Repeater Mapping with Google maps

[k5ehx]

I've put together a database of repeaters that are displayed in your web browser using the Google maps API. Anyone can add or edit repeaters, and you can download search results as CSV files. The original idea was to make it easier to search for repeaters in a given area, for instance for planning a trip.

http://k5ehx.net/88link-small.jpghttp://k5ehx.net/tarcuhf-small.jpg

Features:

* Search by location such as a city and state or zip code.

* Search by tags (for instance, try "OK Link" to search both in Oklahoma and for the "link" tag) and add tags.

* Free to use and download data, for as long I can afford the bandwidth.

* Click on a point to search near that point or add a repeater.

* Click on a repeater to edit it or move it (you can move by clicking on a location - great for zooming in that satellite view).

It's been a pet project of mine for a year or so, and it seems to be working well. I have been frustrated by "community repeater" sites that will let you enter data but now download it. Anything in this system can be downloaded. Just do a search and then go to the bottom and click "download results".

The URL is http://k5ehx.net/repeaters/

An example search is here (http://k5ehx.net/repeaters/qrepeater.php?tag=tarcuhf).

The site was developed for Firefox, I've had some complaint of issues in Internet Explorer. I've not been able to reproduce them in the versions of IE I have available, so if you have a problem please let me know and I'll try and fix it.

There are some known issues with the google maps API such as not printing the polygon circles in Firefox, which are out of my control.

Tom,

K5EHX

Email is tom@ my callsign dot net.

[KC9LWJ]

Very nice Tom, I liked it so much I added it to my favorites. My first search was from my local area and it came up with 72 repeaters in the area, some that were not listed on another repeater site.


John
KC9LWJ

[KE7HQY]

Beautifully done, Tom!

I was looking for Lat/long data for repeaters in an earlier thread. However, this is much easier to work with. Congrats!

[K0NOD]

Thanks! This is what the hobby needs, and you have done it very well. Let's all spread the word and help build it up. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[n6uso]

I agree, Thanks for your work in promoting Ham radio

[k5ehx]

I forgot to mention... for the most part longitudes and latitudes are just geocoded from the known City and State. I've been moving repeaters in my area to "correct" locations, and anyone can do the same. Just click on the number of the repeater to view it by itself, then click somewhere in the map and choose "Move repeater to this location".

Also, you can download searches for larger areas than it will show on the screen. If you search for a state (The two-letter state code in the tags field) it won't show you all of them, but "Download Results" will download all of them.

73,

Tom, K5EHX

[K9FV]

GREAT Job!!! #I'm using IE with no problems.... #one concern about allowing anyone to edit repeater info - i sure hope no-one messes it up.... Heck, even the repeater circles are pretty darn close.... #

GREAT JOB!!! and I reallyl like the download function - works nice!!

I really hate to ask, everything is so neat already, but would it be possible to provide a filter so only 2 meter, or 6 meter, or 440 mhz, etc repeaters would be shown? Now, THAT would be the ultimate...

73 de Ken H>

[WS2L]

Awesome, I love it.

[k5ehx]

Quote[/b] ]one concern about allowing anyone to edit repeater info - i sure hope no-one messes it up....
I'm going to leave it open until somebody makes it necessary to close it. If I'm lucky, that'll never happen, if not then maybe I'll come up with a better answer.

Quote[/b] ]I really hate to ask, everything is so neat already, but would it be possible to provide a filter so only 2 meter, or 6 meter, or 440 mhz, etc repeaters would be shown?
Currently you can add "2m", "70cm", etc to a tag search but not to other searches. I'll ponder this idea and see if I can come up with something.

[ad5fd]

neat idea...however in order to truly be accurate, u meed exact coords for each repeater. here in tex, however thats not possible as its private information only for the coordinating board, the tx vhf fm society, to have...no one else.

[W4INF]

Wow! Nice contribution! Nice work!

[KE7CDV]

Quote[/b] (ad5fd @ July 24 2007,14:36)]
"however in order to truly be accurate, u meed exact coords for each repeater."

Well, by definition, yes... but to be *useful*, only approximate locations are needed.

" here in tex, however thats not possible as its private information only for the coordinating board, the tx vhf fm society, to have...no one else"

Why's that? A history of vandalism or something?

