Does anyone know the official times for the fastest Mountain Goat and Shack Sloth? I know that Ian G7KXV achieved MG in 1 Year and 13 days, and I did SS in 6 weeks and 6 days.
Are these the fastest times?
Cheers, Mike GW0DSP
In reply to GW0DSP:
Hi Mike.
I suppose it depends on how you define the “Start date” for S/S. Like many others I worked the occasional SOTA station more by accident than design a year or so before I became interested, so maybe the date you registered is more accurate?
73 Roy G4SSH
In reply to G4SSH:
That’s a point Roy. I worked Ian G7KXV/P 16/1/07 who said he was on High street and thought it was some guy out shopping. I was then told by GW7AAV that it was a sota summit and he explained sota to me and got me involved, so I started chasing seriously a week later so did most sloth points in 5 weeks and six days.
I don’t think it can be from registration day, because you could work 1000 sota points, then register, put the points on the database and claim to have achieved slothdom in 1 minute, lol. I would have thought it would be from first point in the database to 1000 points.
I was just curious what the two records were, someone must know, hi.
Maybe the committee members would give us the answers?
vy 73 Mike GW0DSP
In reply to GW0DSP:
It’s an interesting point. Now in 2007 there is much more activity and more associations than there were when SOTA first started. That makes it easier to get points than 2 or 3 years back as a chaser. So perhaps what you need to work out is the rate of collecting chaser points as a function of the number of activators and associations. Then you can compare current chaser scores with the earlier ones to see if a 1000+ points in 6 weeks is very impressive or just average ! 
The time to get to 2x SS will be interesting as the Winter Bonus period is coming to an end but the F and W2 associations will be now active.
Anyway, I’ll be listening for you on my next activation as you’re a big signal on 60m. I’m not sure what I’ll activate next, but if I can get 6 points by next weekend I’ll have gained 100 activator points in 6 months. Only another 4.5 years to MG status at this rate!
Andy,
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
I take your point Andy, it’s a fact that as the popularity of sota accelerates it will become easier for the chasers. Unfortunately it doesn’t get any easier for the activators, except for the fact that there may be a better chance of more s2s contacts.
When the winter bonus ends, there will be compensating factors ie USA and French associations coming on board and the lighter nights will mean more evening activations in the UK.
Another point, with the time difference between us and USA we will have near on 24 hour a day sota when propogation allows.
One thing is certain, I am only very new at this game, but have seen sota grow quickly in popularity in the short time that I have been involved and can see it getting even bigger by the day.
Thanks for your activations and for the points Andy and I will certainly be there for your next one.
73 Mike
GW0DSP
The fact that Mike has managed to make Shack Sloth so fast should be seen as an indication of the growth in popularity of SOTA. It would be interesting to know if he is the fastest because if someone comes along in six weeks or six months or six years time and does it quicker it lets us know just how quickly this aspect of the hobby is growing. The indications are that chasers will achieve their targets faster than ever as more associations come on board and as more and more amateurs are bitten by the SOTA bug.
Reading some of the comments it sounds like people are trying to dodge the issue but I guess that no-one has actually managed to check the data, certainly when SOTA was envisaged no-one could have expected a 1,000 chaser points could be earned in such as short space of time.
I actually think that Mike’s circumstances put him in an usual position which has allowed him to achieve the 1,000 points very quickly and not many other chasers will not be in the same position, therefore anyone who matches or betters what Mike has done will have done something extraordinary.
Firstly Mike has only just come back on the air after about ten years (so he didn’t know what SOTA was until I explained it and hasn’t just worked a few that he didn’t put in the database), he no can no longer work due to an injury, so is at home 24/7 and he won’t be running up any ten pointers to activate any time soon, his house is on top of a hill (not high but with a great take off North), he has an NoV for 5mHz, a great rig in the IC-7400 (so most bands are available to him) and he is a thoroughly efficient CW operator.
Most of us will have some disadvantage to Mike such as, we have to work, we live in a valley, we don’t have an NoV, we can’t work CW, or can’t operate as many bands, that said most of us wouldn’t want to be stuck at home 24/7 even if it meant being the numero uno chaser. Chasing is fun but to some operators it will be the nearest they get to a mountain and can be a lifeline.
Ian’s fastest mountain goat (if indeed he is the fastest) is in need of being recognised as it sets the pace for other activators. SOTA is about personal targets and is not a race, however we need a yard stick by which to judge our progress. Both Ian and Mike may have given us a yardsticks but if someone is faster I would like to know and I’m sure others would too. We already recognise who first activated a summit via the summit data pages I can’t see any reason why these achievements can’t be at least news worthy.
