I have been asked by a “Cadet” station, for a signal report whilst operating on 5 MHz ssb whilst on a SOTA activation. In the event of this being No 4 on that activation does the exchange of signal reports with the Cadet contact qualify the activation?
That’s a good question! The rules sat “a minimum of four QSOs must be made, each of which must be with a different station.” They don’t say “ham station” and the contact is legal in this country, so I would say yes.
I think that the only database requirement is that you can log the contact. I guess you have an ID for the contact which will be some kind of non amateur call sign. Andy @MM0FMF should be able to advise what the database expects and also adjust the database if necessary to accept the Cadet station ID.
In clarification;
This was a hypothetical question.
In this case, MZV40 was my 56th QSO of 67. But if I had only made 3 QSOs and MZV40 was my 4th would the activation count?
Regards
David G0EVV
It’s fine by me David. Cadets are allowed on that band and the original NOVs for us for 5MHz had info on how to work Cadet stations. If it’s OK for an amateur to QSO with a Cadet then it’s OK for SOTA.
The only issue is there is some code in the database that tries to make sure the callsign looks like a callsign. It might not accept all Cadet calls as they look a bit iffy! If it wont upload, let me know and I’ll insert it with my Systems Admin hammer.