In a similar vein to the SOTA LD 2021 Weekend Challenges I offer the same challenges for the 2022 weekend with a couple of minor tweaks. Please don’t take this too seriously, and feel free to ignore this completely - the prizes generally aren’t worth going out of your way for!
For the purposes of these categories the weekend starts at 00:00 UTC on Saturday and ends at 00:00 UTC on Monday.
There are five categories of challenge, and you are free to submit logs to support any number of these! They are mutually exclusive, a winner will be awarded in each of the categories.
Entering
I will require an ADIF log file for each SOTA activation and/or day covering your activity over the weekend, to be submitted in the week following the LD weekend, with results announced a week later. So if you activate two summits on Saturday and three on Sunday I will require a total of five ADIF log files. The combination of date and location need to be unique for each log file submitted (this applies to chaser categories too).
If you don’t do ADIF can I recommend Fast Log Entry as an easy way of converting a paper log into an ADIF file. I’m happy to help with this process.
It would be great if any entries are supported by a short (or long) description of your efforts on the reflector.
Calculating the Results
Results will be computed automatically by algorithms coded into the ADIF Transformer.
The source code of these algorithms is on GitHub.
Categories
Here are the five category of awards:
Jack of All Trades
Using the following multiplier tables as a jack of all trades each QSO you make as an activator from a SOTA LD summit will gain points via multiplying the value in the band, mode and propagation tables, and all computed values added together for a total.
These tables were created by taking the inverse cube root of the total QSOs by band and modes tables on the Facts & Figures SOTA Data page then normalised so the most common entry results in one point. You must ensure that any combination of band/mode/propagation is legal in the UK and you use the correct section of the band for the mode. With regard to propagation - clearly there is some interpretation of this, I leave it to the activator to explain why the signal is thought to have propagated using this method.
In your ADIF file you identified each of these using the following ADIF fields:
† If Long Path or Grayline is specified the PROP_MODE must be F2_REFLECTION.
So a VLF AM QSO via Meteor Scatter would gain you 7 x 6 x 6 points = 252 points.
| Band | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| 2190m: | 7 |
| 630m: | 7 |
| 560m: | 7 |
| 160m: | 5 |
| 80m: | 2 |
| 60m: | 2 |
| 40m: | 1 |
| 30m: | 1 |
| 20m: | 1 |
| 17m: | 2 |
| 15m: | 2 |
| 12m: | 2 |
| 10m: | 3 |
| 6m: | 3 |
| 4m: | 4 |
| 2m: | 1 |
| 1_25m: | 1 |
| 70cm: | 2 |
| 33cm: | 4 |
| 23cm: | 4 |
| 13cm: | 6 |
| 9cm: | 11 |
| 6cm: | 11 |
| 3cm: | 11 |
| 1_25cm: | 11 |
| 6mm: | 11 |
| 4mm: | 11 |
| 2_5mm: | 11 |
| 2mm: | 11 |
| 1mm: | 11 |
| Mode | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| AM: | 6 |
| ARDOP: | 1 |
| ATV: | 6 |
| C4FM: | 6 |
| CHIP: | 1 |
| CLO: | 1 |
| CONTESTI: | 1 |
| CW: | 1 |
| DATA: | 3 |
| DIGITALVOICE: | 6 |
| DOMINO: | 1 |
| DSTAR: | 6 |
| FAX: | 1 |
| FM: | 1 |
| FSK441: | 1 |
| FT8: | 0 |
| HELL: | 1 |
| ISCAT: | 1 |
| JT4: | 1 |
| JT6M: | 1 |
| JT9: | 1 |
| JT44: | 1 |
| JT65: | 1 |
| MFSK: | 1 |
| MSK144: | 1 |
| MT63: | 1 |
| OLIVIA: | 1 |
| OPERA: | 1 |
| PAC: | 1 |
| PAX: | 1 |
| PKT: | 1 |
| PSK: | 1 |
| PSK2K: | 1 |
| Q15: | 1 |
| QRA64: | 1 |
| ROS: | 1 |
| RTTY: | 3 |
| RTTYM: | 3 |
| SSB: | 1 |
| SSTV: | 6 |
| T10: | 1 |
| THOR: | 1 |
| THRB: | 1 |
| TOR: | 1 |
| V4: | 1 |
| VOI: | 1 |
| WINMOR: | 1 |
| WSPR: | 0 |
| Propagation Mode | Points | Description |
|---|---|---|
| AIRCRAFT_SCATTER | 6 | Aicraft Scatter |
| AURORA_E | 6 | Aurora-E |
| AURORA | 6 | Aurora |
| BACK_SCATTER | 1 | Backscatter |
| ECHOLINK | 0 | Echolink |
| EARTH_MOON_EARTH | 6 | Earth-Moon-Earth |
| SPORADIC_E | 2 | Sporadic E |
| F2_REFLECTION | 1 | F2 F2 Reflection |
| FIELD_ALIGNED_IRREGULARITIES | 1 | FAI Field Aligned Irregularities |
| INTERNET | 0 | INTERNET Internet-assisted |
| IONOSCATTER | 1 | ION Ionoscatter |
| IRLP | 0 | IRL IRLP |
| METEOR_SCATTER | 6 | MS Meteor scatter |
| REPEATER | 0 | RPT Terrestrial or atmospheric repeater or transponder |
| RAIN_SCATTER | 1 | RS Rain scatter |
| SATELLITE | 6 | SAT Satellite |
| TRANSEQUATORIAL | 1 | TEP Trans-equatorial |
| TROPOSPHERIC_DUCTING | 1 | TR Tropospheric ducting |
| Ant Path | Points | Description |
|---|---|---|
| LONG_PATH | 6 | Long Path |
| GRAYLINE | 2 | Grayline |
Happy Camper
As a happy camper you are attempting as many S2S QSOs as possible from an LD summit. For each successful S2S QSO you will receive the SOTA points allocated to their summit, added together over the weekend. S2S points will be counted for any S2S contact, be it with an activator in LD or anywhere in the world.
Manic Tourist
As a manic tourist you attempt to activate as many LD summits as possible over the weekend. For each SOTA summit successfully activated over the weekend the points allocated to the summit will be added together for a final score.
Long Distance Relationship
As a DX hound you are trying to get as many long distance contacts from one or more LD SOTA summits as possible over the weekend. The total distance of all QSOs will be added together for a final score. Any portable stations you contact not activating a one of the supported ADIF processor activities must have a valid Maidenhead locator specified to count. Activity references in your ADIF file should either use the SOTA_REF field or a combination of SIG_INFO and SIG_REF.
Lake District Lover
One for the chasers, each successful SOTA chase QSO with an activator on an LD summit, where you are not on an LD summit, will gain you the points for the LD summit being activated, all added together over the weekend. You could be located on one or more SOTA summits not in the Lake District, or at home for example.
A note on data modes: in order to be valid the QSO must require manual input from both the activator and station contacted. In this spirit, and as an example, I will accept JS8Call as a valid data mode, but not FT8.
Please raise any clarifications required.