SOTA Spotter for Android - now with spotting via SMS

Hello everyone,

SOTA Spotter for Android has reached version 0.5.68. Besides some minor bugs fixed, it now includes the possibility of spotting via SMS gateways. At the moment, the only gateway included is EA SpotSMS - thanks to EA2CQ - but more will be added in the future.

You can get it on Google Play, at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ro.netroute.sotaspotter

I hope you enjoy it!
73, Bogdan YO8SAW

2 Likes

Good Job !

Wonderful software. Thank you !

73 cq

Thanks Iñigo!

This one got a mention elsewhere so I installed it on my Nexus 5 (which was hit with an update to Android 5.1.1 last night) to see whether it was useful.

I couldn’t get the filter definition to work. The sliding switches responded as expected, but I coulldn’t select any bands or modes using any of the obvious (to me) gestures. I’ve heard others report the opposite problem (they can select bands and modes but can’t make the slide switches move) so there’s obviously a problem there somewhere, possibly (I guess) related to touch-screen geometries and such…

It needs a complete list of the SMS gateways, too (but you know that).

At present it looks very promising, but it isn’t yet something I can use for much. Hopefully it’ll get better.

73, Rick M0LEP

I wonder if this is only happening on my phone, but if I set the parameter “Background sync” in settings and select the value 1 minute in the next field (Sync interval), exiting the app does not close it - it keeps running. There is no “exit” option in the app’s menus. I find it a little confusing that the text under Background sync says “Prevent automatic spot retrieval”, I would have thought it should say “Enable automatic spot retrieval”?

Even TURNING OFF the phone and turning it on again does not stop SotaSpotter from running!

Apart from this some what annoying “feature” when I want to silence the app, I find it one of the best apps for displaying spots when on a summit as the contrast is very good.

Ed.

Hi Bogdan,
My Sota Spotter is working very well and easy to see in strong light. Very reliable although I too have had a bit of bother at times in switching it off.

Think a “close app” button would come in handy.

Cheers, Nick

Hi Bogdan,
Something else - at the moment the available SMS gateways for sending a spot are only the Hungarian and Spanish ones, aree there any plans to add the UK, Australian and US gateways in the future?

Ed.

+1 for adding other gateways, particularly the NA gateway would be useful to me. I just loaded your app this morning and it looks very useful to me. Thanks.
73,
Malcolm