SPOT tracking for 2009 contests?

Mitch wrote:

One of the huge problems I see for contests this summer is that the
SPOT used to erase the tracks every day to day and a half. Sometime
this fall, they started going to leaving the markers up for seven
days, with no way to display any less than the last seven days worth
of SPOT's on the shared page.

Recently, they announced a "24 hour" option, which should be a big
improvement, though still allows some overlap. I haven't flown since
they announced it, so I can't report directly.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

* Updated! "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* New Jan '08 - sections on Mode S, TPAS, ADS-B, Flarm, more

* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org

On Feb 13, 10:39 am, Frank wrote:
Our club (CCSC) is starting to think about providing real-time SPOT-
based glider track displays for ground crew/spectators for our 2009
Region 6 contest, and I was wondering if other clubs were considering
similar programs.


We've been running a spot tracking system at Omarama this season. It
was used during the Nationals in January and the CD loved it.

http://map.xinqu.net/spotmap.html

The spot is a bit limited compared to some of the other systems
available, but it is a tenth of the cost and it does work. It is
particularly useful in the mountains where you can easily be out of
radio contact due to terrain, and where there is no cell phone
coverage.

The local club have spot units in all the club gliders, and Glide
Omarama have spots in most of their fleet. Most flying days will see
around five spots in the air. During the contest we had twenty.

--
Philip Plane

On Feb 13, 10:26*am, Frank wrote:
On Feb 12, 9:27*pm, Tim Taylor wrote:





On Feb 12, 2:39*pm, Frank wrote:

Our club (CCSC) is starting to think about providing real-time SPOT-
based glider track displays for ground crew/spectators for our 2009
Region 6 contest, and I was wondering if other clubs were considering
similar programs.

Sure would be a cool thing if the SSA and/or SRA were to provide a web
page link for contest organizers to display glider tracks. *Then All
the organizer would have to do is tell SPOT users what url to use for
their 'spotteam' OK hit, and maybe what message to use (maybe a
formatted message from which the site could extract the comp ID?). *A
contest organizer could then display the web page on a big screen
somewhere, or individuals could display it on their own laptops/pc's.

Each contest could have its own webpage, and anyone from anywhere
could see how their favorite glider pilot was doing. *This could
really help to popularize glider flying in general and glider racing
in particular.

Any comments/thoughts?

Frank(TA)

Frank,

http://track.glidingmaps.com/

Yes the SSA should work to provide this for all contests, better yet a
tie in with OLC so we can see where everyone is everyday.

Also see the threads from this newsgroup:

SPOT Possibilities (Dec 8 2008, 11:01 am)

and

See Spots Run *(Jan 2 2009, 3:09 pm)

Tim (TT)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yes, the more I think about this, the more I think each club could
have a permanent page on the SSA site where SPOT equipped pilots could
send SPOT tracking messages. Such a site would be very useful on a day-
to-day basis for tracking XC practice tasks, informal contests, etc.
The only thing extra that would be required for a formal contest would
be a way of displaying the task.

This seems like such a no-brainer that it will probably never happen,
at least not officially. *I for one will be happy to volunteer my time
and limited programming skills for such a project

TA- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

After having spent some time now testing SPOT tracking features, I'm
convinced that if SPOT added the ability to re-direct or CC tracking
messages from multiple messenger accounts to a common 'Share' site,
that would satisfy 99% of the requirement for supporting 'maggot-race'
style display for contests (or even normal club X-C practice flights).
I would urge SPOT users to use the feedback links on the SPOT website
to request this feature. If enough of us do this, maybe it will
happen!

Frank (TA)

On Feb 14, 7:47*pm, Frank wrote:
On Feb 13, 10:26*am, Frank wrote:



On Feb 12, 9:27*pm, Tim Taylor wrote:

On Feb 12, 2:39*pm, Frank wrote:

Our club (CCSC) is starting to think about providing real-time SPOT-
based glider track displays for ground crew/spectators for our 2009
Region 6 contest, and I was wondering if other clubs were considering
similar programs.

Sure would be a cool thing if the SSA and/or SRA were to provide a web
page link for contest organizers to display glider tracks. *Then All
the organizer would have to do is tell SPOT users what url to use for
their 'spotteam' OK hit, and maybe what message to use (maybe a
formatted message from which the site could extract the comp ID?). *A
contest organizer could then display the web page on a big screen
somewhere, or individuals could display it on their own laptops/pc's.

Each contest could have its own webpage, and anyone from anywhere
could see how their favorite glider pilot was doing. *This could
really help to popularize glider flying in general and glider racing
in particular.

Any comments/thoughts?

