I typically will only alert when I think cell coverage may be an issue on the summit I’m hiking to. However, now that I see how others may use alerts to adjust their schedules, I’ll try to start alerting more often.
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I don’t think anyone views an Alert as a contract either for time or a summit.
Having an alert up does unlock things like RBNHole, as well as providing some idea that you’re going to be out. If you can spot when you get there, add an alert too. You can also add wildcard alerts like GM/ES-XXX or GM/SS-???.
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I still assume that most phantom QSOs are not made intentionally. It is often due to bad conditions, for example, that people think they have been called because a call is made that is very similar.
Maybe QSOs have not been finally confirmed and are considered incomplete by the activator and therefore are not entered into the database, but the chaser thinks everything is OK.
This can of course happen on both sides (chaser and activator).
If there is deliberate misconduct, it is a completely different matter!
Perhaps the MT should think about whether there is another way…
For example, if there is a proven violation (e.g. activation in a restricted area or a wildlife protection zone during the restricted period - and these are often well documented here), the last 5 activations are cancelled. That would also affect the chasers…
But it is up to each individual how we behave as chasers. I don’t chase anyone whose activation I am sure does not comply with the rules. As an activator, I also refrained from QSOs with D1 or D0 stations in the 10m challenge.
73 Armin
I seldom put alerts up at all and find the assertion that this could be because I’m cheating rather offensive.
I’m 100% phone activator so no benefit to me from RBNHole but the main reason I don’t alert is that I hate the feeling of being committed to any sort of deadline. I’m a slow walker for all sorts of reasons, not least because I’m a wildlife nerd and frequently get distracted by things I see on the way 
.
I almost always have my InReach tracker with me and will happily provide the tracking link to anyone who wants it. I also have a LoRa tracker I sometimes carry too.
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I have worked a few stations mostly on G/CE, G/WB or GW/SW summits (probably < 0.5% of my chases) that will never get uploaded simply because the the person on the hill did not ‘go through the trouble of carrying a radio up a mountain’ for SOTA they just happend to be going there for something else.
Oh this has been happening for years. I often work an activator and then sit listening to the rest of the activation. If the activator announces QRT, I will sometimes chip in a “TU” or on SSB “Have a safe descent”. As an activator I like to hear these messages. For some reason they make me feel that someone has been there with me and I’ve not been sat alone on a damp hillside. Of course, YMMV.
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I read something about taking summit photographs when I started doing sota activations. I now take a picture of the vehicle as I leave the parking area and one of my walking pole leaning against the summit marker. It means I have some evidence I was there and also the timestamps let’s me work out my ascent time.
I now have collection of interesting photos documenting my sota journey.
I often send them to a friend who likes the soft browns and green colours of Scottish hills. Quite often contrasted with a picture of the hot chocolate at a cafe on the way home, the combination known as “Trig and Treat”.
Andy
MM7MOX
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I’ve used SOTA Goat since I started and, in addition to photographs, both at the summit and along the route, I take a screenshot of the tracker on the app from the summit e.g
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Exactly. I have often found a viewpoint on the ascent and just sat for a while watching the changing shapes of the clouds and their shadows drifting across the landscape, or I find an interesting outcrop of rock and spend time puzzling out its story. One summit in G/LD I spent a lot of time hanging around the parking area hoping to see long-eared owls that were said to be in the area, but unsuccessfully. The point is that for me the outing in the mountains is the point of the exercise and a successful activation is the icing on the cake. This viewpoint does not sit well with the idea of hurrying to achieve an alerted time, or even to be committed to one particular summit when there are so many jewels to select from…so I rarely alert.
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Honestly I do not understand the phantasies that could be triggered.
But I can tell, what is sometimes a problem for me with alerting a day or some hours before activating. Frequently I alert, preferably a day before. But sometimes I do not. I want my alerts to be reliable. Alerts that are considered unreliable are useless.
