Australia joins SOTA

I’d like to welcome our newest association to SOTA, VK3 Australia.

The association went live this morning 1st Feb 2012. AM is Wayne Merry VK3WAM. and there are 8 regions in the association and around 470 summits available.

All the summits data has been loaded onto the database. You can view the regions, names, details etc. right now and, of course, enter chases and activations. This data will move to SOTAwatch over the coming days. But for now you must visit the database web site to see what is on offer.

This association is the result of a lot work, both in Australia and by the MT. There’s always lots of “behind the scenes” work needed to get new associations started and available. Even more so when bringing the 1st association of a new continent online. So please join me in thanking everyone who worked hard in getting the VK3 association into reality.

I’m looking forward to hearing reports of the first activations and chases from down under.

Andy, MM0FMF
obo SOTA MT

In reply to MM0FMF:

The naming of the Regions seems rather unimaginative! They are all called Victoria, and only differentiated by the two-letter Regional code. Again, each code starts with the letter V, so there is only a single letter difference between each Region.

I’m anticipating a little confusion between summits when copy is not 100% …

However, well done to everybody involved. It has been a long time in gestation.

73 de Les

In reply to G3VQO:
Actually the regions do have names, but several are things like North East, North Central e.t.c while some are more regional names e.g. VT = West/South Gippsland , VW = Wimmera but these seem to have got lost somewhere along the way. Just something to sort out.
73 Jim g0cqk

In reply to G3VQO:

Again, each code starts with the letter V, so there is only a single letter difference between each Region.

I guess, once (hopefully) other parts of Australia form Associations, there might equally be confusion if two associations have regions with identical codes (say, VK3/AB-001 and VK6/AB-001 (deliberately chosen 'cos neither exist (yet!))).

I’m sure folks will cope. (:

Welcome, Victoria! Who’s next? (:

73, Rick M0LEP

In reply to M0LEP:

Its a good morning from vk5cz in South Australia.
what great news to find on the SOTA watch page this morning.
Congratulations Wayne for the good work.
I was intending to fly to Melbourne some time in February to do some work with Wayne on the vk5 region but the cool wet summer again this year has got me stuck in my tractor spraying my vineyard for fungal spores etc.Vintage is underway in 2 weeks so my window of opertunity has closed until probably May.
BUT i hope to keep the promise alive to have SOTA in vk5 too.
73, Ian VK5CZ in Clare Valley, premium wine country …

In reply to M0LEP:

All Victorian regions start with V to distinguish them from other states as they join SOTA. The Other states will use other first region codes, such as N for NSW, etc. We could have been more imaginative if the summit codes were VK3/xx-yyy, but all VK associations will share the same VK/ summit codes.

EDIT: When the submission was first made, codes were going to be VK/xx-yyy, but it ended up being VK3/xx-yyy. I did have alternative two digit codes, but it looks like this is what is locked in.

In reply to VK3WAM:

Welcome Australia colleagues! Good luck!

In reply to VK5CZ:

BUT i hope to keep the promise alive to have SOTA in vk5 too.
73, Ian VK5CZ in Clare Valley, premium wine country …

Hi Ian,

I’m not too sure how many UK SOTA activators have made a contact with VK. I seem to remember Tom M1EYP, made one on CW and I managed one on SSB. So a UK/VK summit to summit should prove quite a challenge.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

In reply to VK5CZ:

I was intending to fly to Melbourne some time in February to do some
work with Wayne on the vk5 region but the cool wet summer again this
year has got me stuck in my tractor spraying my vineyard for fungal
spores etc.Vintage is underway in 2 weeks so my window of opertunity
has closed until probably May.
BUT i hope to keep the promise alive to have SOTA in vk5 too.
73, Ian VK5CZ in Clare Valley, premium wine country …

Good luck with the vintage, Ian, the best wines in the world come from Oz! (Sorry, F!)

73

Brian G8ADD

In reply to 2E0YYY:

Indeed Mickey - more than one in fact, although I did have the advantage of it being Commonwealth Contest weekend. In any case, I worked VK2BJ, VK6DXI and VK2IM with 5 watts from The Cloud G/SP-015. I also suffered several getaways, like ZL and VP8. ZA and ZB2 were quite nice from Europe.

In reply to G8ADD:

Objection! Chile, every time for me. But each to their own.

A G to VK S2S would be quite something. Wonder who will be the first? BTW, has anyone managed a S2S between Europe and HL yet? Or ZS? I expect there will have been plenty into the US and Canadian associations, but perhaps not all of them yet.

Tom M1EYP

In reply to M1EYP:

Good luck to Ian VK5CZ with his wine-making tasks. I, for one, would be interested to know the label under which his wine is marketed. If it reaches these shores, I would be pleased to sample the work of a fellow SOTA enthusiast.

Of course, a person’s taste in wine, and their view of what is best, is a very individual matter. My personal favourite is red from VE7. It’s not easy to find in the UK, but well worth the effort.

