Hello to all,
this is Lothar, DL3HXX
maybe you heard the “strange references” starting with GMA DA/something.
I don’t know if it ever was discussed. Think it is worth to be.
This is another program for activators or chasers to achive records. All hills/mountains at a hight of 100 meters or higher are OK. Mountains count 1 point per 100 meters. Today I had a qso with MQ1EYP/p from Hard Knott - hight 549 meters - worth two points SOTA, GMA 5 points (higher than 500 meters) or F5VGL from F/AB-306, hight 2240 meters worth 8 points SOTA. GMA 22 points.
Everyone is invited to take part in, not only Germans. All interested may join and there are awards being sent as PDF-file which will be sent by email at no expense. SOTA-qso’s are valid, too - no matter from which country and there are no restrictions of mode or band. Just have a look at
www.cqgma.eu
and if you want - join. There is a lot to explore. Have fun!
Lothar, DL3HXX
GMA 5 points (higher than 500 meters) or F5VGL from F/AB-306, hight
2240 meters worth 8 points SOTA. GMA 22 points.
Thanks for the QSO. I had problems in copying the call signs on 40 m maybe due to the wind. For me it was an easy walking of 1400 m vertical up and after the activation down, but now in rain and partly in bad visibility.
Yes I am aware of GMA and WFF among other awards. From the different awards schemes I am only doing SOTA now (sometimes the hard way), but maybe (after retirement?) I could participate to the others too.
It is described as “Mountain radio without if’s and buts”. But it actually has quite a lot of ifs and buts. The rules (with all their “ifs and buts”) make interesting reading.
In reply to G3CWI:
Hello Richard
Thanks for your reply to my post. I was not aware there are if’s and but’s. To me they can not be on the serious side. I didn’t read the rules - just came there, registered, logged and applied for the achieved awards :o)
73’s Lothar, DL3HXX
In reply to F6ENO:
Bjr Alain,
OK on your opinion - think this 100m scale is appropriate even to the less able. We all grow older and if you want to do some hiking a lower hill will do :o)
OK on your opinion - think this 100m scale is appropriate even to the
less able. We all grow older and if you want to do some hiking a lower
hill will do :o)
But DM SOTA has also 100m prominence, so you won’t get more summits in GMA, just more points.
About motivation for the older HAMs: I liked this year update of SBW Sächsischer Bergwettbewerb, SBW
They already had a sophisticated scheme of Bergpunkte (1 for each summit), Wanderpunkte (1-2 for the summits where a demanding hike is necessary), QSO-Punkte (if you do at least 6 QSO) and now they added Seniorpunkte: if you are over 70, you’ll get an additional point for each activation
Can you advise how the award handles the case of several adjacent summits with less than a 25m drop between them. I seem to recall that this is a common situation in some parts of Germany. Can all the references be claimed from a single location? I have a friend who is travelling to Germany soon and he is keen to maximise his points for minimal effort so he will be interested in your answer.
Also, can I add some references for the upcoming “Mountain Man of Macclesfield” award - or do they count automatically?
I was surprised to see how much activity takes place in the SOTA DM association, it’s the most active in all of SOTA from a combined view (chasing / activating). SBW must be one helluva a busy program.
During the month of May 2012 SOTA participants registered in DM activated 161 summits and chased 3646 activations. A total of 125 DM summits were activated. It appears to be the same story for April 2012 aswell.
The reason it’s so surprising is the popular myth that since all the invalid summits were removed from the SOTA programme in DM a few years back there is hardly any SOTA activity there. That’s not supported by the stats.
For interest the top 10 for May are:
DM
G
S5
OE
OM
OK
HB9
GW
F
10)PA
And for those who think PA, a very flat country, can’t be in the top 10 it’s because PA activators were active mainly from, wait for it, DM association mountains!
activated DA summits 246 activations on 180 summits with 3808 QSOs
activated DL summits 3 activations on 3 summits with 70 QSOs
activated DM summits 140 activations on 109 summits with 4566 QSOs
chased DA summits 190 summits with 1368 QSOs
chased DL summits 39 summits with 112 QSOs
chased DM summits 184 summits with 1192 QSOs
I think GMA beautiful, even when I am here in the flatlands, there is thus 1-2 small Huckel nearby.
The daughter is also excited when we discovered when activated a new tower.
But curiously the GMA chasers prefer OK summits to DA summits:
chased OK summits 289 summits with 1413 QSOs
…also from the database.
And if you compare the DA summits from the GMA database to the DL amd DM activations for the same period from the SOTA database a very different picture emerges. It simply shows that most SOTA chasers and activators are not using the GMA database.
In reply to G3CWI:
Hello Richard,
I think the main reason for not using the DA summits ref by most german activators is that GMA is not well known even in Germany and when an activator is calling cq GMA almost nobody knows what it is and he gets no answer. Many op’s asking “SOTA?”. the activator telling him NO - this is GMA the caller will qsy. The activator will get just a few qso’s even when he climbs a high mountain just like DC8MH/p in the alps. When he uses the DL-ref he gets a huge pile up.
SOTA is running for years and GMA is pretty new - even to me.
What you say does not surprise me. GMA, like some other “umberella” schemes, by dint of its inclusiveness lacks any very clear identity or underlying ethos. Such schemes seek to capitalise on the success of existing award schemes that are built on a a clear ethos that has proved attractive. However, in ditching the key elements of the original ethos in search of inclusivity, they often fall short.
An example of confused identity is the HEMS scheme here in the UK. HEMS, I believe stands for:
Hills of One Hundred Metres Prominence excluding Marilyns ( which are hills of 150m prominence or greater). However, I am told that HEMS includes some Marilyns and also some hills of less than 100 metres prominence! Well intentioned no doubt, but confusing at best.
Like it or not, SOTA has a clear ethos and a clear intent - to encourage back-packing style amateur radio. In that respect it has been very successful. As an award scheme it started in an untapped “market”; it could easily have failed but for its attractive formula. It is unsurprising that others want to emulate it!
Incidentally, GMA has been running since 2008 but was recently relaunched.
In reply to G3CWI:
I think it’s you that is confused Richard.
Perhaps a little research before posting?
HEMS - Humps excluding Marilyns.
That is excluding any SOTA hills which by definition are also humps.
The data for inclusion comes from the full database of hills which also
defines inclusion in the SOTA scheme.
Which hills in the HEMS list are not 100m prominence ?
Allowing a short period of time (as in SOTA) hills are added and removed
as the definitive database is updated due to resurveying.