I suppose that policy keeps away the casual vandal, but obviously anyone with a few topo maps, a directional antenna, and a car to drive around and take bearings with could likely find the locations in no more than a few hours.

---Joel Kolstad
KE7CDV

[KG4RUL]

The Lat/Lon given for the 147.150+ Repeater (WD4NUN) in Moncks Corner, SC, is actually the location of the repeater trustee's home. How many others are the same?

http://rptr.amateur-radio.net/arn/rptr/index.html

This site also does it to google maps. You search, then it gives the the option to plot to map.
http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[k5ehx]

Quote[/b] (KG4RUL @ July 24 2007,21:39)]The Lat/Lon given for the 147.150+ Repeater (WD4NUN) in Moncks Corner, SC, is actually the location of the repeater trustee's home. How many others are the same?
It is accurate only to city and state or zip code for most repeaters. Feel free to move any repeater that you know of to the correct location.

[KI4LAJ]

Great Site, Thank You

[KG0R]

Wow, this ranks as one of the most useful things I've seen lately! Nice work! The real trick is getting and maintaining accurate data with the perpetual changes in the status of repeaters.

Is it possible to have it display all the repeaters that have a contour covering the area searched for? It appears like it returns repeaters located within a certain radius from the search key, but ignores the repeater contours of repeaters just outside those boundaries.

In other words if the contour of a particular distant repeater is larger than the search area radius, it won't show up, even though it's contour covers the area.

73,
Howard, KG0R

[wa6itf]

Tom,

Great work!!!! Ill be sure to mention it in my FM and Repeater column in Worldradio -- likely in November.

de
Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF

[K2WH]

I remember I posted a suggestion about this some time ago on how to get GPS manufacturers to add ham radio repeater locations to their GPS products. This is similar to that I guess.

K2WH

[ad5fd]

no not exactly for vandalism per se, although a few trustees i know have that fear. the MAIN reason is that there is a fear that someone will go to a repeater tower owner or building owner and say, 'well HE has a repeater on your site..can i?' then the owner will yank all ham repeaters off his site. believe me, its a BIG deal here.

[K2WH]

I don't see how to add a repeater and, the circles are these meant to be coverage areas? If they are, theres a whole lot of fibbing going on.

How does one add a repeater?

K2WH

[k5ehx]

Quote[/b] (K2WH @ July 25 2007,13:04)]I don't see how to add a repeater and, the circles are these meant to be coverage areas? If they are, theres a whole lot of fibbing going on.
It's an estimate. Doing a full HAAT / line of sight analysis for each repeater is both a lot of work and beyond the capabilities of google maps as far as I know.

The range of a repeater is usually given for a 40 to 50 watt mobile with a good antenna, or even a home with an antenna up 30+ feet. Repeater owners always seem to take an optimistic viewpoint on that question. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Quote[/b] ]How does one add a repeater?
Click somewhere and choose "Add Repeater Here"

[KD8CGF]

There's a very similar site at http://platial.com #You can set up an account which you can control, & have maps which allow (or disallow) users to modify them.
# You can create maps by uploading .CSV files as on Google. #I was able to use the same .CSV file for platial.com as I used for Delorme Street Atlas. #The advantage with any web-based file is that users don't need special mapping software to access the maps.
# Check out the map at http://platial.com/artfd/map/42529#GLETN which displays the QTH's of check-ins to the GLETN net one night last week.

[k5ehx]

Quote[/b] (KG0R @ July 25 2007,11:35)]Is it possible to have it display all the repeaters that have a contour covering the area searched for? It appears like it returns repeaters located within a certain radius from the search key, but ignores the repeater contours of repeaters just outside those boundaries.

In other words if the contour of a particular distant repeater is larger than the search area radius, it won't show up, even though it's contour covers the area.
That's an interesting idea. If I searched for, say "30 miles from X", what am I really looking for? Am I really looking for repeaters that I can hit? Am I looking for repeaters that I can hit from 30 miles from the point I search?

Maybe a better answer might be a different type of range search, a "Coverage Search" which takes into account the range circles. I'll see if I can make that happen, thanks for the idea.