Weather is not an issue here in the middle of a continent. The air masses have a long way to travel from the seas until they reach me and the meteorologists had plenty of time to watch them and predict their influence. Ascents of 1000 vertical meters or less are not an issue too.
BUT longer ascents are not as easy to calculate reliably. My strength, muscle power and endurance vary, especially near or at my personal limits. On for me long ascents I can be half an hour early or two hours late, and it can easily happen, that I have to abandon. Thats not a big thing, but on that base I do not want to alert brfore, so I alert when reaching the summit or half an hour before only. The latter I find difficult too, I do not want to fall out of the flow when walking up.
The other side happens quite often to me too. I see spots and think, I could have waited a little on my hill, but I did not know this to come. Or I could have started an hour earlier, but I did not know. So what? Such is life. My doing radio on the mountains does not depend on it.
have fun, 73, Johannes
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No, they are not fantasies since it once happened. A few years ago an “Activator” activated almost every day to the point that in a very short time he achieved (or almost achieved) the MG.
On stormy days, he activated. On typhoon days, he activated. And his alerts were always as soon as he started to activate.
Suddenly I don’t know what happened that he and his data suddenly disappeared.
I hope that what I just mentioned does not happen again.
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IMHO things like this should be mandatory after each activation. These don´t take time and they never hurt.
Some similar radio activation programs require proof of activation. I understand that in the past it was a bit tricky to ask for this since not everyone had a smartphone with a camera or a dedicated camera. Nowadays, I doubt anyone going hiking would do so without a cellphone, and even more so without a smartphone with a camera.
But do we need that much of a surveillance? Since it’s not a competition and there is nothing to win, I also like that it is relying on honour. If one is not going to the summits and activates from the car instead… well… Poor guy.
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Things like this can happen. I do not care. It does not spoil the fun. It does not lead me to suspicion. For me there is no reason to feel insecure. My self-esteem does not depend on comparison of myself to other sotaists.
I consider it logically incorrect and rather phantasic to deduce from very few cases a general suspicion against short time alerting.
enjoy the mountains and your hobbies, 73, Johannes
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An alert is not a promise but an indication of intent. Just put Tentative plan. Time very approximate. in the comments and all pressure is removed.
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This!
I am referring to those who took this as a new custom. They went from giving alerts in advance to putting alerts when they are just starting to activate.
Suppose that from now on I do not set alerts (setting alerts is not mandatory, right?) and do not read alerts, and another person wants to activate the same mountain that I am activating but he did not know that that mountain was going to be activated. As a person who sets alerts, I would not in the least like to find someone else activating without having given notice. It’s like Richard says ¨Just put Tentative plan. Time very approximate…¨ Nobody waits for Hours, Minutes and Seconds of the activation, just and indication of intent.
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I put an alert once, because it was a big summit, I thought chasers could be interested. I activated maybe 3h later than expected. As soon as I turned the radio on, one fellow chaser was tuned in and expressed his worries. I found it very nice of him but it says a lot. Same goes for family, if you say you will be back for dinner or you will send a message when back home, they would almost call the rescue if you are more than 2h late. But 2h in the mountains is nothing, a little mistake or a extended nap in the sun and boom, you lost 2h.
Anyway, it might be not very rational but I understand why others say that an alert is felt like a “pressure”, even when you put “intent”.
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I probably expressed myself poorly when I said “No one waits for hours, minutes and seconds.” What I meant was that no one demands that you strictly comply with the schedule that you set in the alert. I understand that there are exceptional situations like the one that happened to you and the “activator” I was referring to. Exceptions cannot be taken as general rules but never forget that they can be repeated.
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I do not see a reason to be suspicious against them.
What is the problem? I would be ready to join in a shared activation. Shared activations happen quite often. I consider amateur radio and especially sota a social hobby. So a random encounter on a summit is welcome. An open minded attitude may help. An activator (who is not the owner of the estate) does not own the summit, neither with alert nor without.
73, Johannes
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