Hello, and happy new you to you all.

Repeaterbook has had a very busy, and successful 2017. We have begun many projects, and our primary goal for 2018 is enhancing the user experience. You may have noticed the look and feel around the site changing a little, and if you are using a mobile device, have found that the pages show a little nicer for you there, too.

We recently put out a question on the Facebook group, at the suggestion of one of our admins, asking if they thought it would be beneficial to have the site alert them when a repeater had been added, deleted, or edited in a certain area. The response was overwhelmingly positive.

Annually, Repeaterbook.com processes more than 18,000 repeater adds, edits, and deletes. That's a lot of change, and you want to know when these changes happen, so you can keep your radio programming current. What good is a memory in your radio if it tries to key up a dead repeater? What if the CTCSS code changed? And you certainly don't want to miss that new repeater that just went operational. You could memorize our database (40,000 repeaters) and then check back every so often to see what changed, or, you can let us just shoot you an email and let you know when it happens.

Introducing the RepeaterBook Subscription module, giving you the power to receive information about the updates to repeaters you care about, right to your inbox.

First, a little about the development work on the project. We initially designed it to allow you to subscribe to a US state, Mexican state, or Canadian province. Ron Kahler asked if it could be designed to allow him to just pick the counties he was interested in to avoid seeing updates from around the whole state. So, we added it where you could select as many counties as you wanted. So, naturally we added refining to a single band.

Then we got a suggestion from Cory Sickles who wanted to see only the updated for DV modes. So, we added a filter for the DV modes, and another if you just want FM analog as well.

Then Tony Toews had a fantastic idea. Why not make it so that you could get information back within a certain area that ignored political boundaries like states and counties? This was genius. Here in Portland, Oregon, we are bordered to the north by Vancouver, Washington. So, I designed it so that you could pick something like “Portland, OR” and set a radius of 50 miles. This would give you all the updated repeaters in that area, regardless of the county or state. You would pick up repeaters in Oregon and into Washington. Imagine selecting “Chicago, IL” at 50 miles and picking up repeaters in Wisconsin and Indiana, with a single subscription. This also opened up the service to the rest of the world, so you could also subscribe to 35 miles around London, England (for example). Using it in Europe would ignore all country boundaries.

After two weeks of beta testing by our admins, we are ready to share this with the world!

How do I get there? There is a link on the home page along the left side called “Repeater Subscriptions.” You must be a registered user and logged on to see, and use, the module. Once you get to the module, there is a menu item: “Add Subscription.” Hover over the menu and a drop down will appear. Simply choose the subscription method you would like and fill out the form.

What is the Repeater Change Subscription System? This is the module we built to notify you when there is a repeater add, edit, or delete. You can subscribe to an entire state or province,

and if you are tracking repeaters in the United States, you can even track down to the county level. We will let you filter down the results to a specific band (do you want to know about the 1.25 meter and 6 meter changes if you don't own those radios?) or even a specific operating mode. Maybe you have a DMR radio and you want to know when a new DMR repeater pops up in an area.

How often will I get an email? Every Monday morning, we will send you a single notification about any repeaters that were updated during the last 7 days. No matter how many areas you sign up for, you will receive a single email. Depending on how many updates there were, it could be long or short. If you feel you no longer need the emails, there is an option to delete your subscription here on this page, or from the email itself. You have full control of the areas you subscribe to.

What types of changes do you report? All changes! The way we compile the list is to look at the date the repeater was added or last updated. This update date cannot be manipulated, so whenever an admin submits the add or changes, the date is set by the server. We search for all repeaters with an update within the last 7 days, and if it matches one that you subscribed to, we let you know. Not all updates have a meaningful change, or in other words, a change that affects the operation of the repeater. It may have been a minor grammar adjustment or an admin just researching the repeater and updating that it is still operational. We apologize if that confuses anyone, but we wanted to make sure you were notified any time someone touches the repeater record.

Who can use the module? Anyone with a Repeaterbook.com account can use the module. Currently, the module is only available for countries in North America. We will be adding the rest of the world and the ability to subscribe to a location and search radius in the future.

Repeaterbook.com utilizes several tools to indicate the coverage of a repeater.

1. Text: Visitors to the site can write to us and tell us what the geographical limits of a repeater are. This can be quite complex in areas where terrain affects the propagation. When providing the coverage parameters, think of the visitor who is not familiar with your area, but would like to use the repeater. Include cities and areas that are covered. Include mile markers on highways passing nearby.
2. Radius Circle: Every individual repeater listing includes a Google Map of the area where the repeater is located. This helps provide a good visual indication of where the repeater is in reference to other landmarks and cities. If the coverage radius is given to us, we can draw a blue circle around the repeater to given a visual representation of the coverage area. Of course, this is not a propagation map and the circle can only be used as a rough estimate.
3. Propagation Reports: Registered members of Repeaterbook.com, while logged in, are provided a link under the map on the repeater's Detail Page to add propagation reports. When you click the link, simply click the provided map with the location, antenna type, and average S-meter reading and we'll do the rest. This can really be helpful for folks needing to know how the repeater covers with different antenna-types. It's even more automatic if using an iPhone and a great way to report propagation while traveling.

