i had just wkd a summit earlier and as i listened on the freq a g-zero called in and announced to the activator “i waited for all the idiots to work you first before i came in” ? what does that mean? am i an idiot ? are we all idiots? such a bad mannered way to carry on and such opinions are neither called for nor welcomed
in sota and this station should probably keep his idiotic comments to himself ,
what an embarrassment he is for any one listening with plan to join our great hobby, this guy always has something to say and is forever making comments over other stations the radio policemen are not gone haha … thanks all the activators
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Yes, thanks to the activators! They keep us out of the pool halls and bars!
I suppose the “non-idiot” probably thought he should have been
first in line to work the activator. Poor fellow had to wait…Tsk Tsk
73
John, K6YK
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That’s a very sorry situation to have had to get off your chest. Regardless of the effort of the climb up or the conditions on top, as an Activator, I would hope I’d “mis-record” that style of contact such that it couldn’t be submitted to the SOTA databases. Even if it cost me an activation claim, to give such behaviour credit through logging diminishes the wonderful support from enthusiastic polite Chasers.
The symbiosis between Activators and Chasers, the banter, the wishes of safe journeys & the buzz of logging a long S2S, is what has given me a warm welcome into the SOTA fold. Long may it continue as more than just a tick-box exercise, like some of the more aggressive HF-DX behaviours encountered now and again.
One Operator can’t be allowed to spoil SOTA. We can realign them with some firm well meant feedback so they may continue to enjoy SOTA without spoiling it for others.
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Hi Ray,
Thanks for our QSO today. It was both sincerely called for and very welcome. Thanks for another contact and it is always great to hear you.
Thankfully I did not hear the exchange you mention.
SOTA is one part of our great hobby and also keeps activators out of the pool halls and bars (and out of other sources of trouble John), at least some of the time!
You didn’t give the full callsign of the culprit, exemplary behaviour from which some have much to learn. Nothing probable about it , I agree with you he should “keep his idiotic comments to himself.”
Thanks all the chasers.
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Best ignored.
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I could use the expression “if the cap fits?” 
TBH, I think you need to become significantly more chilled. It may or may not have been aimed at you. There may well have been a real zoo on the frequency you couldn’t hear. The other station is perfectly entitled to call you and anyone he (wont be a she) likes an idiot for whatever reason, deserved or not.
And before you get further wound up, when you’ve chased me, I’ve not heard you do anything I could complain about in the slightest. I’ve called CQ and you have given your call nice and clearly in reply and never called over the end of another QSO.
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Whether the comment was aimed at him or not is a moot point. That particular kind of commentary is unnecessary in the amateur radio hobby which is intended to promote common courtesy and discourse free from exactly that type of chatter. Furthermore, whether or not the person is legally entitled to make the comment or not on the airwaves is also besides the point.
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Well in the case of G0### he is one of thousands of “idiots” who play SOTA. The average citizen probably thinks all SOTA chasers and activators are idiots. My next door neighbour used to say to my wife " Why would a grown man play with radios?"
It’s just a bit ironic that one of the idiots thinks he is not an idiot.
I’ve sometimes said to an activator that I was waiting for the mob to disperse before calling. In Australia “mob” has the meaning of clan or family . In other countries it may mean something else.
In G0###'s favour, he did wait for the pile up to subside and did not call over others.
As someone else said this is a case to be a little more laid back and “chill”.
73
Ron
Evil Idiot.
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You’ve got a real point here Ron. Makes no sense. I was explaining what I was doing to Mountain Rescue on Saturday. I said, to quote, “no-one in their right mind would spend hours on a summit”. I explained that on my first SOTA activation on the same summit in 2016 I was definitely suffering onset hypothermia when I stood up 45 minutes after the first QSO started.
I guess the only defence is, does a real idiot know he’s an idiot?
My viewpoint is we are very blessed when we don’t have to deal with idiots every day of our life. In some professions I don’t know how folk don’t loose their minds, given the idiots they have to deal with every day of their lives.
