I just had a nice QSO with John GW4TQE/P on GW/NW-012 and duly added it to the database. I received 8 points for this, which surprised me as I was not expecting to get anything having already chased Phil GW4HQB/P on the same summit in April and received 8 points for it already.
Being quite a novice at this, did I do something wrong or have I not understood something? I read the association manual, but could not see anything specific.
Chasers are not limited to chasing a summit once a year.
Ah, OK! I think I had totally misunderstood that. Thank you.
My chaser log has some 0 scores in it for repeated summits which made me think that repeated summits did not score - but now I look at it, those repeats were on the same date but to different activators.
And I have now found the answer in the FAQ… so ignore my ramblings!
The rationale for this is that if chasers can only chase a summit once a year, they won’t want to work activators on summits they’ve already worked. So chasers can get points once per day instead.
The rationale for this is that if chasers can only chase a summit once a year, they won’t want to work activators on summits they’ve already worked. So chasers can get points once per day instead.
Yes I can see that that would be a potential problem!
To add an extension to this question, can a chaser claim the same summit on the same band twice in one day if they speak to different activators?
On Saturday I plan to do a joint activation of Fan Fawr (GW/SW-005) in South Wales with a friend (M6DOG).
We both want to run 2 meters (obviously not at the same time) so if a chaser contacted my friend first, then contacted me 30 minutes later (potentially on the same frequency & probably even the same radio setup if my friend handed the frequency/radio over to me), would that chaser be able to claim the points for the summit twice?
I know there are a couple of husband & wife activator teams in the UK, so I guess the same question applies. If I called as a chaser & spoke to both of them, can I claim the chaser points twice as I have technically spoken to two separate activators with different callsigns (albeit that they may have been using the same station/equipment)?
EDIT:- I’ve just seen the reply from VK3ARR above which says that chasers can only claim the points once per day, so that appears to answer my question. I should have read the full thread more carefully before posting!!!
No.
Chasers can claim the points for working any individual summit once in each calendar day.
Most keen chasers still log the multiple activators worked, but the Database will automatically record those subsequent QSOs as zero points.
I found an unexpected quirk to this. I had a S2S from Fairfield with M0NOM who was on Scafell Pike. Later that day I was on Red Screes, and had another S2S with M0NOM on Scafell Pike.
I wasn’t sure what points I would get for the second S2S, but it appears I have received 10 points for both, totalling 20 points ( plus the 8 and 6 points for two summits I was on myself)
So it is possible to score twice for a summit, but only in S2S points
Or just read the rules. 
But don’t worry James, I have made a career out of misreading technical specs only to have to go and rewrite software later that meets the specs not what I read or didnt read! And these threads are useful in getting many more people to check they too understand the rules.
Read the rules!
The S2S scoring is entirely separate to chasing and activating scoring, that’s why it’s different. However, that may not be obvious to newcomers such as yourself but is to people who were around when then S2S awards were introduced. That seems like only yesterday to me but is nearly 10 years ago ISTR.
I couldn’t see anything about S2S scoring in the rules.
That’s odd Matthew. There should be. Brian has a list of rules topics that need looking at so I’ll check it’s on his list if it is missing and not lurking somewhere where you wouldn’t look,
All I could see was the scoring for chasers and activators…could be that I missed something but I was specifically trying to work out the scoring for the above comments.
True…then again I spend my whole working life reading very long winded books of regulations & instructions which could easily have been condensed to a couple of paragraphs. It becomes very boring after a while.
It’s far more interesting & less anti-social to have a conversation with a few like-minded individuals (even if it is via a keyboard on an internet forum). Had I not posted a (admittedly mildly stupid) question then we would not of had this social interaction.
Depending on you perspective you may consider that to be a good thing!!!
That S2S scoring quirk is news to me.
Or you do what I have done for the past 3 days… I knew the address I had was a physical address not virtual, so my code had to read the physical address i.e. bypass the mmu. Not rocket science apart from the fact I kept reading the physical address of the pointer not the physical address pointed to by the pointer. I had a Picard FacePalm moment earlier and now can see all the data the dma unit is producing. Just got to figure out what I was trying to do before this little pothole on the road to success came along.
If you are bored reading manuals, try reading old threads. There was a lot of chat about S2S back at the start of 2013 when the award was started. There’s useful stuff and lots of tedious rubbish too. But I found this waiting for a server at work to become free…
This award is being introduced to recognize what many Activators regard as the pinnacle of their activating expeditions where they complete a contact with another activator on a qualifying SOTA summit. We have taken into consideration the existing award that has been available from elsewhere for some considerable time which rewards unique summit to summit contacts and do not plan to compete with that award it would be both pointless and also not in the true spirit of amateur radio.
The new SOTA S2S award builds on our existing structure and rules and can be integrated into the database without any great difficulty. It must be noted that there has not been a system for recording S2S contacts within the database (although some activators have used the comment field for this purpose with no common structure to their records) and to do a cross check between activator records to locate summit to summit contacts would put an unwarranted strain upon the database servers. Consequently we will introduce the new award from 1 February 2013 for new S2S contacts only; it will not be retrospective both for fairness to all but also for technical reasons with administration of the database.
How will points accumulate? This has been the subject of much discussion but the rules will be as follows:
The award will be scored by taking the sum of the points value of the activated summit and the chased summit
The rules for activators will apply to the activated summit score i.e. the summit may be scored only once per calendar year. If subsequent activations take place from the same summit in the calendar year only the chased summit score will count for the award
Only the points value of the activated summit will be counted, summer or winter bonuses will not be included as they are already used for activator awards.
The rules for chasers will apply to the chased summit i.e. the summit may only be counted for the award once per day.
Commencement date 1 February 2013 to allow for modifications to the database to collect the relevant information. S2S prior to this date will not be counted
The database will be revised so that summit to summit contacts can be indicated (a tick box probably)
Award qualifying points values will be announced prior to commencement of the award, this is still under discussion
I quite often do. There have been some fascinating topics which cropped up over the years and you can get some good tips & ideas from reading some of the old activation reports. It makes a refreshing change.
That said, in aviation AMM’s, IPC’s, LOI’s, AWM’s, MEL’s etc, all of which are literally hundreds if not thousands of pages long, are a way of life.
I get given an extract of around 15-20 pages telling me how to change a wheel (something which I have done hundreds of times)! Buried somewhere in there is a single line of information telling me the torque figure for this specific aircraft so that I don’t over-torque it & melt the bearing + axle (or under-torque it & probably also destroy the bearing & the axle), what type of grease to use & also how much nitrogen to put in the tyre!
I was given about 20 pages the other day telling me how to change an O-zone converter which consisted of two clamps!
So reading old SOTA threads can make a refreshing change!
