I really appreciate the work you’re doing here - APRS and SOTA seem a good match that’s underused. Checking SOTA on the APRSdirect filter doesn’t 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.
…which is the expected behaviour: you should only see "the SOTA summits near the moving stations that send the “man/walker” symbol (summits shown as red “X”)."
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 “view” on SOTA related activities:
- spots and alerts (with the SOTA symbol)
- only SOTA summits near actually moving APRS stations sending the “man/walker” symbol (with the red “X” 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 “man/walker” 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 
That’s 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 “feasible”. 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 ?
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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 “buy me a coffee”. 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
As far as I know, this is not possible, but I would be happy to learn how to do it if it is.
If you are regsitered for my APRS2SOTA service you can request the last few spots or alerts using an APRS enabled App or Radio.
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I am registered for it, and I had no idea it could do that!
Very VERY nice! Thank you Stewart. Can’t wait to try this on a summit.
-Josh WU7H
I love this functionality - so cool! When I arrived on my summit yesterday, I got a message from DL0QW welcoming me to the summit and wishing me GL on the activation 
I used the APRS2SOTA “\spots” command to get the active spots - worked great!
Ended up getting an S2S with JP1QEC/1 on JA/GM-036! Thanks Akira @JP1QEC !
Thanks @ON6ZQ and @G0LGS for creating these awesome SOTA APRS services. 
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Hello Christophe,
There are summits marked without an planned activation.
Is that intentional or a bug?
From my point of view highlighting the summit only makes sense when there is an activation planned?
Or did I miss a part of the discussion?
73 Joe
Hi Joe,
Please have a look at ON6ZQ | SOTA2APRS where I try to explain.
SOTA2APRS is purely experimental, and is meant to make the SOTA related activities known to a larger public, while helping chasers to follow the activators and the activators to be chased and assisted if necessary.
As you can see on the real-time list shown on that page, many radioamateurs walk with an APRS capable device to SOTA summits but do not participate in SOTA. Many others just pass near to summits without realizing they are valid SOTA summits.
By showing the summits markers near moving APRS stations, we make people likely to be interested in SOTA aware of the location of the nearby SOTA summits. It is targeted marketing for SOTA.
I already received several direct emails asking for details about the scheme, so it seems to works…
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Okay thanks. I did not see any “walker” symbol so that’s why I was asking.
All good
It seems not all APRS clients get/store all the APRS messages: I regularly observe missing symbols on one of the sites (not always the same) when using the links to two major web clients referenced from my page above.
Hi Christophe,
How close to a SOTA summit must a random station be to trigger a report on APRS?
Heinz
Currently around 10 km.
Seems a long way away! Some summit clusters are pretty dense.
It shows the summits within a 10 km range of a moving APRS station as a red star on the map.
After some trial and error, this looked like a reasonable range to show the summits near the tracks of mobile stations. Remember the main goal is to increase awareness of the SOTA summits location with people who do not know about SOTA, or who do not know a nearby summit is a valid SOTA one.
Please watch ON6ZQ | SOTA2APRS for some time before suggesting other values…
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