Hi All,
Are there any plans for a new challenge for 2025?
This year The 10m Challenge was a quite a fun and many people participated. I would consider it a big success.
73 Marek
Thank you for the compliments about the challenge. I’ve found it lots of fun. I’ve had just had my first ever all 10m all USA chaser activation 
Before we consider any other challenges we need two designs for the activator and chaser certificates. Barry has to do all the follow work after I’ve had my 10m fun so if people have pictures they think show 10m activating and 10m chasing then the MT are interested in your picture. No you don’t get paid but you do get bragging rights if any are used.
Don’t post any pictures here or send them to Barry or me. Just select them and I’ll say where to post them in a few days.
My favourite would be the same as the 10m challenge except swap 15m for 10m. Should still be lots of good conditions such that 15m may be a lot of fun.
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I support this motion!
73 Heinz
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I thought I read next year’s challenge was 6m. Or was that never official?
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I hope it wasn’t official, that would require too much luck in my opinion. Would be no different than a 2m challenge 90% of the time.
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It was discussed but I don’t think it was officially decided on.
That’s my view too. And… I doubt there will be any more F2 from the UK to VK for example. That boat sailed last Autumn/Fall for another 11 years.
And the nice thing about 15m is you can use the same antenna for 40m/15m so you can work locals and DX-y stuff so nobody needs to miss out. Just my $0.02.
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Nooo!
You can’t endorse a 15m challenge! I’m currently sitting at the top of the all time G association table.
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I’d prefer some sort of multi band challenge to encourage a bit of creativity. Maybe max(bands,10) * max(contacts on band,200) * max(summits,10)
So up to 10 bands, your top 10 best scoring summits but a limit on the number of chasers that count as a multiplier. Swap limits as MT see fit.
Bit complicated though.
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My tuppence and a half :-
Something that involves VHF/UHF and upwards perhaps?
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My personal opinion - I’d prefer a challenge without multipliers - as soon as you put multipliers in, to me it’s a contest and SOTA used to say it isn’t a contest, but rather a challenge to improve the individual’s skills. - My personal opinion.
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Hi Ed
For a lazy person like me, setting the multipliers pushed me to do almost twice as many activations as I had been doing.
I said it in another thread that I don’t remember, during 2023 I had a kind of “fed up” and when I read about the “10m Challenge” I said to myself “This is good to shake the hornet’s nest and start running again” And the results are the view since in 2023 I only did 35 activations and so far in 2024 I did 93!
I think that “Challenges”, regardless of their formats, are a very interesting option for many.
73 de JP3PPL, Takeo
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It sounds great and I support it. I would add Max (modes)
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It is important to reward lots of different summits being activated for the health of the programme. It is also important to avoid rewarding only the number of QSOs. There needs to be a balance between the two.
One possibility could be to switch to a “bonus” approach - for instance +100 points for each unique summit activated/chased rather than a multiplier.
But it doesn’t really matter as it’s not a contest and there’s no prize for any “winner”.
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While the SN today is only 97, with the low activity sector of the sun facing the Earth, it is by no means clear that maximum has passed. You get these ups and downs every sunspot cycle, and I know - I’ve been keeping an eye on the sunspots since 1959! My guess is that we will still get the odd F2 opening over the next year, not that F2 is the only DX mode, with aurora, Es and TEP all liable to make a contribution - particularly Es!
And I thought it was!
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It wasn’t because 6m excludes a bunch of license levels globally from participating because access is not universal unlike 10m. We ran into this issue with the 12m challenge back in the day as WARC allocations aren’t broadly available for all licenses classes and decided we wouldn’t do the same thing again if we could avoid it.
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Andy,
Re propagation.
I think there will be at least one more Equinox this cycle when VK works EU on 6 m. But it’s very unlikely SOTA stations will be involved. 4x7 element arrays driven with significant steam are needed for more than a couple of QSOs.
I’m amazed I was able to work a couple of the big guns with my 3 ele beam. I decoded just one G station - briefly. And he wasn’t running an IC705 to a flowerpot on a summit. Some VK6’s say it’s as good as 20 plus or 40 plus years ago. Evidence of a 22 year cycle?
So although a 6 m challenge would be good for me it would not have great dx capability imo.
On 10 m this year my on-summit dx was JA, BX and West coast USA. 6 m would be similar at best but that’s it.
Sadly I don’t have any suggestions for the next challenge. 15 m isn’t getting me excited yet.
How long do I have to upload my 10 m activations?
73
Ron
VK3AFW
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This season for 6m in vk has been a very good one or even the best ever for making contacts with dx stations but its been 99% FT8 not humble old SSB or CW modes like most SOTA ops would be using. As I said a few months ago on this Challenge “discussion” I am more in favour of 15m than 6m if there was to be a challenge again in 2025. If it was to involve a digital mode challenge make it JS8call. I have noticed a lot of JA ops doing FT4 on summits and parks its easier to get a place on the waterfall on the higher bands and not get stomped on by high power home stations swapping locator grids all day. How exciting.
Regards
Ian vk5cz …
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Another suggestion might be to look at the low bands or at least 80m as an antenna for 160m can be a bit of a monster and most SOTA ops have already got working 40m set-ups. DX is possible by using the grey line, which would then be a different “kettle of fish” to 10/15/20m operation.
In countries where ham radio can form part of emergency communications, the NVIS capabilities of 80m can be very useful, and having amateurs with the skills and capability of putting up a portable NVIS station where needed could be a valuable addition.
While it’s “nice” to take advantage of the good solar cycle conditions is that really such a “challenge” in making contacts - certainly not as much of a challenge as the last 10/6m challenge a few years ago before the vastly improved radio conditions.
An 80m challenge could be set in the summer months when low band propagation is harder than in the autumn/winter months.
I guess it depends on how hard a “challenge” we want to make this. In my opinion 80m would certainly be more of a challenge than 15m at the current time.
Just my 2 pfennig worth.
73 Ed.
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Thanks for the QSOs on FT4 in my last activation!
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