Two new additions to SOTAmat recently:
2023-07-17 – Partial Support for new Bullitt Satellite Communicator
The Bullitt Satellite Messenger device and app allow users to send SOTAmat commands via SMS. However, this device does not allow replies from SOTAmat and only allows replies via a dedicated cell phone application (humans only!). Even so, the most important commands to self-spot or self-alert do work and have been validated in the USA, but I have not tested Bullitt outside the USA. If you are outside the USA and have one of these new devices, please contact me to support testing.
NOTE: because this device works differently from the Garmin and Zoleo systems, you must use the “login” command. See the page 2-way commands for details.
2023-07-11 – 2-way Command “SotaPostAlert” gains new time options
The original version of the SotaPostAlert 2-way command required a Date and Time parameter for the expected time the activator would be on-peak, measured in UTC (Zulu) time. Having to compute the future UTC time rather than local time was cumbersome to compute at 13,000 feet when oxygen to the brain is low. The original version still works, but there are two new options that have been added to make specifying a time easier:
-
now– indicates the alert should be posted 5 minutes into the future. Thus you don’t need to compute UTC. -
+<hours>– indicates that the alert should target the specified number of hours into the future from now. So+0.5means a half-hour from now, and+48means two days from now.
-Brian AB6D