Les, G3VQO

Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos now updated with VK3 added; also available in the file gallery at www.summits.org.uk

In reply to M1EYP:

A G to VK S2S would be quite something. Wonder who will be the first?

Unless a UK activator picked up the SOTA spot almost immediately, then very difficult. Getting through the inevertable European pile-up on SSB, once they’re on the cluster would be an utter nightmare, especially with just 5W from an FT-817.

BTW, has anyone managed a S2S between Europe and HL yet? Or ZS?

Worked both of them from G/SP-004, sadly, not S2S thought :frowning:

73 Mike
2E0YYY

In reply to 2E0YYY:

Unless a UK activator picked up the SOTA spot almost immediately

  1. Make a sked
  2. Use a power efficient mode
  3. ???
  4. Profit!

:slight_smile:

Seriously, achieving success at things which are perceived as difficult cannot be left to chance. To increase the chances you need co-operating activators, favourable summits, suitable antennas, a helpful ionosphere and a sprinkling of good fortune.

A random QRP<>QRP DX S2S would be very pleasing though.

Andy
MM0FMF

In reply to 2E0YYY:

once they’re on the cluster

Aye, there’s the catch. Need to set things up so that you get the S2S before their spot hits the DX cluster. :wink:

That said, spots on SOTAwatch do not necessarily get to the DX cluster, so spots here might help rather than hinder. :wink:

…and having worked from one supposedly desirable DX (5Z4 Kenya, last June and December), I’ve noticed that getting on the cluster isn’t necessarily automatic…

73, Rick M0LEP

In reply to M1MAJ:

Great job Martyn thanks, there appear to be errors with:-
W0/SP-023
W7/CW-059
W7/MC-059
W7/MC-068
They appear to be in China.

73 - Catch you from GM next week maybe.

In reply to G1INK:

Great job Martyn thanks, there appear to be errors with:-

They appear to be in China.

GIGO. I don’t place these points myself… it’s just a conversion from the database. The errors are in the database. USA to China is likely to be a “-” missing from the longitude.

I’ve sometimes done fixups, especially where the error is systematic (e.g. a whole association in the wrong hemisphere). I don’t normally fix odd summits though I might report them if I notice them.

The only database errors that I am currently applying corrections for are the two GM summits whose coordinates are completely missing from the database.

In reply to MM0FMF:

Welcome OZ 8-))

Mike

OK, the full names of the VK3 regions are now displaying in the SOTA Database.

SOTAwatch will follow very shortly.

Tom M1EYP

In reply to G1INK:

I have posted on this subject in the summits yahoo group in the past. Here is what I wrote.

I have placed a file called “SOTA Summits 4 Dec 2001.kmz” in the Maps folder. This is something I developed for my own use, but thought it might be useful to others.

How does this file differ from the one created by M1MAJ?

It contains only summits that are valid on the day it was created, no deleted summits.

It uses a different color scheme to represent points.

When zoomed out it only show regions, no summits.

The label for a particular summit is only shown when the summit is highlighted.

I look through each region and from the summits figure out where the region box should be drawn. This has highlighted some problems with the locations of some summits. In all cases, except perhaps Scotland, the problem is in the ARM and not the database. That is the csv file has what is in the database which is what is in the ARM.

GM/SI-223: The GM ARM contains only a Grid Ref. but no lat or long. This is a summit that was an addition at a later date. I use 55.61066, -5.31275 in my file.

GM/SS-284: Same explanation as GM/SI-223. I use 59.49658, -3.64646 in my file.

HL/JB-101: The latitude and longitude are the same and clearly not correct. I ignore this summit for calculating the region. The summit is still in the file but in the location as given by the ARM.

W0/SP-023, W7/CW-059, W7/MC-068, and W7/MC-059: The minus sign is missing from the longitude for these summits putting them in the wrong hemisphere. I add the minus sign in my file.

VE7/KB-001: There is a valid summit at the given location. However, this summit is a long way from the rest of the summits in the region. I am suspicious that the locals use the same name for a different summit in the region. I searched for a summit with the same name in the region, but didn’t come up with anything. I have left this as is in my file.

VE2/SG-018: The same situation as VE7/KB-001. When you start drawing boxes around regions there are some regions that you wonder if it is really as was intended. I have left it as is in my file.

EA5/AT-040: This one is clearly in the wrong location. I did some searching but was unable to determine what might be the correct location. For now this summit has been left in the wrong location in my file.

W7/MC-055: This was in Canada, the latitude is wrong. Base upon Lists of John I believe it should be at 46.6613, -121.1432.

W7/MC-039: Same problem as W7/MC-055. I belive the correct location is 46.8455, -121.4328

Some of the Managers are aware of these problems and I am sure they will be corrected at some time in the future. Since VK3 is now active I need to update my file, but at present it is not a totaly mechanized process so it maybe a little while before it is updated.

73,
Doug, N7NGO