Regards Steve GW7AAV
http://gw7aav.googlepages.com
Well I am (un)fortunate enough to be at home for a fortnight now due to an injury on my back. Best pills are my comfy chair, the radio close to hand and … — - .- in the background.
This time off helped me to increase my score up to 300+ now. As I’ll be going back to work next week score won’t go up so quickly anymore but it is great fun chasing those brave men. For me every completed QSO is very satisfying as my toys are very limited (Icom 703- G5RV, HF6V and 10W)
Congratulations Mike on your achievement
73, de Peter
ON3WAB/ONL5923
In reply to ON3WAB:
Sorry to hear that Peter, hope it soon gets better.
73 Graham
In reply to GW7AAV:
My last 1000 was from 27/01/07 untill 07/03/07 39 days
In reply to G4JZF:
Crikey, this one seems to have stirred up a hornets nest, hi.
My original question was simply what is the fastest time to qualify as MG or SS and NOT what is the fastest 1000 points scored, which is a totally different thing.
I know that I will score my next 1000 faster than I qualified as SS, mainly because I have now gained sota experience and also have more “irons in the fire” than when I started, 60Mtrs nov etc, so more points on more bands become available to chase.
I just thought that my simple question would have received a simple answer, hi, I presumed that records would be available, it doesn’t matter really, hi, not a life or death situation.
Congrats on a 1000 in 39 days Graham, that is quite some going, I did 1000 in 43 days, maybe faster if I could be bothered to check my chaser log on the database, but that’s not the answer to my original question, although it raises another question, what is the fastest 1000 scored for MG and SS?.
The main thing is that we all get so much fun and pleasure out of it wether activator or chaser.
73
Mike GW0DSP.
In reply to G4JZF:
In reply to GW7AAV:
My last 1000 was from 27/01/07 until 07/03/07 39 days
…and I was ahead of you in the table (for 2007) until I went away for a long weekend and missed 178 points, but the point is not who has done the fastest 1,000 (that is another great achievement) it is about who did it from a standing start as inexperienced chasers/activators. It might seem unfair to those in it from the start because you didn’t have so many activators to take the points from, but a few years down the road Mike may feel the same about someone who did it in a week. It is about miles stones which we can write in to the history of SOTA and we just want to know so it can be recorded for posterity.
It just seems to me that denying or ignoring achievements such as these is similar to the way we British treat our sportsmen by putting them down when they fail but never congratulating them when they win, we need to encourage everyone within SOTA (and life in general)to set personal goals and be happy for them when they achieve them.
Don’t worry Graham your spot as Numero Uno chaser is assured as John GW4BVE seems to be concentrating on activating these days, so you should soon catch him, but watch out in your rear mirror for that G4BLH as he is coming up fast behind, but it’s not a race honest. ;o)
Regards and respect Steve GW7AAV
In reply to GW0DSP:
I know that Ian G7KXV achieved MG in 1 Year and 13 days,
I know we cant really compare different associations, however a "randomly chosen" log (DF2GN Klaus) shows that he started on 27/2/06 & passed the MG barrier on 25/8/06 ie 2 days short of 6 months. There may even be someone quicker if I could be bothered to look. Im sure Ian id the fastest UK based Goat, & Im sure hell keep chipping away at my unique score until he overtakes me. Pity Spain isnt up & running or Id get some uniques in the next 2 weeks hi.
73 Steve.
In reply to G1INK:
To be honest Steve, it really doesn’t matter, as you rightly say, there are so many permatations to the equasion, such as some associations having lots more 10 pointers which are only a stones throw from each other, which enables 3 or 4 X 10 pointers to be activated in a day, whereas in the UK, you lads often have a long hard slog to reach a lot of the summits and then face greater travelling times between summits.
I honestly don’t care who qualified the fastest for both MG and SS, but was simply curious what the fastest times for both awards were.
As for anyone chipping away at your uniques score, rather them than me, hi, I often wonder how you do it mate. You definately hold all records for fastest ascent and descent, fit as a butchers whippet, hi.
73 Steve and look forward to catching you on the next summit.
Mike GW0DSP
In reply to G1INK:
hi all,i want to write a few words , but my english is so limited 
So i hope no one misunderstood.
