For me, completes are the supreme discipline at SOTA.
It either requires effort - or you are dependent on the other activators that you want to get as a chaser. Even the latter sometimes requires a bit of effort.
If you have reached a summit as a chaser and want to complete it, then you have to go. If it’s not in the neighborhood, a SOTA vacation is a good idea.
Worthwhile regions can be quickly identified via sotl.as. I should go to the Bavarian Forest 
The summits that you want to get as a chaser are more problematic.
First of all, you have to notice that the summit you are looking for is activated.
This can of course be an alert… but often you decide at short notice and then don’t set an alert anymore. I often do several summits a day and there are always problems with the timing and the display. This often stops me from setting an alert. But even if an alert is set, it is not certain that activation will take place.
HamAlert provides reliable information that the summit you are looking for is activated. There is a “complete” function that is updated every night.
I also set an alarm for the summits that I haven’t gotten yet as a chaser - but that I want to activate myself in the foreseeable future.
Like so many others, I struggle with QRM at home depending on the band up to S7. This often makes it impossible to receive weak SOTA activators.
The only thing left to do is get out of the house myself.
There is a hill that is 10m minutes away by car… unfortunately without SOTA reference. I do this spontaneously when I don’t hear the spotted activator at home and when I think that he will be active for a longer time.
If there is an alert, I often go to a summit in the neighborhood. This has the advantage that I can be heard in the pile up with /P or S2S… and can even offer and get S2S points.
But what do you do if you want to have a very rarely activated summit as a complete - that you have activated yourself? You need patience! …and make it interesting for others!
Write a report about your activation here. Photos arouse desire! Parking options and paths to rarely activated summits are often poorly documented. Post photos and information on the sota summit page and in sotl.as.
E.g.: Next week I’ll be in the area northwest of Como… There are some rarely activated summits. (e.g. I/LO-425 ) Jürg @HB9BIN has posted a good documentation on sotl.as that helps me a lot. I have no idea whether he has completed the summits yet - but if not, I would be happy if I could help.
73 Armin
