RFinder now finds repeaters over routes world wide!

RFinder now finds repeaters over routes world wide!

In the next step of pushing the limits of The World Wide Repeater Directory, the RFinder team has released Repeater Routes!

Already released on the web at http://routes.rfinder.net, we have created an API that we expect to be incorporated into RT Systems software very soon.

As always we encourage new users to obtain access to RFinder via purchasing the app in Google Play on Android and The Apple App Store on iPhone/iPad/iPod. Once you register your email and password in the app, use that on http://routes.rfinder.net or http://web.rfinder.net, RT Systems, CHIRP, etc.
The web version allows downloads in a variety of formats including csv, tpe and several GPS POI formats including the AVMAP Amateur Radio GPS.

The annual subscription for the World Wide Repeater Directory is only $9.99 and for that one price, includes access from any platform RFinder is available on: Android, iPhone, web, RT Systems, RadioBuddy (iPhone), and two new third party applications coming soon for Windows (by KB2SCS) and Macintosh (by KD2DMH).

More information: http://www.rfinder.net

Information for our open-source realtime radio programmer, RFinderPi: http://rfinderpi.rfinder.net

Contact: w2cyk@rfinder.net, +1.631.610.5120, skype: bobofthedeep

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zgbfjgwip9a060a/Screenshot 2014-08-14 23.19.34.png




http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2014/august/rfinder_now_finds_repeaters_over_routes_world_wide.htm




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Very cool this will come in handy! If only the license was cross platform with iOS and Android so I could use my Nexus 7 tablet and Echolink together.

 

TX Dominic...yes, we cannot cross license between (rivals) google and apple...however....

Just go into Google Play on your Nexus 7 and download RFinder again...your subscription will be extended another year! Then download EchoLink, initialize it. Go into RFinder and after you put the same email and password you use on your iPhone, do a menu-application settings on the front screen to set your social settings and turn on APRS if you like.

TX for supporting our project and PLEASE leave us a nice review in the App Store (lol and Google Play once you download and see what we have done)!

73's
Bob/W2CYK

 

Unfortunately Rfinder for the most part has wrong or no tones listed for all the repeaters I have looked up (lot of Northwest Repeater). Repeater book is a far better service.

 

Yeah probably gonna have to do that. Android version has so much more to offer. Any idea on when/if the iOS version will be updated?

 

Pretty cool. This will defiantly come in handy.

 

This makes me hesitate to pay $10 for the app. There's a lot of old and outdated repeater information that's still showing up on various sites, particularly in my area (ARRL lists one repeater in my area twice, in two different locations - both wrong - under two different trustees - both also wrong - despite corrections being sent to them three years running now) and if this is just going to be more of the same I'd rather not squander the $10.00

(Yes, Google Play will allow you to return the app and get a refund, but only within 15 minutes, which is less time than it takes to install and setup then test apps like this.)

 

Yes...every time we make an announcement some RB admin or zealot hooha finds it necessary to spam our posts. It's fun for them. Or they cannot help it...not sure which. Maybe it makes them feel big...I dunno...or maybe they never created anything themselves. They're doing the best they know how, that's all we can expect...Anyway...

Please ignore them. Our data is very accurate, not perfect (none can be) but if you get it and have a problem, contact me directly and I will rectify it. w2cyk@rfinder.net

 

Within a month of Jonathan releasing the new version of EchoLink! Out of my hands...he is doing a major rewrite...go get it you will LOVE it!

Bob

 

Some screen shots!

 

I'll consider it, maybe over the weekend after the wife gets paid.

 

Nice I can't wait for the update of Echolink to be released along with RFinder.

 

Just because someone had a problem with your service doesn't mean they are spamming you. I tried it myself a few years ago and I felt I could find more up to date info elsewhere. I looked again just now at the repeaters in NH and found that while RFinder has improved, it's still not accurate, at least for some of the machines in NH. For instance, W1SRA is listed as having a remote input. But all remote inputs were removed several years ago. Or the 440 machine in Guilford changed in the last year to a new frequency and tone. There are others but I'm not going to go though repeater lists and compare them to ham radio club web sites for accuracy. I'm paying RFinder to do that.

So I can understand a ham's concern with your paid service. Unfortunately W2CYK's response was more " RB admin or zealot hooha" that what he accused W0KCF of. This guy and others pointed out a problem and you insulted him.

Nice customer service demonstration.

David N1ZHE

 

David...First of all, thank you for supporting our project. I appreciate your thoughts. My comments were about a heckler who pointed users to a competing list. This happens regularly and if someone wants to rain on our parade they should have some thick skin. I'm generally pretty easy on them considering their actions. You will notice that his comment had an immediate effect on a potential user. Quite frankly W0KCF was hurting new users by poisoning them before they had a chance to see the largest, most feature rich directory on earth. I'm surprised you didn't chastise him for his inappropriate comments on our announcement. He needed to submit the change or contact Support, not send people to another site in the middle of our exciting announcement. BTW did you look at what we did? Pretty cool, huh?

