Road Trip & App Idea

[ytechie]

I was driving from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin today, and I was monitoring channels 15-22. I originally was monitoring all channels, but I was getting super-local chatter, and I was mostly interested in high-power simplex and repeater traffic.

When I heard something, it got me thinking. What repeater are they using? That gave me an idea for an app or a web page.

I downloaded the GMRS repeater database, and made some *really* crude JavaScript. I whipped this thing up in an hour, and it's embarrassing, but it works!

Showing is probably easier than telling...



It's just a web page that gets your location from the browser, and then looks up the closest repeater on each channel. Right now I'm only showing the basics, but there's no reason I couldn't show the "tone in" and also have a link to the repeater details.

Useful? Did I just reinvent something?

I didn't make it public since I'm not sure what the licensing is for the GMRS database. If someone knows, let me know. Or, if the owner wants to reach out, lets chat.

[kidphc]

I was driving from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin today, and I was monitoring channels 15-22. I originally was monitoring all channels, but I was getting super-local chatter, and I was mostly interested in high-power simplex and repeater traffic.
When I heard something, it got me thinking. What repeater are they using? That gave me an idea for an app or a web page.
I downloaded the GMRS repeater database, and made some *really* crude JavaScript. I whipped this thing up in an hour, and it's embarrassing, but it works!
Showing is probably easier than telling...



It's just a web page that gets your location from the browser, and then looks up the closest repeater on each channel. Right now I'm only showing the basics, but there's no reason I couldn't show the "tone in" and also have a link to the repeater details.

Useful? Did I just reinvent something?
I didn't make it public since I'm not sure what the licensing is for the GMRS database. If someone knows, let me know. Or, if the owner wants to reach out, lets chat.

The concept has existed, well in the Ham world. Repeaterbook.

Although Repeaterbook's app doesn't really have a gmrs filter and the website database is meh.


I applaud your effort, it is an app that we needed.

3 problems.

1: what if the repeater is REACT or club member only?

2: not all Gmrs repeaters are available for general public usage?

3: how to restrict people without a gmrs license to access the info?


Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[mbrun]

Thanks for sharing the idea.

Yes, I think such an app would be useful for travelers. No, I am unaware of such a GMRS app existing. Searching by proximity to repeater is more useful than searching by city, state.

There is an similar app for amateur radio repeaters. I have it and use it. It is the companion for the RepeaterBook website.

IMO, any app like this needs to have ready access to contact information of the repeaters owner so one can get permission to use it if it is not designated as open. Probably good to color code the listings as well. Open, Private, Permission Only. Plus filters to limit displayed results.

May even be food to have a button that one could press to designate if activity from the repeater has been confirmed. Such information could be uploaded to myGMRS as a means of getting feedback to the site when the last time the repeater was heard. Something along these lines could be helpful in determining when a listing might be outdated.

Regards,


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

[WRHS218]

I like the idea and think it would be a usable app. I have used the Repeaterbook app and have found it useful. Long before the app I purchased the book every year. I would probably only use an app like this for "Open" listings. Determining activity, like mbrun mentioned, would be a great help. I have found, at least in my area, there are repeaters listed that don't exist now. No fault of MyGMRS. When I first started in GMRS earlier this year I tried to contact a lot of the repeater owners in my area. Only received replies from a couple of people. One allowed me access and the other told me his repeater was no longer in service. On a recent road trip I had programmed dozens of "Open" repeaters into my radios. I didn't keep a list like you did but I couldn't reach or hear a lot of them and had no idea if they were still active. Thank you for ytechie for sharing your work.

Sean

[AdmiralCochrane]

People without licenses are still allowed to listen.  Pretty much impossible to stop unlicensed from transmitting regardless of what information they possess or not. 

[ytechie]

Thanks for the all the feedback. This was mostly for listening while travelling, so I just added links to the Mygmrs site for the repeaters. That maintains the existing access controls. This also avoids some of the thorny issues a few of you brought up. All I really wanted to know was where the repeater was, and how far away. I would love to also add direction (will my signal improve/degrade/etc), but that will take a little bit of work to calculate heading.

Addressing some of your comments:

• I'm aware of repeaterbook, but it shows by distance, not by channel. (in addition to be very out of date for GMRS listings)
• I love the idea of confirming hearing repeater activity. Perhaps a thumbs up/thumbs down.
• Thanks for the idea of adding open/private/permission info.

Here it is with some CSS and links to the repeaters:

[wayoverthere]

8 hours ago, kidphc said:

The concept has existed, well in the Ham world. Repeaterbook.

Although Repeaterbook's app doesn't really have a gmrs filter and the website database is meh.


I applaud your effort, it is an app that we needed.

3 problems.

1: what if the repeater is REACT or club member only?

2: not all Gmrs repeaters are available for general public usage?

3: how to restrict people without a gmrs license to access the info?


Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

Thoughts...

On #1 and 2, it'd likely be trivial at this point to filter repeater status (open, etc). Should they be marked "open" if they're react/club only, or not open to public usage? 

#3, the repeater listings are available without logging in, so the basic functionality shown presents no more issue than the site already does. I'd agree not to include input tones unless it can be integrated on the site to require logging in to view the tones.

I will also mention that the current version of Repeaterbook's Android app does include a filter for gmrs repeaters (along with the other Band filters) though their database is lacking for actual listings...gmrs being a semi recent addition there.

Edit: new post while I was typing addresses most of this...the links are a great way to address the access control issue.

[ytechie]

Added permission since it seems like a common request, and I show the tone required if and only if it's an open system. The rest of the data can be accessed through the hyperlink to mygmrs.

[mbrun]

You are on the right track.

Now imagine a field that displays the last number of confirmed cases of repeater accesses in the last 30/60/90 days or something like that. Then imagine scraping location and ToD from the app and device that confirmed it. Through a coordinated crowd sourcing effort one could begin to assemble enough data on the backend to determine the true effective usable range of a repeater. BTW, not too unlike how the network broadcasters did it back in the early days of commercial radio and TV.

For example, if I am traveling around town and have a given repeater tuned up on my radio and app, I could help the repeater owner and myGRMS by pushing a button on the app that scrapes my callsign, geolocation, ToD, and perhaps even my radio profile information and write it into a profile log. Thru the use of rules, permissions and statistical analysis it would be possible to build a coverage profile from registered uses with permission that could be mapped.

Big ideas to ponder.


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

[n4gix]

On 8/28/2021 at 1:42 PM, ytechie said:

Added permission since it seems like a common request, and I show the tone required if and only if it's an open system. The rest of the data can be accessed through the hyperlink to mygmrs.

I note that you are missing the Joliet 550 repeater. It is a very wide-area repeater with the antenna at ~500' AGL. It is an "open repeater" using PL 100.0... It is located on a tower on the NE side of Joliet, IL.  Coverage extends into NW Indiana, with at least one regular user in Hammond.

The original Micor was replaced with a Quantar with a receive pre-amp, and a battery backup system was installed. It is owned and operated by Mark - N9WYS / WQIV271