[aprssig] APRS-Alert is live

[John Gorkos]

Just in time for the road trips to Dayton, I'm pleased to annouce the 
activation of APRS-Alert.
APRS-Alert (formerly named Wedjat, renamed by popular demand of the APRS 
community) is a APRS->SMS notification gateway that allows users to register 
callsigns of interest, set up zones of interest, and create triggers which 
send them SMS messages or emails when the monitored stations trigger a rule.

For example, my good friend Jerry, W5TDY is travelling to Dayton.  I'm curious 
about when he gets there, but I don't want to have to sit in front of my APRS 
client and watch his slow progress from Georgia to Ohio.
Using APRS-Alert, I tag Jerry's D710 as a monitored station (W5TDY-9), enter 
my cell phone number @tmomail.net as a notification address, and use the froody 
Google Maps interface to draw a 1000 meter-radius zone around the boneyard at 
Dayton.  On the RULES tab, I create an INCURSION rule for W5TDY-9 into the 
BONEYARD zone I just created, and then create a notification valid between 8 am 
and 10 pm (no point in getting woke up by my cell phone) for Jerry's incursion 
into the boneyard.

Yeah, that sounds a little complicated, but after one or two, the process 
becomes smooth like burlap.

Anyway, give it a try if you're interested.  Like any good website, the code 
is under active development and I'm always looking for new ideas.  
Unfortunately, there are probably bugs in there too.  Find those and point 
them out (constructively), and I'll put you on the wall of fame page as a bug-
finder.

I'd like to thank Wes Johnston, AI4PX for his bug hunting, as well Steve Hanis 
and Tom McGrath for being early beta testers.

The site is http://www.aprs-alert.net

John Gorkos
AB0OO