HamChaser.com Alpha Testing

[ScottCurry]

HamChaser is finally ready for alpha testing!!!

HamChaser was developed for the purpose of providing storm chasers with the locations of skywarn repeaters. We hope this project will help you make better reports, and be able to report within the parameters of each skywarn net's rules.

HamChaser Map of Skywarn Repeaters and Weather Forecast Offices...
map.hamchaser.com

Randy Jennings, Daniel Shaw, Jordan Henion, and myself started working on this project last year. We put it on hold when chase season started. I planned to work on it further during the off season, but ended up dealing with a sink hole under my house that resulted in the loss of everything I own. I just started working on this project again in February, and it's finally ready for some limited alpha testing.

Right now, I am asking the Stormtrack community to test the HamChaser map located at map.hamchaser.com. The map displays the locations of skywarn repeaters and weather forecast offices.

The icons are color coded as such:

• Orange - Weather Forecast Office
• Blue - Linked Skywarn Repeater (connect to any repeater to be linked to the entire color coded system)
• Black - Individual Skywarn Repeater (typically calls are limited to a particular county, so ask before reporting).

There is still a lot of work to be done on the map, but I wanted to push this out to the community so that you could test it during this year's chase season.

Notes About The Map:

• Only Repeaters in Kansas and Oklahoma have been added so far.
• Repeaters were added over a year ago, so some information may have changed.
• Skywarn Net Rules have not yet been added. Please listen before reporting.
  
• All Weather Forecast Offices have been added.
• Spotter Phone Numbers for WFOs have not yet been added. Once added, they will only be visible to logged-in members with verified skywarn training.
• Public Phone Numbers for all WFOs have been added and are visible on the map.
• Click on any icon to view information about that WFO or Repeater.
• The map currently runs slowly on some devices / internet connections. We will fix the speed issues after this year's chase season ends.

What we are looking for during alpha testing:

• How does the map perform on your device?
• Is the location accurate when stationary?
• Is the location accurate when driving?
• Is the map so slow that it's unusable? (NOTE: a little slow to load we are aware of.)
• Are there any other issues with the map that you have noticed?
• When Reporting Issues:
  • Please Include Your Device Description (i.e. Samsung Galaxy S6, iPhone 6s, etc).
  • Please Include Your Internet Connection (i.e. 3G, 4G, WiFi at Home, WiFi at Hotel, etc).
  • Please Include How to re-create the issue (what were you doing when the issue occurred?).
  • Please Include What Issue You Experienced.
  • Please Include What You Expected to Happen.

Your help testing this project is greatly appreciated. Feel free to browse the site (www.hamchaser.com) to view some of the features we hope to add in the future. Our priorities for 2017 including finishing the map (including adding missing repeaters), and adding GRLevelX Placefiles. Other parts of the site will be worked on in 2018 and beyond. Thank you in advance for testing HamChaser and I hope you get some benefit from the map.

 

[Steve Miller]

Love the work you guys are doing! I'll give it a closer look regarding the alpha when I'm mobile. I did share it on Stormtrack social so hopefully this will help push even more users so you can get good field functionality feedback.
Nice work!

 

[Jeff Smith]

Great idea!! FYI I loaded the map on my phone(IPhone 7plus) and the location was locked on Dallas. Maybe that is a setting in my phone that I need to unlock. Also is the signup active for uploading chaser profiles? So many questions haha.


Sent from my iPhone using Stormtrack

 

[ScottCurry]

Great idea!! FYI I loaded the map on my phone(IPhone 7plus) and the location was locked on Dallas. Maybe that is a setting in my phone that I need to unlock. Also is the signup active for uploading chaser profiles? So many questions haha.

On your cell phone, if your Location settings are turned off, or if you did not share your location with the site, then your location will be based upon your IP address. With cell carriers, your IP could literally be anywhere in the world, or even in the middle of the ocean! Please let us know if your Location was turned on, and you shared your location with the site, and you are still seeing the wrong location.

The chaser profiles won't be ready until 2018. We are focusing on just the mapping and GR placefiles for 2017. And I just got word that Randy is working on CHIRP files also. So hopefully we'll have those ready to be downloaded soon too.

 

[Randy Jennings]

I sent Scott sample code for producing Gibson Ridge placefiles and CHIRP files tonight. Once he works his magic, those features should appear. I'm now turning my focus back to the database side of things.

This is where I need everyone's help. Getting quality data on repeaters used for Skywarn is hard and time consuming. Over the next few days (if I'm not chasing), I will try to push some new and updated repeater info to the database. If you see data that is wrong or missing and can provide it, please send me a message on Stormtrack. I am especially looking for people to take a given WFO and work to get me accurate info about that area. If you are willing to do that, please send me a message.

I have fairly good data I will be uploading over the next few days for FWD, AMA, LZK, SGF, DVN, MAF, and the Kansas offices (although all of this could use a second set of eyes). The Oklahoma repeaters where just pulled from the OK frequency coordinator website last year and this area needs lots of work. All the other WFOs still have not been researched yet.

