Never the less, the point remains that you need to factor in the possibility of overlap time. Some of us (including me) type with two fingers!
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I understand that, Brian, but this would have never happenned if all of us would be using the SOTAwatch spotting facility just to inform about current activations, callsign, summit ref, frequency and mode instead of using it as a parallel communication channel between activator and chasers and viceversa.
73,
Guru (at home today after a visit to the dentist)
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Nicely observed Brian, I was wondering how long it would take for someone to say this. Itâs not just the typing and fumbling, there is some latency in spot updates. Amazing it all works so well world wide.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
Just for reference, Australia is about 350mS away from my home internet connection. Itâs about 335mS away from my servers in well connected European datacentres and about 190mS away from the Pacific North West of the USA. Having seen what data gets sent and received when a spot is made, the total transit time is probably under a second plus the time it takes SOTAwatch to respond. Latency in the software, networks etc. is not be an issue.
Links in and out of China are likely to be a bit slower due to packets having to cross the Great FIrewall of China.
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What is the latancy from my smart phone to my ISP across a data limited 3G connection before all the server stuff happens? I reckon it would be the main part of it.
Hi Andy,
Many of us use other platforms such as SOTA Spotter because it is easier to use with a cell phone on a summit than SOTA Watch 
The delay from hitting "sendâ to receiving a âsentâ acknowledgment seems like at least a second and then for the spots display to update even when nudged is at least that long. It is variable but never shorter than 2 seconds roughly, sometimes it is a minute.
Are we using our time wisely caning someone for being a few seconds late in their spotting? Iâve never been that punctual commencing an activation:
73
Ron
VK3AFW
My regrets to those who donât like zombie threads but I keep discovering interesting topics that pre-date either my SOTAing or reading of this reflector.
I always alert for my activations giving either bands or precise frequencies. I always self-spot (even for CW) if I have phone reception. Usually, thatâs after Iâve got set up at the summit and checked the desired frequency is clear.
However, if Iâm running late (e.g. still walking to the summit) I wait until the time posted in my alert and then (if I can) send a self-spot with a comment like âRunning late â QRV in 20 minsâ with a precise frequency. This is as a courtesy to chasers who may be wondering, is it worth waiting? Nine times out of ten that frequency is clear and I usually donât re-spot. If the frequency is busy or noisy, I re-spot with the new frequency.
In general, I think spotting is for activators to help chasers find them and not for chasers to send requests to activators. Unless a chaser knows an activator personally, he/she shouldnât expect the activator to monitor SOTAwatch at the summit.
I usually donât check spots once on-air for four reasons: -
- I am too busy multitasking listening to weak signals in cold windy conditions, writing the log and keying with frozen fingers, and stopping kit from being blown away
- I have a slow, small-screen phone (iPhone 4s)
- I donât always have phone reception
- I object philosophically to relying too much on the phone to get radio QSOs.
73 Andy
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Iâve often thought it would be nice to have a specific âQRTâ option for spotting, in which âQRTâ would appear in place of the frequency, but of course that woud add complexity to the spotting interface (and all the apps out there that make use of it one way or anotherâŚ).
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I got the impression that using spots for messages like âQRV in 20 minutesâ and âQRTâ was frowned upon by the administrators (or whatever their role/title is.) Am I wrong?
Peter KD0YOB
The two are quite different:-
The first is announcing the intended use of a frequency whether the comment says âQRV nowâ or âQRV in a bitâ.
âQRTâ is not announcing the intended use of a frequency.
Iâll weigh in here as Iâve been activating and chasing for many years now. SOTA is becoming more popular every year and the volume of alerts and spots are growing. We should strive to eliminate spots that really donât serve a valid purpose for the sake of making contacts. That includes âQRTâ, âthanks activatorsâ, âQRV in 20minâ, âactivation cancelledâ etc. Why send a âQRV in 20 minutesâ spot? Just send a valid spot when youâre actually QRV or do what many of us doâŚrely on a spot from RBNHoleâŚ
Just my 2 cents ;-).
73, Brad
WA6MM
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I think one of the concerns is that spotting is intended for real time âIâm here nowâ messages.
Any other kind of message pushes the real time spots down the list. Very occasionally I have struggled to qualify, and on return home Iâve looked at the spots and found that mine was displaced by a flurry of messages conveying other info, within seconds of it being put up.
I donât have a strong view on this, but I think the intended purpose is worth keeping in mind.
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I already gave a reason several posts ago (#26). As I understand it, RBNHole only spots for CW.
As the author, it always scares me when I read sentences like that 
I donât mind QRV or QRT, but the ones that really get our goat are the spots from a chaser asking for a different frequency, the âTry 40mâ or â17m might be better?â spots, which add no details to the spots and often canât even be seen by the activator who has limited coverage where they are.
Andrew,
Youâve done a fantastic job creating and maintaining RBNHole my friend! Many of us that climb mountains with very sketchy cellphone coverage or those of us without cellphones really appreciate your efforts.
73, Brad
WA6MM
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This is NOT a spot, it is an alert, so it should be with the other alerts.
âQRTâ is very useful to the chasers, it tells us that we should stop looking for the activation, it hasnât just gone down in QSB, it has gone, but I suppose that it is the opposit of a spot - perhaps an anti-spot!
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This is often done by an activator that is rushing around a number of summits in day. The intention is to alert interested chasers to quickly qualify the summit and then move on. Usually the frequency specified will be on VHF. Personally I donât have an issue with this.
Exactly Brian, I couldnât agree more. A spot is saying that the activator is QRV and the 20 minutes etc spots are, as you rightly say, alerts. With SOTAwatch3 and other apps which donât show the comments, I find it really annoying as a chaser to go to the QRG and hear nothing because the âspotâ wasnât live and then have to toggle the expanded spots to se the information. Just my tuppence worth FWIW !
73 Victor GI4ONL
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I think you are blurring the distinction between alerts and spots.
An alert, to be of any use to busy people, needs to be at least a few hours and preferably a day or two before the activation so that they can arrange be at the radio at the required time. For folk who canât sit in the shack all day, 20 minutes would be useless advanced notice.
A spot is notification that you are intending to use a specific frequency and confirmation for chasers itâs worth tuning to that frequency. Stating a time to be QRV shortly / specific time in the comment is an aid. Itâs not a hardship to read the activatorâs comments - theyâre there to help the chaser.
As a relative newcomer to SOTA I adopted this after seeing its widespread use on SOTAwatch.
To get this into prospective, the vast majority of my spots say âQRV nowâ and the âQRV in xx minsâ are mainly for 2m-FM local chasers.
Its the other way around, Andy! Spotting was set up so that chasers can say to other chasers where the activator actually is, remember that self spotting from summits is a relatively recent development and when the spots page was instituted many if not most summits had no mobile coverage. A spot should not be an expression of hope to use a frequency, that is alert territory. A spot should be solid information that an activator is actually working chasers on that frequency, or was on that frequency at the time of spotting.
This brings me to another point. Nowadays when the spots page is very busy, hectic in fact, on summer weekends, national holidays etc, the active spots can be so numerous that they cannot all be displayed on the screen at the same time. There were some days last summer when there were something like thirty spots highlighted in red and perhaps as many again in orange. To keep track a chaser has to keep scrolling up and down. âSpotsâ that are not solid information about an active frequency are just noise on a day like that, they are an annoyance that reduce the visibility of the active spots, which is a disadvantage for the activator. This is why we members of the MT do their best to cull the unnecessary messages.
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