It’s over the complete year. Add up all your unique summits that you had at least one QSO on 10m during 2024. Add up all the unique chasers on 10m during 2024. Multiply the two numbers together and Robert is your mother’s brother.
I hope no one does that. Not in the spirit of SOTA.
No! You are denying the chaser the opportunity to chase the summit. Don’t selectively filter people/chasers out of your activation.
Just log as many chasers on 10m as you can and let the algorithm deal with the score.
Andrew VK1AD
Hi Richard,
That was my thought as well but if “thems the rules” for the challenge, I’m afraid it will happen.
Hence my request for clarification from the challenge organiser(s).
I would see this problem avoided if scoring WAS to be on an activation by activation basis, which from your first reply, tells me it is not.
73 Ed.
The 10m challenge is a small part of SOTA in 2024. It’s a bonus. All the usual activating, chasing and S2S will go on so I cannot believe anyone will do that. It’s usually quicker to just work a dupe rather than ignore them anyway.
Hi Andrew - Same reply as to Richard - I’m analysing the rules as I have understood them.
As you know, I always try to work all chasers when on an activation if the weather and available time allows - I do not intend changing that model, however I do see that there could be a problem for chasers with an activator seeking success in the challenge IF I have understood the rules correctly.
Perhaps we should await clarification from the organisers - perhaps I have misinterpreted the rules.
73 Ed.
@DD5LP Ed, I think you will find that “unique chaser” is the combination of the chaser AND the summit being activated. In the challenge activator results that I have looked at this morning this is how the rules are being applied.
73 Peter
Thanks, Peter,
If that is indeed the case, this issue goes away and I can keep working my loyal chasers on every activation (plus other new chasers).
As I said when I posted this question - I was looking for clarification as without the ‘unique chaser from a summit’ ruling not ‘unique chaser in the year’ - it seemed unfair on the chasers to me.
73 Ed.
Hi Ed
I am now more confused about the ‘unique chaser’ than when I posted earlier. There is a reply from @ M1EYP in a different thread that suggests unique chaser is unique for the whole challenge not as I was suggesting.
So I’ll just continue to work what I can hear and not worry about the results.
As I have just worked Tom @M1EYP on G/SP-015 on 10m I submitted that as my latest 10m QSO. This is my 2nd QSO with Tom as I worked him on G/SP-017 on 01/01/2024.
So for the second QSO on a unique summit with the same operator, as a Chaser I was awarded 1 unique contact and 1 unique summit for todays G/SP-015 contact, even though I worked same Tom @M1EYP on a different summit.
I think Tom is having a good run today in the activator stakes with MGM and CW QSOs in his log!
73 Phil G4OBK
This is a bug. I have the same with F4WBN worked twice this year on 10m and I have been credited for both. No wonder people are confused!
Why wouldn’t you do this anyway, regardless of a challenge? Most activators don’t stop after 4 QSOs even though they don’t need any more. Half the fun of SOTA is making lots of QSOs.
^^^This!
Besides, we’re all SOTA enthusiasts here right? We like getting calls from regular chasers (aka “friends”) and enjoy working them.
I cannot imagine any SOTA activator would be so Challenge-focused as to systematically ignore anyone they’ve already worked through the year. I reckon it would be a counterproductive strategy anyway - impeding your own flow through all the checking - not to mention potentially making yourself unpopular!
Anyway, just reviewing my own Challenge scores, it would appear that the bug has been fixed.
The question is how many activators are keen to “win” their association in the 10m Challenge. Unfortunately, the challenge is (in my opinion) a contest under another name, once you start factoring in mults it’s a contest.
That being said, as I understand it, one of the worthy aims behind the challenge is to inform new people about SOTA.
Linking that factor with the (apparently now confirmed) rule that you only get the unique chaser multiplier point once in the year (not once per summit) for a contact with any chaser, the “best” operational mode for the activator to maximise points is to work “search and pounce” and seek out other hams on the bands who are (not yet) chasers and in fact don’t “run” a frequency based on a spot, that regular chasers will be looking for.
That’s simply the best process based on the rules as they stand. If the “unique chaser” multiplier rule had been per summit, then “running” a spotted frequency makes more sense.
Perhaps the best approach is to do both - take some of the activation time to S&P collecting new unique callsigns and then spot and Run an activation to give the already worked earlier in the year loyal chasers, points - that’s effectively what most activators do in any case after getting the needed first four contacts on a summit.
With temperatures going sub-zero here again, it’ll be a while before I can try this theory out!
73 Ed DD5LP
Here’s a question for our MT IT Gurus Andrew and Andy:
If I work Armin F/DL6GCA/P today and tomorrow I work him as DL6GCA/P does that count as two unique multipliers in the 10m Challenge?
73 Phil G4OBK
I think it should. We strip /P, /M etc. from a call but trying to manage the multitude of variations of CEPT and reciprocals is tricky and likely to get things wrong.
Thank you Sir.
Phil
noun
/ˈkɒntɛst/
an event in which people compete for supremacy in a sport or other activity, or in a quality.
There are no winners, it’s not a contest.
We’re only here on Earth for a short period and we don’t get to live through too many solar maxima. The rules are designed with a simple aim in mind: to get as many SOTA chasers/activators on the air. A consequence of that is there will be more people chasing on 10m who may work me!
Yesterday I was surprised to work 10 on 10m and all bar one were SOTA chasers. The last maybe new to SOTA or just wanted a 10m QSO. Not bad for a first time out in 2024 on a Friday around UK lunchtime. One of those QSOs was with Jan OK2PDT. I’ve written before about how Jan knows how to operate well. Jan persevered in calling and I knew a non-SOTA station would not be so determined to get a QSO. We succeeded in the end, determination and quality operating by Jan won through. I’m not sure either of us would have kept on if there wasn’t a challenge running. It would have been one that got away.
Absolutely without doubt! There’s a lot of keen SOTA chasers out there. If your M.O. avoids them, you’re missing lots of available points! Also, regular SOTA chasers are your best bet for ensuring you get 10m QSOs on new multiplier summits on days with poor condx on 28MHz.
Working non (or as I prefer to call them “not yet”) SOTA chasers will also obviously increase your unique call haul. Spreading the word about SOTA? Yes. Yes please!
The overarching strategies that actually embrace both the above approaches are to use plenty of different bands and modes, and to do lots of activations of lots of different summits. ie, both INCREASE and BROADEN the SOTA activity.
Yes, it does.
Hi Andy, if you had included the words prior to the quote, you will see I said - in my opinion. That is my opinion is that when people complete it#s a contest - even though the main part of SOTA is not. - My opinion.
73 Ed.
If people decide to enter SOTA or a SOTA challenge in a competative spirit, pitting their achievements against those of other people then that is a competition, but it is not SOTA, it is a private and unsanctioned competition. You can make a competition out of anything, two sticks floating in a river, two raindrops running down a window, but they are not competing, you are. In short people may be competitive but SOTA isn’t.
We do nothing of the sort. Different callsign is different callsign.
