I just did a little experiment after I spotted OK2BWP/P on OK/VY-024. Having heard him presumably on his first CQ, we had a quick QSO and I double checked his REF. Then I spotted him. Obviously the spot worked, as the usual huge pileup followed… I continued to listen.
Not once for the next 20 minutes, until the pileup vanished, did he send his reference again and not a single person asked him for it. It would seem everybody who worked him relied on the information I had put in my spot and were quite happy that it was correct… My ears are as fallible as others when signals are weak as they often are.
I wonder if we are relying too much on the spotting network. OK, great it creates a good stream of stations for the activator, but if everybody is getting the REFs, or even the callsigns, from the spots, it makes it all a bit questionable…
I agree, I have often mis-heard a Reference myself and got my Spots wrong (for all sorts of reasons).
Luckily I am normally able to listen to many of the QSO’s from the Summit before I can get answered (out of the Pile-up) and most people I hear announce the Ref when they say QRZ. So I am able to correct my mistakes fairly quickly.
But is is all too easy to get it wrong and if I see the Spot first I often hear what I am expecting to hear:S.
In reply to G3YMC:
hello Dave, check again and again and still errors remaing.
I logged OK2BWB/p, not 2bwp !
Some days ago the activator himself announced summit IS-074
where he had been 2 days before instead of IS-127 …
Some years ago there was a hb4/g… reported on DX cluster.
And that really was what he transmitted from Cyprus!
Be glad it’s a hobby only.
73 + cu in the pu
Mike, dj5av
BWP was finger trouble when I composed this mail, I had it correct in the log, though for some reason I found this morning I had put BWP in my claimed tables. You will see I spotted it as BWB.
I just did a little experiment after I spotted OK2BWP/P on OK/VY-024.
Having heard him presumably on his first CQ, we had a quick QSO and I
double checked his REF. Then I spotted him. Obviously the spot worked,
as the usual huge pileup followed… I continued to listen.
Not once for the next 20 minutes, until the pileup vanished, did he
send his reference again and not a single person asked him for it. It
would seem everybody who worked him relied on the information I had
put in my spot and were quite happy that it was correct… My ears
are as fallible as others when signals are weak as they often are.
I wonder if we are relying too much on the spotting network. OK, great
it creates a good stream of stations for the activator, but if
everybody is getting the REFs, or even the callsigns, from the spots,
it makes it all a bit questionable…
73 Dave G3YMC
In reply to G3YMC:
Everytime I check (by mobile phone) what is written in the spot and my only reason for not giving reference is the fact that all is ok. Nevertheless a considerable amount of calling stations ask for the SOTA reference number so in my opinion this is a matter of calling operators above all. For example having sota to sota qso I always try to confirm the reference number of my spotted correspondent…
In reply to OK2BWB:
Thanks Karel for the explanation.
Sorry I missed you on your activations today. Conditions OK to G land seemed very poor this morning and despite listening for quite a while I could barely hear your signals, certainly not good enough for a QSO. Hopefully they will improve.