Frank(TA)

Frank,

http://track.glidingmaps.com/

Yes the SSA should work to provide this for all contests, better yet a
tie in with OLC so we can see where everyone is everyday.

Also see the threads from this newsgroup:

SPOT Possibilities (Dec 8 2008, 11:01 am)

and

See Spots Run *(Jan 2 2009, 3:09 pm)

Tim (TT)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yes, the more I think about this, the more I think each club could
have a permanent page on the SSA site where SPOT equipped pilots could
send SPOT tracking messages. Such a site would be very useful on a day-
to-day basis for tracking XC practice tasks, informal contests, etc.
The only thing extra that would be required for a formal contest would
be a way of displaying the task.

This seems like such a no-brainer that it will probably never happen,
at least not officially. *I for one will be happy to volunteer my time
and limited programming skills for such a project

TA- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

After having spent some time now testing SPOT tracking features, I'm
convinced that if SPOT added the ability to re-direct or CC tracking
messages from multiple messenger accounts to a common 'Share' site,
that would satisfy 99% of the requirement for supporting 'maggot-race'
style display for contests (or even normal club X-C practice flights).
I would urge SPOT users to use the feedback links on the SPOT website
to request this feature. *If enough of us do this, maybe it will
happen!

Frank (TA)

All you need is available now via the SPOT XML interface and the
Australians have done a great job using this. What any contest wants
is what they have developed. You probably want to display tasks and
turnpounts, assign contest IDs/pilot names, prevent random Joe user
accidentally sending stuff to the map etc. The sensible starting point
it to use what exists today.

Darryl

On Feb 15, 5:20 pm, Darryl Ramm wrote:
On Feb 14, 7:47 pm, Frank wrote:



On Feb 13, 10:26 am, Frank wrote:

On Feb 12, 9:27 pm, Tim Taylor wrote:

On Feb 12, 2:39 pm, Frank wrote:

Our club (CCSC) is starting to think about providing real-time SPOT-
based glider track displays for ground crew/spectators for our 2009
Region 6 contest, and I was wondering if other clubs were considering
similar programs.

Sure would be a cool thing if the SSA and/or SRA were to provide a web
page link for contest organizers to display glider tracks. Then All
the organizer would have to do is tell SPOT users what url to use for
their 'spotteam' OK hit, and maybe what message to use (maybe a
formatted message from which the site could extract the comp ID?). A
contest organizer could then display the web page on a big screen
somewhere, or individuals could display it on their own laptops/pc's.

Each contest could have its own webpage, and anyone from anywhere
could see how their favorite glider pilot was doing. This could
really help to popularize glider flying in general and glider racing
in particular.

Any comments/thoughts?

Frank(TA)

Frank,

http://track.glidingmaps.com/

Yes the SSA should work to provide this for all contests, better yet a
tie in with OLC so we can see where everyone is everyday.

Also see the threads from this newsgroup:

SPOT Possibilities (Dec 8 2008, 11:01 am)

and

See Spots Run (Jan 2 2009, 3:09 pm)

Tim (TT)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yes, the more I think about this, the more I think each club could
have a permanent page on the SSA site where SPOT equipped pilots could
send SPOT tracking messages. Such a site would be very useful on a day-
to-day basis for tracking XC practice tasks, informal contests, etc.
The only thing extra that would be required for a formal contest would
be a way of displaying the task.

This seems like such a no-brainer that it will probably never happen,
at least not officially. I for one will be happy to volunteer my time
and limited programming skills for such a project

TA- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

After having spent some time now testing SPOT tracking features, I'm
convinced that if SPOT added the ability to re-direct or CC tracking
messages from multiple messenger accounts to a common 'Share' site,
that would satisfy 99% of the requirement for supporting 'maggot-race'
style display for contests (or even normal club X-C practice flights).
I would urge SPOT users to use the feedback links on the SPOT website
to request this feature. If enough of us do this, maybe it will
happen!

Frank (TA)

All you need is available now via the SPOT XML interface and the
Australians have done a great job using this. What any contest wants
is what they have developed. You probably want to display tasks and
turnpounts, assign contest IDs/pilot names, prevent random Joe user
accidentally sending stuff to the map etc. The sensible starting point
it to use what exists today.

Unless they've changed it, the SPOT XML interface is pull only. You
must poll their server to see what's there. They don't want that done
at a rate that will load up their server, so they ask you to not poll
to often. They say they'll rate limit or cut you off if they see to
much load.

What would be best from my point of view is if the position messages
were passed on as emails in the same way the OK and Help messages are.

--
Philip Plane
http://map.xinqu.net/spotmap.html