Discuss potential SWL awards here. I think it would be really interesting to include awards for SWLs. I think I’d require that they submit a log entry showing both calls from an activator’s contact, so if I heard W1GRD work NS1C that’s what I’d submit.
I’ll summarize our work in Awards Summary.
I think this is a cool idea, mostly because I think rewarding SWLers might be the gateway drug that lures them into POTA addiction. “Here’s your award, and also a link to a local ham club that could help you get your license.” The first fix is free!
Let’s think about what it means to be a POTA SWL. It’d be trivial for someone to watch the spots and claim any active station, so we need a challenge..
A possible solution: SWLs submit a log entry that includes
This wouldn’t require the SWL to hear the hunter, but it would require them to hear the activator and verify a contact during the activation.
Given that, I think many of the Hunter awards apply to SWLs – separate but same idea. Heard All States for example.
Never having been a SWLer myself, I’m thinking it would be great to hear what sort of awards the SWLers actually think would be fun.
Maybe invite some folks from over on SWLing.com?
Frankly I wouldn’t bother worrying about someone cheating by just scraping spots off the spotting page. Looking at the POTA activator stats over the past few days I see things that make me suspect that some folks are not fully honest about the logs they upload. If people want to cheat, I say the punishment is self-imposed.