By the way, the WFO office locations (orange icons) are not correct on the map. If we keep that, we will fix it.

 

[Jordan Henion]

This is where I need everyone's help. Getting quality data on repeaters used for Skywarn is hard and time consuming.

Hey Randy! As Scott is aware, I manually maintain a text-based repeater placefile for my SKYWARN group here in the Wichita CWA (and some surrounding areas): http://skywarn.henion.net/repeaters.txt .

I am so amazed at how far this project has come, and I thank everyone for their hard work on this! I apologize for dropping off the radar for so long; it appears as if my subscription to the previous development thread went stale and I lost contact with everyone.

Back in the beginning, I remember we discussed things like, what data should we consider valid, how do we update the listings with little to no effort required? The decision was made that we should start with static dataset to establish a proof of concept, then begin having discussions regarding the upkeep of data. I know the admin of repeaterbook.com (name escapes me) was in touch at some point and offered assistance. If that hasn't been discussed, it might be worth bringing it up again.

In Kansas, we primarily use the K-Link repeater network which contains 35, soon to be 37 repeaters, covering over 2/3's of the state. The admin of K-Link also happens to be the state coordinator for repeaterbook. Instead of maintaining a separate list of repeaters on a PHP page, he now uses a direct embed of repeaterbook's K-Link page. By using repeaterbook as a central database, it not only allows local repeater users to report outages without jumping through hoops, but the K-Link website always points to a live database containing the most updated information.

Thanks again!

 

[Jeff Smith]

On your cell phone, if your Location settings are turned off, or if you did not share your location with the site, then your location will be based upon your IP address. With cell carriers, your IP could literally be anywhere in the world, or even in the middle of the ocean! Please let us know if your Location was turned on, and you shared your location with the site, and you are still seeing the wrong location.

The chaser profiles won't be ready until 2018. We are focusing on just the mapping and GR placefiles for 2017. And I just got word that Randy is working on CHIRP files also. So hopefully we'll have those ready to be downloaded soon too.

Yes my location was on, and shared. I will look at it again tonight.

I sent Scott sample code for producing Gibson Ridge placefiles and CHIRP files tonight. Once he works his magic, those features should appear. I'm now turning my focus back to the database side of things.

This is where I need everyone's help. Getting quality data on repeaters used for Skywarn is hard and time consuming. Over the next few days (if I'm not chasing), I will try to push some new and updated repeater info to the database. If you see data that is wrong or missing and can provide it, please send me a message on Stormtrack. I am especially looking for people to take a given WFO and work to get me accurate info about that area. If you are willing to do that, please send me a message.

I have fairly good data I will be uploading over the next few days for FWD, AMA, LZK, SGF, DVN, MAF, and the Kansas offices (although all of this could use a second set of eyes). The Oklahoma repeaters where just pulled from the OK frequency coordinator website last year and this area needs lots of work. All the other WFOs still have not been researched yet.

By the way, the WFO office locations (orange icons) are not correct on the map. If we keep that, we will fix it.

Randy I will work with you on WFO-TUL and supporting Skywarn repeaters. Sh

 

[ScottCurry]

UPDATES!

Hi all! I've been working hard during the off-season to get more added to HamChaser.com. Here's what I got done:

1. Speed Improvements
2. Location Accuracy Improvements
3. WFO Office Locations changed to their physical location
4. CWA borders drawn (so you know which WFO to call in a report to)

Hopefully coming before the season starts:

1. GRLevelX files (dynamically generated; always with the latest repeater info)
2. Repeater Updates.

Concerning repeater updates: At this point, the database is 2 years old, so I need your help! Can you please provide any new or updated repeater information? Here's what I need for each repeater:

1. Call Sign
2. Frequency
3. Offset
4. Tone
5. Location, LAT
6. Location, LON
7. Location, City / County / State (optional; only if known)
8. Linked Repeater Group (optional; only if linked to other repeaters)
9. Website (optional; only if that repeater's Skywarn group has a website)
10. Comments (optional; typically we've been including where we got the information from [group, association, website, etc])

All repeater information needs to be in to me by March 15th at the latest (preferably by the end of February). No work will be done on the website once storm chasing season starts.

Thank you all again for you help. We have lots of fun things planned for the future, including a Storm Chaser Database to be built this year. We have to finish the map portion of the website first though, and we only have a few weeks left before storm chasing season starts.

 

[Drew Terril]

I think I was still OTR and not able to get on ST much when this came up originally. I gotta say that's some great work there. I wish I'd seen this last spring.

 

[ScottCurry]

GRLevel3 Place File TESTING TIME!!!

All,

Can you please go to https://www.hamchaser.com/skywarn/maps.php and download the place files, load them into GRLevel3, and let me know if they work?

Also, can you please let me know what additional details you would like for the Place Files?

Thank You!!!

 

[B. Dean Berry]

It works, indeed! Very well.