Hello, there is still a faster mg in Sota ; -). I personally find it also not so important who was fastest. More importantly is that the people in Sota participate actively. The one has more time than the other one, occupationally. To my 6 months to raech mg-status = last year i worked one week early, which others in the afternoon, which third at night and fourth not ;-), my home-qth is nr. the city of villingen schwenningen nr the “Lupfen”-summit DM-BW-057 ,so take that sota-overlay and look at it with google - earth.- so you sees which I exactly live between the Swabian alb and the Black Forest .in addition seems it which I only active sota-om in the region.the other why,that i´m be so often qrv on the summits,is that my other hobbys are to run 
or walking up the summits.thinks its crazy ;-),but i have fun and it keeps fit.the other hobby is amateur radio,specialy build qrp-trx´s and qrp portabel/outdoor radio. most summits are here so rather over 1000m asl ,and therefore in DM-BW 10.pointers.-last year i could activate still 5 or 6 summits on one day .40m-cw only with 10 to 15 qso´s per summit.so its no big thing to reach mg-status in 6 months ! i think in UK,HB9 etc. its much harder.however my goal is it to reach as much chasers as possible and give much from the 10 points to the chasers , thus cooperate larger antennas, more bands and recently also active in ssb and much more time on the summits with more time needed to build bigger antennas .so if i only interessted in my scores , and i want to activate so much summits in the next months as last year, I must go back again to 40m-cw only with 3 watts es mobile-antenna-setup again. for the moment amounts itself to work all chaser on all volume so to 60 to 90 minutes it´s thus no short stop as last year (by the way - last weekend i spent 1 hour time in the database to type the qso´s in).if you want to find the fastes mg so you must count, in which asociation, with which spends, how much time leaves qrl .that means,by this fast growing sota,every op havs different conditions to work mg or ss-status.thinks in DM-BW you could reach the 1000 scores in still shorter time ,if you use only 2m FM-handy and make 4 - to 5 qsos. but is this good for the sota community? I think sota live above all of it that the chasers have summits to work,hi.so let us be active on the summits and in the shack.and the most important thing for me - lets have fun
I personally find it also not so important who was fastest.
lets have fun
Wise words Klaus, let’s enjoy the short time we have on this planet.
In reply to G4JZF:
For what its worth I made 1029 pts in 36 days from 1 February.
A plea to activators - pse try and be QRV for our European friends on bands THEY can use (not just 60m!).
73 de CRIS
GM4FAM
Points well made and usually adhered to but a plea from an activator - many of the chasers already do this but can chasers help find a clear spot on the other bands (particularly 40m) when it is busy at a weekend and then spot us on that frequency. 5 watts fails to be readily found amongst the BC stations and qro contesters.
Yes, I know the other answer - use CW. One day!!!
73
Barry GM4TOE
In reply to GM4FAM:
A plea to activators - pse try and be QRV for our European friends on
bands THEY can use (not just 60m!).
This is a different discussion that may deserve it’s own thread but it has been done to death.
The simple answer is we operate the bands and modes we enjoy operating, if people don’t want to operate any particular band or mode that is not going to change. VHF operators will continue to operate VHF because that is what they enjoy and cw operators can’t be forced to go on to phone.
Can anyone really blame people for not wanting to try and compete in the 40m zoo on QRP ssb?
I personally try to work SOTA on as many bands as I can both from home and from summits. That having been said I have been on summits where the only contacts I have had have been on two metres and others where I got no contacts on 144,433 or 1296 mHz and yet qualified easily on 5mHz. I always try to operate 40 and 20 metres but have so far never had a single reply to my CQs. Maybe that will change when I get onto cw, but maybe people jump to the conclusion that because stations aren’t heard/spotted that they didn’t try to work the band.
Regards Steve GW7AAV
In reply to GM4TOE:
Yes, I know the other answer - use CW. One day!!!
Barry
There are so many SOTA stations on 40m CW that it’s sometime hard to find a clear spot there too. …but that’s the sort or QRM I like to hear!
73
Richard
G3CWI
Hi All, I’m almost sorry that I asked the original question now. My sole intention was to find out, purely out of curiosity, what the fastest times were for both awards, that’s all, just a harmless question really, hi.
The thread now seems to have changed directions a couple of times and I am still non the wiser about the answer.
Many thanks to all who have contributed to the debate.
I think it’s best left at that.
One thing is for certain, SOTA grows in popularity daily with many new friends to be made in all associations.
Thanks again.
73
Mike GW0DSP