The SOTA database has a number of interesting statistics, including a breakdown of activations by band and the fifty most-popular summits for activations.
I was wondering it it would be possible to add another couple of summaries, maybe in the form of a “top ten” listing.
I’d like to see a listing of the summits with the greatest number of unique chasers, and of the activators who have the greatest number of QSOs in the database. The first would assist potential activators to target the summits in greatest demand, whilst the second would give some recognition to those activators who take time with their efforts, not departing after the minimum four QSOs.
Does anybody else have any suggestions for further useful statistics?
Would the summits in greatest demand be those at the top or the bottom of the first table you suggest? This could be an interesting additional bit of data though, if/when Gary and/or Jon have the inclination to do it.
I would have to disagree with your second suggestion though. I understand that John and Richard deliberately kept the number of QSOs required relatively low, with a view on safety when they formulated the Programme. I don’t think that introducing a table which ranked according to QSO counts would send out the right message, or be consistent with our guidelines/rules on safety and the environment.
That’s not to say there is anything wrong with activators making lots of contacts in appropriate circumstances; but it isn’t a core aim of the programme. From personal experience, having done several “many contact” activations recently, I would say that the rewards forthcoming from the appreciation of chasers and one’s own opportunity to ‘play radio’ are more than enough. The database does indicate on each individual’s activation record how many QSOs were made in each activation, so there is some recognition from the database.
As regards the first, ideally we would have a “most wanted” top ten, similar to DXCC or IOTA. However, with so many summits, even within the British Isles, not yet activated, such a list would be enormous. Perhaps we could have the most-wanted summit in each Region. That would certainly assist activators in, or visitors to, some of the smaller English regions (such as SC and SE). For example, the number of activations and the geographical remoteness of SE-015 would suggest it is the most-wanted within SE, but maybe the difficulty of SE-007, or the non-mainland location of SE-008/012 would place them higher. Maybe it’s actually non of the above!! It would be fun to find out.
Does anybody else have any suggestions for further useful statistics?
Like in any sport you need to choose the right category to be good in it ;-). I have no objections for counting the QSOs, but I agree with M1EYP about the safety, environment and the fact that the non-hams may not appreciate our activity too much.
Does anybody else have any suggestions for further useful statistics?
The current list of most frequently activated summits is useful but possibly a most frequently activated list on a per region/per association basis may be more useful. That way activators can see more clearly what has been done many times in their area and pick out something less common.
The other is not really a statistic but a facility to allow the chasers to vote on up and coming activations. This would work by the activator entering a list of possible summits to activate on given date and allowing the chasers to vote for the summits they would most like to work.
but
possibly a most frequently activated list on a per region/per
association basis may be more useful. That way activators can see more
clearly what has been done many times in their area and pick out
something less common.
An easy(ish) way to sort the list is to select the table (holding left mouse button down and scrolling over the list). The right mouse click on the selected area and select copy from the drop down menu. Open up a spreadsheet program ( I use Excel, but I presume it works just as well in Works or others) and paste into a new sheet. Using Paste Special as HTML gives you the corect formatting. Its just a case of sorting it into whatever direction you like.
I calculated the average QSO rate for my 14 activations. It is 10.14 QSOs/activation with 7.14 points/activation. I do not see a problem to publish the QSO rate in the Activator Results table. It does not imply any change to the SOTA rules.
Thanks for the suggestions. What gets done depends on the goodwill and free time of the individuals concerned. Both of these commodities have limits and thus inevitably some prioritisation has to occur. Tasks such as integrating new Associations and keeping the databases current inevitably take a high priority as do tasks relating to the resilience and core functionality of the SOTA programme. Many of these tasks are not immediately obvious to end-users - you log in and it just works - but they do take up a good proportion of our limited time.
Suggestions are always welcome and good ideas that enhance SOTA will certainly catch the attention of the MT!
On a similar subject, one thing I would like to see re-instated if possible(I’m fairly sure it used to be there) is a complete list of activators for a summit - not just the first and the last few. It’s sometimes useful to be able to contact a particular activator to gain his opinion on - say - a proposed route.
Thanks, both. I confess I haven’t used this route into the database before (as you can probably tell) having been using James’ Excel spreadsheet extensively since I started. Funny how you keep on doing the same thing - ‘cos it’s second nature (and being offline, James’ Spreadsheet is very handy).