I look at it differently Gerald, but with possibly a similar conclusion.
SOTA is about working towards whatever your personal aspiration is. If that is limiting your radio activity to four contacts, then that is a personal choice; so be it. I don’t believe this is selfish. I am uncomfortable with any peer pressure is suggesting activators should do anything over and above what the Programme rules state.
Having said that, it is always in the activator’s interest to maintain the goodwill of the chasers, and this is often achieved when it appears that genuine efforts are being made to complete a contact with a chaser struggling to get it. I know from experience that chasers really appreciate it when you turn the beam, increase the power, try a different mode etc to get a contact through, and the payback is that their support for your activations remains for future expeditions.
But I don’t think it is fair to suggest that those who would prefer to do a quick 4-contact activation have no place in SOTA Gerald - of course they do. There’s plenty of room for all radio amateurs in SOTA, whether they want to spend 4 minutes or 4 hours on their activations. I have done both, and everything in between.
Following a schedule is a valid reason to QRT according to the rules, and QRTing after four contacts because you feel like it is also valid according to the rules…but I personally find it distasteful, it is not using but abusing the chasers. Some of those chasers whose calls are being spurned have invested time and trouble to put themselves in a position to make those calls, and shrugging your shoulders and saying “tough luck” is inviting them to black list future activations or even give up SOTA and go back to chasing entities. Furthermore, a schedule would probably be delayed if necessary to take more time to get the qualifying four contacts so it is not carved in stone. Nor should it be, I would find it difficult to predict the time to a summit for a hill I am familiar with, it would be much more difficult with one I had not set foot on before - Naismyths Rule is only the most approximate guide, it takes little account of terrain, condx or how well you are going on the day.
I also find the idea of tazzing about the countryside doing several mini-activations in a day a bit alien, although I can appreciate the desire to make the most efficient use of fuel and time to bump up the score. I suppose that is because although I have been a ham since 1964 I approach SOTA via my other hat as a hillwalker, and as a lifelong hillwalker I would rather spend the day exploring one group of hills even if only one summit is a Marilyn.
Tom, don’t you think that operating to a schedule that allows just
enough time to make 4 contacts from a summit before the move to the
next is an exceptionally selfish way of taking part in SOTA? My view
is that while it is definitely within the rules, such a method of
operation in no way can be regarded as within the spirit of SOTA
operation.
Perfectly put Gerald, I never seem to word things right, but you have voiced exactly what I was trying to get across.
I felt bad only being able to offer 40 minutes per summit on last
Saturday’s schedule for the 5 GW/SW summits, so much so that I
pre-warned chasers via my alerts for the day.
You shouldn’t have felt bad at all Gerald, 40 minutes was ample time for all to make the contact. You always give it your all and as you say, you even alerted about the 40 minute per summit.
What I have found in 21 months of SOTA activations is the strong bond
of friendship between activators and chasers and so may it long
remain.
Again, brilliantly worded. I’m glad that someone else feels the same strong bonds between activator and chaser as I do. It is like a familly bond even though we might never have met the person we are speaking to.
Perhaps those not interested in joining the SOTA
“family” ought to think long and hard whether they really
should be doing something else in order to satisfy their
self-congratulatory desires.
I look at it differently Gerald, but with possibly a similar
conclusion.
SOTA is about working towards whatever your personal aspiration is.
If that is limiting your radio activity to four contacts, then that is
a personal choice; so be it. I don’t believe this is selfish.
Hmmmm, no comment, it might come out wrong.
I am uncomfortable with any peer pressure is suggesting activators should
do anything over and above what the Programme rules state.
Wow!! double standards here Tom. You had no problem applying peer pressure yourself when I, under the same programme rules, used my atas antenna attached to my car. Glass houses and stones come to mind here.
In reply to GW0DSP:
I keep typing replies to this thread but then read the bit above the post reply button. Anyway my XYL won’t let me borrow her handbag
“But I don’t think it is fair to suggest that those who would prefer to do a quick 4-contact activation have no place in SOTA Gerald - of course they do. There’s plenty of room for all radio amateurs in SOTA, whether they want to spend 4 minutes or 4 hours on their activations. I have done both, and everything in between.”
