HamAlert and FT8 spotting

This thread is a continuation of sorts from @W7GJ’s query on a now-closed thread. In summary, can RBNHole do FT8 spotting?

The short answer right now is “no it doesn’t”, but for any chaser interested in making it work for them, there is an option. HamAlert (fantastic spot/push tool mentioned in other threads already, huge thank you as always to HB9DQM) now supports FT8 triggers via pskreporter. If you have an activator in mind to chase/spot, just go to HamAlert and add a trigger for FT8 on their call, and you can receive a personalized spot when they start calling CQ. For now it requires sneaker net to bridge between the HamAlert spot and posting a SOTAwatch spot, but if there’s enough interest perhaps we can persuade @VK3ARR to consider similar pskreporter integration on the development queue for RBNhole. Given all the challenges involved with FT8 activating vs CW, and therefore low activity, I suspect just having a few dedicated chasers with HamAlert triggers will suffice for a while.

If the alert is for “M1EYP/P”, the system will need to ignore the /P if detecting any FT8 activity and matching it with an alert.

Hi

RBN is already reporting FT8 calls since a few weeks ago.

Right now…

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73 de Pedro, CT1DBS/CU3HF

So I did have this running for a bit in an inert mode (ie, generate everything but the spot) but ran into a few issues:

  • PSKReporter has some ratelimiting in place meaning polling for updates can only happen every 5-10 minutes or so.
  • The volume of spots in 5-10 minutes is massive, although nothing a computer can’t handle
  • The volume of SOTA spots in that time is almost non-existent (but for some testing Ron VK3AFW did to help me).

I can revisit it (after a bunch of other more important things), but for now, low priority.

Ref:

Patches welcome :smiley:

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