A way forward for SOTA scoring and mapless associations.

Notices
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I’m moving many, many gigabytes of files from my soon-to-be-retired Windows PC and it’s amazing the digital cruft that lurks in darkened, seldom visited locations. This was found in a path C:\D-DRIVE\drived\junk.… (There are files dating back to 1987 in that tree, copied from old disk to new disk to new computer… back to MS-DOS 3.1 days !)

It’s time this got a fresh viewing… the original author can out himself if he wants but his copyright is acknowledged.

Objective SOTA – OSOTA a new paradigm for those wanting certainty.

SOTA is a poor award scheme, being grossly unfair and lacking in any sort of objectivity. Coupled with the selection of an arbitrary list of summits (“Marilyns”), it is clearly not fit-for-purpose. This paper seeks to suggest a wholly objective scoring system to meet the demands of all potential activators and chasers.

Scoring

The complex scoring system of SOTA will be replaced with a simple deterministic equation allowing scores to be readily calculated for both activators and chasers. Not only that but the new system will allow activators to activate a much wider range of summits than was previously allowed. The system also renders the winter bonus obsolete.

Activator Scoring

Points = Insert equation

Where A is related to the ascent from the parking spot or starting location in metres: A is looked up from the table below: Note that this system allows any hill or slight rise in the landform to be added to the scheme at the discretion of the activator. In order for this to work, SOTA references will become personalised with a format consisting of activator’s call-sign, followed by a simple six digit reference number starting from 000001, this will be followed by the height in metres expressed as a four digit number e.g. G3CWI000001/0067

Ascent A
0-10 1
11-100 2
101-500 3
501-1000 4
1001-5000 5
5001-10000 6
10000+ 7

Parameter B is the difficulty of the ascent and has been carefully categorised in the following table. This method allows the activator to properly reflect the difficulty of the route they choose to do rather than the arbitrary height banding system used in SOTA which does not reflect difficulty.

Difficulty B
Could be tackled on roller-skates 1
Equivalent to walking to nearest Post Office 2
Gentle stroll in the countryside 3
Easy ascent on mountain path 4
Difficult ascent on mountain path 5
Miles of rolling heather (no path) 6
Vertical heather/grass (no path) 7
Scramble (Grade 1 to 3) 8
Rock climb (to VS) 9
Rock climb (harder than VS) 10

Parameter C is a factor related to weather – which as anyone knows, affects the difficulty of an ascent. Note, increase C by 1 point if visibility is below 50 metres and/or a Met Office Warning is in place.

Weather C
Warm sunny day (temperature 18-22C). No wind. 1
Very hot day, windy 2
Cold day (not freezing) calm 3
Cold day windy 4
Heavy rain 5
Below zero with snow - calm 6
Below zero with snow - windy 7

Parameter D is related to the weight carried – this is the weight of the activator himself plus his equipment. The objective here is safety-related in that it encourages the activator to carry extra safety equipment and/or Mars Bars.

Weight (kg) D
0-50 1
51-100 2
101-200 3
200+ 10

Parameter E relates to the activators choice of bands/ modes

Band/mode E
HF CW 0
HF SSB 1
VHF SSB 2
VHF CW 3

Parameter F is related to the abilities of the activator

Abilities F
Climbed lots of hills recently (fit) 0
Living on past memories only 1
Suffering from hang-over 2
Struggles to get upstairs 3

Parameter G is a Green Bonus – something sadly lacking in the original misconceived SOTA.

Bonus G
Walked to hill from home 5
Used Public Transport 3
Drove to hill in car 1
Drove in 4WD (any type) 0

Parameter H is the “multi-activation bonus” which encourages those lacking much drive or imagination to activate their local hill as many times as possible.

Activations H
1 0
2-10 1
11-100 2
101+ 5

Parameter I is a special bonus for activators in certain areas.

Area F
Domiciled within 10km of Clitheroe 3
Domiciled in Essex 1
Other locations 0

Chasers

The Chaser system is even simpler. The Chaser points are the number of metres height of the hill (from the summit reference – see above) divided by 100 plus a difficulty bonus as described below.

Difficulties Bonus
None of the below apply 0
Had to rush upstairs 1
Ill-fitting slippers 2
Used to teach IT 3
Worked for a major bank 5

Hopefully this new system will please everyone.

17 Likes
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Brilliant, and very practical :laughing:
I think this parameter needs to be bumped up the points, though, as POs become less common…

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Looks like the authors callsign is in the text. I think the scheme could get some traction these days especially with points added for distance to the pub from the end point.

