As you are probably all aware, I have had a lot of medical issues recently which has seen me reduce my SOTA Activites, both Activator and Chaser.
As from today, I have reduced my activities further to become a SWL on all bands/modes except for 2m/70cm FM and Fusion, as I now only have a little FTM100d connected to a Collinear, plus a couple of Handhelds for chasing with. No more Activations!
For my SWL I have an SDRplay rsp1a and SDRUno. which covers all bands and modes, so “Happy days” as a SWL.
My question is, would it be fair to do a CSV file of all my Chaser Contacts to date and enter them in my SWL Log under my BRS callsign??
I know this may spark some controversy, but be kind as I am only asking the question??
Cheers guys to all I have chased to date and especially to all those who gave me a contact when I was an Activator
Unfortunately not Tony, but there are some things you can do to boost both your chaser score and SWL score going forwards.
If you work someone on one band/mode combination you can then claim SWL score if you hear them on a different band and/or mode.
So work them for chaser points on vhf and grab the swl points on hf or uhf.
I also deliberately avoiding chaser contacts ( unless the activator is struggling for their 4). I am finding collecting the SWL points is just as rewarding.
A number of fm satellite operations have taken place recently and even with a co-linear decent recption is possible.
Andy said “no because they weren’t SWL chases”, but I think it is worth looking at the question again. Every chase starts (or should start) by hearing the activator. At that point you don’t know whether a chase will be successful or not, you haven’t called yet, so at that point it is a SWL experience. Andy’s position seems to be that the action of working the activation cancels the SWL experience. To me that initial listening still happened, so how does it fit in with the rules?
Rule 3.9.2 says in part "The SWL must receive a QSO between the summit expedition and any other radio amateur, during which at least callsigns and two-way reports are exchanged. This information must be recorded by the SWL.
There is no rule invalidating a SWL claim because a subsequent chase took place, perhaps there ought to be, but this is a matter for discussion. As the rules stand, it looks to me as if you can chase an activation and then record another of the activators contacts for SWL points. I am less sure about whether your own chase counts as “any other radio amateur” but I don’t think that the present wording of the GR actually excludes it so it comes down to an interpretation of the spirit of the rules.
You must receive a QSO between the summit and another radio amateur. But if you are the chaser then you haven’t received the other amateur over radio so it can’t count as an SWL claim.
Thanks Brian, for a very interesting approach to the question. I am quite happy to start from scratch with my SWL log, so no problems there.
I also wonder how the Database would deal with a Chaser log and SWL log, being with the same activator, and summit on the same day and very close to same utc? Would the database take one set of points away as it sees it as a duplicate?? (or because you use your swl id to log the swl, it wont)
very good informative discussion from question ,which is great for me
Personally, if I was a pure SWL only person, I would be pretty aggrieved if suddenly the chaser database was effectively merged with the SWL part of the database. It (psychologically) would take away some of the achievement in my mind.
The way I understood it, is that you can SWL points for any activator you hear on a different band or mode that you haven’t made a chaser contact with that activator. I often SWL TOM on 20m FT4 then chase him on 2m FM for example.
Based on Brian’s understanding of the rules, if chaser qsos also counted for SWL then rule 3.9.3 “With effect from 01-Jan-2004, only one QSO with a given Summit on any one day
(defined as 00:00 to 23:59 UTC) counts for points.” This would negate my understanding illustrated above as that would be 2 qsos and therefore you could only claim one of either chaser or SWL points.
Due to historically low participation in the SWL section, it hasn’t really mattered in the past but I wonder if participation took off, then some kind of clarification might be needed.
I’d be interested in hearing more views , especially from real SWL’s unlike myself who is a part-timer
We’ve always conducted the SWL section with the understanding that you can’t claim a chase AND a SWL log for the same activation on the same band-mode combination. This agreement is far from overly prohibitive though, as if the band OR the mode changes, then you could claim a SWL even if you’d already chased it before the change (or vice versa).
I’ve no idea if we ever enshrined this into the rules. Probably not, but perhaps we ought to. I get Brian’s point that if a good chaser contact has happened, then a valid SWL RX must have also happened, maybe just a few seconds earlier!
We could set the Database so that EVERY chaser contact logged automatically logs a duplicate SWL record for that participant - in the same way that it automatically logs a chaser contact when a S2S QSO is entered.
Or we could keep it sensible with the understanding that (on any one band-mode combination), it’s one or the other per activation, not both. And note that in the rules if not already.
I don’t remember any MT discussion on this topic, and whatever the understanding might have been about not piggybacking SWL points on to chases, it was not reflected in the GR as I indicated above. I have no iron in this fire, my SWL activity consists solely of the initial listen before a chase, but my personal choice would be to modify the rules to prevent chases from generating SWL points. Those more interested in earning sheepskins may feel differently! I think this is a matter that should be discussed at MT level and the rules clarified at the next update.
MT discussion hardly required as we just need to continue the SWL section under the same principles as have been adopted and understood for the last two decades.
Sorry, Tom, but you do not clarify the GR with a post on the reflector, we know that many participants never look at it! One would hope that any participant would check the GR if they are unsure about any question, so that is where any clarification belongs. It is a future task for the MT to agree a new wording and issue a revision to the GR.
(Semi) seriously - I agree with the proposal that QSO’s should either be claimed for participating (activator/chaser/S2S) or listening to (SWL); not both.
Actually sheepskin for a certificate or award has been part of ham lingo for at least sixty years to my certain knowledge, so anyone who didn’t understand it has had a free lesson in ham traditions!
