I just read through the rules and couldn’t find an answer to my question, although I have a feeling I know the answer! If I activate a summit and get 4 VHF QSOs and 4 SSB OSQs, which brings me to 100 total points with 100 VHF QSOs and 100 SSB QSOs, would I qualify to get two endorsed certificates? I only have 100 points total but did so on two different bands so would I be able to get a VHF certicate and an SSB certificate? Or would I have to get 100 points VHF and another 100 points with SSB to qualify? I just started SOTA last month with my 5 year old son and we’re having a blast!
Thank you in advance,
Stew
KC1IFK
If you want a certificate endorsed “VHF” then you will need enough points from VHF contacts alone. Otherwise it wont be “VHF” but mixed. Likewise “SSB” or “HF”.
Thanks @MM0FMF, thats what I anticipated the answer would be. So there isn’t a points/achievement advantage to using different modes in one activation, only person edification. This leads to a second question: if I use multiple bands on one activation, how do I declare the points for one or the other? Or is it based off of what mode the first four contacts are worked on?
Thanks,
Stew
KC1IFK
You don’t declare anything. You log all your contacts in the DB and if you ask for an ALL 144MHz FM certificate, the award manager has to check. This is easy for some logs and hard when there is a mixture of modes/bands. One of the items we want to get out of the updates to the DB that is happening is to be able to easily check if a log contains the right QSOs for an award so the claimant doesn’t submit a claim for an award he hasn’t earned. There are issues doing this but you would be surprised what people claim when their log doesn’t contain the QSOs they want a certificate for!
Thank you again! I just want to make sure I understand the process so that I can play the game correctly! I don’t want anything that I don’t earn! I am a Tech for now and my first 30 activator, 28 chaser and 32 S2S points are all VHF so it would make sense to get my first 100 points on VHF. Just one more clarification if you wouldn’t mind, does the Data mode refer to DMR, D-Star and Fusion or FT8, JT9, PSK31, etc?
Thanks yet again,
Stew
KC1IFK
Data means Data. DV means digital voice
Don’t worry about being exclusive and missing out HF because you want a VHF award first. Just work every QSO you can on every band and mode you have available. Log all the QSOs. At some point in the future you will have enough points for various awards.
Work the summits, climb the summits, activate the summits, log the QSOs. Awards come later 
2 Likes
Thank you again for another clarification!
I am expanding my capabilities this Friday; I will be purchasing an FT-100D from a clubmate with a RigBlaster so I plan on expanding my activations to 6m ssb, fm and digital, 2m ssb and digital and to try 10m ssb, fm and digital even though its crud right now. I don’t want to miss a single QSO!
73!
Only thing to add to Andy’s replies - it is the responsibility of the claimant to PROVE any endorsement to a certificate. It is easy when somebody never uses anything but CW (for example) but when their log contains a mix of CW and SSB and the claim is “All CW” then trying to find out whether their claim is valid can take forever.
I don’t bother any more, I just reject the claim if proof is not provided. Yes, I am a miserable old curmudgeon and I like it 
Barry GM4TOE
SOTA Awards Manager
@GM4TOE Sorry to be such a noob, but how does one go about proving the claim? Like I mentioned before, I want to play the game correctly and honestly and knowing the ins and outs of the rules facilitates that!
73,
Stew
KC1IFK
If you claim just on points, or uniques or some particular awards then the answer is provided by the DB for no effort. If you claim say 100 activator points from only 70cms FM QSOs, you need to provide sufficient evidence for Barry to be sure you are sure. So you can download your entire activation log as a CSV file. Then you can remove all the non-70cms QSOs, then you can remove all the non-FM QSOs. You are left with a list of summits, remove all the ones where you don’t have 4 QSOs and you are left with a list of summits with 4 or more FM 70cms QSOs. Count up the points, >= 100 then you can claim the award with endorsement.
@MM0FMF I understand and that makes perfect sense. I will endeavor to make it as easy as possible for Barry when I get to that point!
Thank you for all your help! 73!
