IOTA maps

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G4POP
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IOTA maps

Post by G4POP »

For all you IOTA fans there are some great maps here

http://www5f.biglobe.ne.jp/~ja1qxy/sub19.html

And remember the downloadable .kml file on the RSGB IOTA website to use in your Google Earth program showing all IOTA's worldwide.
73 Terry G4POP
dm1cm
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Re: IOTA maps

Post by dm1cm »

Hi Terry,

There's also the sister website to sotamaps: check out iotamaps.org if you have time...

cheers, Rob DM1CM
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Re: IOTA maps

Post by G4POP »

That's great I have already spoken to Lele about it.

Thanks for the heads up, how long has that facility been available?
73 Terry G4POP
dm1cm
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Re: IOTA maps

Post by dm1cm »

The iotamaps site has been up and running for over a year, but has not had many visitors.

Nonetheless, I notified the IOTA people about it last year, didn't hear anything from them for months, and then got an email from the IOTA IT manager enquiring whether they could include links from the new IOTA website they're building. Of course, I said yes!

So, when their new site goes live, probably in mid September, the page which lists any one of their particular island groups will feature a button-link to iotamaps.org.
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Re: IOTA maps

Post by G4POP »

robMaps wrote: 17 Aug 2017, 09:23 The iotamaps site has been up and running for over a year, but has not had many visitors.

Nonetheless, I notified the IOTA people about it last year, didn't hear anything from them for months, and then got an email from the IOTA IT manager enquiring whether they could include links from the new IOTA website they're building. Of course, I said yes!

So, when their new site goes live, probably in mid September, the page which lists any one of their particular island groups will feature a button-link to iotamaps.org.
Hi Rob,
Well that's 'Par for the course' with IOTA MT!

We are adding hyperlinks to the IOTA reference and Island names to log4OM so the user will just click on the name or reference to open your splendid maps of that entry, just the same as we currently do with your SOTA Mapping Project maps already.
73 Terry G4POP
dm1cm
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Re: IOTA maps

Post by dm1cm »

the user will just click on the name or reference
So you found the FAQ page, then? :D
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Re: IOTA maps

Post by W0OGH »

That's pretty cool but it only shows 100 rows and when i looked at it this morning, all the dates were only 2017. What about previous expeditions or operations? I didn't see any way to go back over the years to see anything of past operations. Changing to HF bands didn't make a difference either. Call sign reference?

The other web page mentioned, i only got a display of Japanese characters with an error code. Has that one gone south or non-functional?

Certainly some sort of quick reference with good accuracy in the way of IOTA references is needed, unless it exists someplace else. A good addition to the location would be the inclusion of the Grid Locator which many QSL cards seem to be lacking.

Larry
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Re: IOTA maps

Post by G4POP »

Larry wrote: 13 Sep 2017, 14:30 That's pretty cool but it only shows 100 rows and when i looked at it this morning, all the dates were only 2017. What about previous expeditions or operations? I didn't see any way to go back over the years to see anything of past operations. Changing to HF bands didn't make a difference either. Call sign reference?

The other web page mentioned, i only got a display of Japanese characters with an error code. Has that one gone south or non-functional?

Certainly some sort of quick reference with good accuracy in the way of IOTA references is needed, unless it exists someplace else. A good addition to the location would be the inclusion of the Grid Locator which many QSL cards seem to be lacking.

Larry
W0OGH
You would be best to direct this comment to Rob the owner of IOTA Maps as I doubt that he monitors this forum very often
73 Terry G4POP
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Re: IOTA maps

Post by dm1cm »

Larry, and anybody else who might be having problems with the iotamaps site, it needs to be pointed out that the iotamaps site is first and foremost a site devoted to mapping IOTA groups and their islands. That it also features a dialog showing some of the latest IOTA activations in near real time is just a bonus for the user.

This cluster dialog is just that: a CLUSTER window which, like virtually all ham-radio clusters online, shows only the latest reports circulating in the worldwide amateur radio cluster, and here filtered to show only IOTA spots. It doesn't hold, nor does it aim to hold, a complete history of all IOTA DXpeditions and activations - anybody who wants such a list should look elsewhere. Good luck with that.

As far as Larry's remark about "it only shows 100 rows", the user ought to be aware that the "100 rows" is just one of several options provided by the "Show xxx rows" dropdown control, which allows the user to limit the number of rows displayed in the cluster window to between 50 and 250 rows.

Similarly, "Changing to HF bands didn't make a difference either" - the bands dropdown will not magically show you past DXpeditions history, but it will allow the user to limit results in the cluster dialog to a selection based on band-ranges, or single bands.

"Call sign reference?" errrm, what?

"Certainly some sort of quick reference with good accuracy in the way of IOTA references is needed" - which is what the iotamaps site gives you WRT mapping. You just have to familiarize yourself with the various controls and options provided for you.

"A good addition to the location would be the inclusion of the Grid Locator which many QSL cards seem to be lacking." Well, given that many IOTA groups can span many Grid Locators, you'd often need to know not only which group was being activated, but also which particular island in the group. One should also note that there are many large islands which themselves span several Grid Locators (e.g. Cuba or Sumatra, both of which cover several 4-character Locator Squares, and hundreds of 6-character Subsquares), so you'd again not always be able to uniquely identify a Grid Locator from the IOTA group reference. So, there's probably a good reason why QSL cards from IOTA activations often do not include a Grid Locator...

Happily, however, the iotamaps mapping page comes to the rescue here and offers dynamic map-grid overlays covering the entire world: just click on the "Map Grids" control at the top of the map area, and you can choose either a latitude/longitude grid, or a Grid Locator grid. Zooming in or out of the map when one or the other of the grids is visible causes that grid to show more, or less, detail. You can then visually identify which Locator is of interest to you. Of course, this requires that the user do at least some of the thinking for themselves, but we at iotamaps don't believe in spoon-feeding our users.

HTH, Rob
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Re: IOTA maps

Post by W0OGH »

Good info and thanks Rob for the comments as well. I use the APRS.FI page a lot to home in on the particular island and use that as a reference point, the whole or majority of the island if i have nothing else to reference to for logging info. Point, Sable Island. I corresponded with one of the operators for the CY0 operation. He had no idea what the grid locator was but it was "where the buildings were". Sable island is rather large so looking for the buildings was a less than meaningfull suggestion.

The thought behind this question was because i have QSL's for island operations that go back 20-30 or more years before the grid system came into play, as far as i know anyway, and thought it would be nice to give some additional information to the logbook as to just where it the heck were they anyway.

73
Larry
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