Hi all SOTA friends,
can satellites such as the RS44 be used for the 2026 challenge? If so, would the mandatory information about the locator be sufficient? If not, where is this regulated?
73, Tom, DJ6TB
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Yes, it was answered in the rather large Sota Challenge Thread (I asked it). Dont asked me to tell you what page or posting number though as its a long thread 
. But the answer is definately yes.
Will need to obtain the six character maidenhead locator from the chaser (unless it is a summit to summit contact).
The distance will be calculated between the 2 maidenhead locators and not using the orbital distance of the satellite. So if you made a contact with a friend in the same town for instance, you would only get the 5 or 10km or so.
I assume the same for any EME contacts, but these are unlikely from a summit. 70cm might be worth a try if a sked with a large station could be organised, but probably limited by the activators amount of equipment they could easy carry and setup on a summit.
Ian
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Very interesting, Ian! Thank you!
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