When internet service is available on the summit, I typically use the website SOTAWatch3 to check for potential s2s contacts. Recently I have experienced some problems on three different summits with spotty service. Although the phone indicates that 5G service is available, apparently the signal strength or bandwidth is not sufficient for receiving SOTAWatch3 updates. The page is either slow to refresh or very intermittent. While the clock seems to show the correct time, the spots listed on SOTAWatch3 are not current. When I return home and review the SOTAWatch page, there are a number of spots for potential s2s contacts that I never saw while on the summit.
Would a smartphone app be a better method for checking for spots while on the summit, and is there one available for android phones?
Hi,
I use SOTA Spotter, available on Android. It presents a ālean pageā so no āwhatās new on the reflectorā .
The filtering took a bit of head scratching, but works.
Also Vkportalog shows spots which can then be transferred onto the logging page but I find it sometimes lags what shows on SOTA spotter.
If the cell service RF signal is not strong enough, or is suffering from reflections/multipath/fading then changing the app is not really going to improve things much. You have to be able to reliably send and receive data from the mobile handset to the cell tower or it wont work.
When I set up at the summit, I first look at SOTA Goat. Sometimes the connection is bad and it doesnāt work. Then Iāll try sotawatchā¦
If the connection is good, I also do tests with the RBN every now and then to check my range on different bands so that I know whether itās worth calling CQ for longer.
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