Spotter Network Technical Support, What Goes ?

[David Hodges]

Has anyone out there had issues with Stormspotternetwork.org ? It was a very helpful app in the field together with Radar Scope and Chaser Location.
I was a member of Spotter Network for a few years now and had nothing but praise for the way it has helped the spotter community . Now not so much. I used the them while out in the field on my Moto G Phone and I decided recently to upgrade to a Moto G4 which I did. Ever since then when I get on radar scope it tells me that I don't have reporting privileges and therefore am blocked. The attached messages pop up. When I sent a e mail to technical support at the spotternetwork.org it got bounced back to me '' undeliverable'' . When I looked into the spotter network contact info they give a address for Weather Decision Technologies. I sent an e mail to WDT about the trouble I was having but I got an e mail back from them saying they don't have anything to do with Spotternetwork.org but suggested I access their forum to attempt to troubleshoot the problem.
When I contacted their forum it recognized my e mail address but not my password. The forum page said to enter my e mail address and a reset pass code is on the way. It never came. I than called OUN and asked them if they had a contact person to Spotternetwork but the person on the phone told me they never heard of the organization and can't help me.
Does anyone know of a contact person from spotter network who can contact me to troubleshoot this problem. ? I been attempting to establish contact with someone in their organization for two weeks now without success.

 

[Jeff Duda]

I can't personally help you with this issue, but my impression of SpotterNetwork is that it is slowly deprecating. It seems like it's not supported anymore and it is probably only a matter of time before it falls completely out of use. There are many other means of sending reports nowadays.

 

[rdale]

Are you trying to login here first to see your account info?

http://www.spotternetwork.org/login

Is this the forum you're trying to access for support?

http://www.stormhunter.org/

SpotterNetwork continues to roll along and gather steam with more NWS offices integrating it right into their warning ops. If you're having troubles, the first stop is to check your account info at the website.

 

[Randy Jennings]

my impression of SpotterNetwork is that it is slowly deprecating

Given RadarScope's recent addition of the ability to make SpotterNetwork reports from within there app, I would think that more reports would be made. I know I made more SN reports this season than last. Now NWS using them is a different subject all together. I know at least some offices have it integrated into NWS Chat, but I don't know if that is universally true.

 

[rdale]

I think there still may be a few holdout WFOs, but it's pretty widespread now. And you're right - RS integration did make it phenomenally easier.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Definitely reach out to John Wetter if you can't get a resolution. Typically try logging into the webpage and make sure your credentials are in fact correct. I had my account say that on RS, and I re-logged in and had no troubles. Make sure your radarscope is up to date as well.

As far as SN becoming deprecated, I doubt it unless the NWS makes something similar an official part of operations. Where else can you submit a report that's already formatted for AWIPS and contains GPS coordinates? I don't know of any.

 

[David Hodges]

Thanks everyone for your reply to my post. No, the trouble is not at my end. It is a technical fix that must be initiated by a member of the Spotter Net Work technical staff in order for it to be corrected but as of this date I still have not been able to get in touch with any of their staff. Three weeks and counting....

 

[rdale]

David - I'm not sure I follow what you're trying to say. I don't see anywhere to indicate that you've attempted to login to the Spotternetwork.org website directly. Could you do that and let us know what happened?

I've also pointed you to the Spotternetwork support forum - have you posted anything there?

 

[David Hodges]

David - I'm not sure I follow what you're trying to say. I don't see anywhere to indicate that you've attempted to login to the Spotternetwork.org website directly. Could you do that and let us know what happened?

I've also pointed you to the Spotternetwork support forum - have you posted anything there?[/QUOT

 

[David Hodges]

Thanks for getting back to me. Apparently the site is not recognizing me anymore ever since I got my new Samsung. When I use my old device it recognizes me a gives me reporting privileges.The following error messages appear on my new device. (See post #1) Yes I emailed Spotternetwork support forum but it did not recognize my password only my e mail address associated with Spotternetwork which said a link will be sent to change my password but I never received it. I did attempt to reach out to spotternetwork including the archive contact e mail addresses I had on file but it got bounced back to me mail "UNDELIVERABLE" The attached is what I see when I switch back to my old device. As you can see it recognizes me and works fine.