73
Ron
VK3AFW

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Calculating SOTA points that way would have consumed all of the computing power on the planet, at that time.

It’s so subjective, it’s unreal. Also, needs to have hangover category expansion, from 1-10, with 1 being a dry throat and 10 stopping to puke over every wall.

Also, it rewards fatties carrying a light rucksack.

You should have kept that one for April 1st, Andy.

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Talking of computing power… I only have a space for single monitor in the current shack layout, so there’s a new PC connected to 1 monitor input and the old PC to the other input. I got fed up swapping displays with the tiny buttons on the monitor and swapping over mouse and keyboard that I’m controlling the old PC via an RDP (remote desktop protocol) link, it’s like I was sat at its display. So dump files from a Windows source folder to a transfer folder on a server then copied into the “correct” place on the new machine. Over the years there’s lots of files/folders just been dumped somewhere and so now is the time to apply my version of the Dewey-Decimal system and get things sorted logically (so I can never find them again.)

Is there a point to this stream of consciousness? Yes. The original file looks like a Windows Office doc file. Double click and it opens on the new machine in LibreOffice Writer all perfectly formatted and displayed. How to get it onto the reflector in a nice and pretty format. I thought about uploading it as a PDF but we don’t allow PDFs as such on the reflector. Could I print it in some format that would look OK on an old dot-matrix printer and upload that maybe? Then I thought “what will it be like if I ctrl-c the LibreOffice Writer display and ctrl-v it on here?”. A quick try and it came out looking all ship-shape and proper. The formatting copied across so headings were emboldened and the best bit was the tables formatting was converted on the fly from Windows Office doc style to Discourse style completely transparently by Discourse. I’ve been playing with computers since dinosaurs roamed the Earth and earning a living since 1983 so little impresses or makes me go “Ooooo!” but this did. It was trivial, open doc, ctrl-a ctrl-c, click New topic, select category, click in blank space, ctrl-v and a title and some preamble and the jobs a good-'un.

You just have to smile when a plan comes together like that :wink:

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Stack 'em vertically! Even better, install a recliner and have several in a vertical arc centred on your head! Rigs, keyboard and mouse on a pull-out, drinks cabinet and nibbles in handy reach…

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This will be the perfect time to rename Scottish summits properly.

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I can only click like once Alex :wink:

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There are Discourses plugins to help with that.

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Gave me a grid Andy… :slight_smile:

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Is that one of those new words in the Oxford English Dictionary? :wink:

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I totally disagree with Parameter G relating to travel. There is no allowance for the distance driven to get to the summit from where the activator slept the previous night or for how trashed the activator is when he / she gets out of the car at the parking spot.

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Wading through above waist height Ferns, with extra points for wet ferns should be added of course :wink:

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Plus a tick bonus!

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Seems straightforward enough, maybe a couple of other categories too

Parameter P - For each piece of equipment purchased your score is the cube root of your score, but for each piece homebrewed then your score is squared for each item (clothing is counted in this calculation). This may be modified if you have proof that the fire brigade are required to be in attendance when you turn on the soldering iron ( receipts for house renovations after a fire are not acceptable).

Parameter R (Taking the rules literally) - Bonuses will be given to those that follow rule 3.7.1 - 5 religiously. Not only must the activators equipment be carried to the summit, but for each chaser, their equipment must also be taken to the summit and then back to their respective location. For satellite operations, the satellite and launch vehicle need to be carried within the activation zone before launch. Remember also that for satellite ops, the activation zone extends vertically, so the satellite may not be used while passing directly over any part of the activation zone.

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…Moel Cynghorion Crescent!

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Sgurr nan Ceannaichean

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Thanks for inadvertently reminding me I have a Kryoflux setup and a stack of disks undumped that I’ve had laying about for years!

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I hope you don’t mind me using this next time someone complains about the scoring system. I’ll let them know we are considering this.

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I understand the sarcasm in this post, and I know it has been debated countless times… but what’s the point of having a scoring system if the points don’t realistically reflect the effort involved? When a drive-through summit in DM/BM earns the same 10 points as Denali, it feels a bit nonsensical. I still believe the scoring system could be improved by introducing a simple coefficient reflecting the general difficulty of each association.

Parameter H is the “multi-activation bonus” which encourages those lacking much drive or imagination to activate their local hill as many times as possible.

I would take the opposite approach: give a bonus for summits that have never been activated before. This would encourage more exploration and adventure.

1 Like