News and updates for this site
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Level 2 for most ...
ZL4NVW updated in ZLOTA - What's New on 2021-09-06
Spare a thought for Auckland.
Portable operation at Alert Level 3
ZL4NVW posted in ZLOTA - What's New on 2021-08-31
The official government advice on outdoor activities can be found at:
The official government guidance is that outdoor
activities in your local area are permitted for the purpose of exercise
so long as they are low
risk and/or within your experience level and are activities you
personally typically do for exercise. They must also be carried out in a
way that keeps you at least 2 meters from others who are not in your
bubble. The government advice does not mention radio activations, but
the list of activities such as golf, surfing, tramping and fishing make
it clear that a range of activities which involve both periods of
exertion and of rest are permitted. Overnight trips are not allowed.
At
NZ On The Air we understand the critical importance of exercise for
many of us and it's direct link to mental health and wellbeing,
especially at difficult times such as these. Radio activations for many
are the motivation to get us out the door, exercising and on the pathway
to good health. We ask that any radio-related outdoor activities you
engage in are genuinely for the purpose of exercise, and within your abilities and
the government guidelines.
Note that
individual programmes may have their own rules relating to level 3, and
you are encouraged to consult these before claiming points or submitting
logs beyond ZLOTA.
Kia kaha, kia ora - stay strong, stay well.
New POTA parks
ZL4NVW updated in ZLOTA - What's New on 2021-08-11
The 240 new POTA parks have been added to ontheair. These have been a long time coming - the list was sent through to POTA during lockdown in 2020! So well done to Glenn - ZL1MY for his persistence in pushing POTA head-office to add these for us.
There are a few differences between the POTA name and the official names for parks. A few are typos as it appears that the spreadsheet we sent through was retyped manually by POTA's data team. Others result from the limited set of park types available in POTA meaning that, for example, Ecological Areas have been classed as (and named) Nature Reserves.
Updates for July 2021
ZL4NVW updated in ZLOTA - What's New on 2021-07-21
Items off people's wish-lists are being addressed this month. Features finished so far are:
Auckland parks:
- Added / updated ~200 qualifying parks run by Auckland Council using park boundaries from the Auckland Unitary Plan.
- Allen has also added the new Auckland parks to Parks N Peaks
- P2P scores are now shown (total of your contacts park-to-park, lake-to-lake, lake-to-summit, summit-to-hut, etc)
- QRP scores - total score for your contacts made when you are operating QRP
HEMA/SiOTA
- HEMA (humps) and SiOTA (silos) codes are now recognised (and earn you P2P points) when logging contacts with VK operators activating those sites.
Matt - ZL4NVW - admin@ontheair.nz
GPX files for lakes, huts, summits etc
ZL4NVW updated in ZLOTA - What's New on 2021-06-24
Links to GPX files for the lakes (and huts and
parks,inshore islands and SOTA summits) are below. These can be loaded into most GPSs and mapping apps. They take a few seconds to generate, so be patient! The locations should display with name and code (and points for SOTA).
Parks (centre-points):https://ontheair.nz/api/assets.gpx?asset_type=park
Matt - ZL4NVW ... admin@ontheair.nz
Updates for June 2021
ZL4NVW updated in ZLOTA - What's New on 2021-06-20
A few new features have made it in so far this month:
- You can now upload logs from your favourite logging program to the site in ADIF format. One logfile per activation (activators) or per UTC day (chasers) is preferred. Please verify and edit (if necessary) your loads after upload. Find the 'Upload Logs' button under 'My Logs'. Log programs vary - so let me know if there are any issues with uploading from yours.
- Rules and scores have been updated for activators to mirror SOTA / POTA: you can now activate a place once per UTC calendar year and receive points for the activation.
- (Chasers still receive points for chasing a place once per UTC calendar day)
- You can now receive emails of spots and alerts. Enable / disable it under your profile (click on your callsign, top-right)
- We now have some Help and FAQ pages to answer some of the frequently asked questions that have come up in the last few weeks. Find them under ...OnTheAir
- Spotting and Alerting for Lakes has now been implemented by ParksNPeaks. Big thanks to Allen for that.
