As an Amateur Radio operator I enjoy operating portable. That is to take take the radio out on the Hills and Mountains on operate in a QRM free environment. I do enjoy walking and getting some fresh air, so taking a radio transceiver and seeing who I can work is very appealing to me.
There are a few programmes where you can do this: HEMA - HuMPS Excluding Marilyns Award and SOTA - (Summits On The Air).
When I first got my foundation licence I was told about SOTA and what you had to do to get points. Unfortunately I only had one radio, a Boefeng GT3 Mk II and it wasn't that good. I had learned about a similar programme too - HEMA! This programme seemed to be the same idea, just Hills and mountain with a lower prominence. Prominence is where the Hill or mountain rises above the surrounding area, these are have different classifications and use the Database of British and Irish Hills, Its available online too if you want to "Bag" some of the hills and mountains for the British Isles and there is load of them too! https://www.hill-bagging.co.uk/
Anyway back to the point of this blog. SOTA Summits have a prominence of 150 meters+, HEMA summits have a prominence of 100 - 149 meters.
Ive been activating HEMAs longer than SOTAs. I just got into the HEMA programme more than SOTA, probably because there were more HEMAs than SOTAs! With HEMA I go for the unique -every summit you haven't done you get a unique as long as you log four different stations. This is a good thing as you get to walk different summit and enjoy different parts of the country. The bad thing? I gets more difficult as you have to travel further away to get the unique awards! Most summits I activate are when Im on holiday, preference being what HEMAs are around before I book anywhere!
Im wandering off the point again! With SOTA you get points. Each Summit has different points depending how high they are and difficulty in ascending. These are either 1 point, 2 points, 4 points, 6 points, 8 points or 10 points. You get 3"Winter bonus" points too but only for those with 2 points or more.
So what award do you get aside from being out portable? When you have accumulated 1,000 points you get Mountain goat status! Unfortunately you cant just do the same summit every day and get points, you've got to wait a year to get points from the same summit. This makes getting mountain Goat difficult. Im currently sitting on 33 points and that is after 5 years since starting in SOTA!
I hope to actually push myself to get close to Mountain Goat status, but with 967 to go its going to be difficult! Can I do it or is it a futile exercise? Have you reached Mountain Goat Status? How long did It take you?
