I haven’t worked out the costs for my current GM/NS SOTA tour by motorcycle but the returns have been beyond price.
A cold beer definitely tastes better after a long walk and a summit activation !
Andy
MM7MOX
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Cost effectiveness is a term used in business life. I don’t let this term intrude my hobbies! As somebody already said: any hobby done properly is not cost effective.
73 Heinz
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It is a useful calculation when comparing where to travel to activate. I live on the California west coast, near San Francisco. We have many summits that have 2000 ft ascents and count for 1 point. To reach 10 of these summits you will average about 30 miles driving, plus your climb. Fuel is about $0.25 per mile. You will cover about 300 miles, or spend $75. About $7.50 per point. Now if you you drive the 300 miles to the Lake Tahoe region in the Sierras, the typical points/summit is about 8 points, with quite a few 10 point possibilities. Ascent height probably average 2400 ft from a parking area. Trip distance = 600 miles, Fuel bill = $150, but in a day you can hit 2 summits, so cost per point = $7.5. A useful metric to determine what peaks to tackle. In reality, I suppose most of us take advantage of summits where we were going on a trip for other reasons. Many of us wonder about the points assignments in various regions as the ascent height seemingly has no bearing on point assignments.
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My first thought reading this thread was that SOTA activating has benefits which override any cost consideration. Personally I might not be here today had I not been participating in SOTA before I had my heart attack. Being reasonably fit because of the time that I had spent on the hills, my heart was able to withstand the strain of the blocked artery and suffer only minimal damage. Those that know me will recall that it wasn’t long before I got back on the hills. Apart from the physical aspect of activating, I am sure that we all benefit in respect of our mental well being.
As regards the cost of activating, I have a spreadsheet setting out the details and one column covers the miles travelled. To date for my G4 call I have travelled over 70,000 miles over the past 17 years. To that can be added the travel involved in the activations when I have used my G8 call, to say nothing of HEMA and WWFF activations. I often wonder how many miles I would have travelled and what the cost would have been had my interest been Premier League Football.
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You’re asking someone who has 5 Land Rovers, two of which are V8’s. So, not the person to ask about sensible spending. As Andy says, you’re a long time dead. You can’t take it with you and what’s better than enjoying fresh air, mountain views and speaking (or tapping) to your pals on the radio?
Oh, and Mo and I have just booked a holiday to Colorado later this year. We’re flying business class but will be camping for most of the two weeks. I feel that is a good investment! Anyone got any summmit recommendations? 
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Absolutely!
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Sometimes you let your XYL pick a holiday home and she picks one where there are more than enough summits to sneak into a family holiday and you even get to see them from your holiday garden.
Carn Fadryn GW/NW-058 at about 8pm from my holiday let’s garden, only 15mins drive. (If we ignore the 350mile drive to get here.)
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If it’s what you like to do, it’s worth it !
I can’t even leave California for $1100 these days !
K6YK
1 Like
I do all my SOTA while I’m doing something else.
- On the way to work
- On the way to a football match
- As part of a walk we were going to do anyway
- While on a family holiday
By combining all my SOTAing with activities and journeys I was always going to undertake for other purposes, the cost of all my SOTA is zero - it’s all free. You can’t get better value than that.
Gerald,
I agree with you on this one. Having had a similar experience with a heart problem about 6 years ago. I think the medicos were impressed that my heart was in such good physical condition despite being let down by some blocked arteries.
I have urged all I know to keep up their exercise levels - before it is too late.
For this reason there is no way to measure the cost of sota activating, but I can certainly measure the benefits. Each few hundred points is another year alive and above ground.
73 Andrew vk1da/vk2da
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Cost effective is chasing summits from the home QTH.
Activating is not cost effective. Every point scored is expensive. However the exercise…physical and mental, is priceless.
Besides, It’s only money.
Now that I am retired they send me checks every month…I can’t dance, but I can still walk !!:
Pete
WA7JTM
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Today Uwe, DK8OA and I earned 3.42 euros with our activation.
Last Thursday was Father’s Day, which is typical for Germany. Hordes of thirsty fathers - or those who want to become one that day - move through fields and forests and leave empty bottles behind.
This was also the case on the Grasberg summit. There is also a second box whose deposit we will redeem the next time. Assuming it’s still there?!
73 Chris
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Phil, first of all thanks for your effort and secondly for the QSOs we had. If being outside doing radio isn`t valuable enough, who really counts money spent on a hobby? If I would do so I would call it business… 
Thanks again and keep up your good work, I am looking forward to meeting you in person some day. vy73/55, Tom
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And what a view from that summit. I did my first activation up there, in the sun.
The costs can be counted but the mountain views and views from the mountain are priceless. That is me on the iconic McAfee Knob - a 6 point summit along the Appalachian Trail. That and the friends made on the trail and the friends contacted by radio - summit to summit, are also priceless. As someone already said, life is short - live it well.
That being said, although I have never calculated it, I do group SOTA activations so I can do mutiple summits on a single drive to the mountains with multiple summits per day or over a week. Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park, or the Blue Ridge Parkway is chock full of summits. I do take advantage of organized “campouts” where SOTA activators congregate into a target rich (summit rich) environment (aka campground) and activate summits over a week’s time. I made mountain goat over a period that took 59 outings - 97 summits in 8 months and change. I did consider time effectiveness more important than cost effectiveness - but that was when fuel prices were much lower. These days I have to consider both, athough the calculation is more an estimate than an explicit one.
Ariel NY4G
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