1 hour ago
Hello Egon,
My name is Pascual, EA5WU. I am a radio amateur and the author of dxcontest.org, a free web-based DX cluster for radio amateurs. It is a personal, non-commercial project with no advertising, funded by donations. It has around 665 registered users, about 440 of whom log in every month, most of them in Europe.
I would like to add one simple feature: to alert a registered user when Blitzortung detects lightning closer than a distance they choose themselves (20, 30 or 50 km, for example) to their station, so they can disconnect antennas and equipment in time. The alert would be a banner on the site and, optionally, a push notification. There would be no lightning map and no other visualisation of your data.
How I would do it, following your conditions for external projects:
* A single WebSocket connection from my own server. Users never connect to your servers. My server filters by distance and alerts each user, so traffic towards Blitzortung does not grow with the number of users.
* Visible attribution on every alert and on the credits page: "Lightning data: Blitzortung.org", with a link, under CC BY-SA 4.0.
* Free access for all users, at no cost and with no conditions attached.
* A clear statement that Blitzortung is not an official warning service and that the data comes from hobbyists, for hobbyists.
I am aware that some Blitzortung participants are radio amateurs themselves. This feature would serve them just as much as anyone else: an antenna on the roof and a storm approaching is a problem they know well.
I know your conditions exclude "storm warning systems". I would rather ask you directly: what I am proposing is to protect the amateur's own station equipment, with no commercial, insurance or risk-analysis purpose whatsoever. If this use does not fit within what you allow, I understand, and I will not implement it.
Thank you for your work, and for taking the time to read this.
73, Pascual - EA5WU
My name is Pascual, EA5WU. I am a radio amateur and the author of dxcontest.org, a free web-based DX cluster for radio amateurs. It is a personal, non-commercial project with no advertising, funded by donations. It has around 665 registered users, about 440 of whom log in every month, most of them in Europe.
I would like to add one simple feature: to alert a registered user when Blitzortung detects lightning closer than a distance they choose themselves (20, 30 or 50 km, for example) to their station, so they can disconnect antennas and equipment in time. The alert would be a banner on the site and, optionally, a push notification. There would be no lightning map and no other visualisation of your data.
How I would do it, following your conditions for external projects:
* A single WebSocket connection from my own server. Users never connect to your servers. My server filters by distance and alerts each user, so traffic towards Blitzortung does not grow with the number of users.
* Visible attribution on every alert and on the credits page: "Lightning data: Blitzortung.org", with a link, under CC BY-SA 4.0.
* Free access for all users, at no cost and with no conditions attached.
* A clear statement that Blitzortung is not an official warning service and that the data comes from hobbyists, for hobbyists.
I am aware that some Blitzortung participants are radio amateurs themselves. This feature would serve them just as much as anyone else: an antenna on the roof and a storm approaching is a problem they know well.
I know your conditions exclude "storm warning systems". I would rather ask you directly: what I am proposing is to protect the amateur's own station equipment, with no commercial, insurance or risk-analysis purpose whatsoever. If this use does not fit within what you allow, I understand, and I will not implement it.
Thank you for your work, and for taking the time to read this.
73, Pascual - EA5WU