Perhaps it was my turn to not get something out quite right.
Tom, your last sentence says a lot - I would think it an absolute certainty that you have never purposely set out to do a 4 contact and quit type operation. Some have though and have caused a measure of upset that has been expressed not just recently, but going back some time.
I totally respect your comments, but persionally still feel that anyone that chooses SOTA as an activity and sets out to purposely “work” the rules by setting out to make just 4 contacts is not fully entering the program in the spirit in which it was intended when the MT set it up. SOTA is so much more than that!
73, Gerald
P.S. You like statistics, so factor my wife into your calculations!
12/Mar/2006 G/SE-004 (Butser Hill) 4 - wife in car waiting; I had difficulty making contacts with FT-290R barefoot to whip, 1 on SSB, 3 on FM
03/Apr/2006 G/SB-009 (Ros Hill) 4 - wife in car waiting; only 4 called on 2m SSB
04/Apr/2006 G/SB-008 (Long Crag) 4 - wife on summit; only 4 local FM contacts, no phone coverage so couldn’t Spotlite.
05/Apr/2006 G/SB-010 (Housedon Hill) 4 - wife in car; you try making more contacts on 2m from this summit!
15/Apr/2006 G/CE-001 (Cleeve Hill) 4 - wife in car
15/Apr/2006 G/CE-003 (Bredon Hill) 5 - wife on summit
03/Jun/2006 G/DC-004 (Hensbarrow Beacon) 4 - wife and family on summit; only had 2m with me.
Seems her 4 QSO filter failed on Bredon Hill, or perhaps she forgot to switch it on until after my first contact! Maybe the design has been cloned… worse still, published without my knowledge!
What is all this about schedules and 4 contacts… I just don’t see the argument here.
I can work a good few summits in a day at this time of the year, I always go to the actual summit. I have a fantastic day, see the sights and have plenty of time even to put the kettle on a few times!
All I need to know is what time I will be up the first summit for the first post on the alerts page.
The time I leave that summit is determined by a return of silence to several CQ calls on all four main points of the compass. After that I try to say thanks to everyone by putting out just a general call, then call up the XYL or another amateur that I know will be on frequency and let them know the next hill and time. Without doubt I will do my best to work everyone I can hear call me. Sometimes I will persist with a chaser until he/she gets that contact, I sure a few can back me up on that. Many a time I been on the summit for too long, but who cares. I am never late onto the next summit as I don’t have a schedule, so it works for me.
I have a mobile phone and it often works on the summit. People can and do txt me to get me pointing the beam their way. I phone in to get a spot up 10 or so minutes before the radio is on, and I know people are there ready to mug me on Freq…
There is now way I would work 4 contacts and close shop knowing that there are others waiting to work me, no schedule is that important that you can’t hang around for a few more minutes.
I see it too often with some activators and now I often don’t bother chasing them, I have been known to have selective hearing when called by activators that do this… I could name several activators that are very guilty of smash and grabs, or don’t make the effort to use good antennas or radios. It a pet hate for me. It takes nothing to put a good station into operation and work a whole host of chasers.
Its lazy, selfish and poor operating not to give it your best shot.
Maybe it is time to for other radio users to ignore CQ calls from activators that are guilty of smash and grabs without a valid reason. I do… I don’t need a chaser point or two that bad. Sure will make them think.
“After that I try to say thanks to everyone by putting out just a general call, then call up the XYL or another amateur that I know will be on frequency and let them know the next hill and time.”
Steve, you are fortunate in having Sharon at home. My wife often is out when I am on the hills, she has resisted getting licensed and she wouldn’t want to be involved in placing a spot anyway. That’s why I make a detailed schedule of my day so I can alert accordingly.
As for ignoring smash and grab merchants, well that must be down to the individual. Personally I have worked very few of them… maybe that’s a function of my preference for SSB.
Maybe the design has been cloned… worse still, published without my knowledge!