 

[Lou Ruh]

If you have not already tried this, please send email to [email protected] with as much info as you can provide about the issue. Not the normal support path, but, it sounds like things may be very confused with your setup, and John may be able to help or point you in a good direction.

 

[rdale]

Don't start with the forum - use your computer and go to the SpotterNetwork.org and login there.

 

[David Hodges]

If you have not already tried this, please send email to [email protected] with as much info as you can provide about the issue. Not the normal support path, but, it sounds like things may be very confused with your setup, and John may be able to help or point you in a good direction.

Thanks Lou but this is one of the first e mail addresses I tried. If you send a message

If you have not already tried this, please send email to [email protected] with as much info as you can provide about the issue. Not the normal support path, but, it sounds like things may be very confused with your setup, and John may be able to help or point you in a good direction.

Hi Lou: The address you suggested is one of the first that I attempted to establish contact. If you send an e mail to that address [email protected] , it will get bounced backed to you as UNDELIVERABLE.but appreciate your advice.

 

[David Hodges]

Don't start with the forum - use your computer and go to the SpotterNetwork.org and login there.

I have done so with no luck. It will allow me to sign in but that's it. It will not allow reporting or location prevledges . It will not even allow to up date my info when I go to account settings. I am blocked from doing so. Thanks for your advice though.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Try reaching out to John Wetter on Facebook if you are bouncing his email.

Sent from my XT1650 using Stormtrack mobile app

 

[Lou Ruh]

Thanks Lou but this is one of the first e mail addresses I tried. If you send a message

Hi Lou: The address you suggested is one of the first that I attempted to establish contact. If you send an e mail to that address [email protected] , it will get bounced backed to you as UNDELIVERABLE.but appreciate your advice.

I did just do that within the last ten minutes. So far, no rejection. Was there more information in your undeliverable message?

 

[John Wetter]

Hi All, and thanks to @Lou Ruh for reaching out to me to point me here. I did get his email this morning as I routinely get email from folks.

Regarding the comment from @Jeff Duda - We've had a great 2016 with a huge number of reports submitted, likely thanks to RadarScope integration which has been great. We are still the only electronic method of reporting to the NWS that goes directly into their systems; via NWSchat and even directly into AWIPS2. I know of only two offices in the nation not getting SN data directly so we've made great strives in working with local offices to help them know and understand the data they receive from us. We've also been doing more work this summer to clean up data. We routinely review reports and follow up with spotters making low quality reports. You folks don't see this work though because you (thankfully) are not on the receiving end of it. Talking with many NWS offices though, they know our data is of a much higher quality than they often get via the phone and they appreciate information from trusted spotters & chasers.

Now onto the issue at hand...

@David Hodges - I can't find any emails or password resets for your account. While looking at your username from your screen shots above, I do see that you have not passed our training (you have a 0, so it looks like you haven't attempted it); this is why you do not have reporting rights in your client. Old versions didn't check for this but now we are. So, you will need to log in to spotternetwork.org (and you can if you can log in on your phone, you use the same information as in RS) and take the training. The training isn't hard, but it sets a base level of understanding that the NWS requires of people before reporting to them. This is another misconception in some of the chaser community is that a harder test will magically stop bad reports. I disagree with this as I have seen local Skywarn organizations with what I would consider a fairly difficult test, as well as organizations with an easy test... And both get garbage reports at times. Not all people focus to their training when around storms... But I digress.

Once you have taken the training and successfully pass the test, you will be able to report. As far as your logins, it is important to note that your login for spotternetwork.org is in no way tied to our support forum at stormhunter.org. Unless you've specifically signed up at stormhunter.org, you will not have an account and will need to create one. I don't see an account with the same username as you have in SN, so I'm not sure if you signed up as something else or simply don't have an account over there. We do support through a forum so others can see issues as really the incidents we see fall into a couple buckets: 1) there is a space or special character in the login somehow and therefore it won't work 2) Training hasn't been passed at a satisfactory level 3) location services don't have correct rights on a phone 4) the person is trying to log in with something other than their username and password from SN 5) Not understanding that there is a difference from the forum for support and the main SN site, essentially mis-reading the text at the bottom of radarscope.

Let me know if this helps and thanks again Lou for sending me an email this morning!

 

[David Hodges]

Hi All, and thanks to @Lou Ruh for reaching out to me to point me here. I did get his email this morning as I routinely get email from folks.

