidence or if this thread is making a difference. But when I activated today, the chasers were very respectful and passed on my S2S call twice. 
73 Chris
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I live in Nova Scotia, Canada. I run 30 watts portable. The big problem I have is overlap signals. I can hear a station to the west of me 5X and a europe station 5X right on top of each other. They can’t hear each other, I can hear both. The problem comes when I answer one…and then into the QSO another station starts up that was in QSO. Spoiled many a QSO but really nobody in the wrong just condx.
VE1PVH Paul
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Hello Chris, I’m glad if this thread has been useful, because tomorrow I will try to put two summits in the air.
While a data about the thread, of 28 users who have participated only two can be considered pure chassers, the rest are on both sides.
73 José
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Hi Jarek,
You should have read to the bottom of my comment.
73, Éric
F5JKK
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