First Activation Report

I can see how to download a CSV report of summits and the last acitvation call sign but I cant see how to get a similar report with the call sign of the first activator for that summit. Can it be done by mere mortals or does it require Sota God access?
Mere Mortal Compton

I presume you need this as a data transfer for some reason?

The Summits page in SOTA always shows the first activator but unless you’re crafty with a “screen scraper” that is not going to supply a CSV file for you. You need a data file that can be downloaded in a form of “all summits” I guess?

Ed.

Yes, a CSV file as a downloadable report.

I had wondered if there might be an export from the SOTA mapping project that could contain what you want but nothing found in it’s exports there either.

Looks like a special script to access the DB may be required,sorry.

Ed.

There is no downloadable “1st activated by” data. Personally, I’ve wanted to drop the 1st activated feature for a long time but have been persuaded to keep it.

Why Andy? I thinks it’s great to have the “kudos” - though there are first Activations - with less than 4 contacts, which I think is not right.

Cheers

Jack(;>J

First Activation is not inclusive. SOTA started in 2002 and let’s say some was born the day SOTA started in the UK. They’d be 15 now and may well be licensed and have an interest in SOTA. But they’d not be able to get any First Activated because there aren’t any left. They’ve all been done. It’s a bit off putting if you are new and keen and find you are excluded from something just because you weren’t born at the time.

I have plenty of first activated status for a summit. I’ve also got first activated for 2 associations (W6, CT3). But I have them through a fluke of circumstance rather than any innate skills or ability.

Tons of them in VK. And as for Alaska…

Compton

Our hypothetical 15yr old in the UK will find it beyond trivial to pop over to Alaska for the weekend to a bag a previously unactivated summit.

Several available in GM all be it some are rather wet

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Thats the problem with the hypothetical youth of today, they want everything given to then on a platter now. When I was a lad…

Flippancy aside, the issue of First Activation is an exclusion issue. Once it has been claimed, no other person can ever claim it. It is less of an issue in newer associations or associations with thousands of summits remaining unactivated. But the fact remains, once a summit has been activated for the first time and that fact is reported specifically then everyone else is excluded from getting that status. This is unlike everything else in SOTA. If I work and achieve an “All Microwave” MG status I may be the first to do so but my certificate will not be endorsed with “First All Microwave” but merely “All Microwave”. The endorsement does not exclude any other activator from claiming an “All Microwave” endorsement.

That’s why I don’t want to do anything to make anything to do with first activations easier to locate or list.

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Well, yeah some do !

But not all :confused:

One option could be the new French lowlands summits, for your hypothetical UK 15 year old (by the way that’s “Ageist” as plenty of “older” people join the SOTA scheme every year). A UK 15 YO is often more likely to be able to go to France than a UK pensioner for example.

I made all my plans to activate a new un-activated OE/TL summit and then because I had another commitment, missed it by a week, when another (DL) activator did what I had planned - that was a disappointment.

By the way Jack - an activation only requires one contact - that’s the rule. The 4 contacts is for getting points. At least it’s not 44 contacts (albeit from multiple visits) as in the WWFF scheme!

Ed.

I guess the concept of it being exclusive in that once it’s been done nobody else gets a chance to do it first is possibly made clearer by us having a new 30m CW only homebrew challenge. Open to anyone but you must show that the radio was homebrewed (no kits) and it’s 100% human sent/received CW. If that was suggested for the next challenge then some people would lap it up. But the howls of complaint from everyone who cannot homebrew (maybe their eyesight is not good enough any more) and/or cannot operate CW (because they have still to learn) would fill the reflector to bursting point.

So anyone can suggest that there are plenty of yet to be activated summits but it’s only because you want see your name singled out compared with your peers. Where possible, we try to make SOAT a contest only between your desires and your abilities. Not your abilities and someone with better physical capabilities than you, or more money to spend on equipment and travelling.

SOTA is not competitive Andy. So there’s no kudos or anti-inclusion to worry about in displaying the “First activated by…” information. It is history - and history is interesting for many people. The (joint) first activator I ever worked on a summit was Shirley MW3GTE/P, later MW0YLS (SK). She became a good friend and was a significant collaborator in the early growth and promotion of SOTA. Seeing her credited as the first activator of scores of North Wales summits is entirely appropriate, and a piece of history that I am confident most want to remain and not be hidden away. Shirley is but one such example of course, there are many others. I cannot imagine that yours is the majority view on this one Andy, even though I fully understand the position you are coming from.

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But there is or it would not have been specifically mentioned earlier in the thread.

Yeah OK I see Jack used that word. I still suspect that for most of us, we’re thinking about the kudos attributed to key SOTA activators in the formative years of each association, rather than to themselves.

I think the issue is completely subjective and just because your opinion, my opinion and say Jack’s opinions are different, that doesn’t make any of them wrong. Or any opinion more right. It’s the same as whether you think Tomato soup is the work of Satan (which it is) and the only true soup is Scotch Broth or Lentil and Bacon.

It’s 100% subjective and I could agree with you. But then we’d both be wrong! :grin:

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You are correct about tomato soup. But I cannot fathom why you chose to quote the examples you did at the other end of the spectrum while completely overlooking Highlanders Broth, haggis broth, cock-a-leekie, Royal Game and lobster bisque. They’re the best (Baxters, obviously). That is not subjective, that is hard fact.