One challenge every three or four years is plenty.
It doesn’t do that if you multiply the numbers together.
Whether there should be a challenge is a matter of opinion. There is no doubt that a challenge on a reasonably accessible band would gain a popular response even though there would be opposition from some of us to having too many challenges.
It is worthwhile to re-state the basis on which a challenge band has been selected:
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It should be a band which is universally available on all major modes world-wide.
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It should not exclude popular modes.
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It should be a band which does not require a major outlay in equipment or require advanced specialised knowledge.
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It should be a band that can be shown to be neglected but is capable of giving good results.
Bands like 60m which are not universal, 30m which excludes phone operation, or microwaves requiring the majority of hams buying or making new equipment should be excluded.
This more or less summarises the thinking of the MT when planning challenges. I will add that in my opinion a band should only be considered as worthy of a challenge if it has gained less than 5% of the numbers of contacts gained by the most popular band. For reference, the most popular band is 7MHz, which last time I checked had got 3,781,815 contacts, so a challenge-worthy band should have less than 189091 contacts. You can check out the “Activator QSOs by Band” table in “Facts and Figures” in the database to see which bands would qualify on that basis.
122 post later… 15m fits Brian’s requirements. 
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it is slightly over at 217,452, as is 60m at 192505 - which would not be a choice anyway. The top three candidates are 80/75m at 91,680, 12m at 84,784 and 6m at 72,976. 80/75m is a much better choice for sunspot minimum, 12m while nominally a good choice has been done before, and while the time is right for 6m it would not suite some of those that have commented in this thread…too much of a challenge?
Neither 12m nor 6m are universally available. We ran into this issue with the 12m challenge, and is brought up regularly when discussing a 6m challenge.
Perfection is unobtainable, we just do the best we can for the maximum number of people.
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Hurry up I only have 3 days left to make my 'challenge" antenna or not.
NHY Regards
Ian vk5cz …
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Ian,
it was a challenge to figure out what NHY meant, but I got there!
After the 122+ comments I think I now agree with the idea of having a challenge-free year. Some time for reflection and pursuing personal goals will be welcome.
73 Andrew vk1da/2da
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Sorry Andrew bit dishlecsick.
Yeh good to have a spell I guess. My urgency in having a year off SOTA is I am a bit too close to 85cm on the tape measure to be having time off. HNY not NHY was supposed to be the CW abbreviation for Happy New Year.
Regards all you do good work.
Ian vk5cz …