Is that because of the challenge though? I’m sure that without a 10m challenge next year, if you activate on the band you will get just as many chases as this year, propagation allowing. In other words, the challenge may have made you activate but I doubt it would have generated more chases.
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That’s a good question. Clearly not the 10m activations I did in October-December 2023 and the success of those activations encouraged me to do more in 2024 regardless of the 10m Challenge. However, I wouldn’t have tried to activate on 10m on pretty much every activation had there not been a challenge.
And BTW I’ll probably still do some 10m next year as well as 12m and 15m.
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Ah well… like you I have no interest in FT8. Others can do it if they want and I’ll stick to preferably CW then SSB on this challenge.
I look at the results. The people with the big scores are the people I expect to see with the big scores. I mentally filter them out and look at what’s left to get a view of what’s happening.
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Indeed, I mainly used FT8 in the summer doldrums to make sure that I did at least get the summit multiplier. On one occasion even FT8 failed…
Not much extra hardware is rquired if you use FT8CN or similar
Rick
Apart from another rig and a microphone.
Thanks for the 10m contacts Pete!
Not even weak-signal digital modes will work on occasions where the ionosphere is not playing ball, eg MUFs are lower than 28MHz over much of your intended radio path. But I bet they manage to get through in marginal conditions where analog modes like CW won’t. Not easy? It’s all relative.
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Not if you have a QMX …
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My 2025 personal challenge is to qualify all summits on 23cm SSB-FM.
Given the vast open spaces and low population of radio operators, I think I will be lucky to achieve 50%, however I will do my best.
Andrew VK1AD
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I was already fine-tuning a 15m antenna I planned to roll out at the end of the 10m Challenge, so I’m all for it. I have been spoiled by compact aerials, and the solar cycle is right for it.
6m SSB, 2m SSB & 70cm SSB would make an interesting challenge though contests would boost scores so maybe a WARC bands challenge would be more appealing to many.
Looking back, both the 10 and 12 metre challenges boosted my chasing on the bands concerned. I’ve done about 20% more chasing on 10 metres during this Challenge year than I did on 12 metres during that Challenge year, but my all-time SOTA chasing QSO count for 12 metres is still a whisker ahead of my 10 metres count.
On the activating side, the 12 metres one beat the 10 metres one, but that mostly reflects the activating I havn’t done recently. Back in 2012 I went out of my way to activate a summit once or twice. This year, not.
I’d be happy to see the next year (or three) Challenge-free, and next time there’s a Challenge I’d prefer to see the scoring either linear, or curving the other way. 
(I’d throw multipliers in the 
)
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As I said I’ve no strong preference for there being or not being a challenge next year. But for those of you who have expressed the desire for a challenge ‘gap year’, what I don’t understand is why. You personally don’t need to participate. You can make your own choices about which bands and modes to use, and leave others to participate. Am I missing something?
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@DD5LP 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.
Blimey Ed, fair cop mate. Of course a 630m attempt would be brave for that reason. Just mentioned it as a stretch goal. With planning, a 160m activation should be successful. But the main game would be 80m. I agree that this should be a low-cycle challenge.
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Yes.
It’s the shape, pattern and flavour of SOTA. Challenges distort things somewhat. It is good fun, but not to everyone’s taste. So the gap year gives things an opportunity to revert to a more natural feel.
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In addition to the way the challenges distort activities (see pleas to activators use other bands than just 10 metres this year, for instance) there’s also the extra admin work a challenge needs that has to be done by the folks who keep the scheme running. Some of that’s needed before the Challenge starts, and some is needed after it ends, so the extra work covers more than the time the challenge is open for…
I put some effort into the 12 metres challenge in 2012 but felt decidedly underwhelmed by its final reckoning, and actively mostly avoided the 10/6 metres one in 2015/6. I made a few qualifying chases in the 2020 one, kind-of rolled with the 2022 one, and have done a bit more 10 metres stuff than usual this year, mainly because that’s often been where the activity was.
Good lead time on a coming challenge announcement would be handy for building equipment kits and having a plan in place for travel/gear coordination. At least a year off would be fine by me as well. Only so much creativity to get summits with the limited list and time I have around.
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^^^^ this plus gives the MT breathing space
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Well, go up frequency proper !
How about a QO-100 challenge.
There are only a few at the moment who are equipped for this mode so most activators would start from the same point.
The challenge would be to improve the kit for portable operation so there is a technical aspect to the challenge (or a body building challenge).
Chasers would only need a Sat dish so there is little problem with getting a suitable antenna fitted to most QTH.
The disadvantage is lack of global reach , the footprint of QO-100 is about 1/3 of the earth.
Currently only 86 summits have been activated on QO-100 based on the comments field. At present the only way to see if a QSO was on QO-100 is for the operator to add QO-100 into the comments field.
I hope to be out again in 2025 with QO-100.
73 de
Andrew (G4VFL)
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I know that satellite contacts are permitted in the GR, but for me that is an anomaly as they are just mobile repeaters and don’t fit in with the way I like to do ham radio.
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