I just wanted to jump in and say Hello! and to also say that I’m really happy to have found this group. Such a cool idea. I’ve been hamming since age 12 (now 63), I’ve worked all counties (now going for 2nd time all CW), enjoy DXing, contesting, QRP, and now a bit of digital. I’m mostly a CW guy (95%) with the other 5% being my new interest in digital.
In my first month being a chaser I have just under 100 points and since I have a disability that keeps me home a lot I can be around during the day to chase. I have the gear to activate, and who knows… maybe I will someday with some assistance. I live near Philadelphia and have some opportunities north and west of here.
So first off Thanks to all of the activators that provide us chasers with some fun!
I’d like to know if activators appreciate paper QSL cards for their individual activation’s. I have some special cards for FISTS, SKCC, and QRP and was thinking of making some SOTA cards just to send out to activators that I work. Is that something that is common practice? And do activators get special cards made up for their activation’s?
In reply to KW3F:
Welcome Bob and thanks for introducing yourself. I’m sure you will be very successful chasing SOTA around the world and especially with your CW skills. I do hope you manage to do some activating in the future. Most associations have some summits that are more easily accessible.
Anyway regarding QSL cards, I think you will find all opinions here. A lot of folks definitely do NOT send/exchange QSL cards whereas there are a few that do. I would say that if you do send an activator a card, they may very well appreciate it but do not expect an automatic response from everyone. Don’t forget activators spend a fair bit of time keeping their QSO’s in the SOTA database up to date.
Congratulations on your first 100 points chaser milestone. The attraction of SOTA is that you can either collect chaser points for all modes, or set yourself a personal interest target such as all SSB, all CW, all digital, all QRP or collect just unique summits.
Whatever you choose will give you great satisfaction and allow you to check your progress on the honor roll as you work towards your own goal at your own pace.
You will certainly start to receive many QSL cards from the Bureau in time. Many SOTA activators make a point to send you a different photographic card for every new summit and you will receive many single cards from activators who activate a summit for the first time (Unique). Not all do this and many enjoy SOTA activating and chasing just because QSL cards are not required.
Whatever you choose I am sure that you will enjoy the challenge of receiving weak and fading signals from summits in many different countries. The fact that you are at home a lot is a considerable advantage for SOTA chasing.