Indeed. Well, we’ll all be privy to such matters when someone gets around to producing a user guide for the “new” reflector!
73,
Walt
I didn’t self spot at all yesterday. But my cqs were answered enough to keep me very busy. The only spot was posted by RBNHOLE.
Ahhh… using the space bar to scroll applies to ALL web pages, not just those in the reflector, and is a property of the browser (I’ve just tried it in Firefox, Chrome, MS Edge and Opera). But, as you say, a user guide for the reflector could be… well, useful.
Rob
Well, it’s discourse under the hood:
Well spotted!
I didn’t even know the reflector software is called Discourse, and certainly not that the User Guide is on github.com !
If this is the only User Guide, would it not make sense to have a pointer to it at the beginning of the Reflector section on Sotawatch? I’m sure we are all happy to RTFM, always provided we know where the FM is!
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
I don’t see the problem. The new reflector has proved itself to be quite intuitive, everybody seems to have dived into it and worked it out for themselves and until now nobody has thought to ask for a user guide! Perhaps the user guide reveals some nice little secrets and wrinkles for the use of Discourse, but I cannot be bothered to look, I’m quite happy with the obvious facilities!
Brian
Nope. Why would it?
In the case of my Saturday morning activations of Mt. San Cristóbal EA2/NV-119, I usually place an alert and I know I should be picked up by the RBN skimmers as soon as I start CQing and therefore spotted on SOTAWATCH by Andrew’s great and helpful RBN-Hole, however, given that I usually have a very short time available to be activating, just 15 to 20 minutes maximum, I fear that RBN-hole may not be working if I don’t get any chasers calling after 3 CQ SOTA calls.
This is what happened to me yesterday and why I decided to selfspot.
Now I’ve looked at the spots yesterday morning and I see selfspotting was the right decision because not a single RBN-hole spot was raised at about that time, which means, RBN-hole didn’t seem to be working at that time.
Thanks to my single selfspot I immediately got many chasers calling and I managed to log 22 QSOs in 22 minutes, 3 of which were S2S.
I regretted having to QRT while leaving many chasers still calling, but it was time for me to descend. I appologise…
73,
Guru
I see from Guru’s image of the spotting history (above) that there were two identical self-spots by M1EYP/P yesterday, at 0944 and 0946, for the same mode and frequency.
Aside from self-spotting, it is certainly debatable whether the Sotawatch Reflector is an appropriate place to post weekly log extracts from RSGB Contest entries.
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
Off topic, irrelevant, abrasive in intent and execution and deliberately courting controversy. It had better stop here or I will put my moderators hat on.
Brian
Look, Walt, I’ll keep it simple. It is a post that can be construed as attacking another user and as such contravenes the AUP. So let it go now.
Moderator.
Indeed Walt.
Was it an ancient mobile 'phone, almost out of charge and appearing not to be working/hanging/losing 3G data connection, and the user pressed “Submit” a second time thinking the first one hadn’t gone through perhaps?
Or was it a selfish, overkeen and unscrupulous activator intentionally abusing the SOTAwatch spotting facility in order to gain an unfair advantage? You decide.
As for the other comment, feel free to report me to the RSGB Contest Committee. That would be the correct place to air your concerns, not here.
2 Likes
And in MY opinion - I completely disagree with you on this point, Walt.
Activators are busy and after the first self-spot, would prefer not to have to spot again but when forced to move because of DQRM, we need to tell the chasers where we have had to move to.
I would love to see an additional method where messages could be sent to activators without filling the spotting table with those - perhaps a simple chat room, which activators could watch IF they wanted to. Again the problem is that activators have limited time and would prefer to be working stations than checking or typing on a phone/tablet.
Ed.
As a newcomer to SOTA I find the spots useful. From the summit of most of my nearby peaks I struggle to get a signal, and if I do it is limited to a text which may or may not get dropped, so is impossible to check if I have managed to self spot - and I have failed to activate after a fairly long walk probably as I didn’t manage to spot due to a lack of data.
I spent Saturday morning partially regretting that I had not made my way to the lakes to activate an easy peak ( I didn’t fancy attempting the swamp at G/NP003 or the artillery shells on G Np002 which are only 10 miles from the QTH in the dark ). I did however enjoy listening to what appeared to be a wonderful event - guided by the spots.
Please don’t change it - in my opinion it is not broken!
73
Paul
So we do, absolutely!
73,
Guru
1 Like
Open two browser windows and tile them side by side. Last 24 hours spots on one side and alerts on the other.
Sorry folks I get up from my bed on Monday morning for work and its still banging on. This discussion / rage has used up more web space and time than the so called “self spotters” on the day of the great activity.
Makes me wonder why i commented with adulation about the event in the first place.
THE END
Ian vk5cz .
2 Likes
Its not that simple for me, Gerald, the MT version of Sotawatch is boosted up, three columns wide, not two!
Brian
PS It might be possible after all, I’ve got some spare space on the right - I’ll have a play!