Chat for if SOTAwatch is offline

Due to a problem with users who were invisible as far as SKYPE was concerned I had to kill the previous system. I have now set up a new one but I can only add those I know who were in my Skype directory. If you wish to join, but solely for the purpose of spotting if SOTAwatch is off line then e-mail me with your Skype id at the address in the previous post ( I am also getting spammed).

Roger G4OWG

In reply to G4OWG:

For some reason I can’t get these links to work. The Skype web site tells me I am logged in but I can’t access the chats :o(
Is it possible to do an invite?

Steve GW7AAV

I’m wondering why barely anyone uses the IRC #sota channel.

73 Norby

In reply to GW7AAV:
Hi Steve you are on the list of red/write users for the chat.
The link should take you into your browser which should then launch Skype chat. There is no invite in the public chat system.
Try this http://tinyurl.com/2woja7
Roger G4OWG

In reply to 2E0HJD:

Just a matter of font size on which you decide yourself. I have all freedom with Miranda. I don’t consider IRC to be old-fashioned, Skype does not add more on this level, just more gimmicks which you don’t need to pass on some information.

73 Norby

In reply to LX1NO:
Hi Norby

I think the problem is that an IRC client is required. People who are not quite as comfortable with PCs prefer a browser interface.

73 John GW4BVE

In reply to G4OWG:

Cheers Roger, I can’t think why that one worked and the other one didn’t but the link opened in the same page on the Skype web site and Skype opened with it this time.

Regards Steve GW7AAV

In reply to GW7AAV:
No worries Steve I have had problems with long URL’s in the past. Tinyurl is just a way of making them shorter. Best to bookmark the full one though :slight_smile: when tiny expands it.

Roger G4OWG

In reply to 2E0HJD:

You are using the wrong IRC client, there are lots of pretty ones. IRC takes up less space on my desktop and the Spots come through quicker than on SOTAwatch. At times I see a spot on IRC and work the station before I hear webmon go off and it can be another minute before it appears on SOTAwatch by then the station has moved frequency;0)

In reply to G4OWG:

In reply to GW7AAV:
No worries Steve I have had problems with long URL’s in the past.
Tinyurl is just a way of making them shorter. Best to bookmark the
full one though :slight_smile: when tiny expands it.

I don’t think it was a problem with the long URL, because the Skype website said I had joined, but the Skype chat never started up. Don’t know why it worked with the Tinyurl but it worked and that is all I am bothered with for now. I just need to find out how to get it to work on the PDA as the link does nothing on the PDA apart from crash Internet Exploder, maybe the Tinyurl will work here too. I use the PDA for Skype because I can pick it up and use it like a wireless telephone, so at the moment I have one account for chat only on the PC and another for mainly voice on the PDA. It is a bit of a pain but typing on the PC is easier and I use the mic input on the PC for another piece of equipment. Nothing is simple in my world.

Steve GW7AAV

In reply to 2E0HJD:

Good point Mick I think too many chasers are relying on the SPOTs and not enough are tuning and listening or for that matter spotting. Unfortunatly there are only so many frequencies most of us can monitor. I personally listen on 145.500, 144.300, 433.500 and 5.3985 90% of the time. If people have alerted for other frequencies then I will be tuning around the alerted frequencies at the alerted times. The SPOTs come in to play when things get busy with lots of activators on different frequencies and without them lots of stations would struggle for contacts. Webmon is handy for when I can’t be in the shack all day but there are a few activations I want to catch (that would be all of them), but I never use it as anything but a back up.
Case in point today was Fritz DL4FDM he had been well spotted on CW but I caught his CQ on 40m SSB because I was listening for him and he managed to appear on his alerted frequency. If there had been 5mHz alerts I may well have been listening there instead and missed him. After I posted the spot there was about a three or four minute gap and then the pile up started. Some activators seem a little impaitent these days too and they need to be aware that it can take a while for the SPOT to be affective and for people to get into the shack and tune up etc.

Steve GW7AAV on the soapbox

In reply to LX1NO:
Hi Norby
I prefer IRC but I seem to be the only one left on the SOTA one - apart from sotawatch. So not much conversation.
I suspect that SKYPE chat is built around IRC protocol at its transport level :slight_smile:

Roger G4OWG

In reply to G4OWG:

I’m mostly on IRC at home since it’s more convenient than SOTAWatch by itself. I have all my channels (ICQ, Yahoo, IRCs) within one single application with a very small footprint. I don’t see any better solution.
Skype is too much blown up for what I would need it and too much vulnerable.
I prefer things to be simple and easy. My choice.

73 Norby