GMA in one sentence
GMA is an outdoor and adventure radio programme for radio amateurs.
If you enjoy being outdoors and operating amateur radio, GMA lets you combine portable radio activity with references, points and awards.
Activator and chaser
There are two basic roles in GMA:
- Activator: The station operating from a reference, for example from a summit.
- Chaser / Hunter: The station contacting the activator.
During a summit-to-summit contact, a station may be activator and chaser at the same time.
How does an activation work?
The activator chooses a valid reference, sets up a portable station on site and makes radio contacts.
For a valid GMA summit activation, at least 4 QSOs with different stations are required according to the GMA rules.
Portable operation
GMA is about true portable radio operation.
Power is supplied for example by battery, rechargeable battery, solar or wind energy.
Operation from a vehicle, vehicle power, mains power or motor-driven power supply is not valid.
What counts as a QSO?
Valid QSOs are direct two-way radio contacts between stations.
Contacts via active repeaters, Echolink or similar systems do not count as valid GMA QSOs.
Points
For mountain references, points are based on elevation.
As a simple rule of thumb: one point is awarded for each 100 metres of elevation.
A summit with 335 m therefore gives 3 points.
References
Each activatable location is uniquely identified by a reference.
SOTA references are generally also valid for GMA. No additional GMA reference is issued for summits that are valid for SOTA.
Mountains that are not valid for SOTA may receive their own GMA-only reference.
More than summits
Today, GMA is not limited to mountains only. Other outdoor programmes and references may also be relevant, for example WWFF, POTA, WCA, MOTA, IOTA or Lighthouse.
This is especially interesting for awards such as the GMA Triathlon.
Logs and awards
QSOs can be entered in GMA or uploaded via ADIF.
Logs create statistics, points and awards for activators and chasers.
First steps
For getting started, these help pages are useful: