Spotting myself or others?

#1

How do I spot myself or other contacts on HAMRS windows version?

#2

HAMRS just displays the spots for you. To spot yourself or another ham, you need to visit the POTA.app web site, log in, and spot from their site.

The biggest advantage to having the spots in HAMRS is the ability to import a spot to your log.

For what it’s worth, based on comments relative to a software package released by another developer, the POTA program leadership discourages completely duplicating the POTA.app spotting functionality into a stand-alone software package.

1 Like
#3

Self-Spotting using email/Winlink…

POTA spotting actions can be submitted by sending an email (Winlink/other) to POTAGW@outlook.com with all commands being sent in the subject line only. The body of emails will be ignored.

The following commands are currently supported:

#Self-Spot

SPOT [ActivatorCall] [ParkReference] [FreqInKhz] [Mode] [Comment]

#Example: SPOT W4PI K-TEST 14321 SSB This is a comment

#View Active Spots

VIEWSPOTS #An email reply will be sent with a list of active spots.

73,

Marc - VA3BLV

"VA3-Believe"

#4

There is another option to self-spotting: https://SOTAmat.com.
It has a number of commands beyond spotting, and it receives those commands via several paths:

  • Send commands via HF radio (with an iPhone or Android) when there is no internet/cell service and no satellite service:

→ self-spot
→ send SMS messages

  • Execute commands via SMS <–> SMS, or eMail <–> eMail, or Garmin inReach-eMail <–> Garmin-inReach-API

→ Post a spot (with many options)
→ get list of recent spots (for P2P)
→ get POTA info on a Callsign
→ get POTA info on a Park
→ get Weather for a Park
→ …and more.

Note that Garmin inReach has a policy of not supporting SMS to non-physical phones (“virtual” phone numbers like automated systems). Many virtual numbers work, but Garmin’s provider randomly blocks them. To avoid this issue SOTAMĀT uses inReach eMail for the inReach-to-SOTAMĀT direction and a Garmin inReach API for the response direction (so that SMS is not used and thus not blocked).

If you have questions or find a bug, I’m happy to help.