I have had requests to deliver some kind of sound alert for spots.
There are two ways of achieving this currently.
Webmon. This is easily setup and delivers a sound on update
IRC. The sotabot posts every spot to the IRC channel. Most IRC
software will give a sound alert.
I will write instructions for both.
Is this adequate? Delivering sound off the page is likely to be
problematic especially when the window doesn’t have focus.
73, Jon
Hi Jon
A Webmon type facility is greatly appreciated as it enables other work to be untaken in/near the shack with only short SOTA diversions. The main problem has been that it generates too many “false” alerts, for example on colour (or is it color now!!) changes or when old spots fall off the page.
How about putting a hidden line on the home and spots page that changes only when a new spot is entered? The change could be just a change of a number within the line. The line could be clearly identified in the code so it can easily be selected within Webmon.
I see this as a small development that will be a substantial improvement over SOTAwatch1. It will overcome the sound generation problem, the false spots problem and also leave chasers with a familiar interface ie Webmon.
The number on the Webmon line is altered by a spot being removed. This is probably a bad feature as removal is usually by someone removing a duplicate spot and a Webmon trigger is not really required.
I am working on a more robust way of giving webmon a counter.
Jon
If this works then probably any additional sound support is redundant. Webmon works well and seems to have been wdely adopted. We just need some instructions on how to use it with SW2.