Special thanks to Ray Montagne (W7CIA) who helped get the new .gpx filetype exports configured. In case you are wondering what they are and how you can use them, keep reading.

Here is the e-mail that started it all off

"Could you please, please, please use a platform agnostic encoding for exporting files (such as .zip) rather than using a Windows platform dependent self extracting format? The Windows format, which has a '.exe' file extension, cannot be extracted on a Macintosh. A standard '.csv' file or a '.csv' file that is in a '.zip' archive can be used on a Macintosh (or Linux). Same goes for Garmin files, which are based on XML and have a '.gpx' file extension. Thank you. Ray Montagne, W7CIA"

 

I still haven't figured out why he is seeing a .exe when trying to download a .csv from a Mac platform, but the last line really caught my attention. I have never exported to a Garmin application. PHP can easily be written to export as XML. After asking more about it, Ray was more that helpful in pointing me in the right direction:

"For reference, I converted the Idaho Repeater data into a '.gpx' file that can be imported into Garmin Basecamp (a free application available at <http://www.garmin.com/us/products/onthetrail/basecamp>).Free map data, including topographical maps, is available at <http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/>.Once imported into Garmin Basecamp, the file can be uploaded into any Garmin GPS.The '.gpx' file format is derived from XML and is specified at <http://www.topografix.com/gpx.asp>.

Having the repeater directory in my GPS is why I needed access to the '.csv' data on a Macintosh (I had to use a Windows system and then transfer the data).

 

The web site Ray provided are very easy to understand, and I had to have a copy of BaseCamp. From the web site:

Trip Planning

Use BaseCamp to plan your next hiking, biking, motorcycling, driving or off-roading trip. You can view maps, plan routes, and mark waypoints and tracks from your computer and then transfer them to your device.

• Track Draw feature lets you trace your planned route and view elevation changes, helping you estimate the difficulty of a hike or bike ride.
• Plan the perfect scenic route, making sure your navigator takes you through certain waypoints, for your next road trip.
• Play back your routes and tracks over time and save and share your adventure.

Survey the Terrain

BaseCamp displays your topographic map data in 2-D or 3-D on your computer screen, including contour lines and elevation profiles. Load map data from your handheld device, or import maps you’ve downloaded or purchased on DVD or microSD™ card. Consider our TOPO series maps, which offer detail on a scale of either 1:100,000 or 1:24,000.

 

Geotag Photos

BaseCamp lets you geotag photos, associating them with specific waypoints. You can see the exact scenery at any given location. Transfer the photos to your handheld device, publish photos directly to Picasa™, or email your geotagged photos directly to friends or family so they can navigate right to your favorite spots in the future.

Transfer Satellite Images

With BaseCamp and a BirdsEye Satellite Imagery subscription, you can transfer an unlimited amount of satellite images to your outdoor or fitness device and seamlessly integrate those images into your maps to get a true representation of your surroundings. It makes it easy to scout campsites, sources of water, potential hazards and more. If you prefer raster topographic maps, you can also download BirdsEye Select maps and pay only for the data you download.

Downloading and installing BaseCamp was absolutely painless. Installing extra map files was also a snap (be sure to read the directions, though).

The best information on how to create the .gpx export actually came from Ray. He spent some time creating some example files, which I copied and uploaded. They have been deployed and are working nicely.

They are in sort of a beta mode and have not been deployed on the entire site. The best way to download one is to search on a specific state and then choose the band (or ALL) you want to view. On the Search Result page, choose Export, then .gpx. After the file downloads, open it from File >> Import inside BaseCamp.

Enjoy!

Garrett, KD6KPC
Site Admin

I love the Proximity Search. Essentially, enter in coordinates, an address, a landmark, or whatever Google knows how to decode, and let the search engine run through the database looking for repeaters that are close to that location.

To filter the results down, you select the distance from the search location. If you only want to look on a particular band, you can do that, too. You should never enter a band and a frequency; it's one or the other.

There is a healthy list of features you can filter by as well as by confirmation that the repeater is operational.

I use this search all the time to locate repeaters near me. When using my HT at a hotel in another city, I will look for repeaters that are within 20 miles of me with wide area coverage. It's a fast way to locate repeaters when you don't know what the nearby cities or mountain tops are called...or maybe even the county you are in. You can search for repeaters around you like you have local knowledge!

This search has been used by disaster relief organizations to locate repeaters to serve remote operational areas during disaster relief situations. You could even use it to locate a repeater at a remote camp site or trail somewhere. This search really takes the research out of your search of a paper directory to help you find usable repeaters.

The search results will tell you how far away the repeater is to the location you entered.

An added bonus for smart phone users, there is a "Near Me' search which will use your onboard GPS to autofill your location! I use this a lot at the hotels and even on the road between major cities to find repeaters.

This search ignores all political lines, including international. It will search for close repeaters regardless of city, county, state, provincial, or international boundaries.

Happy searching!