I don’t think we need to promote the 10m band any more…
Even those who didn’t know about it before only know the qualities of the 10m band and will continue to use it for as long as they can.
I think a challenge should serve to promote something that isn’t so popular… or to arouse interest in something new… and bring in as many users as possible.
73 Armin
Indeed
I like this idea even though I think it’s a bit unfair. Here in the french Pyrénées it’s almost impossible to find a summit with more than 5 activations. Most of 10 pointers even have 0 activations.
On the other hand, in the UK or Germany for example, most of the summits have already countless activations, sometimes even hundreds. It would oblige people from those places to drive hundreds of km to find rare summits.
Then if it’s a frequency challenge, my vote goes for 15m even though 80m challenge would be more exciting.
That may be so…
My idea was in the spirit of SOTA… to activate as many different summits as much as possible.
Hence the idea of the multiplier for many QSOs…
You would get the same points whether you make 104 QSOs on a frequently activated summit or 26 QSOs on one that has already been activated 8 times.
Of course, 100 QSOs on a first activation would be awesome 
73 Armin
70cms SSB or 70cms FM challenge?
I don’t see many activate on 70cms.
Cheers
John
M0VAZ
In fact 70cm is one place ahead of 15m, with 219,785 contacts, probably nearly all FM. I understand where you are coming from with SSB, but most people who use 70cm are using dual band handies, for SSB they would have to get something like the trusty old FT817/8.
Which makes it more of a challenge?
One of the original challenge principles was to have a “no challenge” gap year between challenges, to allow a more “normal” activating/operating pattern to reestablish.
Personally, I also firmly believe that challenges should not take place on bands used for contesting. We have tried to avoid this in the past by manipulating the calendar (Flavours Challenge for instance), but the argument was that this became too complicated and reduced interest/take-up. But with a 12-month 24/7 challenge, huge numbers of unique calls can be racked up over a major contest weekend - or indeed on a midweek evening for things like 80m or 6m.
Whatever the format of any future challenge, it will be advantageous to some and disadvantageous to others. We probably shouldn’t be aspiring to “please all of the people all of the time”.
My preference would be not to hold a challenge in 2025.
Nearly 6000 of those are mine, and they are nearly all SSB.
30mtrs??
I always considered myself a CW Guy or at least a 99.9% CW Guy.
Taking this into account, I knew that for each activation within the “Challenge” I would be limited by the usual faithful chasers. I mean, it was going to be very difficult to fill the log with new “Uniques”
To be honest, I didn’t like SSB and I didn’t have the slightest interest in FT8.
Thinking that if I only did CW I was practically not going to have any fun, so I said to myself, “Why not give a chance to people who only do SSB and others who only do FT8, and also do something I had never done before?”
It was the best decision I made adding FT8 and SSB to my activations.
The problem with 30mts is that not all categories have that privilege. In some countries, if not all, only the higher categories can operate 30mts
^^^This.
I prefer CW to the other modes. But I prefer multimode activations to single mode activations!
Yes, I think that thanks to the “Challenge” it is like from 2025 my activations will surely be multimode.
CRIKEY, you are joking I hope Paul!
Mind you, just setting up a 630m station on a summit (even the flatter ones) would be a “Challenge” - the bigger problem would be finding the minimum 4 chasers to qualify a summit on 630m.
I suspect all of us have our own challenges (not just age and lack of fitness as in my case) but I still think my suggestion is to move away from what I feel is rather a “Contest-leaning” direction, to one that challenges the individual operator - be it an activator or chaser. I feel this would have more value than just wanting to be higher in a table than someone else. Perhaps we could have some kind of challenge that gives a certificate upon completion of the challenge and hence not just points in a list of competitors?
Not an easy one to design however if we take a parallel of an individual achieving either the SOTA Goat or Shack Sloth - that (to me) is a challenge - for the individual.
I think Tom’s idea of delaying the next challenge to 2026, so that SOTA isn’t just about the challenge-de-jour, bears thinking about.
73 Ed.
Not sure about what the next challenge should be, but I will likely sit it out…all tuckered out from this years event! A year off looks good to me.
I only used SSB and CW for this event…traditional modes…I’m a traditional guy. Not one QSO on any other mode, and I was never bored.
Ten Meters was a good choise for this kind of event…congrats to the MT!!!
Pete
WA7JTM
This FT8 thing isn’t that easy:
I think I would have got more contacts in a shorter time on SSB on that occasion.
In some cases, thousands 
( G/SP-015 )
One I like is finding a summit that’s not been activated on a particular band, and being the first to activate it on that band(s).
I don’t have a strong preference either way. But one thing I do know is that I’ve worked far more 10m stations in the last 14 months than in all the years since I got my ‘full’ licence. And it’s been fun.
With the solar cycle predicted still to be near maximum, it would be a pity not to exploit the opportunity for long-haul dx that may not come again reliably for many years.
Regarding contests, I don’t see this as an issue. I would be just as happy to have 12m (as 15m) for the next challenge.
I’ll probably be focusing on 12m and 15m next year, challenge or no challenge.
Despite being a relative newcomer to SOTA I have enjoyed this particular aspect, activating summits on bands that haven’t been done previously. One of my recent hills Wether Law GM/SS-177, I managed all the bands I had radio/antennas for except 6m. (2m, 70cm, 40m, 15m, 20m,17m,12m,10m)
Andy
MM7MOX