Very true, Sara. I started SOTA too late in life, and I live too far away from lots of summits, to ever hope of getting to MG status. So my personal target, before my knees give out, is a deciGoat - 100 activation points all on CW QRP.
73
Ray M0DHP
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And those poor birds mowed by spinning wind turbines.
The world is not flat. During one day of activation, I have to drive from 200 to 700 km. Traveling by public transport - I would only have to work two days and spend the remaining 5 days on activating a maximum of 2 peaks. But would I be able to afford 5 days of travel in after two working days? And is the electricity supplying electric vehicles 100% ecologically produced?
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Chris,Thank you so so much for your reply, you have given me food for thought. I am sure i travel more with less opportunity, but that would be an excellent idea. I did think i would get a few comments with hundreds of reasons why the idea would not fly, but they all fade into insignificance by one very good and appropriate and current idea thank you again.
73 MI7WJL.
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I think itâs best if SOTA stays away from any political agendas, even if they are well-meaning and/or noble. The SOTA scoring system should not reflect the means of transport from your home. This opens doors for more problems than it solves.
You can rather enjoy the benefit of what you already have - you can share your experience/pictures and innovative ways of lowering your carbon footprint while traveling for hiking online and in forums. You can also spot yourself as âGo Green XOTAâ, in clusters, which you qualify for if you only use public transport or your own legs/bike to travel from your home QTH to the summit. You will even get more chasers as youâll be a more interesting station to them.
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I havenât changed my mind when it comes to protecting our environment. Of course, all transport powered by non-renewable energy contributes to global warming. Our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will certainly hold us responsible for this.
But I do not think it is necessary that the Sota set of rules should be changed because of this. Sota doesnât punish you for protecting the environment, it just doesnât reward it.
I donât care how many points I donât get if instead of driving for 4 hours activate the next 30min summit 90 times.
Everyone has to bear responsibility for environmental policy for themselves.
73 Chris
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I still like the idea of an environmental incentive. The question is: could we change the âit just doesnât reward itâ bit somehow?
There are SOTA awards existing that make use of the SOTA database content, such as the HB9SOTA award programme, which retrieves the information about worked Swiss cantons. No general SOTA rule is involved, only a selection of activations according to certain criteria is performed.
If there was a way of flagging activations as environmentally friendly, there might be a similar way of creating awards, the criteria not being âSummit located in Swiss canton XYZâ but âsummit activated environmentally friendlyâ.
73 Jens HB9EKO
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Looks like GoGreen XOTA of GMA is exactly what you are looking for. You have uploaded activations up to 2017 to GMA but seems you stopped to use this platform afterwards.
GMA in addition has much more summits in your region, so the distance to travel to the next summit is reduced.
Edit: Just noticed @OM1WS has already recommended GoGreen XOTA.
73 de Michael, DB7MM
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This is an interesting and important discussion that will motivate me to reflect critically on my behavior. Thank you for pointing out XOTA
Paul DL6FBK
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If we all (activators AND chasers) run always our rigs QRP or 10W and Sun-panel powered, the global SOTA CO2 footprint will be significantly reduced. The QRM on the bands tooâŠ
All of us must have the permanent target of reducing our energy consumption. Itâs not only politicians responsibility, but also our responsibility to do as much as we can to reduce the global warming. I have set that goal myself and I can show you how Iâve managed to get our home energy consumption reduced over the last 3 consecutive months with respect to those same periods last year:
Cheers,
Guru
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Surely the biggest contributor to SOTA CO2 emissions is from using a car to get to the start of the walk.
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Yes, no doubt about that, but we all understand that getting to the summits by foot, bike or public transport is not possible for most of the SOTA summits and having on air only those summits reachable by any of those means would end up being too repetitive and very soon too boring. Driving on electric cars to the hiking start point would solve the problem, but we are not yet ready to have electric cars for the whole population. The recharging of their batteries for a huge park of vehicles is not yet solved.
73,
Guru
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And when all those cars are ready, and charging wirelessly - because no one can be bothered to plug a cable in - the question will become irrelevant, as no one will be able to chase thanks to the wall of spurious emissions and RF noise that has been deliberately parked in the amateur bands.
73 de OE6FEG
Matt
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You maybe able to share the cost and carbon emissions with carpooling (covoiturage in French) if somebody needs to travel to town nearby on same day. We did that in outdoor sports clubs in Europe.
73, Jaakko ac1bb/oh7bf
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For me, it is illusory to want to reach summits on foot from home⊠and there are also only 2 that I approach by MTB. (That would be about 40 km and 500 metres in altitude.) Maybe someday Iâll have the fitness to do 80 km and 800 metres in altitude by MTB again⊠then there would be 3 more. Those would also be the ones you can reach as a day trip with public transport⊠if they drive.
An electric car is not yet an option for me⊠Iâm still struggling to recharge it. So I probably canât collect any âgreen pointsâ here.
I used to go geocaching many years ago⊠I know the code of honour from then: CITO = Cache in Trash out. (No idea if this still exists)
In any case, Iâll continue the game. I always have a small plastic bag with me and Iâm not above bending down to pick up paper from chocolate bars lying around when I bring down the antenna.
There are other ways to be active: https://www.nabu-loerrach.de/
73 Armin
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What is wrong with people? Bad upbringing?
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And that certainly goes for most of the activists here.
Nevertheless, there are feasible alternatives, at least for me here in Hannover.
For example
Schalke / Harz DM/NS-008 8pts
train and bus ride 90min plus 1,8km foothpath and 100meters altitude
Bröhn / Deister DM/NS-122 1pt
train ride to Springe 34min plus 4km footpath and 260 meters altitude
Hammersteinhöhe DM/NS-163 1pt
train ride to Bad Salzdethfurt 60min plus 2,3km foothpath and 180 meters altitude
Dörnberg near Kassel DM/HE-066 4pts
train ride to Weimar bei Kassel 105min plus 4,5km foothpath and 300meters altitude.
I admit that so far I have only visited Schalke several times by public transport.
73 Chris
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Hey Chris
Your examples have motivated me to play with the Deutsche Bahn homepage / timetable information.
There are indeed some peaks here that I could reasonably reach by public transport. Of course, the walk would be much longer than from the hikersâ car park. All in all, I would then be on the road for more than twice as long anyway, which makes activating several summits impossible. There are several changes between bus and train⊠Exciting⊠especially with the sometimes only 3 departures a day.
As soon as I am in the tariff association of my district (radius approx. 40km), there would be a day ticket and the price would be good! As soon as I leave the tariff association, the summits are almost impossible to reach in one day (there and back) due to a lack of connections⊠and the prices multiply. - Although they would be almost the same distance (as the crow flies).
Unfortunately, this is not Switzerland with its excellent public transport.
Nevertheless, you have given me the idea to take on a personal new challenge / adventure: To reach the summit by public transport. But only after Corona!
73 Armin
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Fine, Armin. I have decided to use public transport for my next activation. At falling incidents 
73 Chris
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Of course, the SOTA award scheme could very well slow down this dubious development in the leisure sector, e.g. by only displaying all rankings in alphabetical order or, even more efficiently, by uniformly rating all summits with 1 point.
But, the opponents of such a regulation in the interest of the environment would then probably use the following quote, as is always heard in Switzerland in votes and elections, hi:
âOnly the dumbest calves choose their own butcher.â Bertolt Brecht (allegedly).
âNur die allerdĂŒmmsten KĂ€lber wĂ€hlen ihren SchlĂ€chter selber.â Bertolt Brecht (angeblich).
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Turkeys donât vote for Christmas. Brexit proves otherwiseâŠ
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