RBNGate - Automatic SOTA Spotting by
KU6J
Introduction
RBNGate is software designed to automatically spot Summits On The Air (SOTA) CW activators to Sotawatch as soon as they call CQ SOTA
on any CW frequency. RBNGate works by monitoring spots from the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN), which is
a world-wide network of stations (known as "skimmers") that are equipped with
wideband receivers and Alex VE3NEA's CW Skimmer software. The skimmers
automatically spot any station heard calling CQ, whether they are calling CQ DX,
CQ SOTA or just CQ by itself. Most skimmers monitor only the HF bands, but some
monitor the VHF bands as well.
When RBNGate receives a new spot from RBN,
it checks to see if the callsign and time match any Sotawatch alerts. If a matching alert
is found, it sends a spot of the activator to Sotawatch (if the activator has
not already been spotted on that frequency). The Sotawatch spot's summit reference
number is set to the one from the alert. The spot's comment includes additional
information, such as the callsign of the skimmer that first heard the activator,
their signal-to-noise ratio at the skimmer (in dB), and their approximate speed
in words per minute. If the activator changes bands or changes frequency by more
than 1 kHz, RBNGate will spot them again (if not already spotted on the new band
or frequency).
Activators who spot themselves will also be tracked and
spotted by RBNGate, even if they have not entered an alert for their activation
into Sotawatch. Activators can also use self-spots to override their alerts in
instances where they find themselves running late, decide to activate a
different summit, etc.
If you find that automatic SOTA spotting improves
your SOTA experience, then please consider making a donation to Reverse Beacon
Network via the Donate button at the bottom of their home page (I
am not affiliated with Reverse Beacon Network and receive nothing from them if
you choose to donate). If you are an activator who prefers to not be
automatically spotted by RBNGate, please E-mail me
your callsign and I will add you to the opt-out list.
Frequently Asked
Questions
Can RBNGate spot me on any
summit anywhere in the world?
Yes, assuming that you are within
the range of at least one RBN skimmer.
How many skimmers are
there and where are they located?
There are hundreds of skimmers
around the world, but they are usually not all online at the same time. To
see which skimmers are currently online and which bands they are
monitoring, see the right hand side of the Reverse Beacon Network home page.
More detailed information is available on their Skimmers
page.
Do I have to format my CQ SOTA in any particular
way for it to get spotted by RBNGate?
No, but it is best to send
your callsign at least twice and to send the entire transmission at a constant
speed. For example, either of these will work well:
CQ SOTA CQ SOTA DE
W1AW W1AW K
CQ CQ CQ SOTA DE W1AW W1AW K
How long does
it take for RBNGate to spot me once I begin calling CQ?
This
depends on how strong your signal is and how many RBN skimmers are within range
and able to hear it. In my experience, I am usually spotted within a minute or
two of finishing my first CQ, even when using only 5W.
Will
RBNGate spot me on frequencies and bands other than the ones I specify in my
Sotawatch alert?
Yes. RBNGate ignores the frequency and mode
information in Sotawatch
alerts.
Will RBNGate spot me even if I'm not on or near
the usual SOTA frequencies?
Yes. The RBN skimmers typically
monitor the entire CW segment of bands,and RBNGate doesn't care which frequency
you choose to call CQ on.
What if my Sotawatch alert
specifies only SSB or FM, will RBNGate still spot me if I decide to call CQ
on CW?
Yes. RBNGate ignores the frequency and mode
information in Sotawatch
alerts.
What if I call CQ on CW but do so in the phone
portion of the band. Will RBNGate still spot me?
No, it probably
won't. The RBN skimmers usually only monitor the CW band
segments.
I forgot to enter a Sotawatch alert, but I called
my friend and she entered one for me. Will RBNGate still spot
me?
Yes. RBNGate doesn't care who entered the Sotawatch alert. Note that it could
take up to five minutes for RBNGate to see new or revised Sotawatch
alerts.
I forgot to enter a Sotawatch alert for my
activation, and none of my friends are answering their phones. Is there anything
I can do to get RBNGate to spot me?
Yes, simply spot yourself to
Sotawatch prior to going on the air. RBNGate will then spot you just as if you
had entered an alert.
If someone has recently
spotted me on a particular frequency, will RBNGate spot me there as
well?
No. Prior to sending a spot to Sotawatch, RBNGate first
checks to see if someone has already spotted you on that frequency. If they
have, then RBNGate won't send its spot.
If I change to a
different band or frequency, will RBNGate spot me again on the new
frequency?
Yes, as long as you change frequency by 1 kHz or
more, and someone else doesn't spot you to Sotawatch
first.
If I stay on the same frequency for a long time,
will RBNgate eventually spot me again on that frequency?
Yes. If
an hour or more has elapsed since anyone spotted you on that frequency, RBNGate
will spot you again. The amount of time that it waits before respotting a
station on the same frequency is configurable and could change in the
future.
What if I change bands, get spotted there, then
return to the first band on the same frequency that I was spotted on earlier.
Will RBNGate spot me?
Yes. The time interval between respots on
the same frequency discussed in the prior answer (currently 1 hour) is ignored
if you change bands, and a shorter time interval is used instead (currently 10
minutes, used for filtering out duplicate RBN spots). You were clearly not on
the first band anymore if you were spotted on a different one, so when you
return to the first band RBNGate considers it to be a new
band/frequency.
The callsign in my Sotawatch alert is W1ABC
but I may call CQ as W1ABC/P or W2/W1ABC/P. Will I still get
spotted?
Yes. Portable designators are ignored by RBNGate when
it checks for callsign matches between RBN spots and Sotawatch alerts, or between RBN
spots and your self-spots. They are NOT ignored for the purpose of posting the
spot itself: you will be spotted with whatever variant of your callsign that the
RBN skimmer heard you send.
If I arrive on the summit early
or late, will RBNGate still spot me?
Yes. The standard spotting
window currently extends from 1 hour before your alert's estimated time of
arrival to 3 hours after it , and you can extend it if you wish. You may also
spot yourself to Sotawatch and RBNGate will spot you for 3 hours after your
self-spot is received. Note that these spotting time window parameters are
configurable and may change in the future as RBNGate is tweaked and tuned to
provide the best experience for activators and chasers.
If I
stay on the summit for a long time, will RBNGate continue to track and spot
me throughout the activation?
Yes, the standard spotting window
extends until 3 hours after your Sotawatch alert's estimated time of arrival unless you have extended it in your alert. If
you need more time than that, self-spot yourself and the spotting window will
extend to 3 hours after RBNGate receives your self-spot. You can continue to
self-spot yourself every few hours and the spotting window will be extended to 3
hours after each self-spot's time of receipt.
y
Can I extend the spotting
window?
Yes. The standard spotting window begins 1
hour before your alert's ETA and ends 3 hours after it. You can override these
start and end times by including a S+n and/or S-n code in the comment for
your Sotawatch
alert, where n is the number of hours the spotting windows extends
from your alert's ETA. For example, S+12 causes the spotting window to
extend to 12 hours after your alert's ETA, and S-6 would cause the spotting
window to begin 6 hours before it. The codes are case insensitive, you can
choose to include either or both codes anywhere in your comment, and they need
not be the only text in the comment. For example, this comment will work fine:
"Camping on the summit. S-12 Should be fun! s+18".
Will
RBNGate spot me on the correct summit if I have multiple Sotawatch alerts
entered for the same day?
Yes, if you are generally on time in
arriving at the summits. When a spot of you is received from RBN, RBNGate will
match it to the alert that has it's estimated time of arrival set closest to
when the RBN spot was received.
I was really late in getting
to my first summit, and RBNGate spotted me on my planned 2nd summit of the day
instead of the one I was actually on. Two chasers quickly spotted me on the
correct summit. Why did RBNGate continue to spot me on the incorrect
summit?
For the purpose of overriding information in Sotawatch alerts, RBNGate ignores
spots made by anyone other than the activator.
What if I
change my mind and end up going to a summit that is different
from the one in my Sotawatch alert?
You have two
options:
I'm doing a backpack trip this weekend in an area with
no cell phone coverage. I'd like to activate some summits during the trip but
don't know which ones they will be, or when I'll be on the air. Can RBNGate spot
me throughout my trip?
Yes. Since you don't know which
summits you will be activating, enter a Sotawatch alert and specify the
summit using question marks such as "W6/NS-???" or "G/??-???". Enter
an ETA that is near the beginning of your trip, then extend the spotting
window by including a code such as "S+48" in the comment of your
alert (this code extends the spotting window to 48 hours after your alert's
ETA). RBNGate will now spot you on your 'to be determined' summit
(W6/NS-??? or whatever you entered) whenever it hears you calling CQ during the
trip. The chasers will know that they have to get the actual summit from
you over the air. You could also choose to use the midpoint of
your trip as the alert's ETA, then extend both the beginning and end of the
spotting window with a comment such as "Backpacking all weekend in the
Sierra. S-24 S+24".
I accidentally spotted myself on
the wrong summit. What do I do?
Spot yourself again but on the
correct summit. Your later self-spot(s) will override earlier ones and RBNGate
will once again spot you on the correct summit.
What if I get
confused and send the wrong summit reference over the air, but I had it right in
my Sotawatch alert? Which summit reference will RBNGate
use?
RBNGate doesn't know what you send over the air so it will
use the summit reference from your Sotawatch alert, or from your most
recent self-spot if you sent one within the last 3
hours.
You've mentioned self-spots several times. Does it
matter how I send those in (via Sotawatch web page, Spotlite, SMS, APRS,
etc.)?
No. A self-spot sent via any of those methods
are treated the same by RBNGate. If you use an APRS gateway such as APRS2SOTA, then the gateway
either needs to set the "posted by" field to your callsign or to anything
containing the characters "APRS" (e.g., "APRS" and "APRS2SOTA" both work
fine).
What if I enter a Sotawatch alert for the
following day, the weather ends up being bad, and I stay home and call CQ DX
instead? Will I still get spotted as if I'm on a
summit?
Yes. To prevent this from happening, either delete your
Sotawatch alert or edit it to
include any of the following anywhere in the alert's comment (without the
quotes, case-insensitive): "canceled", "cancelled", "RBNN" or
"NoRBNGate".
If I'm on a summit and want to tell RBNGate
to stop spotting me, is there any way to do that?
Yes. Spot
yourself to Sotawatch and include either of the following anywhere in your
spot's comment (without the quotes, case-insensitive): "RBNN" or
"NoRBNGate". This will disable spotting based on any of your current Sotawatch
alerts or prior self-spots. Your "current Sotawatch alerts" are the ones in
which the current time is within 1 hour before or 3 hours after their estimated
time of arrival. If you have alerts entered for times farther out into the
future, RBNGate spotting will resume for those. It will also resume if you spot
yourself again and do not include "RBNN" or "NoRBNGate" in the comment for your
self-spot.
Can RBNGate spot me on other modes such as
RTTY and PSK31?
Yes. The Reverse Beacon Network is setup to
work with the RCKSkimmer digital
mode skimmer software written by DL4RCK. There are currently only a few
skimmers running this software, but that could and likely will change
in the future.
I saw RBNGate spot someone on the wrong
frequency. Why did it do that?
The RBN skimmers occasionally
have frequency calibration or configuration issues. RBNGate doesn't know what
frequency you are actually on, and relies on the data it receives from the
skimmers. If you observe a skimmer spotting a station on the wrong
frequency, please E-mail me and I will add the skimmer to RBNGate's
skimmer ignore list. I will also try to contact the skimmer operator to
make them aware of the problem. If and when the problem gets corrected, I will
remove the skimmer from the ignore list.
I saw RBNGate spot
someone on the wrong summit. Why did it do that?
This
will happen under any of these circumstances:
I spotted myself as getting ready to
operate (e.g., "QRV in 10 min") but RBNGate didn't spot me once I went
on the air and called CQ. Why didn't it spot me?
RBNGate
can't distinguish between Sotawatch
spots for an activator who is just getting ready (e.g., "QRV in 10
min") vs. a spot of them actually on the air. If you called CQ on the
same frequency as your 'getting ready' spot, RBNGate would therefore consider
the on-air spots from RBN as being dupes with the 'getting ready' spot in
Sotawatch. To prevent this from happening, specify just the band in MHz in your
'getting ready' spot, or call CQ on a frequency that is 1 kHz or more away from
the frequency in your 'getting ready' spot.
I want to
enter a Sotawatch alert so that the chasers will know my plans, but I don't want
RBNGate to spot me during that activation. What can I
do?
Include either of the
following anywhere in your Sotawatch alert's comment (without the
quotes, case-insensitive): "RBNN" or "NoRBNGate".
My area
doesn't have any RBN skimmers and I'd like to set one up to improve coverage.
How can I do that?
You'll first need to get the CW Skimmer software and one of the
receivers that it supports (supported receivers are listed on the CWSkimmer page). If you'd rather
have your skimmer looking for CQ's on RTTY, PSK31 and other
digital modes then get the RCKSkimmer
software and one of its supported receivers instead. Once you have your skimmer
up and running, you can add it to the Reverse Beacon Network by following the
instructions on RBN's Getting Started
page.
RBNGate is ruining my SOTA fun! I don't want it to
ever spot me. What can I do?
E-mail your callsign
to me (KU6J) and I can add you to the Excluded Activators list. This
will prevent RBNGate from ever spotting
you.