There have recently been discussions regarding the method of self-spotting for SOTA activations. Some of you have shared some of the process you use when a web-enabled mobile device won’t work. A fellow ham by the name of Chris Matthieu, N7ICE is the owner and developer of the amateur radio social media site titled 73s.com. Chris has developed a rather snazzy process for grabbing APRS messages addressed to 73s and posting that content to Twitter.
I’ve tested this process using my Yaesu VX-8 and it worked just as designed. I wrote a short blog article which you can find here http://kd0bik.com/sota/?p=169 This article explains the process, how to get started and includes a short video Chris, N7ICE created to demo the process.
Give it a try.
73,
Jerry
Jerry G. Taylor - KD0BIK
Host of The Practical Amateur Radio Podcast
Good, we can add that to the other APRS spotting systems already running. It’s always useful to have several systems doing the same or similar jobs so that if one fails there are others to use. It certainly reduces the pressure to get things fixed in a hurry if there are alternatives.
Slightly O/T, but if anyone was waiting for me on 40m from G/SP-006 yesterday, I self spotted via SMS, then struggled to work 12 contacts. I assumed all the regulars were watching tv or something. On my return home I noticed the spot hadn`t appeared - must be lost in cyber space somewhere. Andy FMF can you tell me the Email address for your spot server service to change my mobile number. I tried the intermoose address & it was returned as a failed delivery.
It was quiet later in the afternoon. The pipes got blocked on the server, it was the only bit of lumpiness that came out of the weekend’s testing. Fixed now. Not sure why you were bounced, the normal bucket load of mail was there this morning.