Regulations for the HB15SOTA Anniversary Certificate

1. Purpose

This goal of this certificate is to celebrate the 15th anniversary of HB9SOTA, doing so over an entire year. The Anniversary Certificate issued by the Swiss SOTA Group is available to radio amateurs (chasers) and summit-2-summit (S2S) chasers.

2. Prerequisites

In addition to the certificate regulations set forth here, the general rules and regulations of the UK SOTA program apply.

3. Certificate period

The period during which the certificate can be earned is from 9 May 2020 to and including 8 May 2021.

4. Certificate levels

The Anniversary Certificate is issued in three successive levels:

  • Alpenrose (6 cantons)
  • Enzian (14 cantons)
  • Edelweiss (all cantons that have summits, currently 24 cantons)

The number of cantons required in each case is given in the parentheses.

5. Certificate QSOs

The contacts that count towards the Anniversary Certificate are those conducted during the certificate period with activators who are on a summit with a valid SOTA reference and who are using the HB15SOTA callsign.

Also included are contacts between an activator on a summit with a valid SOTA reference and a second activator. Here only one summit is valid towards the certificate, specifically, only the summit of the station using the HB15SOTA callsign and not the summit of the second station. S2S QSOs with a summit in another association made with a Swiss summit are also valid.

6. Special cantons

The cantons Geneva and Basel-Stadt do not have any summits with a valid SOTA reference. Thus, 24 cantons are sufficient to earn the highest award level, Edelweiss.

7. Verified QSOs

For a QSO to be considered verified for the purposes of this certificate, it must be uploaded into the SOTA database.

8. Applying for the certificate

The Anniversary Certificate can be applied for directly from the Swiss SOTA Group website.

9. Certificate delivery

Each earned certificate will be sent to the station submitting a successful application as an image file using e-mail.

10. Cost

The Anniversary Certificate is sent to all radio amateurs who meet the requirements free of charge.

11. Effective date

These regulations are effective retroactively starting 9 May 2020.

President of the Swiss SOTA Group              Certificate Manager for the Swiss SOTA Group

Dr. Jürg Regli, HB9BIN                                  Tom Benz, HB9DPR