There’s a small update to the Range page in the SOTA Mapping Project, to include a new “Measure” tool to measure distances between various reference points. Points can be SOTA summits, address/city/feature, lat-long pairs, locator, or any combination of these. If the “Measure” control doesn’t appear on the map, just refresh the page to load the new features. Hope this will be useful to someone out there,
73 Rob DM1CM
In reply to DM1CM:
Hi all and HNY 2013,
just to say that the small update is a very good tool, thanks to all who are working to improve the SOTA programme.
Best 73 and good SOTA activations.
CT1DRB
David Quental
In reply to DM1CM:
Hello Rob,
really a great tool to calculate the distance between summit to summit contacts.
I just played a little bit with this new feature and tried to calculate the distance for two recent S2S contacts:
DL/MF-071 and DL/MF-079 displays 5427.893 kilometers
OE/TI-358 and EA8/LA-004 gives 5362.389 kilometers
While the second calculation seems to be correct, the first result should be not in kilometers but in meters.
Hope this information helps.
Many thanks for providing this helpful mapping tool.
1st Update: Just calculated the distance for the second S2S with the built-in distance-measurement tool of google maps and this gives me about 3100 kilometers.
2nd Update: I tried again at 22:15UTC and now the calculations seems to be
reasonable:
DL/MF-071 and DL/MF-079 displays 2.787 kilometers
OE/TI-358 and EA8/LA-004 gives 3032.989 kilometers
Again, thank you very much for this nice tool.
73 Stephan, DM1LE
In reply to DM1LE:
Thanks Stephan for the feedback. I’ve located the error and this should now be working OK.
73 Rob DM1CM
Another small update - a new tool to generate KML or GPX files from the SOTA / mapping data. Refresh the “Main” page in the SOTA Mapping Project, and a “Tools” control should appear at the top of the map. Click and play!
Rob DM1CM
In reply to DM1CM:
Rob,
Very nice tool and thank you! I just tested it for a Region in which I activated 3 summits back in September and it works extremely well.
Am I correct in that the KML file is generated for ALL of the summits in a Region? The individual summit pull down menu seems to be “grayed” out.
Thanks again for an excellent job.
73,
BILL
W4RK
In reply to DM1CM:
Rob,
Very nice tool and thank you! I just tested it for a Region in which I activated 3 summits back in September and it works extremely well.
Am I correct in that the KML file is generated for ALL of the summits in a Region? The individual summit pull down menu seems to be “grayed” out.
Thanks again for an excellent job.
73,
BILL
W4RK
In reply to W4RK:
Bill,
I left the summit dropdown disabled because I didn’t think anyone would want a GPX or KML file with just one summit. However, I’ve now enabled it for those who might wish to do so.
Also now included is the ability to download KML data either as a direct file download, or as a Network Link. The latter allows the user to have the data streamed from the web into Google Earth, and to be refreshed from within Google Earth - in that way, the data can be kept as up-to-date as the original data sources themselves.
73 Rob DM1CM
In reply to DM1CM:
Rob, Thanks once again! This tool keeps getting better and better.
73, BILL, W4RK
Actually, a number of small updates:
In the Main page, there is a new Search function to search for summits worldwide by name - wildcards can be used here. Look for the “Search…” button 
In the Range page, summits found within xxx kilometers/miles now listed in the LH Tools Bar - click on an entry to jump to that summit.
Tables in the LH Toolbars in those two pages are now sortable, on Summit Code, Summit Name, distance, points, etc.: just click on a table header to re-sort.
Improved look and feel of Infoboxes and tooltips all round.
HTH, Rob DM1CM
In reply to DM1CM:
Hi Rob,
tks a lot for your updates, they are really well done, my congratulations.
CT1DRB
David Quental
In reply to CT1DRB:
Yes, to add to David’s comment - thank you Rob for your efforts on the mapping project. Like Roy’s (SOTA News Editor)intray at the end of the month mine has been overflowing for the last month. As soon as I can get on top of it though this month, I’ll be uploading some more of my GPX tracks into the mapping database.
I’m planning a trip to S5 Slovenia next summer at the moment for my walking group and a few SOTA pals. Using the range function in SOTA Mapping makes it really easy to establish where we ought to go.
73 Phil G4OBK
A couple of updates:
HNY and 73, Rob DM1CM
PS - you may need to hit the Refresh button to load the new features. In extreme cases, try +…
In reply to DM1CM:
I saw this a few days back when testing with Rob. It was something I had wanted to do for ages but never had the time. I think it’s wonderful to see where your QSO partners are on the map.
As Rob says, this is test data, I think it’s Sep 2013 to mid-December 2013 and it doesn’t include S2S contacts.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
Actually there are quite a few S2S QSOs in the activations data: as you’ve hinted, the data are from real SOTA activations from September to mid-December 2013 for evaluation/burn-in purposes…
Rob
In reply to DM1CM:
- new “activations” test-page, using real data from September to
mid-December 2013 only as test data;
All improvements are appreciated, but this one is lovely! Just for curiosity: Where do you get the chasers’ locator from, qrz.com?
BTW: I really should upload a few more tracks.
73 de Michael, DB7MM
I just tried the activations test page, it looks very good 
The chaser data is from QRZ.com. I can tell as some chasers don’t have their Grid Square details entered in QRZ.com, they appear on the map as the default location for VK, which is right in the centre of Australia near Alice Springs… Otherwise map data looks accurate, even shows the odd S2S.
73 Ian VK1DI
In reply to MM0FMF:
Registered twice last night & received a message to verify had been sent to my email address - nothing received.
Could it be a browser problem, I was on my kindle fire hdx using silk browser. I have noticed the drop down menus on the database dont drop down on this setup so I cant enter activations when away from home.
In reply to G1INK:
Hi Steve, I also registered twice last night as the first didn’t work correctly. Second time I made sure everything was the same case and it worked fine. My error was my callsign, I registered with 2m0ncm but the system only seems to work uppercase.
Hope that helps some of your query - not got a Kindle. 
HNY 73 Neil 2M0NCM
In reply to 2M0NCM:
Hi Neil thanks for the reply, when I entered my callsign it defaulted to upper case, I couldn`t change it if I wanted to.
HNY, counting down to my next GM trip.