Fully agree.
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don’t forget the fuel for their cars. Would be an idea chasing /M from the car while queing for gas
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Oh no! Wot turkeys too? I better go now and secure ten for Christmas [Bet I can sell 9 of them for a profit]. Oh hang on, we’re all vegetarians here. Does that include the Linda McCartney veggie turkeys Andy? Never mind I’ll just load up on bog rolls. Oh bah! No diesel left in my Passat to drive there.
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Here are a few of my observations on CW…
Operators will send a “?” to determine if a frequency is in use. That’s less QRM than sending a “QRL?” if the frequency is actually in use. I send a “?” first and hearing no response I’ll send “QRL?” two times and then I start CQ’ing if I hear no replies.
One problem I’ve had lately is operators coming on my frequency and sending CQ on top of me. Sometimes they are very loud so I suspect they should hear me (maybe they have a hearing problem ;-). Perhaps this problem will get worse as the band conditions improve. I was chased off of my frequency two times during my last activation. If the station is really weak I’ll most likely just ignore them. However, if the station is loud I just QSY rather than deal with them. Chasers most likely went to my spotted frequency and didn’t find me. Perhaps they sent “SOTA?”…don’t know! I rely on RBNHole to spot me and it can take a few minutes for a new spot to get posted after I move to a new frequency.
I usually have big pileups on my first two bands – perhaps 15-20 chasers calling on each band. I try to be efficient and not send my callsign on every single contact (I might send it every 5-6 contacts). I sometimes hear stations sending a “?” and many times it’s a S2S contact that wants to know my callsign before initiating a “S2S”. These are typically stations that don’t have access to spots and are simply scanning the popular bands and SOTA frequencies searching for S2S contacts. They are also trying to be efficient on their activation and waiting around for me to send my callsign takes time! When I hear a “?” I’ll send my callsign followed by “SOTA”.
Finally, I’ve had to deal with antenna poles falling down, wires breaking, animals, high winds, snowfall, lightning, etc. and had to QRX for a several minutes (or worse case QRT). I’ll send “QRX” or “AS” if I can but that isn’t always possible depending on the situation. Stations probably wonder what happened to me and perhaps send “SOTA?”. Fortunately that doesn’t happen very often.
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Dear chaser, after my first activation I have some toughs for you:
- Sometimes the position on the summit is not perfect (we don’t take a char/table with us)…in fact, in my first activation, I had to dig a small hole with my foot so to have a point where to stay…otherwise I start fall down…so, my position was not perfect. Also this as bring to very hard keying (CW). So please be patient and unrestanding
- Not all are good operators (I am a beginner,n00b,lid, idiot operator in CW…but in time I will improve myself)…so, when you have a pileup…beginner are staring to loose and have problems with decoding (and a small panic). So please be patient and don’t rush too much…just wait for your turn…we will ask for you (QRZ…)
- Think that we are almost all time QRP/less than 10W…so, the QSB is a problem for us. Just sit and listen 30 seconds before sending anything. There are chances to try to udnerstand other stations…and sending your id…it will disturb us and slow down. So, please be patient and understanding.
- Never send your id when there are a bounch of other stations that are sending (or already a QSO)…it will just make a lot of qrm.
- Wait for current QSO to be finish (remember that two dots/E on the end of the QSO? Or at least 73). it will make a life of activator more easy…and more efficient.
Thanks for understanding…
Message from chaser to activators:
- Try to understand us…you are QRP…we stay often in citys where we have QRM and this two combinations are often lead to missundestanding. So, please be understanding and forgiving with us.
- Sometimes the signal is so low (propagation etc) that we work you as “ghost” station…(we hear just fragments). So please be patient and understanding.
- We sometimes stay even 10-20 mins waithing for a “hole” where to put our ID…so please don’t go at first sign of silence…Sometimes it’s happen that I was patinet until I believed that the pileup was gone…and to find that nobody has remain there.
Thanks…and much succes in hiking and chasing…
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Its worth reminding you guys that about two thirds of all our chasers are also activators, its not as if there are two separate tribes! 