Regarding the comment from @Jeff Duda - We've had a great 2016 with a huge number of reports submitted, likely thanks to RadarScope integration which has been great. We are still the only electronic method of reporting to the NWS that goes directly into their systems; via NWSchat and even directly into AWIPS2. I know of only two offices in the nation not getting SN data directly so we've made great strives in working with local offices to help them know and understand the data they receive from us. We've also been doing more work this summer to clean up data. We routinely review reports and follow up with spotters making low quality reports. You folks don't see this work though because you (thankfully) are not on the receiving end of it. Talking with many NWS offices though, they know our data is of a much higher quality than they often get via the phone and they appreciate information from trusted spotters & chasers.

Now onto the issue at hand...

@David Hodges - I can't find any emails or password resets for your account. While looking at your username from your screen shots above, I do see that you have not passed our training (you have a 0, so it looks like you haven't attempted it); this is why you do not have reporting rights in your client. Old versions didn't check for this but now we are. So, you will need to log in to spotternetwork.org (and you can if you can log in on your phone, you use the same information as in RS) and take the training. The training isn't hard, but it sets a base level of understanding that the NWS requires of people before reporting to them. This is another misconception in some of the chaser community is that a harder test will magically stop bad reports. I disagree with this as I have seen local Skywarn organizations with what I would consider a fairly difficult test, as well as organizations with an easy test... And both get garbage reports at times. Not all people focus to their training when around storms... But I digress.

Once you have taken the training and successfully pass the test, you will be able to report. As far as your logins, it is important to note that your login for spotternetwork.org is in no way tied to our support forum at stormhunter.org. Unless you've specifically signed up at stormhunter.org, you will not have an account and will need to create one. I don't see an account with the same username as you have in SN, so I'm not sure if you signed up as something else or simply don't have an account over there. We do support through a forum so others can see issues as really the incidents we see fall into a couple buckets: 1) there is a space or special character in the login somehow and therefore it won't work 2) Training hasn't been passed at a satisfactory level 3) location services don't have correct rights on a phone 4) the person is trying to log in with something other than their username and password from SN 5) Not understanding that there is a difference from the forum for support and the main SN site, essentially mis-reading the text at the bottom of radarscope.

Let me know if this helps and thanks again Lou for sending me an email this morning!

Hi John:
Thanks for getting back to me. The whole point is that I have taken the training when I first joined Spotternetwork. I have full reporting rights as documented in the attached. This is a snapshot of a screenshot that I took .That's me. If I didn't have reporting prevledges my name and location would not appear on screen.
Whenever I sign into spotter network on any device other than my old smart phone it will not allow me to proceed. Says I need to take spotter training to acquire reporting rights. The problem is that this is in error. To make matters worse it is also not allowing me to update or enter any information . Let me know please if I can provide you with any additional information to fix this glitch. Thanks.
David Hodges- W3QEN

 

[David Hodges]

Try reaching out to John Wetter on Facebook if you are bouncing his email.

Sent from my XT1650 using Stormtrack mobile app

Thanks Ben!

 

[David Hodges]

I did just do that within the last ten minutes. So far, no rejection. Was there more information in your undeliverable message?

Hi Lou

If you have not already tried this, please send email to [email protected] with as much info as you can provide about the issue. Not the normal support path, but, it sounds like things may be very confused with your setup, and John may be able to help or point you in a good direction.

Did so Lou and am awaiting a reply. Thanks

 

[David Hodges]

I did just do that within the last ten minutes. So far, no rejection. Was there more information in your undeliverable message?

No rejection so far last time so am awaiting a reply. Thanks.

 

[John Wetter]

Hi David, I'll send an email back but it looks like I've really already addressed the items above.

 

[David Hodges]

I want to thank everyone for the feedback they gave me in regard to the technical issue I was having with Spotter Network. I want to let everyone know that I was able to solve the problem. It appears SN generated 2 accounts for me and didn't recognize the one that was my correct account.
John, I sent you a e mail regarding my findings.
Thanks again everyone for trying to be helpful.

 

[John Wetter]

Glad to hear you have resolved it, please be aware, SpotterNetwork does not make or delete accounts, only an end user with a valid email address to confirm the account creation can make a new account.

For the benefit of anyone else finding this in a search in the future, all Spotter Network support is handled at our support forum at www.stormhunter.org. Thanks!