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- Weather and Chasing
- Storm spotters
More reasons to be mad at the Spotter Network
- Thread starter Tyler Allison
- Start date
john.sibley
EF2
There is no reason to be mad at SN. That is a good move Tyler.
Tyler Allison
EF5
You never know what one will get flamed over. I tend to always where my asbestos shorts.
Bart_Comstock
EF5
I was told to pass this along to you Tyler...
The Internet said:
In all seriousness I think this is a good move, especially with how many people have joined SN over the last couple of years. Plus it is nice to sometimes put a face to the person posting reports. It is a bit hard for me to take a post seriously when it is by "Noodlechaser24" as appose to "Jon Doe" and I am sure the same is felt by those who are responsible for issuing warnings. This should also help cut down on fake reports since it will be less anonymous. I'm honestly surprised that we don't have to do some sort of name verification to sign up on SN now.Jason Foster
Yeah...I'm mad as hell and not going to take it anymore......
I think I'm already set-up that way, or will be. I've always like the idea of using real names...as I have said so here regarding ST. Good move Tyler.
+1, this is a solid move and so far I can say I have been very happy with the changes to better the info that comes into and out of SN.
Thanks Tyler!
Ric Burney
EF3
"I'm Roy D. Mercer and I'm mad as h... " oh, actually this is a good thing.. carry on.
Shawn Gossman
SupporterI think its a good call and makes SN more professional. You will get no gripe out of me
Tim Shriver
EF4
"More reasons to be mad at the Spotter Network"
Who's mad?
Tim
Danny Neal
EF5
http://stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=23282 - Ohhh I dunno.....
Yeah, Tim. Move along now; there's nothing to see here.Joe Dorn
EF2
Tyler...
Would it be possible to either/or the amateur radio call sign into the mix. There are two storm chasing Steve Miller's but only one WX5RFD...
The NWS also relates to the call signs since that is tagged on every Radio/EchoLink report.
I assume i will still be able to display the ham calls off of the APRS Allisonhouse feeds...
I did a mouse-over on the few SN displays at 4:00am and did not see the amateur radio calls in any of them but at this time of day most of the hams are probably asleep.
Tyler Allison
EF5
Yup. I'm going to be adding the ham callsign option tonight.
You'll be able to display it in the tip box _or_ use your callsign as your "display" name. We consider ham callsign equivalent to your real name for identification purposes.
Another reason to go get your license
-Tyler
Tim Shriver
EF4
Except those that are not hams. The NWS recognized our tatical
call signs as well. MidWest 122 is mine.
So. This will now be limited to hams only?
Looks optional right?
Thanks,
TimLast edited by a moderator:
Tim Shriver
EF4
Andrew Herron
EF3
I've never really bothered with SpotterNetwork, and probably never will. You know, there's a service out there that can do just this sort of thing that a lot of areas are now implementing: APRS + Skywarn.
I'd rather help build up a system that is directly affiliated with the NWS than use one that imposes their own rules, for good or bad, that I might eventually complain about.Zach Borst
EF0
You may want to look at the board of directors and advisory committees for Spotternetwork, there is a lot of NWS affiliation, not to mention SN is fully integrated into many NWS offices. APRS is ham radio, so your suggesting that every spotter needs to be a HAM? It's not all that difficult to get a license but the trend nationally is that it's disappearing. I wouldn't be all that surprised to see public safety start to take some bandwidth back from amateur unless something drastic happens where people get interested in ham again. I have my ticket and rarely if ever use it because there are just so many other ways to communicate now that are reliable and quick, IP communications being the most obvious one.Last edited by a moderator:
Tyler Allison
EF5
In the reworking of SKYWARN 2.0 (currently in development), Spotter Network is the only third party organization actively involved. Can't get more "affiliated" then that. We will also be listed as an "official" reporting method.
At least at the moment
Tyler Allison
EF5
Actually the _NWS_ does not recognize your tactical call sign. Your local office does. If you call the Alaska NWS office and say "MidWest 122 here" will they say "Hold on a second [click, click, click] Oh..Tim from Wisconsin. Yeah...what you got?".
Correct me if I'm wrong though!...but in doing so...please point me to the NWS run public database/website where I can type in "MidWest 122" and it spits back Tim Shriver. Think nationally please. We can't, and shouldn't, be supporting 122 custom solutions.
We allow the use of ham callsign because the FCC has a national standard and an open database like I describe above. You can quickly and easily identify the person. In fact I can pull full contact information directly from the FCC database as a synchronization. Wouldn't that be awesome for NWS spotters?!?
What? Displaying a ham callsign? Yes, it will be limited to hams. Not sure what you are asking. Only hams can have an officially recognized amateur radio call sign. Therefor the "amateur radio callsign" field is limited to those that have one.
Having a ham callsign is always optional.
-Tyler
Tim Shriver
EF4
Actually the _NWS_ does not recognize your tactical call sign. Your local office does. If you call the Alaska NWS office and say "MidWest 122 here" will they say "Hold on a second [click, click, click] Oh..Tim from Wisconsin. Yeah...what you got?".
Correct me if I'm wrong though!...but in doing so...please point me to the NWS run public database/website where I can type in "MidWest 122" and it spits back Tim Shriver. Think nationally please. We can't, and shouldn't, be supporting 122 custom solutions.
You know what I meant, you really think I am that dumb?
Tim
TimLast edited by a moderator:Joe Dorn
EF2
Several comments related to this thread...
Many WFO's have little need for the services spotters deliver on a regular basis and probably make a decision about the use of SN based on that; it is hard to keep a spotter group active if they only get to make a report once every four or five years.
FTW uses it extensively...
Also some WFO's find EchoLink a very valuable tool; others chose to use the less direct telephone system.
FTW prefers Echolink to telephones for the boonies out of range of the DFW repeaters.
As far as SN and chat rooms go, I monitor three chat rooms (FTW, EWX, and SJT) and and seldom see SN referenced except to pass along a report from it. There is reference to the spotter locations and video streaming on occasion.
BTW, one of my pet peeves is video streaming without a position location, either APRS or SN.
Some one made reference to decreasing numbers of amateur radio operators; last year had the biggest increase in number of new hams in recent history. If you care for the numbers you can probably find the article on the ARRL web site... It appeared in one of the Recent QSTs...
I could fill up several Technician classes if I chose to come out of teaching retirement. I limit my classes to twenty when I teach them; so far the eight session classes have had no dropouts and no failures... Yes, I am proud of that.. (over a hundred students).
Tyler Allison
EF5
No I don't think you are that dumb. But I think you should be supporting the push for a national system so you _can_ use MidWest 122 and people will know who you are. It can be done, people just haven't tried hard enough....until now.
All I can say is *finally* a national system! Something I've been talking about for years and get asked about constantly... Now getting closer and closer to reality.
Tyler Allison
EF5
Joe. I just updated the SN contact page for Hams...give it a try and let me know if you find any bugs. It validates your first/last name against the FCC database.
-TylerJoe Dorn
EF2
Tyler...
I might not understand what you mean by 'Contact Page'. I bounced around on the SN site and could see no difference in the displays.
The Icons on GRLx shows just names and no calls... I will play around a little more in the morning; the old man's eyes have had a busy day and need to close down for awhile...Similar threads
