Sorry all who worked me today as OE/VK2JI/P - I spotted and gave out the wrong summit code - it should have been OE/TI-690 NOT 590. When I gave out the name, I gave out the correct summit name of Gschwandkopf.
I believe I had the correct code in the SotaWatch Alert, just not in the spot.
Sorry for the inconvenience - could you please adjust your logs.
Ed.
Dear Ed,
thanks for the correction and for the S2S today. I was not used to your Australian callsign in the moment you were calling in. Therefore I was somewhat slow in getting your suffix right.
73 de Michael, DB7MM
Thank’s for the reference correction Ed - still a new one for me!
73 de Phil
Ed,
Did you make some 6m and 10m contacts?
Andrew vk1da/2uh
My apologies to the chasers again. This is the first time I’ve “stuffed up” like this. I write the SOTA reference and summit name on the top of my log sheet when planning the activation and although other paperwork, such as the route to drive had the correct reference on it, on the sumit I go by what I have on the log sheet. It was only after entering my activators log (to the correct reference), I saw through the (new ?) feature of show who chased you in the display activator log section, that I realised my error.
Michael - I realised you were having issues with the callsign, it is a little strange but I like to use the VK call from time to time. When I’m outside of Germany I am allowed to use any of my three callsigns in another CEPT country. Very happy to get the S2S with you. Many of the other activators who were on, I could not hear and at least two others I called didn’t hear me (only running 5w, probably should have put the amp on, at least for 40m).
Phil - glad this was still a new one for you, even if it is only 6 points not 10 points. OE/TI-690 Gschwandkopf was only classified in October of this year for SOTA so there have only been a few activations however expect that to change as it is a summit that is easy to access - a lot easier than TI-657 that you activated a couple of years ago I think, which is across the valley on the other side of Seefeld.
Andrew - seven 10metre contacts, mainly into Spain (plus Karl M3FEH) but 6 metre condition’s just weren’t there - and the reason for the longer journey into Austria, was so that I could operate 6 metres portable as it’s not allowed in Germany.
HE DID on 10m.
ME 
just 2nd one of day first one from OK 
karl
Ed,
it’s a mistake I’ve made a few times, and you know how quickly I was set straight! I usually self-spot using sotagoat on the iphone, that can be done using the alert as a template, so the summit code is cloned from the Alert. Maybe RRT can do that too?
Sorry to see no 6m contacts, I knew that’s why you travelled to Austria so wondered if the trip was worth while from that point of view. I looked at the location and the resort etc looks very attractive in the marketing site!
Anyway, you did work Karl so you would have made him very happy!
73
Andrew VK1DA/2uh
'Fraid not RRT has no access to alerts as far as I know.
There was another thread on the reflector about a week ago about some package holidays to Seefeld in July next year from the UK. The summit I activated is probably the easiest around Seefeld but there are a few that are achievable with a little effort as well.
Ed.
No need to excuse for using the VK-callsign. The problem is my deficiency in getting callsigns with J and Y correctly. These are always difficult letters for me especially in combination with I.
[quote=“DD5LP, post:5, topic:12213”]Many of the other activators who were on, I could not hear and at least two others I called didn’t hear me (only running 5w, probably should have put the amp on, at least for 40m).
[/quote]
I was using my KX3 at 10 W with a quarterwave vertical and you were a honest 57 in the clear. The problem was the very crowded 40m-band with lots of QRM.
Thanks for calling in for S2S.
73 de Michael, DB7MM
Ed,
you may have solved a little mystery for me. I have puzzled for some time over why some activators never use Alerts, instead posting spots that contain the messages that should have been posted as alerts, like delays in their ETA or “QRV in 45 minutes”.
I had thought those activators were mistakenly sending spots instead of alerts, or didn’t understand the purpose of spots as meaning a report of a station heard or worked. but now it seems more likely they are using software that cannot send alerts.
73 Andrew vk1da
Hi Andrew, I know of no Android app that updates (or creates new) Alerts at SOTAWatch, other than using a browser to access the website. Many can create spots. I was surprised when you said that SOTA Goat (on iPhone platform) can do this and indeed can copy the data across.
73 Ed.
One of my earlier SMS apps would allow alert creation but it was lacking in usability so I dropped the feature.
I’m not sure the need for remote alert entry/edit is as valuable as spotting. Normally you bung an alert for a region using the wild card feature so people know you’ll be out and fill in the fine detail when you are on the summit and that’s more than enough.
Hi Ed,
In case it is helpful to illustrate the sotagoat usage, here is a sequence in which I first displayed the current alerts, then selected the OK alert, then selected “new spot” to create a spot based on the displayed alert. On each screen i used the standard two button combination (end+power) to save a screenshot to the photo album.
First display all alerts:
Select an alert, display details:
Select “new spot” to create a spot based on the current alert:
As you can see, all the essential data has been cloned from the alert to creat the new spot. Each cloned item can be corrected/amended before sending the new spot. The comments field is defaulted to empty, but you can add comments typically like “moved here, need 1 more, help, wx hot” etc. That’s how I self spot on summits, based on my own alert.
RRT may well have been written originally for GMA rather than SOTA, and if GMA does not provide for alerts, there’s the history and reasons for the absence of alerts in RRT.
Sotagoat cannot edit existing spots or alerts but it can clone from either alerts or spots to produce new alerts or spots based on existing items.
73
Andrew
vk1da/2uh
As all that is done through an internet connection why fanny about with an app, why not just use a ordinary browser?
Hi Andrew,
Looks nice but as I don’t have an iPhone, unless the programmer creates a version for Andriod I wont be getting the app.
As Andy says, the Spots are more important on the day, Alerts for planning.
RRT was originally written for SOTA and GMA then added I believe, not the other way around.
When SOTAWatch is replaced, it’ll be interesting to see how many of the apps work with the new (API) interface. I think some rely on a “screen scrape” which most likely will not work afterwards. We’ll have to see which can be changed quickly.
73 Ed.
Exactly!
That’s what I was wondering after reading all these posts.
Whenever I have internet signal, which is the case in most of my activations, I can connect to Sotawatch and I can create, edit/modify alerts, as well as creating spots and seeing other spots being raised on Sotawatch.
However I lately use SMS spotting with the help of EA2CQ’s SPOTmySOTA APP, but in case I need to modify the time or any other information in my Alert, I use the internet browser and do it directly as I do at home with my laptop.
Best 73 de Guru
Well I know there is already work afoot to support a number of apps and that there will be a transition period when old and new services run in parallel. However, the old code is old and difficult to maintain so it needs to be retired. I was thinking that I may run a bridge service that replicates some of the old functionality but written in something more maintainable to allow the old servers to be retired and give everyone a chance to move to the new APIs.
