sweet, I notice our one at VK2/ST005 disappeared over the last few hours.
W
All spots and alerts containing âtestâ or âignoreâ are⌠ignored.
As a side-effect of this rule, your alert with comment â2.4GHz 146.5-fm. Test 80m end fed.â was not transmitted.
When your alert was visible on APRS, its comment was âMonitoring 146.5, APRS VK1MIC-7â.
Any suggestions for a better way to limit false reports on APRS welcome 
Thanks. Both our alerts have now been edited to remove the âoffendingâ word. Assuming they will be picked up in the next data âscrapeâ from SOTA watch ?
Wade
Back up **12mins ago.
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Wow, I checked it you and I like it. Great idea.
Hessu, who runs aprs.fi, kindly provided the following iinformation:
"The symbol set currently does not have any of these âextendedâ symbol graphics (additional symbols for overlays), but they could be added, if someone would provide suitable graphics. There are two main requirements:
1. The symbols need to be in vector format (SVG, or .ai), with proper transparency/alpha where applicable, and they must be still recognizable when scaled down to a small 24x24 bitmap.
2. The licensing must be documented and permissive. There must be written/published permission from the author (or other owner of rights, such as the SOTA organisation in this case, if the auther gave them permission to relicense) to redistribute the copyrighted works and use them elsewhere in free and commercial apps.
The attached symbol is a JPEG image, so it is not useful. Itâs not scalable to the necessary different sizes like a vector image. Itâd appear blurry in many cases. Itâs already blurry on the SOTA web site.
Itâs surprisingly lot of work to add these, for a relatively small gain. If someone can provide useful symbol graphics meeting the two requirements above, I can add them at some point. Otherwise Iâll concentrate on some higher-priority items at this time."
Would someone be able to help with ârequirement 1â, and create a file based on the logo below in vector format ?
If so, I am confident the ârequirement 2â will not be a blocking issue.
Per, SM4WJF, the creator of www.aprsdirect.com was extremely helpful and supportive: he managed to draw and implement on his site a dedicated icon for the APRS SOTA symbol in a couple of days.
Hopefully weâll get this supported by all hardware and software APRS clients in the future.
(Note: you might need to clear your browser cache to display the new image)
5 Likes
Per, SM4WJF, not only created a vector image for the SOTA logo to use on his site, but he also confirmed today:
âI do not have any good contacts to maintainers of other software clients. But you are very welcome to mail them the symbol I have created and suggest that they use them. They do not need to attribute me as long they only use this symbol.â
You can download the symbol from here (it exists as both svg and png)
https://www.aprsdirect.com/symbols/symbol-59-83.svg
https://www.aprsdirect.com/symbols/symbol-59-83-scale64x64.png
https://www.aprsdirect.com/symbols/symbol-59-83-scale24x24.png
https://www.aprsdirect.com/symbols/symbol-59-83-scale20x20.png
https://www.aprsdirect.com/symbols/symbol-59-83-scale16x16.png
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I have now implemented an experimental feature that shows automatically a cross at the location of SOTA summits within 10 km of the position of a moving APRS station that uses the âmanâ symbol.
In practice, you do not have to put your X symbol any longer: if there is APRS activity around a summit, it should show
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To illustrate, here are screen captures of tracks from aprsdirect.com: the red markers are SOTA summits automatically displayed because there was a moving APRS station using the âmanâ symbol within 10 kilometres.
Hopefully, this will contribute to
- encourage SOTA activators to use APRS to report their progress as their destination will be automatically shown
- make APRS users aware of SOTA summits near them
- more generally, contribute to the promotion of the SOTA and APRS aspects of the hobby
Feedback welcome.
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Per, SM4WJF, the creator of aprsdirect.com just added a new filtering feature to his site that is ideal for SOTA & APRS enthusiasts.
One can now select the APRS symbols to display on the new menu entry on the left, or using a link such as below, which will show only
- the SOTA spots and alerts (SOTA symbol)
- the APRS stations sending the âman/walkerâ symbol
- the SOTA summits near the stations sending the âman/walkerâ symbol (red âXâ).
https://www.aprsdirect.com/visiblesymbols/46:47,59:83,91:47
Feedback welcome.
I really appreciate the work youâre doing here - APRS and SOTA seem a good match thatâs underused. Checking SOTA on the APRSdirect filter doesnât show me the summits in my region G/SC yet, but it does show the hiker symbols
I follow some signals. What I like about seeing the complete route of an activator is the ability to spot them along the ascent or descent. Part of APRS is to assist in SAR. If someone needs assistance having an understanding of the route taken could be beneficial, whether a goat or hiker or hunter.
âŚwhich is the expected behaviour: you should only see "the SOTA summits near the moving stations that send the âman/walkerâ symbol (summits shown as red âXâ)."
There would be no added value in duplicating https://www.sotamaps.org/ or https://sotl.as on APRS maps, which tend to be cluttered already.
What I am trying to do is do is to provide the SOTA community with a dedicated APRS âviewâ on SOTA related activities:
- spots and alerts (with the SOTA symbol)
- only SOTA summits near actually moving APRS stations sending the âman/walkerâ symbol (with the red âXâ symbol). This is continuously updated according to the APRS packets transmitted. The summits near stations that just send beacons without moving are not shown.
- APRS stations sending the âman/walkerâ symbol
https://www.aprsdirect.com/visiblesymbols/46:47,59:83,91:47
Also, from the summits information page like Sotadata3 , you now have direct links to the APRS mapping sites.
So when you see a spot on https://sotawatch.sota.org.uk/ , clicking on a summit reference sends you to the summit details, and from there, to an APRS map for this summit, which you can filter as described above.
From an activator point of view, only carrying an APRS tracker (radio or internet with an application like APRSdroid) during an activation is sufficient. It will not only show them on the APRS maps, but will also automatically show the nearest summit(s), and their alerts and spots when available.
At the same time, it will also make the other APRS users aware of the SOTA activities and the location of SOTA summits nearby, which is targeted marketing for SOTA
Thatâs really neat - I get it now. Well thought out!
I have been observing the APRS activity in the vicinity of SOTA summits for a few days now, and I am surprised by the number of amateurs who actually reach SOTA summits, sometimes after very long walks, but are not participating in SOTA.
I wonder how many of them will get interested and join after seeing there is a SOTA summit marker along their track.
Many people also pass close to summits that look âfeasibleâ. Hopefully some of them will also realize they have SOTA summits nearby and consider activating them.
Difficult to measure, but I am curious
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Examples today:
- 6 hours walking
- 8 points summit
- call-sign not participating in SOTA
or
SOTA activators who might not have known they were on a SOTA summit ?
2 Likes
Hello Martin, OE5REO. What you have done is great. Clicked on your link and saved it. Tell me me, how do I get rid of the advertising, including the âbuy me a coffeeâ. The frames cover some of the map when viewing them. 73 de Geoff vk3sq
This is really cool.
Question: Is there a way for me to consume these spots via RF, assuming I am in range of an iGate?
For example, say that I am sitting on a summit with no cell data service but good APRS coverage. Can I somehow request the APRS iGate to send me spots for SOTA activations that are going on? I am always on the lookout for S2S opportunities, and using APRS for this could be very useful.
Thanks,
-Josh WU7H