Can anyone advise if there is a way of sharing a short cut to the SOTAmaps page for a region e.g. to link direct to the view of G/SE?
I know you can link to a specific summit page (like SOTA Summits) but I would like to point to the region map directly.
Any clues?
Michael (G0POT)
The link you are looking for is shown by your browser (or should) on the page that gave. Follow your own link and then hover the mouse cursor over the SOTA Map link. It will show the link as Main - list and display SOTA summits on map - sotamaps.org somewhere on the screen.
It’s left as an exercise for the reader to decode how the link works and what to change for other summits.
I would advise you are careful when grabbing the links. Should the format ever change (it has twice so far IIRC) then your links wont work. As long as you remember they could change you’ll be OK.
Hi Michael,
Try this page in SOTAMaps: https://www.sotamaps.org/overview.php which presents an overview of the structure of the SMP. Under the “Main page” heading at the top of the overview page, some examples are given of how to call the main mapping page to load a particular association, or region , or group of regions, or individual summit.
I thought I’d put these hints also in the main page Help, but I’ve apparently overlooked that - I must change this…
As far as changes in the format of SOTAMaps links are concerned, this is a common problem (feature!) in the internet, and is not something peculiar to the SMP. It’s worth noting that even the SOTA summits pages links themselves have changed in the past.
And… I’ve left other clues pointing to the overall structure of the SOTAMaps site, all cleverly hidden in what I like to call “the menu” at the top of each of the pages in the site 
HTH, Rob
Thanks Rob, that’s brilliant…didn’t realise there was a cheeky guide available.
The regional view is one of the only ones where you can’t easily see the link format which is why I couldn’t derive it easily (without performing ip traces). I have it working now so many thanks.
Michael (G0POT)
Glad you find that useful Michael. Actually, in the normal use of the program, you would not see the kinds of links as presented in the overview page examples. Those syntax examples are only valid for loading the page at start-up with a required assoc, region, etc., if that is required by the user.
The bulk of the work of the program is performed via AJAX calls in the background, so the URL in the browser URL/address field does not change when a user calls up various associations, regions, or summits while working in the page. In other words, the page itself is not reloaded when performing such tasks, only the respective fields or tables or views within the page are refreshed, thus saving on bandwidth and traffic.
The same goes for all the mapping pages in the SMP.
Rob
I really appreciate this tip. I am uploading gps tracks to the SOTA mapping project routinely for VE6 peaks, and I am also adding access information (winter and summer), cell coverage and such information in the Tracks module.
I discovered that people were not finding this information because they were only looking in the “Extra Info” of the Summit Report. So I started adding a link to the Mapping project Tracks page, but just the first page without the peak identification info because I didn’t know how to do it.
Now I can make the link go right to the specific summit on the tracks page.
Thanks!
Ian VE6IXD