9M2PJU SOTA Bot: SOTAwatch Spots and Alerts on Telegram

If you are active in Summits on the Air, you already know how useful SOTAwatch is. It is the main place where activators announce planned activations and where chasers look for live spots from the bands.

But sometimes we are not sitting in front of a browser. We may be outside, mobile, in the shack, monitoring from a phone, or waiting for a specific Malaysian SOTA activity to appear. That is why I created 9M2PJU SOTA Bot, a Telegram bot that brings SOTAwatch spots and alerts directly into Telegram.

You can try the bot here:

https://t.me/PJUSOTA_bot

The idea is simple. The bot watches public SOTAwatch spots and alerts, then sends matching updates to Telegram users who subscribe. It is useful for chasers who want quick notifications, and also for activators who want to keep an eye on planned or live SOTA activity.

What the bot can do:

• Show latest SOTA spots
• Show upcoming SOTA alerts
• Send automatic Telegram notifications
• Filter activity by association, callsign, or mode
• Turn spot and alert notifications on or off separately
• Stop all notifications with one unsubscribe command

Basic commands:

/start - start the bot
/help - show help
/subscribe - enable notifications
/unsubscribe - stop all notifications
/spots - show latest matching spots
/alerts - show upcoming matching alerts
/spots_on - enable spot notifications
/spots_off - disable spot notifications
/alerts_on - enable alert notifications
/alerts_off - disable alert notifications

Filtering is kept simple. For Malaysian SOTA activity, you can use:

/filter 9M2
/filter 9M6

You can also follow a specific callsign or mode:

/filter callsign 9M2PJU
/filter mode CW

To remove all filters:

/clearfilters

This bot was built to be small, practical, and easy to run. It uses Python, Telegram Bot API, SQLite, Docker, and the public SOTAwatch feeds. It is also designed to run nicely on a Raspberry Pi with a lightweight Docker image.

For me, this is another small way to support the SOTA and amateur radio community. SOTAwatch remains the source of truth, and this bot simply makes the information easier to follow from Telegram.

Try it here:

https://t.me/PJUSOTA_bot

73,
9M2PJU