One problem I find is that the decision to cancel a summit is often
taken back at the car, or on the descent to it, and thus in an area
with no cell phone coverage.
Aye. Last time I was in the Lakes I could mostly get mobile coverage only when I was in the clouds. Get down a couple of hundred feet, and coverage gets very patchy.
regular to post a spot to that effect on the SOTAwatch site.
Indeed. A “ will NOT be at ” spot also clearly overrides an alert.
Alerts are useful, especially if they’re specific about intended frequencies, but they would be improved by adding an indication of expected accuracy and how long the activator intends to stay on air, or maybe an “earliest QRV” and a “latest QRT”?
I had a week off and I liked to know if it usefull to be QRV on HF phone anyway. Listening to noise is not always funny. Anyone can understand the difference in time. I often walk to summits without any documentation about time, so always make a big guess when I place an alert. I worked several stations this week on days there were no HF alerts at all.
"Am I the only person wanting a measure of ice and snow to return to the hills sooner rather than later? "
Yes! (It’s raining here again today.)
This has been a very interesting discussion. The consensus, with which I agree, seems to be … carry on alerting, but try to indicate the likely margin of error in the activation time, and if possible cancel the alert if an activation has to be scrubbed altogether.
FWIW, the most irritating scenario for me is where the activator completes the activation and packs up BEFORE the Alert time! On many occasions, I have come up on frequency as a chaser at the appointed time (so I thought), only to be told, “Sorry - he’s been and gone!” This is what happened with the two activations I cited at the beginning of this thread.
Am I the only person wanting a measure of ice and snow to return to
the hills sooner rather than later?
No, but you and I may well be in the minority!
A nice coating of snow on a scree slope makes the climb MUCH easier, snow reduces the number of people you share the summit with, and it looks a lot more picturesque!
On the other hand, a ptarmigan exploding from under your feet can easily lose you a years growth!
I know of two chasers who quit SOTA because they felt that the alerts/spots system removed all the skill and serendipity of chasing. According to them “it’s like shooting fish in a barrel”.
I know of two chasers who quit SOTA because they felt that the
alerts/spots system removed all the skill and serendipity of chasing.
According to them “it’s like shooting fish in a barrel”.
There is a parallel here with the DX-Cluster. Both the Cluster and the SOTA Spots system tend to create pile-ups of stations “calling blind”, when they can’t actually hear the target station!
I personally think the alerts are a good thing, yes, there are times (and I do it myself) when the times are not kept but most activators do put +/- in the alert. It is not a bus timetable we are keeping to. Myself, well I usually have a 2 n half sometimes a 3 hour drive to get to the starting point then have a considerable climb in front of me. Most times not knowing what the terrain is like before hand and not having a prepared route to follow or a convenient man made path to meander up.
Most of the hills I attempt are in difficult to get to areas not a pimple next to a handy parking place with a 20/30 min walk. If I get up most of the hills I do in 2 hours then I consider myself doing well, and if I have the XYL with me then the time is a lot longer but I always try to adjust for this in the alert.
On being late, if I CAN get a phone signal then I do adjust the time on the alert or inform my chaser buddy but most of the time people like yourself are already either on their way up or are already on the hill waiting for the alerted activation. On the odd occasion I have not been able to activate the summit I either cancel the alert or post it on the spot page.
I can only suggest that if you don’t trust the alerts posted to be accurate then don’t look at them. Most chasers that I know get to know their activators and know their habits and that they will appear when it is ready for them to do so.
I look at the alerts page mostly to see how many people will be on and where rather than exactly when as I have mentioned it can be difficult for most of us most of the time. So please give us a break and be patient we will be there when it feasible for us to be there.
I will get of my soap box now and sorry if you don’t like this reply.
Most of the hills I attempt are in difficult to get to areas not a
pimple next to a handy parking place with a 20/30 min walk. If I
get up most of the hills I do in 2 hours then I consider myself
doing well.
Yeah? What do you want? A medal?
I will get of my soap box now and sorry if you don’t like this reply.
LOL! You must think I’m very easily offended, Neil. I can assure you I’m not. In fact, most of your reply agrees with what I said in my previous posting on this subject. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. There is room for everyone in SOTA … the 20/30 minute pimple climbers as well as the accomplished mountaineers. The main thing is to enjoy it! And carry on alerting, if that’s your thing.
One day, I may even actually HEAR one of your activations! I live in hope.
When i go out to activate (which at the moment is very little due to work commitments etc) i tend to make sure my mobile phone is fully charged and that the time is up to date as i use this for the time for my log
if i am running late or cannot make it i tend to login to sotawatch from my phone and update the alert or put a spot up saying for example running late and a rough estimate of time scale
this doesnt always work as my internet is 3G if there isnt a strong enough 3G signal i cant get a connection and sometimes am unable to update spots, alerts etc
when attempting to do Brown Clee Hill (WB-002) several months ago there was very wet and slippery mud under foot and very low and thick cloud cover and i could not even see infront of my feet so decided for safety reasons i would cancel and head back down but at this time i did not have the joy of 3g internet access from a phone and so had to try and phone home but didnt have a signal it wasnt till i got to the bottom near to the car that i got a decent signal to phone home and get a cancellation spot put up
sometimes being away from home it is not possible to gain access to the sotawatch or even have a signal to phone someone and there are some people that dont have such technology to do anything of the sort
i think some people tend to rely on alerts too much and then upset themselves when the person they are waiting for doesnt appear there are many factors to consider including the safety aspect and also weather etc if someone got to a hill and found the path was just a ski slope some of them wouldnt bother attempting it and would just cancel and go home but some of these people just dont have the technology to connect to the internet from the side of a hill and update a spot or whatever
i myself really enjoy my mobile phone with 3G internet access and i admit it comes in very handy in some places but not everyone has the technology to do this