[w3nrl]

Tom nice job this is a tool we all can use.. now in my favorite[B]

[ki4trx]

Fantastic job Tom! I am sure everyone will beable to use this.
http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[k9jdk]

Very nice site Tom. #Thanks for all your efforts.

[N0NB]

Good job, Tom. Very nice.

One thing I noticed tonight is that clicking on the KS tag showed 461 results returned and 30 shown (seems reasonable enough), but the sidebar started showing listings from AK, CA, AZ, Co. Eh? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Just an interesting bug, I suppose.

[k5ehx]

Quote[/b] (N0NB @ July 26 2007,20:13)]One thing I noticed tonight is that clicking on the KS tag showed 461 results returned and 30 shown (seems reasonable enough), but the sidebar started showing listings from AK, CA, AZ, Co. Eh?
The tags search isn't all that smart, it just searches for %tag% in that database field. So it's going to match anything with those letters in it. Maybe a specific search by state is a good idea. I'll put it on the list of nice ideas, but I'm still working out the new bugs introducted by KG0R's suggestion. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[KC2IXB]

Thank you very much, this is excellent work. I live along the Canadian border and I was wondering if it would be all right to include Canadian repeaters into your database?

[N0PCO]

Another great resource for repeater mapping is the K1IW Amateur Radio Repeater and Broadcast Transmitter Database - Websearch.

It is located at:

http://rptr.amateur-radio.net/arn/rptr/index.html

It allows for mapping of the first twenty repeater / transmitter locations that appear in the list.

[wa8le]

Hi, I thought I would let u know that there is already a website called: www.usrepeaters.com that does everything you are suggesting. It has all the up to date information on all repeaters including, echolink, IRLP and much more. You can join www.usrepeaters.com and download for a year all the repeater information you can handle and print along with downloading as csv data right into your ht's and Mobile or base ham radio equipment.
This website also has google mapping and locations and are updated daily from the FCC and repeater owners. IT also has direct info for anything you would need.
73s
wa8le

[k5zjq]

Tom,

This is truly one of the best resources for amateur radio
I have seen in a very long time.Thanks for the time and the effort you have put into creating this for us (and may you have the bandwidth to keep this up and running for a very lone time)!!

73,

Thom - K5ZJQ

[kc2giu]

I how that the people who make the ARRL repeater directory don't find out about this project!!! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/blues.gif # It will put them out of business! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

Seriously, with the age of computers, this program is extremely hi-tech in my book. #A few years ago, I was helping a non-profit org to get a LPFM station on the air. #The FCC had a program like yours for stations that over lapped and the cirecles were color coated too. #I alway thought that if it were possible to do repeater stations for ham radio, life would be better.

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif So, in all honor and respect, a grateful "Thank you" for the hard work getting this up and running. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[N0NB]

With all due respect to the other repeater sites mentioned, Tom's is right up front with the mapping and the ability to make the data more accurate. I vote Tom's effort the best I have seen so far. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[KC2SAU]

I had actually started working on a similar project as Tom before I even had my license. I looked and looked and couldn't find an example of what Tom or I had thrown together so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I was about to get my license (test taken 8/4) and got my call sign the end of the following week (8/9). After I already threw together some Google Map code, I registered here, but since I didn't have my call sign, I wasn't allowed to post in the forums. I did email Tom back and forth about what we were each doing once I came upon his post after I had already started. I grabbed the data from a different source, and tried contacting the site owner but haven't yet received a response.

When you live some place, seeing the data listed by city/state is ok since you know the surrounding towns. For me, right after I got my license, I was heading off on vacation to 2 areas I didn't know well, so finding info about repeaters in the area was futile using a printed directory on web site.

I have 2 web pages that display the same information, just based on different input.

The web page at http://www.levinecentral.com/repeaters/google_mapping.php has you select a state and then show all the repeaters in that state. If there's more then 1 repeater for a given location (city state) the repeaters will show up as tabs in the pop-up window when you click the map point.

The second web page at http://www.levinecentral.com/repeaters/google_mapping_distance.php takes in an address, a city and state name, or zip code and the number of miles around that point to show, and it plots all the repeaters in that area.

Let me know what you think. I didn't enable user editing/adding of data like Tom has. I like his radius info, but finding the points on the map using his presentation seemed more difficult to me then having push pins.

David
KC2SAU (for now until my vanity call sign is processed)