- SMS spotting is also provided for all of our entities by ParksNPeaks. See our 'Help' page under ...OnTheAir for details
Updates for May 2021
ZL4NVW updated in ZLOTA - What's New on 2021-06-20
May saw a big rewrite of OnTheAir to allow for future expansion and new awards and categories. Thanks for your patience during this time!
Lakes on the Air
- In conjunction with ZL3GA, ZL4RA and ZL3AB, we have added Lakes to the site to support the new revamped NZART Lakeside Award
- Check them out at https://ontheair.nz/assets
Changes to park, hut and island codes
- Following user feedback huts, parks and islands are now grouped by Region. You'll see that the codes now look similar to those used by SOTA
- e.g. Ruahine Forest Park ZLP/MW-0001
Known issues to be fixed
- Characters with macrons get dropped by Parks N Peaks
- Regional parks are missing from Parks N Peaks list of POTA parks
- We are missing many Auckland Council parks due to the Auckland Council webpage hosting that data being broken
- You can only be logged in from one device at a time. E.g. log in from your PC, then log in from your mobile. Your PC will be logged out of the site when your mobile logs in. If you're in the middle of a log or alert etc on you PC, it will be lost.
- In the map layer switcher you need to scroll down to see the 'Apply' button for polygon layers
- You must register your callsign as issued. Registering using a callsign containing a / to indicate portable or out of region will cause errors (registration with such callsigns will be rejected in future).
Coming soon
The following new features are in the pipeline.
Spots and Alerts for NZ Lakes with Parks N Peaks
- Parksnpeaks.org are adding the NZ Lakes to their database, so you will be able to spot or alert for your lakeside activations at parksnpeaks.org (along with SOTA, POTA, WWFF, Huts, Parks, Islands and the rest!)
Uploading ADIF logs
- You will soon be able to upload ADIF logs from your favourite logging program to the site
IOS App
- VK5AYL is kindly adding support for NZ parks, huts, islands and lakes to the parksnpeaks iOS app which will integrate with the ontheair website.
- Details of the app are available at www.vk5ayl.com
VK Porta-A-Log
- VK3ZPF is hoping to include ZL OnTheAir locations and logging in future releases of VK Port-A-Log.
Matt - ZL4NVW - admin@ontheair.nz
Updates for April 2021
ZL4NVW updated in ZLOTA - What's New on 2021-06-01
We've renamed ourselves from HOTA to 'OnTheAir' as people didn't realise there's so much more on the site than huts!
- We are now https://ontheair.nz
We've added spotting and alerting in conjunction with Parks N Peaks.
- You can now spot or alert your activation of a Hut, Island or Park activity at parksnpeaks.org or at ontheair.nz and your spot/alert will appear on both sites.
- ParksNPeaks is a one-stop-shop for all SOTA, POTA, WWFF and ZL OnTheAir alerts and spots for VK and ZL. Handy!
- Check out spotting and alerting at ontheair.nz in the Spots and Alerts pages
- Just click on Add Contacts on My Contacts page your when viewing a hut, park or island to add your log
- Look under your callsign at the top right for the option to send logs to SOTA, POTA or WWFF
NZ offshore and freshwater islands
ZL4NVW posted in ZLOTA - What's New on 2020-08-03
I have added NZ's offshore and freshwater islands to the maps on the HOTA website - they are shown as orange triangles. Click on the triangle for details of the island. There is also a directory of all officially and unofficially named islands under the Islands menu on the site. The data comes from the New Zealand Geographic Database and is courtesy of LINZ (licensed: CC-Attribution)
Hopefully this will aid anyone looking for some handy islands to visit for the QRP islands award, and maybe encourage a few more to look at island-bagging as an interesting challenge.
You can log the islands you've operated from / to on the HOTA site when you log a contact.
Visit HOTA by clicking on the HOTA link at the top of the page or by navigating to https://hota.qrp.nz