What is this?

This is a gateway between www.sotawatch.org and the mobile phone network. With help of it you can send spots in SMS to the SOTAwatch website.

How to use it?

Send your SMS to the +36 30 346 4139 phone number using your SOTAwatch username and password.
This is a Hungarian mobile number, so it is international SMS from outside Hungary. Please, check the costs!

SMS Example (full version) #1:

HG4UK pw HA5CQZ/P HA/EM-001 145525 FM op Zoli

HG4UK spots HA5CQZ/P (using "HG4UK" SOTAwatch registered callsign and "pw" password; the same as you use to post a spot), that HA5CQZ/P is on HA/EM-001 SOTA summit and uses 145.525 MHz in FM. Comment "op Zoli"

SMS Example (short version with self-spot) #2:

HG4UK pw * HA/KM-016 7032 vy QRM

HG4UK spots himself using his SOTAwatch registered callsign and "pw" password. He's on HA/KM-016 SOTA summit and uses 7.032 MHz in CW. Comment "vy QRM"

Hints:

• The frequency must be sent in kHz units without decimals.
• The transmitting mode is optional, the gateway can substitute it using the IARU Region 1 band plan.
• The gateway doesn't send any SMS answer. You can get a copy of your sent SMS if you register your email address. To use this feature simply send an email to spotgateway@gmail.com with your callsign and email address.
• Only the syntax is checked by the parser. If the format of the SMS isn't correct it is silently ignored.
• Capitalisation doesn't matter, both lower and upper case goes (except for the login, password and comment)

SpotSMS Gateway

+36 30 346 4139

What is this?

SpotAPRS scans European and US APRS traffic to filter spots. It parses the information (comment) field.

How to use it?

The examples show the structure that is recognized by the parser.

Example:

sota OK/KA-004 7032 cq

The sender of the packet self-spots himself/herself on OK/KA-004 SOTA summit, calling on 7.032 kHz in CW (default mode for this frequency). Comment "cq".

HA5CQZ sota OK/KA-004 14285 ssb weak

The sender of the packet spots HA5CQZ on OK/KA-004 SOTA summit, calling on 14.285 kHz in SSB. Comment "weak".

sota OK/KA-004 7032 cq %ABCDE

The same self-spot as above but a spot-code is also provided. If the spot-code is valid then the spot is sent to SOTAwatch. The spot-code must be always the last word of the field.

Spot-code is an (almost) one-time password that is generated for the APRS originator and it is valid for roughly 4 hours.

The workflow looks like as follows

1. Get your spot-pin by sending a mail to spotgateway@gmail.com. This has to be done only once.
2. Before your activation generate your spot-code
3. Set up your APRS packets accordingly (append spot-code) and within the defined time frame your spots will be forwarded to SOTAwatch.
4. Others can't use your spot-code, unless they set up their APRS using your callsign (but this can happen sadly on CW too).

Hints:

• APRS is not a secure network, passwords shall not be sent unencrypted. This is the reason to use the one-time spot-code.
• The spots are not automatically passed to SOTAwatch, unless a valid spot-code is present.

SpotAPRS Gateway