I am mostly blessed. The builder of next doors extension unfortunately has been the biggest pain. Not the wolf howls on air, or gumpy old men.
For the love of our hobby, please ignore the idiots and carry on. Maybe there is a slogan in there somewhere.
Mark.
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I have to say I can see where the G station has expressed his frustration on air which he should done imagine you were the station that had worked the activator prior to him making the comment, I have personally experienced this kind of behaviour and posted last year on what I consider to be poor operating procedure, the consensus of opinion from both chaser and activator that the present bun fight to make a contact with people jumping all over stations is what they want. So I have adopted the attitude if you can’t beat them join them. Nobody has the god given right to waltz into a frequency and expect just because they shout everyone should stand aside till their finished. There is still some courtesy shown to summit to summit calls but there are some individuals flaunting this by calling portable when clearly they are not. Anyway if the said individual is not happy there is plenty of the spectrum to go and
play elsewhere.
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I think “idiots” is a really poor choice of words to be using on the air.
I’ve found that 40m ssb has been a bit of a bun fight recently and I usually announce, “one at a time, I have plenty of time to work you all”. This helps. Even yesterday on a 20m pileup, I had to ask, “any EA?” “any DL?” etc. to try and filter the wall of incoming audio. This worked well. The only issue I had was a station continually calling when I was specifically responding to a summit to summit station. He clearly knew this, but chose to ignore it. Yes, he was being an idiot.
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Ive also noticed to 40m ssb is getting a bit hectic lately with people calling all over each other, even when the activator is in a QSO with someone else. 
I just wish, when they do inject some order, they’d remember the QRP operators and give them a few seconds to squirt their 5 Watts worth into the ionosphere. Logging a QRP contact, especially if you do a power roll off to see when contact is broken, seems to create interest in the contacts that follow. It seems that in the DX frenzy they forget you can’t muscle in against a 1.4kW blast from somewhere on the continent.
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Anyone tired of these shenanigans please come over and join us on CW where the operating is of a significantly higher standard. Or even better still on FT8.
I still plug my microphone in on activations though in order to grab S2S opportunities that come up. When I bother with the 817 and HF aerial* that is, as most of my activations are handheld and rubber duck these days.
*Except for 30m, which is just CW/digital this part of the world.
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Serious question Iolo, why should people who chose to operate at QRP powers get special treatment?
Ha ha, not special treatment, that might just encourage the “small is beautiful” life view.
I just thought out aloud how nice it would be if an Operator marshalling a pile-up by calling through either numbers or prefixes could occasionally call for QRP operators just to add to the mix. A Swiss guy did this one afternoon and I got through, just seemed a nice gesture. He then encouraged me to wind down power in as series of steps to see when we lost contact, in a kind of live on air experiment. Seemed fun.
Being limited to 10w is probably making me over sensitive 
…… now where’s my Intermediate Licence textbook……
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10W is not QRP. It’s twice the maximum power I’ve used for 14322 SOTA QSOs
It is a very nice gesture.
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As CW is already the most popular mode for SOTA I hardly think you have any need to try and seduce more operators to join you there! Perhaps there is more need for coaxing CW operators to plug in their mikes and enjoy the sound of human voices! 
Totally agree and your track record is encouraging to me. I have a battered old ft817 for SOTA and absolutely love it, all of its 5W and range of bands. Even in these early days I am not seeing any reason to change for more power. The reach just on vhf has been really pleasing and I know others go further, with less oomph. I’m really appreciating the value of antenna, position and conditions. Can’t wait for better weather so I can sort my mountaintop dipole building skills without getting hypothermia from newbie faffing.
10w is my top-stop in the shack and there I tend to be finding my way around hf beyond our shores……the source of my view (oops, off topic for sure!) and where earning a few watts more might help.
The OP suggests it is anything but enjoyable
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