During a pleasant conversation with Armin (DL6GCA), the topic of a SOTA challenge came up. We agreed that the low bands—specifically 80m, 160m, and especially 630m and even 2200m—offer a real challenge.
It’s not entirely without self-interest, though; after all, 630m transverters and tuners are sitting in drawers across Germany, waiting for their first use.
73, Chris
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Do we not need a year off so people can explain how the 2026 scores are calculated?
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That challenge sounds more like me! Multipliers for wavelength and distance. or waverlength*distance!
But can we wait a year or two - sounds like a great diversion for the bottom of the cycle.
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Lets go *really* old school!
wavelength x distance x mode-factor
where mode-factor is :
1 for data
2 for voice
4 for CW
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Yes, we just brainstormed a bit yesterday…
…and also considered that a bonus for lower frequencies would be a good idea. (Multipliers: 10 for 2200m, 5 for 630m, 2 for 160m, and 1 for 80m)
… and also that this would be a good thing for the solar minimum.
However, we should give it some thought and announce it well in advance so that participants have time to build a transverter.
@g8tmv (I would disagree regarding the points for modulation, though — Multipliers: 1 for Data, 3 for CW, 4 for Voice)
… and multipliers for S2S for 2200m and 630m 
73 Armin
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Maybe announced for 2028, then? 
(It’s taken me the best part of 8 months to get half-way functional for this year’s challenge…)
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I’m playing around with “divided crystal driving FET” transmitters and regen receivers for both 630 & 2200 that should be extremely cheap and quick to reproduce, if you want to pull cheap bastards like me into the fold 
If this thread develops legs, I’ll keep the group advised of progress. If the regen fails, a simple DC receiver or RX-only upconverter might take it’s place.
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How about QRPp SSTV on 12 metres? 
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It is a long established MT policy to take a year off after each challenge to let activity patterns normalise. Much as I would relish a challenge on the low bands, or even SSTV (which I have not used for a long time) I doubt that my fellows on the MT would be willing for a challenge next year, but by all means try!
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No, 12m is not an inclusive allocation. This has been explained before.
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The idea is good, but in terms of equal opportunities it’s far from reality.
From my point of view, the only ones who will have some — or a lot of — fun are those who live in densely populated regions, where they’ll surely be able to contact or be contacted using low power (and wow, that’s quite a challenge on 160/80 meters!). Just imagine living far away from densely populated areas — the chances of actually having fun are very low.
I had very high expectations for the V/UHF challenge, to the point that I brought Yagis for both 144 and 430. The result? Calling… calling… and calling, just to miraculously get 1 or 2 QSOs, while in other regions they get flooded with QSOs (I’m glad they can enjoy it!).
I think something similar would happen with the low bands, and if you add the fact that to have any chance of a QSO you’d practically need to activate right before or at sunrise, or do night activations, it becomes even harder.
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Spare a thought for your humble SOTA IT guy who has to code this. I hear he’s still recovering from having to explain how distance works for the current challenge.
(Sadly 630m and 2200m are not universal bands making it hard to consider them for an inclusive challenge. An activity day or Sprint may be a good idea, though)
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In my experience 80m low power in the morning or evening can give ranges of 500km or more. I have frequently heard stations from the antipodes around dawn, and after dark all of EU is workable from my QTH. 160m is more difficult but again after the end of nautical twilight I hear stations from western EU chatting on phone, and most of 160m is a low power allocation. In my opinion, the challenge of 80/160 is twofold, firstly an effective antenna (I used a W3EDP on 80m when I was activating) and secondly being willing to activate after dark, not a problem if you carefully choose your summits! Personally I would like to see 60m included, it is a splendid daytime NVIS band which has seen a lot of neglect during the current challenge.
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Activators
Your score will be 1pt/km for each QSO with a unique callsign (per summit) activated within the year, multiplied by the number of unique summits activated.
Chasers
Your score will be 1pt/km for each QSO with a unique callsign (per summit) chased within the year, multiplied by the number of unique summits chased.
…you’re welcome
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60m has saved the day on more than one occasion when our group of EI/GI Activators/Chasers were unable to qso on 40m this year. Last few months a lot of SSB activity appearing around 5.354 also. I think it would be an interesting band for a challenge.
Declan EI6FR
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It would indeed, the trouble is that it is still not universally available. I think it is still unavailable in VK and ZL, active SOTA countries, and last time I checked only 80 countries had allocations in the band. I would love to see a 60m challenge, but I guess it can’t happen yet!
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John, You might be interested in the QDX-M transceivers available for 160, 630 and 2200m. QDX-M monoband 5W Digi transceiver
Ian VE6IXD
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LOW frequecies = big (effective) antennas. Big (long) antennas are not so “SOTA activator friendly”. 2026 SOTA challenge is 2m and 70cm challenge, so it would be better scoring 1pt/km for each QSO with a unique callsign (per summit) on 144MHz and 1pt/km for each QSO with a unique callsign (per summit) on 432MHz. Just my five cents …
73, Milos S57D
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A challenge by its nature should present difficulties.
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It’s easier to find a summit with space for a full size 160m dipole than it is to fit one in my back garden.
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