[SFDXA] An Alternative for alerting the Club on DX

[Ed Callaway]

I think the reason this type of thing is of only moderate interest is that one has been able to get SMS DX alert messages for years, from any number of cluster web sites.  On http://www.dxwatch.com , for example, it's easy to set up alert filters for the DX entity, the spotting entity, band, and mode; when a spot meeting your requirements appears, at text is sent to your phone (or whatever email address(es) you desire).  One can, for example, receive spots only for Swains Island activity on 12m CW, sent by spotters in the US.

Using one of these sites, one is immediately aware of DX activity on a desired band or mode.  The question then becomes one of propagation to SFL and, in my experience, the variation in station capability and local noise is so great among SFDXA members that knowing that Norm or Bill or Dick or Harry has heard a DX station is of little use.  Even when I was at W4MOT -- not a pipsqueak station by any means -- frequently Norm would spot DX that I could not hear (and, I hope, the reverse was true -- at least occasionally :-) ).  

Frankly, while W4MOT was just down the hall from my office, I used the web alerts to great advantage -- at the first DX spot, from any spotting entity, I was off to the station like a shot, before the pile got too big and the time away from my desk noticeable.  If I had to wait for someone locally to spot the DX, rather than anyone anywhere in the world, I would be waiting a long time.  Having a worldwide network of potential spotters means that substantially no DX activity is missed, and the value of this, in the minds of most, is greater than the knowledge that the DX is audible to someone in the tri-county area.

Ed N4II.

-----Original Message-----
From: sfdxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:sfdxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Norman Alexander
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 10:44 AM
To: Sebastian, W4AS; SFDXA at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [SFDXA] An Alternative for alerting the Club on DX

I shall leave the answer to these questions to the experts - as I have yet to "tweet" or "twit?"

Is there significance to the statement below that says there is a "new tweet application?"


Norm




________________________________
From: "Sebastian, W4AS" <w4as at bellsouth.net>
To: "SFDXA at mailman.qth.net" <SFDXA at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Mon, September 10, 2012 10:04:44 AM
Subject: Re: [SFDXA] An Alternative for alerting the Club on DX

Unless I missed it on their site http://www.grouptweet.com/, everyone must still 
use a Twitter client (or app) in order to receive and send messages.  I didn't 
see any mention of standard text messages.

This means you must have a smart phone in order to use the Twitter application, 
and unless you are using one of the newer phones, you must be running the 
twitter application to receive the messages.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.


73 de Sebastian, W4AS



On Sep 10, 2012, at 9:06 AM, Norman Alexander <npalex at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> 
> 
> The following email is an extract from another DX club addressing one of the 
> problems that prevails in many DX groups.  I tweaked the email a bit 
>substituting
>  our club SFDXA.  Novel idea, and utilizes today's new communication tools. 
> 
> It maybe a useful idea for DXers of SFDXA - maybe we meed a CIO as well as PIO
> 
> Norm W4QN
> ===========================================================
> An Alternative for alerting the Club on DX
> 
> For a whole lot of reasons, many of us do not monitor .33 very much anymore.
> Some of us have taken to alerting others in the Club about DX on the air by
> sending messages to our Yahoo Group. That is appreciated, but most of us
> are not in front of our email computers all the time.
> 
> I suspect that most Club members have a cell phone. If so, that means we
> can all receive standard text messages.
> 
> There is a new Group Tweet application available that will allow anyone in
> the Club to send a text message via Twitter that will in turn be broadcast
> to every member as a text message to your cell phone. So, when I found the
> NH8S this morning on 10 SSB, rather than sending an email to the list, I
> could have simply sent a short message that read "NH8S, 28473 QSX UP 5 de
> K9EL". That message would be sent to everyone who signed up to the group
> via a standard text message.
> 
> Not sure who in our club is our "CIO" (Chief Information Officer), but all
> we need to do is create a Twitter account in the name of SFDXA. Then each
> member needs to sign up for Twitter as well - this is all free. A few
> simple mechanics and anyone can then send a short text message or online
> message from their PC to the SFDXA account which will then in turn be
> re-broadcast to every member who has signed up - just like the repeater!
> Only done via text messaging on any cell phone - does NOT need to be a smart
> phone. This system works worldwide, by the way, so even our ex-members
> living in FL or CA or VE3 land can participate.
> 
> Is there any interest?

__
______________________________________________________________
South Florida DX Assoc.
SFDXA WebSite: http://qsl.net/k4fk
SFDXA Repeater 147.33+ 103.5 Tone
To Post: mailto:SFDXA at mailman.qth.net
Subscribe or UNSubScribe:
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/sfdxa
DX Net Wed 7:33 PM Repeater

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html