Rob
that’s a handy option.
It can still become difficult… here the reposition button is masked by the overview window.
Operator error!
This does illustrate nicely how the VK1 summits are 1 pointers among their nearby similar height VK2 summits which are referenced to the wider VK2 landscape and have higher points…
Andrew vk1da
Hi Rob,
Is there a possibility of adding the reposition option to the main SMP screen as well as the Range screen please?
Ed.
Hi Ed, I fully intend to port it over to the other pages, so it’ll take a day or two… Right now, I’m at my part-time workplace where I pack screws, bolts and fasteners for shipment - it keeps me in pocket money 
Rob
Understood Rob, thanks for all you do.
73 Ed.
OK, now ported the new-style InfoBox to the main and tracks pages.
Rob
Thank you Rob!
Great job as always!
73 Ed.
Another update to the range page. For those of you who like to (or have to!) take long road journeys, it is now possible to get a listing of SOTA summits within a given distance along the route you take.
In the “Define range…” dialog do the following:
If all goes well, you should be rewarded with something like the following screenshot:
Often, multiple routes are found between your start- and end-points: in this case, you can choose the one you want from the list, and hit the “Map »” button to load the summits along the new route.
This is still a “beta” version, having just been written, and so there will probably be a bug or two in the works, but they should be ironed out in the next couple of days.
Rob
Hi Rob Brilliant addition to the mapping site, going to find it very useful. Thanks Glyn
Hi Rob
Very useful tool for those who travel a lot (my case).
This will be used by me from now on.
Thank you es 73 de Pedro, CT1DBS/CU3HF
Hi Rob, that is an excellent addition to the site - and would be so useful for planning purposes during trips. What I would like is to be able to work out which summits are drive to summits versus those that need significant effort (read time) time to get to. I do some longish drives at times (7 hours or so) and it would be great to be able to pick the summits that add the least time to a long trip.
I realise there is currently no field in the database which records if a summit is drive on or not, so this would need to have a field added that would be need to be editable by activators. Thinking maybe categorise them along the lines of “no vehicle access”, “4WD accessible” and “2WD accessible” and maybe a free text field for comments or links to blogs/activation reports.
Matt
VK1MA
OK, who better to do this than yourself? Do the research, get some mates to help out, and build some kind of database/spreadsheet/table online for others to view.
[quote=“VK1MA, post:16, topic:11918”]
this would need to have a field added [in the SOTA system] that would be need to be editable by activators
[/quote]I’ll bet my last pension check this won’t happen. Period.
IMHO, there’s too much reliance on the SOTA MT to provide the users with fancy bells and whistles, when the MT only just have enough time and energy to do SOTA and database admin. So let them do the tedious, mundane stuff 
, while the users can collectively and proactively create the sparkly stuff 
.
On your marks, get set, g…
Rob
Hi Rob, completely agree that an awful lot is asked of the MT - and incredibly they manage to achieve a large proportion of this.
I am semi computer literate - better than some, worse than others, but I have no experience in the creation, maintenance, administration of or signifant interaction with databases (excluding inputting some information as a semi privileged used in some instances).
I too doubt that the MT would be likely to go ahead with this proposal as quite frankly they already have a vast number of higher priority items to address. But, with my limited knowledge of databases, I would have expected that you would have your own which are populated from the SotaWatch databases, making yours an ideal starting point. Personally I am more than happy to input my own knowledge, but this would by virtue of the scale of things require it to be a collaberative piece of work - there are only so many summits that I have knowledge of.
I guess it comes down to how many people would a. find this concept of use and b. would be willing to participate in this - hence my proposing this as a possibility. If nobody else thinks it would be handy, then it goes nowhere! If it has significant support and the MT believe the effort to action it is justified then we may see the addition of another couple of fields in the SotaWatch database - maybe, maybe not.
There are a number of areas that would need to be looked at including oversight, accuracy and who would be able to add this information to a database (Association Managers only, logged in SotaWatch users, general public, etc), but that is getting too far ahead of ourselves.
