Points system.

Hey Eric

At weekends I live in Freiburg and the Black Forest and the Vosges are just closer.

But you are right! It’s something I want to solve… and I’ve already started (in HB9).

Next year I’ll be retired… then I’ll have plenty of time to catch up. :sweat_smile:

73 Armin

5 Likes

Just as a side issue would it be possible for Activators to earn a certificate at the 750 point level. It’s a big jump from 500 points to MG Status at the moment. When I climb a long or difficult hill, like I am sure many I pick a rock or a sub summit a little way ahead to aim for and after that another. The early stages 100, 250, 500 are progressive and reasonably balanced but it’s a long way from 500 to 1000 points, 750 would be a nice way station to aim for before the summit push.

73

Declan
ei6fr

4 Likes

Actually, it’s trivial to add in the “How many points have you given the folks who chase you the most”, which is what I was talking about. This isn’t award worthy, just as an added data point, and it addresses all the existing issues you raise because it’s entirely based on callsign, and isn’t a measure of registered chasers. It’s based off the activator log, not the chaser log too, so chasers don’t have to register the information.

3 Likes

That may be true for some Declan, but for most activators, as they build skills and experience in the programme, they climb bigger hills and do more of them. So, perhaps counter-intuitively, 0-100, 100-250, 250-500 and 500-1000 are broadly similar progressions for many. It’s a case of two logarithmic scales balancing each other out!

2 Likes

Have you “given” points to the folks who don’t chase? I’ve got some of those “Schrödinger’s cats” in my “My Top Chasers” list on the DB!

1 Like

Yes, you have, even if they haven’t claimed it. The tree still falls in the forest.

3 Likes

It’s not so much about skills and experience Tom for me , it’s time. If you are still working then perhaps 1 or 2 activation’s a month are as much as can be hoped for, so with weather and everything else falling in to place maybe 100/150 points a year is as much as can be achieved. That makes MG maybe a 10 year project for Joe Punchclock :slight_smile: I don’t think the sky will fall in if a 750 point cert is made available and after retirement there will be plenty of time for bridging the bigger gaps

73

Declan
ei6fr

5 Likes

A nice thought, but the reality is that you have a limited window of opportunity after retirement before physical deterioration brings a gradual end to your aspirations. Some people have wider windows than others, of course, but we can all expect that window to eventually close.

5 Likes

I’m in the happy position of a fairly early retirement but yes too many hills over too many years (and a fall or two too many) and the wear and tear is starting to make itself known :slight_smile: :slight_smile:
Dec

1 Like

I must have missed the memo…

2 Likes

No, you’re just a long way down the high end of the bell curve!

How true Brian. That’s why I am going for what points I can while I can. Double Goat is an aspiration I hope to achieve, but going into lockdown just a few days before I achieved R status was a bitter blow. Now I find other aspects of life, primarily family commitments, commanding my time. Such is life!

2 Likes

That’s what I thought. Then life and reality kicked in :frowning:

4 Likes

They say that the young are impatient. Its the old ones that hear the clock ticking and are impatient, they’ve just learned to control it!

3 Likes

I know what you mean…My first activation was 2012

You are not yet a Mountain Goat with 92 points.
You are not yet a Shack Sloth with 151 points.
You have a total of 197 Summit to Summit points.

But I still enjoy the challenge and just to get out doing radio when I get the chance.

Stuart G1ZAR/P

8 Likes

That is the attitude, Stuart! And I always think that SOTA is one of the best things that happened to the Ham activity. But well, I’m lucky because in my region I have a good variety of summits. But perhaps I commit the sin of being too empathetic, since in some regions to achieve a simple certificate as an activator it takes almost 10 years, imagine if it is the MG.
73!

1 Like

Hi Bill,
Let me try to explain how the points are assigned to a specific summit in an association.
The points to be assigned are 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. These points have to be assigned with certain proportionality to all the SOTA summits in an association depending on their altitude above the sea level. So, this means that the specificities of each association will have an impact on the points assigned to its summits.
I was told some time ago by Simon @G4TJC that the general idea is to try that, for a given association, about 10% of the summits get 1 point, about 10% of the summits get 10 points and the rest of summits get the points in between evenly spreaded if possible.
The ideal would be like this: 10% one-pointers, 10% ten-pointers and 20% each of the other point bands.
Let’s imagine a ficticious association with just 10 summits having the following elevations a.s.l.: 550m, 850m, 950m, 1100m, 1300m, 1450m, 1650m, 1800m, 1900m and 2100m.
Assuming the same points banding we currently have in EA2 association, the summits in our ficticious association would get the following points:

But this is something very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve in an association of the real World.
In EA2, for instance, there are 541 summits with the following bands of points resulting in the following percentages and number of summits for each band of points.

Some time ago I proposed to Simon G4TJC a different banding like this, which would produce the following results in terms of percentage and number of summits for each band of points, but this was put on stand-by as something to be carefully studied before any change was done.

I understand there may be several implications with doing such a change and thus the careful study needed. Given the number of tasks to be done by the small group of volunteers handling the current worldwide SOTA programme, it’s easy to understand that these sort of things can’t have a top priority.

I hope my explanation was clear enough and now you and possibly many others understand how a summit in a given association gets a certain number of points.

73,

Guru

4 Likes

An important observation Guru is that the GI points bands were designed when SOTA started. With the benefit of preparing many associations spread all over the world and the knowledge we gained doing that then it is highly unlikely that GI would get such a generous banding nowadays.

2 Likes

“The TRUTH is the World isn’t FAIR.” I think the vast majority of us realise that, does that mean we do not try to improve it, I made a mistake in thinking this was a forum, and what is a forum for, but to express your opinion, or is it just for certain people to have their opinion aired, maybe you are the disgruntled one who is not happy with other people having an opportunity to voice an opinion maybe you should look for something else that does not allow a voice or a discussion. I am very glad i did not ask to borrow a £5. :grinning:

3 Likes

Forget it I’m a Yorkshireman