All I can say, is that the last few days in South Wales should have had summer bonus points allocated to alleviate the sunburn and dehydration suffered
What fantastic weather!
First ascent was SW-001 where I made the big mistake of not wearing shorts from the outset. This was quickly rectified on SW-005, 006, 007 and 010.
T shirt and shorts throughout and 3 extra point per activation.
What is not to like about winter bonuses when it’s 18ºC at the summit?
I’ve lots of video but as a quick taster this is climbing above the clouds at SW-001.
In reply to G4ISJ:
It was snowshoes only to reach the two summits I activated Saturday in below freezing temperatures. Yeah, some of us earned our 3 points
In reply to G4ISJ:
Yeah, some of us earned our 3 points
Yea, WB points are a bit of a lottery
Anyway good to hear you in there on 001, 005 and 007, booming as usual.
Rich, N4EX, managed to get me on all five. Does he never sleep?
What a difference a few hundred miles make - I had to abandon my original plans to activate CS-011,014 & 020 last week with too much snow and a change in the wx.
C’est la vie!
Jack (:>J
GM4COX
PS: The skiers were thoroughly enjoying it though!!
In reply to GM4COX:
Here in VK we have a additional winter bonus… no snakes in winter (generally speaking). I think we may have to approach our Association manager for a summer bonus on the strength of all the nasty critters that are about in the bush in summer here.
summer bonus on the strength of all the nasty critters that are about in the bush in summer here.
Heh! Those and the heat; my (limited) experience of Aussie summer is that it’s a time for staying indoors out of the sun, and hoping that the air-con doesn’t break down. Or, of course, for heading as far south as possible to take advantage of the cooling effects of the Southern Ocean…
The “winter bonus” mostly makes sense only well outside the tropics, and climate has a bearing on it, too. There are, clearly, some parts of Australia where a winter bonus makes sense, but plenty of others where it doesn’t, and in some of those a “summer bonus” would make sense.
The seasonal bonus is covered in the General Rules (GR) 3.11.1, and at present we have Associations with winter bonus, summer bonus or no bonus, but the GR allow for other parameters such as monsoon seasons. Note in the last paragraph “In large Associations there is provision for different seasonal bonus criteria to be defined for different Regions where significant climatic variations make this appropriate.” In other words it is quite possible for a large Association to have a summer bonus in one place and a winter bonus in another - but not both!
Any request for changes in the bonus period should be made to the MT by the AM, so if you think that there is a good case you should lobby your AM!
In reply to G8ADD:
It was a tongue in cheek remark… but I seriously avoid any SOTA operation in summer where there is no clearly defined track to the summit. Bashing thru the bush by yourself in summer here is asking for trouble.
Here in VK3 we do have summits that get quite a bit of snow on them in winter and they can also get to 35 degC in mid summer. Fortunately those summits dont usually have much thick scrub to hide the nasty critters in so are usually ok to activate in summer (apart form the heat).
Thursday 20th March 2014, so five days after the end of the winter bonus here in the UK. Also on The Cloud G/SP-015, a 1 point summit at 343m ASL, and therefore not qualifying for bonus even when in the bonus period!
However, none of that meant that it wasn’t perishingly cold between 8pm and 9.30pm as I participated in the RSGB 80m SSB club contest. It didn’t stop an unpleasant storm between 9.05pm and 9.35pm which battered my bothy bag around me and created a din over which I could barely hear the FT-817’s receiver. It didn’t mean that my pole and 80m dipole (SOTAbeams Bandhopper IV with all the links closed) didn’t collapse twice during the activation.
Yes, a difficult and horrible night for activating, but no winter bonus. 34 QSOs were made in the contest, plus a further ten, also on 80m SSB, with SOTA chasers outside of the contest times.
Thanks to all callers. It was particularly nice to work a succession of SOTA chasers after the Tall Trees Contest Group net on 3.642MHz SSB, after the end of the event.
Still no winter bonus the morning after, Friday 21st March 2014. But didn’t stop me from surprisingly waking up after barely five hours sleep, and feeling unusually fresh. I hadn’t set an early alarm, nor posted an alert for an activation, so it was a bit of a surprise - but a nice surprise.
On a chilly, breezy and sunny morning, I made six QSOs, all on 12m CW, and all into the former Soviet Union - RA, UN, UR and UA9. A couple of the stations had the number 80 and the suffix KEDR, and were special calls to mark the 80th anniversary of the birth of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
I’m thinking of activating tomorrow, but the temperature at the bottom of the mountain will be -6 deg C with a windchill of -13 deg C. Hard to get motivated without that 3 point bonus
It snowed a bit here last night but the WX forecast tomorrow is for SUN. Well sun in the South and cloudy and light snow showers to the North. We’re going South!
It wont be too warm but will be above 0C, bit blustery too. I have a pair of 2pt summits under consideration. I’ve been meaning to do them for years and finally thanks to the new improved Google Earth, I can see a route through forests which means I can do most of the walk on good tracks.
A 2hr drive, 2hr walk in, 1hr walk between summits, 2hr walk out, 2hr drive back, that’s 7hrs before you allow time for operating and so I think it will be necessary to be a bit slick and quick on the radio. Still 2x uniques for me and the sun should be out. Only 4pts and it would have been 10 a few weeks back. But the uniqueness is the bonus here.