1. We answer our support emails generally within minutes. THAT is customer service. our feedback speaks for itself.
2. No matter what, NO list is perfect. Not even ours. But we work hard to make it so.
3. EVERY time we announce some new feature/verson/etc. some RB Zealot or Admin (look back you will see what I am talking about) finds it necessary to write something sending people over to RB. This is a product announcement on something that we have worked hard at (I am sure you can see the leaps and bounds we have achieved over the past few years...firsts, new implementations, sheer magnitude of our list, etc.
4. W0KCF said that "ALL THE REPEATERS" he looked up. Well, since he has to search on a point that returns a variety of machines around that point. Since he says that his "Lookup" has "for most part has wrong or no tones listed for all the repeaters I have looked up" Not is not a likely scenario. And he never brought it to our attention by submitting the change, so if it is so, how would we know? We answer support questions quickly, respond to data mod requests...nothing. I queried 90 miles around his QTH (Damascus, OR) and in the 365 machines in his area there are like 5 with no PL's; some could possibly be correct...I see many follow groupings of PL's which is what I would expect. So if there were errors in his area he could have helped everyone out by submitting the change requests (if in fact there is really an issue), instead of trying to ruin our moment.
5. Re your issues around Guilford. If you submitted the changes they would have been taken care of already. We have the LARGEST database on earth. By more than 2x of the nearest one. We cannot be in every place at once and local users know their machines. We get dozens of changes a week. We generally (barring vacation etc.) get them assimilated within a week. So yes, anyone can nitpick on a data point here or there, but as soon as we get the change request it's fixed. That is true for ALL lists that edit crowd sourced in quasi real time...
6. You are not paying for us to scour club websites world wide. That's just not possible. You are paying us to enhance and maintain. To watch where folks are searching and coming up with low results and find data to fill the hole. To look at update requests (we check every one) to make sure they are valid. Look at the list of features we have, the number of countries, the number of machines. The full integration with EchoLink. Integrated live IRLP status, Programming CAT radios on BOTH Android and iPhone, Web based on geolocation, Our new web routing function. Programming in both CHIRP and RT (we were the first on both). The list goes on and will continue to.

So...EVERY time we announce we get a heckler and they have ALWAYS been associated with RB. And yes, sometimes ADMINS. Garret tells me he does not support that behavior. Like I said, they cannot help themselves. It's not polite. We work hard for ALL OF YOU to create the most complete, feature rich directory on earth. And we succeed at that. And sure, there are data errors; there are bound to be. There are on EVERY list. We have a procedure to fix them and we do. Glass houses/stones.

Please submit your changes for W1SRA and Guldford (NI1U?), I see both nodes for W1SRA one has a club call and one has a club name...which one needs to go? You can go into the app and with one click (and type a reason) it will be marked for deletion. Please submit the freq change for Guilford and we will have it up lickedy split. If there is a callsign change use the web version at http://web.rfinder.net.

Again, thanks David for your support...

Bob/W2CYK

 

Okay, since I said I'd try it I went ahead just a little while ago and purchased the android app. Less than 15 minutes later I uninstalled it and got my money back. I, obviously, didn't have time to do a really complete test of the app and still get my money back, so I decided to just look at the accuracy of the information on the 2m repeaters in a 20 mile radius of my house. The vast majority of the information was wrong. Example, the K4TS repeater. Its location is given as being in downtown Fredericksburg. Nope, sorry, it hasn't ever been at that location, and it's been at its current location about 15 years. It was moved there in July of 1999, and that was the last time the location was changed. Several other listings were for repeaters that no longer exist, duplicate listings for the same repeater, with the same frequency but different tones (both wrong), repeaters with the wrong callsigns, and just repeaters I've never heard of. Now, not every entry was wrong, and I didn't have time to really look at everything, but just the fact that so much of what I looked at first was wrong confirmed what I was afraid of, that a lot of the data in the system is old and woefully out of date, or flat out incorrect.

Yes, I know I could have kept the app and reported the errors (some of them anyway - there was no way to report incorrect map locations I could see), but as the customer that's not my job, that's your job Bob, yours and your partners. If I'm paying you $10.00 (okay, $9.99 - we won't quibble over a penny) it's to get correct information. I'm not paying that money for the privilege of correcting the wrong information you're publishing. If you want to do things that way then you folks should be paying me for the editing, not the other way around.

Sorry but I gave it as fair a trial as I was able to, within that tiny 15 minute refund window Google allows, and it came up lacking. Hopefully you'll continue to work on it and improve it, especially the database, and in the future it will live up to the billing you're trying to give it, but right now my honest opinion is that it doesn't.