Matt
VK1MA
There is already the facility for people to submit resources (some of which contain, directions, parking and other information) which are shown under the summit information pages on Sotawatch, however adding new resources is currently suspended whilst work is on-going with the new web site.
Such as that shown on Hiking in the mountains: tips for beginner hikers - Mountain Day
Stewart
On the top of the left part of the screen, where the summits list is displayed, you now have a “radio button” labelled “Activation count”. When selected, the map shows circles instead of triangles, and their diameter varies according to the number of activations.
For regions where many summits have already been activated, this is a very good hint about the difficulty to reach them.
In regions where there are few activations, like W6, it is more complicated.
When we were compiling the big W6 expansion, I tried to list peaks that were accessible, especially for people with disbilities. But that is tricky. Is that road on the map OK for a wheelchair van? You can park close to the summit, but is the parking lot inside the activation zone? Is the trail to summit accessible, and how: crutches, wheelchair?
And then there is Four Wheel Bob.
Also, consider access rights. We have a local summit (El Toro, W6/NC-376) which is only open one day each year. Mt. Umumhum is a drive-up within an open space district, but only accessible with permission from the landowners down-slope. Someone maintaining a ham repeater on the peak could activate it. But next year, it will be open to everyone.
wunder
Hi gys, a combined response.
Stewart, yes agreed, however that information being free text will not display in the route display of SMP which is what I would think to be particularly useful.
Christophe, that is a good idea - over time the easy to get to summits will usually have higher levels of activity and display as larger icons. Having said that, there are going to be some aberations - VK1AD regularly activates one local summit as it is his closest summit - but definitely not a drive to or “easy” (still requires 150m plus vertical climb and a couple of km travelling). Due to Andrew’s frequent activations of it, this hill is the third most activated in VK1 (ahead even of a drive on summit of ths same point score). We also have other summits across the border into VK2 that rarely get activated due to a low amateur population in that area. Still, a good guide to use - thanks.
Walter, good point - I have drive on access to VK1/AC-025 for ocassionally installing a temporary repeater (vehicle access only when I have a genuine reason of course) - otherwise it is a 12km return walk and 800m vertical climb. Not surprisingly the activation count is relatively low for this summit! 4 wheel Bob is an impressive character - good on him for not letting his physical issues stopping him from doing what he loves.
In any event, I suspect that this idea whilst potentially delivering useful outputs is probably in the too hard basket - oh well, back to the quiet box for me.
Matt
VK1MA
Matt,
Stewart has it right - use the existing facility in the summit information pages to submit resources.
When you’re viewing a route in the SMP range page, you can click on a summit icon to show the info box for that summit, and if you click on the summit name in the info box header, you will be redirected to the appropriate summit information page in SOTAWatch, with all the user-uploaded resources right there.
So, it literally takes one click to get from the SMP range page to the SOTAWatch summit information page in SOTAWatch. That should do the trick?
Rob
It works on the new website, once you have created an account and logged in.
Ed.
Rob
Thanks very much for providing this Road Route / Corridor option on SOT Maps. For my SOTA trips abroad I use a selection of maps both paper based and online. Having come to a preferred itinerary I cross check with the SOTA maps, make my day route plan, check lists, etc.
I am now re-checking my itineraries with this new feature to see whether I have missed any SOTA en route.
I occasionally get the following pop-up error message when pressing the Map button, the message re-appears for my route selection when when pressing Find All Routes again. I need to close the browser session and opening a new SOTA maps session.
Message reads: The end-point has been changed: please activate the Find Road Routes button to load a new set of routes.
Best regards, 73 Phil ON4TA
Hi Phil, sorry you’ve been having problems with the page. I cannot reproduce the error with the code as it stands - unless I actually change one of the start- or end-points, even if it’s just to add a space at the end of the text. I’ve now altered the code to trim the spaces (I did say there might be one or two bugs in there 
), so it should be more tolerant.
Try loading the page in your browser, then press the F5 button or, better, the Ctrl and F5 buttons simultaneously; this will load the new code. Then try the page again.
HTH, 73, Rob
