May 1st, 2010 – WGØAT/Steve sent a CQ from Mount Herman in Colorado and thus inaugurated the birth of SOTA in WØ land with 33 CW contacts around the world.
Fast forward to today, Steve is still sending CQs from Mount Herman (WØC/FR-Ø63), and other peaks, almost on a daily basis but he also inspired countless hams (incl. yours truly) to join a growing bunch of people who love the outdoors and combine their hiking activities with their radio hobby.
Some statistics… during the last 10+ years the Colorado Association (WØC) grew from:
- 219 initial (seed) summits to a total of 1797 qualifying summits
- a handful of Activators to ~180
- a few chasers to almost 200
These highly motivated men and women of all ages activated more than 7,400 summits, generated more than 40,000 points and 15 Mountain Goats (MG) – many of them double or even six-fold (thanks KXØR/George).
WØC Chasers worked over 90,000 stations around the world, generated almost 500,000 points and 33 Shack-Sloths.
To celebrate our 10th Anniversary1, WØC-SOTA is organizing a 10-10-10 Event2 with a challenge for Activators and Chasers alike.
Activator challenge: Activate 10 (or more) 10K (or higher) summits (in WØC) within 10 days.
Chaser challenge: Chase Activators on 10 different (or more) qualifying WØC summits (10K or higher) within the 10 days.
Event Date: We will kick-off the event in conjunction with the Colorado 14er event on August 7th, 2021 and conclude on August 16th.
Everybody is invited to participate. Plan your vacations and business-trips to Colorado accordingly. Block off these days in your calendar. Get in shape… repair your antennas and radios. It’s a once in a decade event.
There will be a ranking of all participants who meet the challenge. Photographer and new SOTA enthusiast Dan Oldfield (NØOLD) is generously donating a personalized and autographed print from his Colorful Colorado collection to each of the top 3 in both challenges.
More details will be announced as soon as they are hashed out on the WØC-SOTA Website (you can subscribe to get the latest updates) and the NA-SOTA group.
For the org. team
KØMOS/Matt
Friendly reminder that the WØC 10 yr Anniversary event/challenge is starting on August 7th (in conjunction with the Colorado 14er event) and lasts 10 days. All details are available at the WØC-SOTA Website.
In a nutshell:
- Activator challenge: Activate 10 (or more) 10K (or higher) summits (in WØC) within 10 days.
- Chaser challenge: Chase Activators on 10 different (or more) qualifying WØC summits (10K or higher) within the 10 days.
- Event Date: August 7th 0000h (MDST) until August 16th 2400h (MDST).
- Log Submission: After each activation, Activators are encouraged to upload the results to the SOTA Website and send their .csv file (via email) to our CSO (Chief Spreadsheet Officer) Jim/NØIPA (N0IPA 'at' att 'dot' net). Daily results will be posted on the W0C-SOTA website.
- Ranking: Criteria #1 is the # of activated summits (>=10K feet), for Chasers it is the # of contacts made with qualifying summits.
- Prices: The top three in each category will receive a personalized and autographed print from Dan Oldfield (NØOLD) Colorful Colorado collection.
