APRS OTA

Hosting

• One tap sends HOST, with a comment of your own.
• The op starts when the bot confirms it. A HOST the bot refused is shown as refused, and the app does not show a running op until the bot says there is one.
• Hosting is RF-only. The bot counts a HOST it heard on the air, so a phone with no radio link cannot host.
• The screen shows your confirmed count and the time remaining, with a button to extend.

Contacts

• Chasers appear as cards with their message and, where the bot supplies it, their grid square.
• Confirming a contact is one tap, with an optional note that goes out in the QSL.
• A QSL the bot refused is shown as refused. QSL is RF-only, so a message can be delivered and acknowledged and still log nothing.

Chasing

• One tap sends CQ, which asks the bot who is hosting. It does not announce you.
• Hosts are listed with distance and bearing from your position.
• Hosts you have already worked are marked.
• The default call message is yours to edit.
• Chasing works over APRS-IS as well as RF.

Your ops

• Every op you host or chase is kept as its own record: a summary, who was in it, anything blasted to the whole field, and the full exchange in order with each line labelled.
• Records are built from the messages themselves, so they survive navigating away, backgrounding and restarting the app.

Sharing an op

• An op can be shared as a picture carrying your callsign and comment, and — once the op is over — the bot's closing figures.
• Only figures the bot stated appear. A count it did not give is left off rather than shown as zero.
• Several designs to pick from; the choice is remembered.

What gets transmitted

• Every button on the OTA screen can show the exact packet it will send, addressee included.

The APRS OTA guide covers all of this in full, including why hosting needs a radio.