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Really as much as that? I might get ‘More or Less’ the BBC statistics programme to fact-check that Brian 
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Think it depends on what you mean by chasers and activators. I was looking at this (for all-G) and found 1470 chasers with > 1pt - are they really chasers?
1082 activators with > 1pt - likewise
474 people with > 1 complete
Perhaps Andy MM0FMF is about to come up with more useful figures but where do you draw the line? 10% of top value in each table?
73,
Rod
I know! I know! Ask the database:
Registered Users : 23161
Number of Activators : 9197
Number of Chasers : 9889
Chasers who are also activators : 6140
There are about 650 people who have insisted on opening more than one account because they are special which means there are about 4000 accounts with nothing logged in them.
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Yes, but the problem is still there - how active does youur log need to be to be considered significant.?
Rod
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It counts accounts that have activations > 0. Likewise for chases.
From my point of view, these so-called problems are more of a bit of salt and pepper in the SOTA radio operator’s everyday life, which has otherwise become somewhat trivial in recent years.
But I have a certain understanding that SOTA enthusiasts with relatively few years of experience as radio amateurs feel more disturbed than those who have been in the air for 45 or more years.
Are there perhaps still too few radio amateurs who could attract attention through correct operation?!
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Well if you want to start a long-running argument you could try defining “correct operation”! Bear in mind that correct operation varies with the service (working one of the cadet stations on 60m rubs your nose in that!) and it also varies between specialities amongst amateurs. Frankly, after more than half a century in ham radio I am happy to be quite informal in my operating though that attitude is moulded by the conditions - no point in being “watcha, mate” if the signal level is low. For my part, I read the manual, but took my operating technique from listening to the people I worked and who I knew had been at it for longer than I had. Bad operators, persistantly bad ones, either have had bad examples to follow, or are asocial types who pay no attention to their peers.
Brian, please don’t worry. That is to be read as a rhetorical question.
I just forgot to close with amen.
Amen!
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Here in the USA, it sometimes sounds like guys are trying to sort the POTAs from the SOTAs. Since most operate on some integer Khz freq, stations often end up on the same frequency and cannot hear each other. Some of the POTAs are now going to XXXX.5 Khz frequencies to avoid that.
73
Carl
This is an ERROR!
The 3 letter Q-code expressions have a meanning which is different depending on whether it ends on a questionmark or not.
QRL means: the frequency is in use
QRL? means: Is the frequency in use?
Sending just ? means nothing to me or anybody else listening on the frequency.
Asking if the frequency is or not in use must be done by QRL?
But, let’s not divert from the original subject.
Those chasers going to the spotted frequency right after the spot has been displayed on SOTAwatch and sending first thing either their callsign, or a questionmark (?), a SOTA? or tuning on the very frequency before having listened to understand what’s going on are highly annoying and disturbing both the activator and the other chasers. They should stop doing this if they want to become good operators.
The gold advise for ham radio operators remains valid: listen, listen, listen.
73,
Guru
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Hi Heinz,
These are, of course, trivial “problems” compared to other serious things happening in our World to so many people. They are no doubt “1st World” problems. But this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to educate bad mannered operators in order to make them better operators, which will, at the end of the day, represent an easier life on the air for us all.
I joined the radioamateur community in 1981, got licensed in 1984, started playing the SOTA programme in 2013 and I’ve been more or less active all those years long up to now, which makes no more, no less than 40 years!
73,
Guru
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I try to give the new Activators a lot of consideration, especially if CW isn’t their first language.
I do wonder if the more seasoned Activators check band propagation (17m and above) before assaulting a peak?
GL/73
I agree with Guru 100%
I can’t think of a single case where “SOTA ?” brought about a contact.
The bottom line is, “If you can’t hear 'em you can’t work 'em”.
Walt
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Hello Pete,
I also hear guys that work many stations without ID for a good stretch and that particular frequency is spotted on both POTA and SOTA so it takes a while to sort out who you are hearing (though sometimes both) . I think the “?” is sent in hopes of getting a station ID. At least that’s the way it sounds to me.
I’m always QRP so I usually wait out the big signals before joining in the chase.
73 and thanks for all of your activatons…much enjoyed
Carl WB0CFF
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